Business is tough on communities. Wilmington, OH has been facing tough times, but Northern Kentucky is getting a boost. Almost 4 years ago DHL Express moved out of CVG in favor of Wilmington, a consolidation of DHL operations. Northern Kentucky knows how Wilmington feels. In today's world, businesses can and often have to move where they can make better profits. They don't have to look at the big picture of a community. It is a cold way of living, but in the end businesses are not people, they are owned and managed by people, but those people don't have to face living next door to anyone losing their ability to make a living.
I am glad 800 jobs are moving here. I feel bad for Wilmington. I would feel worse if those 800 jobs went out of the area. What communities, mainly small communities, have to deal with: don't be a one one horse town.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
"Sex Offenders": Another Approach
We've been discussing (both here on the blog and throughout our community) what to do with convicted sex offenders once they've served their time. California is one of a slowly growing number of states to decide that with respect to a particular subset of sex offenders--pedophiles--the best course of action is to declare them mentally ill and place them in a "hospital" for treatment. Here's a report on one of these facilities.
To be clear, I'm not advocating this approach: I just found it in interesting in the wake of recent events and debate.
(Hat tip: Althouse.)
To be clear, I'm not advocating this approach: I just found it in interesting in the wake of recent events and debate.
(Hat tip: Althouse.)
Is Issue Five Being Tested?
Something odd is happening in the top ranks of the Cincinnati Police Division, and it's not clear to me that anyone really has a handle on it. I also haven't seen anyone asking some important questions about how what's happening comports--or conflicts--with the City Charter.
Jane Prendergast blogs that Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher has created a new job for Assistant Chief Richard Janke. The move was made because Janke allegedly raised his voice to another assistant chief and was disrespectful towards Streicher himself.
Ordinarily, a little rearranging in the upper police ranks wouldn't be too interesting. But assistant chiefs aren't like captains or lieutenants. That's because assistant chiefs are appointed by the city manager, not the chief. That's a result of the passage of Issue 5 by city voters back in 2001. (When Chief Streicher leaves his post, he too will be replaced by the city manager.) This is spelled out in Article V, Section 5 of the Charter. (We've previously discussed Issue Five here.)
Until Chief Streicher's unilateral decision to reorganize the department, CPD had five bureaus (Patrol, Resource, Administration, Investigations, and Information Management) each headed by an assistant chief. Lt. Col. Janke previously headed the Administration Bureau, but is now being moved to something new called a "Special Projects Bureau" in an effort to limit "the necessity for him to interact with his peers and subordinates." Remember: if Chief Streicher simply demoted Janke, leaving the position in charge of the Administration Bureau vacant, his replacement would be appointed by Milton Dohoney (and perhaps "burdening" the Chief with an assistant he likes even less). Instead, the Chief has radically redefined Janke's job duties, ostensibly leaving no assistant chief vacancy.
To me, this all raises the following questions:
Or maybe there's nothing at all going on here, and I'm just procrastinating rather than organizing my messy desk on a Saturday.
Jane Prendergast blogs that Cincinnati Police Chief Tom Streicher has created a new job for Assistant Chief Richard Janke. The move was made because Janke allegedly raised his voice to another assistant chief and was disrespectful towards Streicher himself.
Ordinarily, a little rearranging in the upper police ranks wouldn't be too interesting. But assistant chiefs aren't like captains or lieutenants. That's because assistant chiefs are appointed by the city manager, not the chief. That's a result of the passage of Issue 5 by city voters back in 2001. (When Chief Streicher leaves his post, he too will be replaced by the city manager.) This is spelled out in Article V, Section 5 of the Charter. (We've previously discussed Issue Five here.)
Until Chief Streicher's unilateral decision to reorganize the department, CPD had five bureaus (Patrol, Resource, Administration, Investigations, and Information Management) each headed by an assistant chief. Lt. Col. Janke previously headed the Administration Bureau, but is now being moved to something new called a "Special Projects Bureau" in an effort to limit "the necessity for him to interact with his peers and subordinates." Remember: if Chief Streicher simply demoted Janke, leaving the position in charge of the Administration Bureau vacant, his replacement would be appointed by Milton Dohoney (and perhaps "burdening" the Chief with an assistant he likes even less). Instead, the Chief has radically redefined Janke's job duties, ostensibly leaving no assistant chief vacancy.
To me, this all raises the following questions:
- Does the Chief has the authority to change the organizational table in this way? A knee-jerk response would be "of course," but I'm not sure it's that simple. At the very least, the number of assistant chiefs is fixed by Council; we have five chiefs only because the City--not the Chief--created an additional position in 2004.
- Assuming the Chief has this authority, at one point does he so limit the authority of an assistant chief that he's not really an "assistant chief" any longer?
- If the Chief has, in fact, made Janke a de facto non-chief (albeit with the rank of lieutenant colonel), can the City Manager declare the creation of a vacancy and use his authority under the Charter to fill it?
- Finally, is Janke grieving this or otherwise appealing it through civil service laws (since--I believe--he was grandfathered into his position and is not himself subject to Article V, Section 5)? Or is this a non-grievable, non-appealable decision in that it (apparently) doesn't impact Janke's rank or pay?
Or maybe there's nothing at all going on here, and I'm just procrastinating rather than organizing my messy desk on a Saturday.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
UC Law Alum Gets Promoted
Cris Collinsworth, a 1991 alumnus of the University of Cincinnati College of Law, has been named as John Madden's replacement on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
Perhaps an even more impressive honor for Cris: on May 10th, he will be the graduation speaker at UC Law's 2009 Hooding Ceremony.
UPDATE (4/16/09 at 7:00): Fifth word of the post corrected to limit the shame I caused my high school Latin teacher.
Perhaps an even more impressive honor for Cris: on May 10th, he will be the graduation speaker at UC Law's 2009 Hooding Ceremony.
UPDATE (4/16/09 at 7:00): Fifth word of the post corrected to limit the shame I caused my high school Latin teacher.
Free Legal Advice: A Corollary
A little over a year ago, I offered the readers of this blog some free legal advice:
Don't steal from theblind guy visually-impaired gentleman who runs the deli at the courthouse!
It seems that an addendum is in order. Here it is:
Don't steal the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's lunch!
OK....so it apparently wasn't his lunch, but instead belonged to an investigator in the office. But it allegedly happened three times. Getting the munchies once is understandable, but three times? You're not working in a normal office, you're working for prosecutors. Did you think they wouldn't, after their food disappeared a second time, use their investigative skills to see why their pizza stash was dissipating overnight?
And you're right: at any other job, you'd be admonished. Maybe you'd even be fired. (This isn't exactly an employees' job market, if you haven't noticed.) But take a prosecutor's lunch, and you're going to jail.
On the flip side, it'd be fun to defend this case to a jury with exactly that thought: Ladies and gentleman of the jury: remember the last time someone took your apple or Coke from the office refrigerator? What do you think would've happened if you'd called the police and tried to press charges? We all know that when you stash your food in a communal refrigerator, you assume the risk that your food will be consumed by a greedy office-mate.
But come on, folks: is a frozen, microwavable pizza really worth the risk of prosecution? There are judges just a few floors up: wasn't there better food in one of their break rooms? And better yet, couldn't you just wait until the end of your shift to eat?
I hope this has been helpful in resolving any questions you might have about the legality and wisdom of committing theft offenses in the Office of the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney.
Don't steal from the
It seems that an addendum is in order. Here it is:
Don't steal the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney's lunch!
OK....so it apparently wasn't his lunch, but instead belonged to an investigator in the office. But it allegedly happened three times. Getting the munchies once is understandable, but three times? You're not working in a normal office, you're working for prosecutors. Did you think they wouldn't, after their food disappeared a second time, use their investigative skills to see why their pizza stash was dissipating overnight?
And you're right: at any other job, you'd be admonished. Maybe you'd even be fired. (This isn't exactly an employees' job market, if you haven't noticed.) But take a prosecutor's lunch, and you're going to jail.
On the flip side, it'd be fun to defend this case to a jury with exactly that thought: Ladies and gentleman of the jury: remember the last time someone took your apple or Coke from the office refrigerator? What do you think would've happened if you'd called the police and tried to press charges? We all know that when you stash your food in a communal refrigerator, you assume the risk that your food will be consumed by a greedy office-mate.
But come on, folks: is a frozen, microwavable pizza really worth the risk of prosecution? There are judges just a few floors up: wasn't there better food in one of their break rooms? And better yet, couldn't you just wait until the end of your shift to eat?
I hope this has been helpful in resolving any questions you might have about the legality and wisdom of committing theft offenses in the Office of the Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Mmmm, Doughnuts....
So the Enquirer has posted a letter from a woman who believes that the Postal Service's decision to make a Homer Simpson stamp is "highly objectionable."
I wonder if the author realizes that for the last several years, "The Simpsons" is the only network television show whose characters regularly attend church. And what does it say about television--and American religion--that this is the case?
I wonder if the author realizes that for the last several years, "The Simpsons" is the only network television show whose characters regularly attend church. And what does it say about television--and American religion--that this is the case?
Friday, April 10, 2009
Widmer Revelation: Deja Vu All Over Again
What is it with you people? What part of "don't investigate on your own" don't you understand? Why won't you listen to the judge when he gives you instructions? Did you think following his warnings was optional?
The Enquirer reports that in support of his motion for a new trial, Ryan Widmer's attorney has filed an affidavit from a juror in which that juror claims that other jurors conducted their own experiments to figure out how long it would take someone to air-dry after taking a shower. He also says a juror mentioned that there was water on the edge of the tub hours after she dried her child after a bath.
(For those of you who live under a rock or outside southwestern Ohio: last week, following a two-week trial and over twenty hours of juror deliberations, Widmer was convicted of murdering his wife by drowning her. The defense claimed that he was in another room while his wife bathed, and that she likely had a seizure while in the tub and slipped under water while unconscious.)
Jurors aren't allowed to experiment. But we also tell jurors that they don't have to leave their everyday experiences at the door to the jury room. So I'm not bothered that a juror might mention that she gave her kid a bath, and that the bathroom was still wet some hours later. That's part of your normal life experiences. We wouldn't expect a juror in a drunk-driving case to forget about his observations of drunk people in the past or forbid him from comparing those to a defendant in a police video. But intentionally experimenting to try to figure out a body's air-drying time? That seems--to me, at least--off-limits. And it might mean a do-over for Widmer.
If a court agrees that a new trial is warranted, it wouldn't be the first time a Tri-State verdict in a high-profile case was set aside because of jurors' actions. One of the most famous instances of juror experimentation took place over a quarter-century ago following the first civil trial regarding the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. The case is included in law school texts on civil procedure. As you might recall, the plaintiffs (represented by Stan Chesley) argued that the fire was caused by aluminum wiring in the restaurant. Following testimony on this issue by the plaintiffs' expert, a juror went home and checked out his own, similar wiring. When the plaintiffs appealed their loss, the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, writing:
I don't know if what happened in the Widmer case rises to the level of what happened in the Beverly Hills trial. Maybe a body's drying time is part of one's ordinary experiences. But here's a tip: if you're on jury duty and selected for a trial, don't conduct your own experiments; decide the case based on the evidence presented in court. You'll save everyone a lot of time, money, and anxiety.
The Enquirer reports that in support of his motion for a new trial, Ryan Widmer's attorney has filed an affidavit from a juror in which that juror claims that other jurors conducted their own experiments to figure out how long it would take someone to air-dry after taking a shower. He also says a juror mentioned that there was water on the edge of the tub hours after she dried her child after a bath.
(For those of you who live under a rock or outside southwestern Ohio: last week, following a two-week trial and over twenty hours of juror deliberations, Widmer was convicted of murdering his wife by drowning her. The defense claimed that he was in another room while his wife bathed, and that she likely had a seizure while in the tub and slipped under water while unconscious.)
Jurors aren't allowed to experiment. But we also tell jurors that they don't have to leave their everyday experiences at the door to the jury room. So I'm not bothered that a juror might mention that she gave her kid a bath, and that the bathroom was still wet some hours later. That's part of your normal life experiences. We wouldn't expect a juror in a drunk-driving case to forget about his observations of drunk people in the past or forbid him from comparing those to a defendant in a police video. But intentionally experimenting to try to figure out a body's air-drying time? That seems--to me, at least--off-limits. And it might mean a do-over for Widmer.
If a court agrees that a new trial is warranted, it wouldn't be the first time a Tri-State verdict in a high-profile case was set aside because of jurors' actions. One of the most famous instances of juror experimentation took place over a quarter-century ago following the first civil trial regarding the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire. The case is included in law school texts on civil procedure. As you might recall, the plaintiffs (represented by Stan Chesley) argued that the fire was caused by aluminum wiring in the restaurant. Following testimony on this issue by the plaintiffs' expert, a juror went home and checked out his own, similar wiring. When the plaintiffs appealed their loss, the federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial, writing:
Our decision to reverse is most regretfully made, as the length of time it has taken to reach it may suggest. The trial was generally a fair one, vigorously and effectively presented by able counsel before a skillful and experienced trial judge who cannot be faulted for the events which have occasioned the reversal. We are mindful of the trial judge's observation, earlier stated in an unpublished opinion of this court, that "[e]xperience teaches that while every additional day of trial increases the possibility of error, it correspondingly reduces the risk that any single error may have prejudicial effect upon the ultimate result." Nonetheless, the recited facts of the improper experiment and its use in the jury deliberations are too compelling and too fraught with potential for prejudice to be ignored. [Internal citation omitted.]
I don't know if what happened in the Widmer case rises to the level of what happened in the Beverly Hills trial. Maybe a body's drying time is part of one's ordinary experiences. But here's a tip: if you're on jury duty and selected for a trial, don't conduct your own experiments; decide the case based on the evidence presented in court. You'll save everyone a lot of time, money, and anxiety.
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