folo

As Wilson (RICO) makes the WSJ LawBlog without fresh news, Jimmie Gates folos yesterday’s story on the defense motion to stay Eaton v. Frisby with more quotes from the filing (which pdf I hope NMC might have time to grab for us today).

“The fact of wrongdoing by counsel for Eaton has now been conclusively established,” Frisby’s attorneys said in the motion filed last week in Hinds County Circuit Court. “Ed Peters – who served as an attorney for Eaton though he never entered an appearance in this case – has now admitted he engaged in improper ex parte contact with Judge DeLaughter while Judge DeLaughter presided over this case.”

Frisby’s attorneys cite several reasons for why proceedings in the lawsuit should be stopped, including so that “an investigation into Eaton’s interference with the integrity of the judicial process” can be promptly completed.

“While this investigation began months ago, Eaton has not yet been required to produce a single document relating to its contacts with Ed Peters,” the motion states.

Frisby also wants to “avoid unnecessary expense.” “Engaging in merits discovery will cost the defendants hundreds of thousands of dollars – per month,” the motion states.

Further, the motion notes that when the case is tried as scheduled – February 2010 – state Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, an attorney for the engineer defendants, will be in the Legislature. Attorneys who are lawmakers are allowed by state law to delay cases they are involved in until after the session.

Eaton attorney Fred Banks, Jr., says the company is concocting its response to the motion, as spokesman Gary Klasen describes Eaton as cooperating fully, adding, “We know of no federal investigation involving the Eaton Corp.”

Elsewhere in Mississippi, the Sun Herald’s featured story suggests that if you’re tired of Butch Brown’s reign at MDOT, all you gotta do is make sure the three elected transportation commissioners send a new nomination for executive director to the Senate by March 1. However:

… Politicians use terms such as “radioactive,” or “the third rail” for issues or causes which can be political suicide. Taking on MDOT is considered such an ill-advised venture. No one has really attempted an MDOT overhaul since two decades ago, when public pressure for reform reached a fever pitch after the convictions of highway officials for embezzlement and kickbacks.

In the meantime, there have been vast budget and time overruns — $1 billion and many years at one point a few years ago — on the state’s planned road construction. There have been embarrassing public feuds between highway commissioners, questions about nepotism and questionable spending including the purchase of a helicopter. Such has gone unchallenged and often uncommented upon by legislators and governors. …

Meanwhile, a possibly-unrelated (wink wink, nudge nudge) AP story begins, “Mississippi Education Superintendent Hank Bounds says more than 20 school districts won’t be able to absorb the budget cuts Gov. Haley Barbour is making for K-12 public education. …” Of the $158.3 million Haley plans to cut from the state’s $5 billion budget, the fool wants $76.6 million out of public schools. (Guess he figures, “Meh, black kids.”) His press release announcing the whole list of cuts is here (or may be by the time you read this).

Is he counting on this to save the schools? Yesterday the Miss. Lege passed a $1-per-pack tobacco (actually, best I can tell, cigarette) tax — which leaves me with at least two smoldering questions: (a) What are MS cigarette-smokers paying per pack now? (b) Are pipe- and cigar-smokers, snuff-pinchers, and wad-chawers left out? (For an insider’s account of the legislative process, make the jump.)

The College Board expects to have Robert Khayat’s successor as Ole Miss Chancellor selected by his June 30 retirement.

Alyssa Schnugg and Paul Quinn report that Lafayette County DA Ben Creekmore has hired Tom Levidiotis as his assistant. Until someone says different, I conclude that Lafayette has hereby lost 50% of its part-time public-defender corps (last I knew, Ken Coghlan was the other one). NMC, what say?

duckweedpond passes along the email House member John Mayo wrote for his constituents as the tobacco-tax bill made it way through (re-paragraphing mine):

We have now been debating the tobacco tax bill for more than an hour and a half. It’s 4:15 on a Wednesday. We are still on the dollar level, but an amendment will be offered to go to 60 cents. I will probably vote for that amendment. We have not passed a controversial bill requiring a 3/5ths vote in the last two sessions, I believe. If all the GOP voted “no” on one dollar and were joined by 2-3 Dems, the bill will fail and that is what has happened during the last several sessions. I would certainly not vote “no” on a dollar, but would vote “yes” on the other. I am, quite frankly, tired of the split House and while the dollar is a realistic amount at which to raise revenue and cause people to stop smoking, 60 cents is a realistic level to pass the bill.

We are now on amendments—Bobby Howell is offering one that will move the amount to 60 cents per pack or 3 cents per cigarette, which is more than the governor is recommending. Members are talking for and against the amendment and have been since I started this 20 minutes ago. The vote for the amendment will require a simple majority of those voting. The final vote will require 3/5ths or if everyone votes or 74 if all 122 vote. Well, I can’t believe it, but the amendment failed 56-65. I did vote for it. I will vote for the dollar.

After 2 hours and 45 minutes, we are on final passage. The vote is 80 to 39 requiring 72 votes to pass. I voted yes. I am both surprised and glad.