Here we are in more-than-we-can-say-grace-over mode at folo, but for other important Mississippi stories, check these links:
The Clarion-Ledger‘s U.S. v. Melton headlines include:
* Protector turns accuser: Melton drunk night of raid, Wright testifies
* Let’s ‘go check on Bubba,’ mayor reportedly told crew
* Notables aplenty in courtroom; alas, Herman’s Hermits not there
* Prosecution 1-for-2 in testimony from high-profile witnesses
They’ve got a trial photo gallery too.
By the way, one among us has a vague memory of an incident from Melton’s time as head of the MS Bureau of Narcotics, and I wonder whether anyone else recalls more. This may have a detail or two wrong, but the general drift involved a kid who was (a) a Cynthia Stewart client but (b) a Frank Melton unfavorite charged with drug-dealing. And when, the story goes, Melton threatened Stewart with arrest for receiving stolen goods (or something like that), she cooled his jets by going to federal court. Ring any bells?
At the Sun Herald, check into:
* Grand jury to make ruling Thursday (in the Billey Joe Johnson case)
The DJournal reckons the bill in Tupelo’s sashay with “ethics-consultant” Cindy Brown:
At some point today, I hope to get around to the national scene too, but I ain’t promising . . .
Has anyone gotten an indication on when the written motion to revoke Melton’s bond will be submitted?
I haven’t, ceece.
Ahem. Y’all will want to read the AP story that begins:
I had the pleasure of hearing our very own NMC on my radio this morning, talking about the Scruggs cases on MPB. A very thoughtful analysis and job well done.
I’ve got news refreshingly unrelated to Wall Street/Scruggs/tornadoes/and all the other daily pap: I’m falling in love with Suzanne Malveaux. She is a real beauty, with an All American education to boot. Beauty + Brains … a perfect combination. I’ll explain it all to Catherine … she’s highly educated and will understand.
I’m frustrated with MPB’s website for not coughing up that interview, Plexix. Anybody else able to locate it yet? That’s the one you did yesterday, NMC, or are there two?
2
And . . . ?
I haven’t had any luck in finding that interview either, Lotus. I don’t think MPB archives those smaller, local news stories for some reason.
Well, crapola.
Well, it was a good interview and Sandra Knispel even referred to NMC as a blogger on folo.
actually, they will be on there somewhere I think. I’ll a) Email Sandra and b) look for them myself later today.
OK, I found it:
http://www.mpbonline.org/sites/default/files/sandra%20scruggs%202%20feature%202-11-09.mp3
“Wearing a black suit AND YELLOW TIE, Dick Scruggs . . .” !!!
Thanks, Plexix.
Here’s the text version, and you can click on the headphone icon to listen to the audio version:
http://www.mpbonline.org/content/scruggs-pleads-guilty-again-more-indictments-follow
Thanks again!
Wilfred Rattigan has a very distinctive (and pleasant) accent that I can’t place. Where’s he from, anybody know?
Now Sandra reports that Dickie “apologized ‘to all those that I have injured by my misconduct.’” So I guess Bob Wilson has that much, even if Dickie can’t bring himself to call his name.
Listening to Rattigan again, I guess I answer my own question, “a wee air, just a light feathering, of Eire.”
That doesn’t fit what I heard and saw yesterday, Lotus.
Rattigan is apparently a black American of Jamaican descent who converted to Islam, and has had some interesting incidents in his career:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202008/news/regionalnews/mta_gunslinger_takes_tough_toll_120728.htm
https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2004cv2009-49
The audio is slightly odd on the statement from Rattigan, and distorted a bit by the wind, but he’s not Irish, I don’t think.. He’s black.
And here’s an odd story or two about him!
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07202008/news/regionalnews/mta_gunslinger_takes_tough_toll_120728.htm
http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=wilfred_rattigan
Okay, but it’s possible, is it not, for the Caribbean-born to have a bit of Ireland in their speech? Anyhow, his sound is pleasant to mine ears.
It appears that NMC and I were on the same research path.
Although Taylor was no ventriloquist dummy for the government, he offered plenty of damaging testimony and certainly can’t be called a “flop” as the C/L describes. Taylor told the jury that he and others demolished the house with sledge hammers at night (no dozers) at the direction of the mayor while residents were present. That might be all he needed to say.
Interesting stuff.
Here’s another interesting case involving Rattigan translating court documents from Jamaican patois:
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=11th&navby=case&no=953029opn
I forgot to mention…..the case above also involves putting a voodoo curse on someone!
Kewl, Plexix! And here I thought I easily recognize Jamaican accents, but Rattigan’s threw me.
Juanita Jean puts in:
AHOY, ANYBODY AT THE C-L READING HERE:
Please let the webmaster know that the homepage link to “Defense grills Wright during Melton trial” goes to the wrong story.
Tha-a-a-ankyew!
Special to Kycol and everybody else impressed by Tom Geoghegan: You’ll want to read this and watch the video.
Very cool interview, Tom. I heard it this morning on MPR, glad y’all were able to find in online. Lotus @19 – black Irish (couldn’t resist).
Plexis @27 – thanks for the links. Reading the first article, I gathered that sending him to Mississippi was tantamount to the idea of the KGB sending someone to Siberia.
I think I might be a bit insulted, especially after sitting next to a very nice, but naive, filmmaker from way north of here, at the Oxford Film Festival. He was going outside the theater to phone his wife at a prearranged time to let her know that he was “safe.” I guess I got a funny look on my face when he said that, because he very earnestly explained that she was worried about the Klan (and this was BEFORE he saw “Neshoba”). I advised him to let her know that we usually wear shoes down here, too.
I believe he left with a vastly different impression than the idea he came with, in spite of watching that much unadulterated Edgar Ray Killen. I certainly hope so.
Yes, I also got the impression that Rattigan had been sent into exile into the dark jungles of Mississippi after suing his employer. THAT’ll teach him.
Folks can evaluate Agent Rattigan’s Irishness in the video from Paul Quinn I’ve just posted.
Yes, after the Greater New York City metro area and Saudi Arabia, Mississippi would be his place of exile.
Well, he’s the first Jamaican I’ve ever listened to who DOESN’T instantly make me hear steel drums (but maybe Irish nuns taught him to read and write?).
From that conservative fish wrapper The LA Times: “Solicitor general nominee says ‘enemy combatants’ can be held without trial” “Reporting from Washington — Harvard Law Dean Elena Kagan, President Obama’s choice to represent his administration before the Supreme Court, told a key Republican senator Tuesday that she believed the government could hold suspected terrorists without trial as war prisoners.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-solicitor-general11-2009feb11,0,7158432.story
How does this differ from Bush’s position, I mean other than it’s BO’s position?
Oh yeah, …won’t get fooled again.
I can’t say this surprises me, SD. After all, some people need to be kept out of circulation just on pure national-security bases. But if we make sure they’re the RIGHT ones to be getting that treatment, instead of just folks that somebody in the hinterland of SW Asia sold us, that-there’s the Bush/Obama difference.
In other also riveting news, the Vatican has accepted Darwin’s theories in “On the Origin of Species” (after dismissing intelligent design out of hand,) and Bruce Wayne has been succeeded in his alter ego by a woman. We’ve either come to the end of times or are just living in extraordinary times. Still our recent Scruggs news does not pale by any comparison with these and other titanic items.
How long again did it take the Vatican to accept Copernicus and Galileo as serious science?