Is it a full moon?  Two women serving on their respective city’s board of supervisors have found themselves in less than ideal positions this week. 

Barbara Wagner, a Glastonbury, CN councilwoman was arrested for driving while intoxicated a few days ago.  She’s recorded on video as threatening the arresting officers and warning them that she’s the one who approves their salary increases.  She accused one officer who attempted to interview her as being rude, even though the video might indicate otherwise.  After she sobered up, she penned a letter to the city’s Police Chief.  In her letter, she expressed deep regret for her behavior and conduct and said she was embarrassed.  She assured Chief Thomas Sweeney of her intent to redeem herself.  She’s requested admittance into a state alcohol rehabilitation program that’s made available to first time offenders.  If she is granted access to the program and successfully completes treatment, the charges will be dropped.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, another city councilwoman is having her own problems with accusations of illegal activities.  Monica Conyers, whose husband John has been a U.S. representative since 1964, is doing her best to avoid the media and its questions regarding pay-offs from an out of state contractor.  She’s supposedly “Council Member A” in documents that accuse her of taking more than $6,000 for a vote in 2007 that gave a $47 million dollar contract to a company in Houston.  The company, Synagro Technologies, recycles sludge from a wastewater treatment plant.  One Synagro contractor has already pleaded guilty to bribery.  Ray Jackson testified that he gave the money to Conyers.  He will be sentenced later this month. 

There have been no charges for Conyers, although she fully expects to be charged.  This will be a high price for a mere $6,000 pay-off, especially for a contract that was worth close to $50 million.  Hardly worth it, no doubt.  Her husband, who’s nearly forty years her senior, is certainly wondering why she would take such a risk that jeopardized not only her career, but his too.

Biloxi-Ocean Springs MS bridge

 Monday marks the beginning of the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season.  In the four years since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we’ve heard much about lessons learned.  Hopefully, and especially for those who live on the Gulf Coast and spend one half of our lives in hurricane season, those lessons have been heeded. 

From the ultimate resignation of Michael D. Brown, the one-director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the months of finger pointing and blame-laying over what went wrong with the levees that crumbled and flooded New Orleans, new guidelines have been put in place to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself.  It might be decades before we know if those guidelines will suffice.  Then again, it could be put to the test over the next several months.

Hopefully, the 1800-plus deaths that resulted during Katrina alone will be enough incentive for everyone to heed evacuation orders.  It’s doubtful since people have chosen to stay since the beginning of time; still, the horror and fear of the 911 calls that were released and told chilling stories of those who had nowhere to go and could only relay the hell of their last minutes will be enough to give folks pause to rethink their decisions to stay.

Perhaps the most disturbing after-effect of Katrina’s landfall was the kindness extended by Houstonians and the unfortunate cost to them.  By welcoming more than 150,000 New Orleanans, it was repaid with a 22% increase in violent crimes, unemployment rates that most of the rest of the country is just now beginning to see due to the recession and depleted coffers for social programs, hospitals and unemployment.  It was so bad, Houston police officials were forced to form a Gang Murder Squad to deal with the influx of criminals, many of whom were gang members who left their territory on New Orleans’ streets.  Its murders rose 20% in the year after Katrina and many, if not most, involved those relocated from New Orleans, either as the accused or the victim.  It’s estimated that the costs associated with the rise in crime after Katrina neared 18 million dollars. 

Baton Rouge welcomed 100,000 evacuees.  It had its share of crime as well.  As the police chief of that city, Jeff LeDuff, said, “I’m willing to be my brother’s keeper, but while my brother is in Baton Rouge, he must behave.”   Calls to the Baton Rouge police departments went from around 500 a day to over 750.  New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagan said at the time that they welcomed the city’s citizens to return home, but that they must be willing to work.  This left many in Houston and Baton Rouge to wonder what exactly the officials in New Orleans expected them to do with those who would not or could not work.

Sadly, should history repeat itself, neighboring cities will most likely be hesitant to be so welcoming to those most in need.  Then again, southern hospitality being what it is, there’s a good chance memories will be short when it comes to matters such as those.

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The Enron Scandal is in the news again.  This time, the Fifth Amendment is in the crosshairs.  F. Scott Yeager, one of the defendants in this sordid story who was indicted on 125 counts, and his lawyers will argue double jeopardy has attached in this latest indictment and that it should protect him from being re-tried for financial fraud, which happen to be charges he’s already been tried for, but also deadlocked the jury.  Other charges the jury didn’t deadlock on include wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud - on these charges, Yeager was acquitted.

His attorneys are using collateral estoppels - part of the Fifth Amendment that prevents a defendant from being re-tried on charges that were linked with other charges that one has already been acquitted on.  The best analogy would be a jury determining a defendant had no access to a gun on the day a murder occurred,

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only to be retried later for shooting someone else on that same day.  If the jury determines he had no gun at all that day, he couldn’t have committed a murder with a gun at any other point of the day or anywhere else on the planet.

Basically, the argument follows a thought process of the jury, by its acquittal of some of those charges, that found he had no insider trading knowledge, which makes the new indictment moot.  If he had no insider knowledge, he couldn’t have done the things the jury deadlocked on.  The 5^th Circuit Court of Appeals tends to agree with Yeager’s lawyers and admits the unique approach to collateral estoppels might just work.  Still, there are some tough prosecutors Yeager’s attorneys are up against who are convinced they can prove a hung jury isn’t the end all when it comes to double jeopardy.

Of course, no one really knows how the original jury came to its conclusions, regardless, it was a difficult task they undertook and no one is questioning their justifications. 

Most everyone’s money is on the prosecution in this case.  One lawyer says Yeager’s lawyers have “more of an uphill battle than the Government”.   The U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments Monday morning in Houston.

A couple was arrested last week in Houston and has been charged with running a massive prostitution ring.  There are at least 1500 celebrities, doctors and professional athletes who are probably sweating right about now.  Any hope these clients had of remaining anonymous have been replaced with fears of being charged with engaging in organized crime along with the couple, Charlie and Deborah Turbiville.  Police have the list and are trying to locate the clients.  Not only that, but they have computer hard drives that were seized as

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well as credit card receipts.  Gold bars and over fifty pounds of paperwork are in police custody too.  The gold bars might result in money laundering charges for the Turbiville’s since it’s believed this is how they cleaned the cash.  Their lawyers say they made the $10,000 bail and are now back at home until the 15^th of April, when they’re scheduled to be back in court.

The couple charged their clients $350.00 per hour and had made arrangements with several upscale Houston hotels to provide the rooms.  They carefully chose their call girls and before being considered, these women were required to be college educated and sophisticated. A citywide scandal is being promised by those in the know and their multiple websites have been taken offline.

The call girls were recruited from Craig’s List and investigators are trying to locate them, even though they’re unsure of just how many they’re looking for.  With 1500 men and at least a few hundred call girls to locate and interview, this will be a long investigation.  Message boards are logging hundreds of comments and most in Houston don’t seem to have a problem with it, but they’re certainly curious as to who’s on this list.  The rumors are flying and you can imagine the “evil eye” some Houston husbands are getting from their suspicious wives.  This scandal certainly has the potential of ending more than a few marriages.

If the Turbiville’s are convicted, they’re facing ten years each and fines up to $10,000.  They also have two young children.

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As over one million Texans are scooting in any direction but south, there are grim warnings for those who choose to stay and ride out Hurricane Ike. I’ve never seen a warning of “get out or face certain death” from any official with the National Hurricane Center (NHC). That pretty much removes any question of whether an evacuation is necessary. Still, there are those who will stay not because they’re members of police, fire or hospital staffs, or because they can’t evacuate, but who will make a conscious choice to remain and ride the storm out. That’s not uncommon. It’s a huge risk, but not uncommon. But where do public officials draw the line? A warning is issued to residents and visitors, and then a small percentage chooses to stay and while police departments are suddenly bogged down with all that comes with hurricanes, their resources are stretched even further because they know there are still people on Galveston Island or any other area in the path who are left vulnerable to the whims of this storm. I remember the 911 tapes that were released after Hurricane Katrina. If you’ve not heard any of them, there were operators who had no choice but to listen as water overtook shelters that the callers had thought would provide safety. How do you reconcile that in your mind? And is it fair that such horror is out of your control, and knowing it never had to be that way, but yet it is for some?

So, what’s the solution? You can’t arrest someone for choosing to remain in his home and even if you

Hurricane Ike

could, you’re only transferring these people to another area that’s going to be hit just as hard by the same storm you’re trying to protect them from. And then what? What if the jail or other holding place you have relocated these stubborn residents to is destroyed, only to discover that their first shelter remains in tact? Hurricanes are stressful enough and there are those who simply cannot evacuate because of their responsibilities to the communities they protect. Life is risky enough without the added dangers of any tropical system, and certainly one the size of Ike. That monster has consumed the entire Gulf of Mexico!

From NHC:

THE AIRCRAFT DATA INDICATE THAT IKE REMAINS A LARGE CYCLONE.
HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES…185
KM…FROM THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND
OUTWARD UP TO 265 MILES…425 KM. AN OIL PLATFORM IN THE
NORTHWESTERN GULF OF MEXICO RECENTLY REPORTED SUSTAINED WINDS OF
78 MPH…126 KM/HR…AT AN ELEVATION OF 400 FEET.

It’s headed straight for a location that includes the nation’s largest oil refinery, Johnson Space Center and Houston happens to be the fourth largest city in America. And still, despite the certain damages to these entities, odds are, there’ll be bodies found beneath the rubble of what’s left. On such a sad day that we’re reminded of all that was lost seven years ago and images from the many ceremonies to honor those lost during 9/11, it appears as though we will once again watch with sadness what’s left after such destruction, this time at the hands of Mother Nature.

Maybe it comes down to the responsibility of each citizen who chooses to remain behind, but the consequences of those choices will rest solely on those left to pick up the pieces.