Monday, January 3, 2011

Predictions for a momentous year

If John Brummett's predictions for 2011 hold true, it will be something of a momentous year, if not necessarily one to celebrate.

* He predicts Arkansas legislative passage and a veto override of 21st century interposition — a state law refusing to abide by federal health care reform.

* A reduction in the sales tax on used cars, however hard it will be for the state to afford.

* Toothless ethical reform. (Agreed. Tall-talking Republicans have already demonstrated they don't have what it takes to bite hands that want to feed them. Some window dressing might emerge, nothing more.)

He also predicts an Ohio State victory over the Razorbacks Tuesday.

That last is the kind of sentiment that could earn Brummett a Mike Masterson column. New Year's Day, Masterson seemed to suggest there was something amiss in Hollywood's employment of people with opinions of which he disapproves, such as those of the liberal-minded Jeff Bridges. Isn't it just about as traitorous for an Arkansas media company to employ a forecaster of Hog doom? A taste of Masterson wackiness on Bridges-as-Rooster Cogburn:

Still, it’s difficult now to realize that, while Bridges’ screen roles often portray self-reliant, freedom-loving, personally accountable characters, his real-world view favors a political agenda that makes no bones about its intent to control every American’s life from cradle to grave.

All kidding aside: when columnists for nominally mainstream newspapers began talking about the "disservice" done by Hollywood in hiring actors with beliefs unlike those they depict on screen, we are on the access ramp to the Joe McCarthy Memorial Turnpike.

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Man shot to death on Hollingers Island; 3rd homicide for Mobile police in 3 days

Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 2:39 PM ??? Updated: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 7:00 PM

A 28-year-old man was found shot to death on an industrial road in the south end of Hollinger’s Island late Saturday night, according to Mobile police.

Spokesman Officer Christopher Levy identified the victim as Sary Kinn. His death was the first homicide of the year for Mobile police and marked the third day in a row that they were called to handle a fatal shooting.

Levy said police got the call shortly after ?10:50 p.m. Saturday for a man down in the 7700 block of Deer River Road East. Responding officers found Kinn lying partly on the pavement with multiple gunshot wounds, he said.

Kinn was pronounced dead on the scene.

No arrests had been made as of Sunday evening.

The spot where Kinn was discovered is on a curve about 200 yards east of the fork where Deer River Road East breaks off Deer River Road and eventually leads to the Millard Refrigerated Services plant on the north bank of the Theodore Industrial Canal.

About 100 yards east of the crime scene, a spur railroad line for CSX Transportation crosses the road.

The scene was marked with orange paint tracing the victim’s body, and a significant bloodstain was still visible on the pavement Sunday evening.

A handful of residences, including a home-based bait shop, are along Deer River Road.

Levy said it was too early in the investigation to determine if Kinn was shot to death at the scene or was shot elsewhere and left where he was found.

As of Sunday, no one had been arrested in the cases that occurred Thursday and Friday.

Ramon Tinson, 23, was killed in a car early Friday morning at Government Street and Dauphin Island Parkway in what police believe was a drive-by shooting.

On Thursday, 24-year-old Michael Watkins was found fatally shot by a car in a field near Abrams Street, Levy said. A second man was shot during that incident, and a third was recovered uninjured after being locked in the trunk of the car.

Levy said anyone with information about any of these cases is asked to call police at 251-208-7211, CrimeStoppers at 251-208-7000 or text to 274637 and include the keyword CRIME 411.

(Updated at 7 p.m. to add new information, clarify headline.)

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Sunday thoughts here

Sunday thoughts here

Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 4:43 PM

The line is open.

Today's hot topics:

* A McAlmont woman was shot to death when she apparently walked in on a robbery Sunday afternoon of relatives in a home near North Little Rock. The sheriff's office is searching for two men, who were known to the victim's family.

* Can we get a quorum call on the wildly inappropriate raunchy videos done by the commander of the aircrafter carrier Enterprise? OK in a frat house, but for the commander of a giant, nuclear-powered warship with more than 5,000 ship's crew and plane crews aboard to broadcast this on a regular basis? Despite the angle of some newscasts so far, this isn't about preference for one kind of sexual orientation or another. He apparently matched homosexual slurs with plenty of sexist sophomoric stuff. This is about command performance and whether or not it was countenanced by higher brass.

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Police investigate four homicides in four days, including man slain Sunday who had ties to Thursday killing

Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 9:46 PM ??? Updated: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 9:49 PM

MOBILE, Ala. -- A spate of four homicides in four days came full circle Sunday evening with the shooting death of a man who was closely tied to the Thursday killing.
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The man, identified Sunday as 25-year-old Darius Longmire, was found by police Thursday locked in the trunk of a car.

Longmire was unharmed, but two men just outside the car had been shot, one of them fatally.

Then Sunday, police Officer Christopher Levy said, Longmire was fatally shot several times while in the 1500 block of Eagle Drive in the Birdville community, just north of Brookley Industrial Complex. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

Police got a report at 5 p.m. Sunday about a shooting on Eagle Drive, Levy said, and they found Longmire.

Less than a day earlier, 28-year-old Sary Kinn was found shot to death on an industrial road in the south end of Hollinger’s Island, according to police.

Levy said police got the call at 10:50 p.m. Saturday for a man down in the 7700 block of Deer River Road East. Responding officers found Kinn lying partly on the pavement with multiple gunshot wounds, he said.

Kinn, who died at the scene, was found on a curve in the road about 200 yards east of the fork where Deer River Road East breaks off Deer River Road and eventually leads to the Millard Refrigerated Services plant on the north bank of the Theodore Industrial Canal.

There was no evidence tying Kinn’s death with any others, Levy said, and it was too early in the investigation to determine if Kinn was shot at the scene or shot elsewhere and dumped where he was found.

Early Friday morning, Ramon Tinson, 23, was killed in a car at Government Street and Dauphin Island Parkway in what police believe was a drive-by shooting.

There was also no evidence tying his death to any of the others, Levy said.

As of Sunday night, no arrests had been made in any of the four killings.

The man killed on Thursday was identified as Michael Watkins, 24, and the identity of the other man, who was shot in the face and did not die, was not released.

At the scene of the shootings, Longmire was found locked inside the trunk of an iridescent purple Chevrolet Caprice in a vacant lot off Abrams Street and Spring Hill Avenue, near Interstate 65.

Longmire was questioned by police, according to Levy.

Levy said that anyone with information about any of these cases is asked to call police at 251-208-7211, CrimeStoppers at 251-208-7000 or text to 274637 and include the keyword CRIME 411.

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Prisoners in the City Hall 'hood

Prisoners in the City Hall 'hood

Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 11:47 AM

News comes from the Downtown Neighborhood Association that the feds are proposing a new site for what sounds like a halfway house for federal convicts. Once again, an institutional facility is being proposed for Director Erma Hendrix's ward. But she might be less inclined to complain this time. This one won't be in one of her ward's residential neighborhoods. It's proposed for a building about a block west of City Hall. That's OK, right?

A public hearing on the "transitional correctional facility" at 615 W. Markham Street is to be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the public library. The applicant is the GEO Group, which will operate under a contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons.

Care to express an opinion to a city leader? They'll be handy at a swearing-in ceremony at City Hall at 2 p.m. today. A reception will follow at the Terry House at 411 E. 7th. You may also swear at them there.

Hey, maybe the mayor and the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce can add this new correctional facility to their job creation brag list.

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Tomorrow's forecast today for coastal Alabama: Sunny skies and moderate temps expected Monday

Published: Sunday, January 02, 2011, 6:58 PM
Today's high was 56. The record for Jan. 2 is 80, recorded in 2006.

Monday: Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid- to upper 50s. Lows in the low to mid-30s. Chance of rain 10 percent or less.
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Tuesday: Cloudy. highs in the low to mid-60s. Lows in the low to mid-40s. Chance of rain 20 percent, increasing to 30 percent Tuesday night.
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(For a complete forecast, see Monday's Press-Register. For other Alabama weather news, visit al.com/weather.)

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