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I’m guessing the phrase “equal protection” doesn’t mean anything to you… Part 9

From NBC 4 in Washington, D.C.: Abusive Driver Fees Face Tough Opposition [emphasis mine]:

A Navy veteran who was ticketed for reckless driving on his way to reserve duty at the Pentagon is suing state of Virginia over its abuser fee program.

Charles Mason is asking an Arlington General District Court judge to declare the civil remedial fees unconstitutional. The fees ranging from $750 to $3,000 for various serious driving offenses were enacted as a funding source for new transportation projects.

Courts in Henrico County and Richmond have already ruled the fees unconstitutional, but the rulings apply only in those jurisdictions.

Mason was stopped July 8 on Interstate 395 for driving 20 miles an hour over the speed limit. He faces a $1,050 civil remedial fee if convicted of reckless driving.

Mason has a clean driving record and no criminal record. One state lawmaker said that had Mason contested the ticket in court, he wouldn’t be convicted of reckless driving.

He shouldn’t have to contest it in court, you weasel (who they don’t even bother naming).

[…]

Defense attorney Craig Cooley argues that legislators had no rational basis for exempting out-of-state drivers from paying fees as high as $3,000. The fees are assessed on Virginia drivers only, in addition to fines and possible jail time.

Prosecutors, however, argue lawmakers did have a rationale for passing the legislation this year. Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Duncan Reid says Virginians use their roads more than non-residents, they benefit more from the roads and it’s impractical or almost impossible to collect the new fees from non-residents.

Wait a second, I thought the fees were designed to stop bad driving, and that it was impossible (not “almost impossible”) to collect on out of state drivers?

Can you please make up your mind on what lie you’re going to use?

Virginia state Sen. Edd Houck said he wants the state’s new abusive driver fee laws to be stopped and refunds be paid to those who paid any portion of a fee.

[…]

Houck will introduce the repeal bill in the 2008 session or in special session, if one is called.

At least someone is offering to do something to fix this and not BS around.

I’m guessing the phrase “equal protection” doesn’t mean anything to you… Part 8

I need to think of another title, from the Richmond Times-Dispatch: No ruling in Henrico driver-fee case [emphasis mine]:

A Henrico County Circuit Court judge today heard arguments but did not rule on the legality of Virginia’s much-debated new law covering abusive driver fees.

The case ended up in the court of Circuit Judge L.A. Harris Jr. after a Henrico General District Court judge last week ruled the law unconstitutional because it has no provision for Virginia collecting fees for various driving infractions from out-of-state residents. As passed by the 2007 General Assembly, the measure applies only to Virginia drivers.

This morning, Harris heard arguments and took written briefs from both sides in the case of Anthony Price, who was arrested in Henrico for driving without a license July 2, the day after the new Virginia law took effect.

Harris asked a number of questions about Virginia’s law applying only to residents of the state. The judge said Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas also have abusive-driver fee programs but require non-residents to pay the fees as well.

Harris said he would try to rule on the matter within a week.

What a bunch of cowards/sell outs.

From the AP via Fredericksburg.com: Kaine alliance with GOP leaders strained as 2nd court voids fees [emphasis mine]:

A second Virginia court ruled new surcharges on bad drivers unconstitutional Friday because nonresidents don’t pay them.

At the same time, cracks began to show in a high-level bipartisan alliance that has defended the law against a statewide public outcry against it.

One day after a judge in Henrico County became the first to rule that the out-of-state exemption violates the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law, a Richmond General District Court did the same.

The decisions are binding only in the two localities, and appeals of both decisions are pending in circuit courts next week. More constitutional challenges are expected to be filed in other localities next week.

[…]

With the law under attack in court, strains became evident within the rare alliance between Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and Republican legislative leaders in support of the transportation funding law.

Kaine appeared last month with House Speaker William J. Howell and other top House and Senate Republicans in a bipartisan show of unity for the law amid growing calls for its immediate repeal. In defending the embattled law, the governor and the GOP leaders called it a product of bipartisan compromise.

Since then, Kaine has publicly discussed the prospect of reimbursement for people who have paid the fees when lawmakers consider the law’s flaws after the 2008 General Assembly convenes in January.

Howell, in a three-paragraph statement issued Thursday in response to the Henrico court ruling, labeled the unpopular nonresident exemption “the Gov.’s amendment.”

The same day, his office sent e-mails to House Republicans offering guidance on how to pen letters to newspaper editors in which they defend the law by noting in part that “… Gov. Kaine amended the legislation by removing out-of-state drivers from the abusive driver fees.”

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo containing the drafts.

Publicly, each side denied targeting the other for blame or that their statements mean they are any less confident in the measure.

“We’re talking back-and-forth. There’s no distancing from them (the governor’s office) on those points,” said G. Paul Nardo, the speaker’s chief adviser.

Kaine and Howell remain united in opposing a special legislative session to remedy or repeal the fees and prefer to address the problems next year, said Kaine’s press secretary, Kevin Hall.

The wording of Howell’s statement on Thursday, however, was not lost on Kaine or his advisers.

“You can call it whatever you want. It was a bipartisan effort,” Hall said.

But with elections for all 140 House and Senate seats just three months away and GOP legislative control at stake, both acknowledged partisan interpretations are inevitable.

“It’s the miserable, hot summer of an election year,” Hall lamented.

Nardo said the letters-to-the-editor templates for House GOP Caucus members and their supporters was intended to counter attacks from House Democratic leaders Brian J. Moran and Ward L. Armstrong who are blaming Howell, who was the bill’s sponsor, and the GOP for the law.

“They had 87 percent of (House) Democrats supporting the fees in April, and now they’re speaking out against it?” Nardo said. “The point was to remind all these people of who voted for it.

“This is a political year and we have political pressures,” he said.

The fees are part of the nearly $1 billion-a-year transportation funding package passed this year. The package, containing increases in some annual fees and regional tax increases in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, was the initiative of House and Senate Republicans. The bill was sent to Kaine in February on a 64-34 vote in the House with 28 of the 40 House Democrats voting no.

Kaine rewrote the bill and, in the process, deleted a 14-word clause that imposed the fee on nonresidents. Kaine and GOP leaders agreed the fees could not be enforced outside Virginia. In April, legislators overwhelmingly approved Kaine’s amendments, with only five Democrats voting no.

Why is it, that you are now blaming Kaine for the bill when you voted for it repeatedly? Why is it, that you still refuse to support a special session to fix the problem and want to blame it on Kaine? As much I like to blame Kaine for this, you are the heads of the legislature and you refuse to do anything about it.

Have fun in November. Hope that “bipartisan compromise” was worth it.

Army ranger killed Afghanistan, Soldier’s family lives in Fredericksburg

From Fredericksburg.com [photo credit: Ibid]: Army ranger killed Afghanistan, Soldier’s family lives in Fredericksburg [emphasis mine]:

When 1st Lt. Benjamin Hall [pictured right] graduated from Ranger school, he looked at himself in uniform in the mirror and said to his dad, “This was 13 years in the making.”

His father, John Hall, a retired Army colonel and Fredericksburg resident, had told his son that Rangers were the Army elite, and he heeded his father’s words.

Benjamin Hall, 24, died from combat wounds Tuesday in Chowkay Valley, Afghanistan.

He was the platoon leader of Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, which is based in Vicenza, Italy.

Hall had been in Afghanistan only 70 days. As he was on his way there in May, he sent text messages to his mother, Sarah.

“Wheels up.”

“Landed.”

While he was in Afghanistan, Hall e-mailed four times and his dad saved all of them. He also called home a few times.

“But he never let on how bad it was,” his father said. The soldier told his parents everything was peaceful, “when in fact they were in combat almost every day,” John Hall said.

The second of four children, Hall ran cross country at Hylton High School in Woodbridge and majored in political science at Michigan Technological University. He was top of his cadet class in ROTC and was commissioned in 2005. Last fall, he was promoted to first lieutenant.

“Everything he knew was the military,” John Hall said. “His mother told him to be anything other than a soldier he said he wanted to serve his country.”

The military is in the Halls’ blood. John Hall is a retired Army colonel. Both of Hall’s grandfathers served in World War II; his great-grandfather in World War I; and his great-great-grandfather was a Union soldier in the Civil War.

Hall was a family man, his father said. His 10-year-old brother, Joe, was one of his best buddies.

“He never once worried about not being cool,” John Hall said. “He was always picking [Joe] up, kissing him. He was his.”

[…]

“He was just a beautiful young man I’m so proud of him. We all are,” John Hall said. “We’re going to miss him.”

I’m guessing the phrase “equal protection” doesn’t mean anything to you… Part 7

Out of Star Wars titles, from NBC 4 in Washington, D.C.: Judge Strikes Down Va. Abusive Driver Fees [emphasis mine]:

A Henrico County judge declared the state’s new abusive driver fees unconstitutional on Thursday.

General District Court Judge Archie Yeatts issued the ruling in the case of Anthony Price, who was facing his fifth charge of driving on a suspended license.

With his order, Yeatts instructed Henrico General District Court clerks not to collect civil remedial fees that can reach $1,000 or more for certain driving offenses.

The ruling is binding only in Henrico County but is being immediately appealed to Circuit Court and could eventually reach the Virginia Supreme Court.

The fees have prompted protests from Virginians outraged that they apply only to state residents. Price’s lawyers argued at a hearing last week that forcing him to pay $750 in fees that don’t apply to people who live outside Virginia violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

Since the fees took effect July 1, critics have called for their immediate repeal in a special legislative session. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine opposes a special session but has suggested legislators revisit the law in the regular session that begins in January.

Kaine said in a statement released Thursday that whether the courts find the law constitutional, he is “committed to addressing the concerns Virginians have raised about this law.”

Then you aren’t committed to addressing the concerns of Virginians, you liar.

If you have any information, please call police.

From Fredericksburg.com: Shooting victim helped prosecution in drug cases police witness slain [emphasis mine]:

A man who was a key prosecution witness in a case against a major local drug-dealing operation last year was killed late Friday in Fredericksburg.

Marlo David McQuillar, 24, of Fredericksburg was found dead at the Forest Village apartment complex shortly before midnight, city police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said. He had been shot multiple times.

Bledsoe said police went to the apartment complex after a resident called at 11:43 p.m. to report hearing gunshots. The resident said he looked out his window and saw three black males running to a white car, which left at a high rate of speed. Three other vehicles sped away at the same time, the witness said, but no other details were provided.

An officer arrived two minutes later and found no one at the scene. After looking around for a couple of minutes, Bledsoe said, the officer found McQuillar bleeding and lying in front of the 1200 building.

Rescue workers arrived a few minutes later and began performing CPR on the victim. Their efforts continued as he was put into an ambulance, but McQuillar died prior to being transported to the hospital.

Bledsoe said McQuillar had just gotten off work at Bob Evans restaurant and was at the complex to pick up his child, who was being kept by his sister. Detectives worked the case through the night and are continuing their efforts, Bledsoe said.

McQuillar testified last year in the prosecutions of Joni R. “Summa” Grizzard and Samuel T. “Capone” Ensley. They headed an operation that brought several kilos of cocaine per month into the Fredericksburg area, along with marijuana and Ecstasy.

Drugs were sold in Fredericksburg and Stafford, Spotsylvania and King George counties, witnesses said. The operation involved frequent shipment of cocaine from central North Carolina and New York City.

McQuillar sold drugs for Ensley and Grizzard and gave police insider information about how their operation worked. Ensley got a 10-year prison sentence, while Grizzard got 15 years.

McQuillar got a suspended sentence in return for his cooperation. He told a judge in October that he had seen the error of his ways and was looking forward to raising his son as a law-abiding citizen.

“I refuse to let my son go down the same path of negativity that I went down,” he said at the time.

Anyone with information about Friday’s slaying is asked to call city police at 373-3122 or 372-1055. Callers do not have to give their names, and could receive a reward.

Poor guy.

From Fredericksburg.com: Teen gets 3 years on drug, sex charges [emphasis mine]:

A King George County teenager was ordered yesterday to spend three years in prison for having sex with an underage girl and providing marijuana to minors.

Donovan W. Woody, 19, was convicted earlier in King George Circuit Court of statutory rape, sodomy, taking indecent liberties with a child and distributing marijuana on or near school property.

He was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison with all but three suspended.

According to prosecutor Matt Britton, Woody went to King George High School in October and met up with some juveniles, including a 14-year-old girl. Woody and four students left the school grounds and went behind a nearby building, where they smoked marijuana, Britton said.

Woody and the girl later left the group and had sexual relations behind another building and in the woods behind Woody’s home, according to the evidence.

When school officials realized the girl was not in school, the Sheriff’s Office was called.

Sgt. Chris Giles interviewed Woody–who by then was back across the street from the school–and learned where the girl was.

When police found the girl, she told them what had happened and Woody was arrested.

As part of his bond, Britton said, Woody was supposed to stay away from the girl and the school.

But in November, school resource officer Butch Norris learned that Woody was back on school grounds, again with marijuana. He had also talked to the girl.

Woody was arrested at a nearby Subway. Police said he barricaded himself in the bathroom for about 10 minutes before being taken into custody. He has been in jail ever since.

Boo-freakin’-who, maybe next time you won’t violate the terms of your bond. Have fun in prison, a-hole.

I’m guessing the phrase “equal protection” doesn’t mean anything to you… Part 6

Return of the Jedi, from Fredericksburg.com: Kaine says abusive driver reimbursements are ’08 option [emphasis wholly mine]:

Amid ebbing legislative support for the state’s new abusive driver fees, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Friday that reimbursing those who have paid them is an option the General Assembly can consider in 2008.

“We have a chance to fix it,” the Democratic governor told reporters.

“Look, we might have the ability to do reimbursements,” he said. “I’m not going to commit to that, but if there’s a decision made by the legislature, that’s one option they could consider.”

Virginians statewide have responded with outrage to the “civil remedial fees” payable in three annual installments that can range from $750 for driving with a suspended license to $3,000 for a driving-related felony. Nonresidents are exempt from the fees.

The possibility of refunds is a trade-off that may help Kaine and other supporters of the fees resist calls for a special legislative session to repeal the law this year. Kaine favors mending its flaws after the regular 2008 legislature convenes in January.

Refunds are possible, Kaine said, because the revenue from the fees has not been budgeted.

“The dollars from the abuser fees were not scheduled to be used for another year-and-a-half,” he said. Besides refunds, legislators could decide to suspend payment of the second and third installments of the fees, he said.

[…]

Kaine’s remarks came one day after Sen. Charles J. Colgan called for not only repealing the prohibitive surcharges Virginia began imposing on its worst drivers July 1, but refunding the fees to all who have paid them.

“I’ve thought this was a lousy bill all along,” Colgan, D-Prince William, said in an interview Friday. He voted against it consistently, but supported the amended version the House and Senate accepted in April.

Then you didn’t vote against it consistently, you moron.

Colgan and other legislative Democrats have parted with Kaine over the abusive driver provisions in the past three weeks. Unlike many of them, Colgan does not favor a special legislative session this year.

In a news conference with House and Senate Republican leaders last week, Kaine resisted growing calls for a special session to repeal the bill, asking for more time to study the effectiveness of the fees in reducing traffic accidents and dangerous driving.

In addition to political opposition to the fees, the first effort to have courts declare them unconstitutional got on track Thursday. A Henrico County General District Court is expected to render the first ruling on the law by Aug. 2, the first step toward a state Supreme Court decision.

Virginia modeled its penalties against egregious driving on those already in effect in Michigan and New Jersey. But there is no data in either of those states that conclusively demonstrates that roads became safer as a result.

Kaine on Friday cited unspecified “anecdotal evidence” since July 1 that he said suggests the fees are working.

Uh, Kaine can you open your mouth without removing any doubt that you’re an idiot? What “anecdotal evidence”? Do I have to file a freedom of information act (FOIA) request for it?

I have a question, Governor, are you going to pay interest for the reimbursements? How much will it cost to reimburse people in administrative fees for the original collection and then reimbursement?

You sir, are a bold face liar, you have not intention of repelling the law, otherwise, you would have requested a special session. You’re hoping that people forget completely about by January. I, for one, won’t have.

Remember this crap in November people.

I’m guessing the phrase “equal protection” doesn’t mean anything to you… Part 5

The Empire Strikes Back, or something, from The Washington Post: Va. Enacted Bad-Driver Fees Despite Red Flags [emphasis wholly mine]:

Virginia lawmakers imposed steep new fees on bad drivers this year despite warning signs from states with similar programs that they cause a surge in unlicensed motorists and have crippling effects on the poor.

The licenses of tens of thousands of motorists in New Jersey and Michigan have been suspended because they cannot afford the fees, and little evidence has emerged that such fines improve highway safety, according to state officials and studies.

Numerous lawmakers, judges and social activists in both states have sought to either repeal the fees or make major changes in how they are collected. But once the programs are implemented, they are difficult to get rid of, because state lawmakers are unwilling to give up the revenue they raise, judges and lawmakers said.

Which is why Kaine and those coward Republicans refuse to have a special session to do anything about them.

[…]

Lawmakers predicted that the measures, in effect since July 1, would improve highway safety and raise $65 million a year, to be used for new road and rail projects. On Monday, however, Del. L. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Prince William) joined a growing list of legislators calling for repeal, saying the measures are “beyond repair.”

But you were supporting them a couple weeks ago, are you saying you didn’t read the legislation you voted on, Mr. Lingamfelter?

At a news conference last week defending the fees, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) and House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said they had no information to suggest that there were problems in states that use such fees.

Yeah, I bet, you weasels.

When Buhl heard that Virginia lawmakers were considering the fees last year, he e-mailed all 140 legislators, explaining why he thought the program was a failure in Michigan, which began assessing the fees in 2003. No one responded, Buhl said.

Officials in Michigan and New Jersey say Virginians should brace for problems, including clogged courts and the prospect of thousands of residents having to choose between keeping their licenses and paying their bills.

[…]

Under pressure to repeal the fees, the state [New Jersey] commissioned a study last year that found that although only 16 percent of residents live in low-income areas, those neighborhoods house nearly 40 percent of the people whose licenses have been suspended for failure to pay fees and fines.

[…]

Cathleen Lewis, a New Jersey motor vehicle agency spokeswoman, said there is no way to determine whether the fees “conclusively impact highway safety.”

In Michigan, traffic fatalities declined 12 percent from 2003 to 2005, compared with a 2.2 percent increase nationwide during that period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A spokesman for the Michigan State Police said it is too early to tell whether the decline can be attributed to the fees.

[…]

In Virginia, Henry County Commonwealth’s Attorney Bob Bushnell said state prosecutors are bracing for similar problems.

“The way this thing works out, it is going to have an absolutely ruinous effect on financially challenged Virginians,” he said. “To my knowledge, no one from the police was consulted. We weren’t consulted. The court clerks weren’t consulted. Had it come up, I think the General Assembly would have been aware of all kinds of concerns from Virginians about the unanticipated downside to this program.”

Well, it’s nice to see the Republicans are going to lose the General Assembly this year (note the sarcasm). However, it might be worth it since Kaine has just Gilmored himself.

Hat tip: Overlawyered

Sticks and stones may break my bones…

But words will never hurt me, unless a nut hunts you down and burns your trailer down because you called him a “nerd”, from the AP via Fredericksburg.com [photo credit: Ibid]: “Nerd” comment set off former Dahlgen [sic] worker:

A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a “nerd” over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.

As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states’ borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant business.

When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy’s trailer down.

This week, Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading no contest to arson and admitting he set the blaze.

“I didn’t think anybody was stupid enough to try to kill anybody over an Internet fight,” said John G. Anderson, 59, who suffered smoke inhalation while trying to put out the 2005 blaze that caused $50,000 in damage to his trailer and computer equipment.

The feud started when Anderson, who runs a haunted house near Waco, joined a picture-sharing Web site and posted his artwork and political views. After he blocked some people from his page because of insults and foul language, they retaliated by making obscene digitally altered pictures of him, he said.

Anderson, who went by the screen name “Johnny Darkness,” traded barbs with Tavares, aka “PyroDice.”

Investigators say Tavares boiled over when Anderson called him a nerd and posted a digitally altered photo making Tavares look like a skinny boy in high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under a “Revenge of the Nerds” sign.

Tavares obtained Anderson’s real name and hometown from Anderson’s Web page about his Museum of Horrors Haunted House.

Tavares took leave from his post as a weapons systems operator at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Va., and started driving. Investigators say he told them he planned to point a shotgun at Anderson and shoot his computer.

Instead, when he got to Elm Mott – after posting one last photo of a “Welcome to Texas” sign – Tavares threw a piece of gasoline-soaked plastic foam into the back of Anderson’s mobile home and lit a flare, authorities say.

Tavares’ attorney, Susan Kelly Johnston, said his trip to the Waco area was a last-minute decision during a cross-country trip to visit his parents in Arizona. She said he never intended to hurt Anderson and did not think he was in the trailer when he set the fire.

James Pack, an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, caught up with Tavares after talking to people in several states and Spain who had been involved in the online feud. Tavares’ cell phone records showed he was in the Waco area at the time of the fire, Pack said.

Tavares told investigators that Anderson had spread computer viruses and insulted his online friends for too long, Pack said.

“He lost everything _ all over an Internet squabble,” the investigator said.

Tavares was discharged last year from the Navy, where he earned several medals – including the pistol expert and rifle expert medals – in his nine-year career, said Navy spokesman Mike McLellan.

Tavares would not let the feud go even at his sentencing. According to Pack, Tavares took cell-phone photos of Anderson in the courtroom while the judge was hearing another case. Authorities ordered the photos erased.

Anderson, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, said he continues to be harassed online, has been startled by people knocking on his window late at night and found bullet holes in a door to his business.

He said he is convinced the harassment is related to the Internet feud and plans to spend $30,000 on more fencing topped with barbed wire.

“Before this happened, the rule was: Nobody messes with the haunted house guy,” Anderson said.

What a nut, hell just look at his picture. Would you piss someone off that looked like that?

The use of arson was ironic considering his Internet alias was “PyroDice”. At least he didn’t use those expert pistol and rifle medals.