This is why America incarcerates so many more people by capita than the rest of the world. She should have paid attention to zoning laws, but the people who wrote the zoning laws should have wondered whether or not they were being retarded when they wrote it.
The amount of money being spent to prosecute and possibly incarcerate her for keeping a well maintained garden is ridiculous. At worst, this should have gone to a fine and stopped there.
I have to disagree that she's wasting the town's money. The garden she's growing is in planter boxes and is well-maintained. If she had put flowers in those planter boxes, she'd be fine, but for some reason that has not been made clear, vegetables are a problem. The law says that "suitable plant material" can be put there. And this official's take on the word 'suitable' is laughable. Suitable does not mean common by any stretch of the imagination. He's just making up whatever definition suits his case. If the laws had said that you can't plant vegetables in the front of your house, yes, then she's in the wrong. But the law is fuzzy, and she's maintaining this garden well. I don't see why this is worth prosecuting.
Besides, it's not like you can just pick up your planter box and move it to the back yard. These plants have probably already put down roots so you'd probably have to rip up the boxes, transplant all the dirt, and re-plant the plants, probably killing some of them in the process.
To be honest, regulating what someone can and cannot put in their garden, on their private property is a nonsense.
I hope this gets fought as far as it is possible to go, to show that if such idiotic legislation exists, people will be willing to stand against it and hopefully stop any more of this type of legislation.
Again, if you don't like the law there are town meetings held on a regular basis that give you the opportunity to make a case against that law. Zoning for front yard displays are very common because they affect property value. If you live in an incorporated village it can be even stricter, but you agree to those laws when you move in.
Also, she doesn't gets to decide what the word suitable means. Whether the law is written with poor language or not, she doesn't get to interpret it, the building dept does. There is very likely a precedent set for this situation. The representative who tried to define the word "suitable" as it appears in the dictionary is a moron. The code should have a glossary that defines the usage of fuzzy words that appear in the code. Typically, words like "shall", "reasonable time", "reasonable effort", "suitable", etc. Either way, she didn't check to see if this was ok ahead of time, they gave her warnings and she continued to ignore it and now she's not exempt from the law. This is not the way to try and change a law. If this was some civil rights issue that required a challenge in the supreme court, maybe, but not for front yard zoning. There's already a system in place for changing those laws. She's just acting like a spoiled brat who doesn't think she has to follow the rules when she doesn't agree with them.
EDIT: There's also an appeals process. When she got the warning, she could easily had made an appeal if she thought her garden was permitted by the code.
I don't disagree with you on that. Mostly I'm just railing against how indeterminate this is. Is there a precedent for not having vegetable gardens in the front? Why not say so? Why rely on such a flimsy attempt to say that vegetables are not 'suitable'?
But you're right. They gave her a warning and she should probably be trying to fight it more productively.
No, I completely agree on that point. The person chosen by the city to represent them to the newspaper is using Webster's to define the terms in the zoning code, he's an idiot. Though, I just noticed he's the City Planner. He probably isn't directly involved in code enforcement. He was probably the wrong person to interview for this issue. Honestly, I have a fair amount of experience with local newspapers picking up on human interest stories like this. They almost always misunderstand the law, misrepresent the details, and do everything possible to vilify the faceless government bureaucracy. And they always interview someone who has no insight into the issue.
Zoning laws are what prevent your neighbor from staring their own composting business on their front lawn, or leaving a car on blocks in the middle of the front yard for 10 years, or building right up to your property line (a fire hazard), or keeping waste which attracts vermin to the area (like some hunters who gut an animal and leave what they don't want in a pile on their property), or having a dying tree with limbs stretching over your house ready to fall, or building anything tall enough that if it should fall would land on your property, or setting up bear traps in their front yard in case your cat wonders onto their property, or blasting music at 3am, or planting poison ivy along the property line so it fills your yard, etc.
I agree that the way she has her garden set up doesn't look bad and should be allowed. But that's why there's a appeals process. When she received the first warning she should have immediately contacted the town hall and requested a review. They send someone by to assess her individual case or she could have sent in pictures or even just gotten her neighbors to sign a petition saying they like the garden and feel it enhances the neighborhood, and then either a supervisor or a judge would decide if her specific case should be given an exception or not.
Well, just for fun indeed. My eyes started to get fuzzy with all the terms they're using, but that seems pretty specific to me. Why the FUCK don't they just cite that? But you're right... interviewing the wrong person to put a certain spin on the story.
I was listening to the radio, and the guy made a funny comparison. It was something like "Gettysburg Address: 272 words. Bill of Rights: 4350 words. Regulations on the growing and trading of celery: 40,000 words."
But yeah, while some rules and regulations as to yard maintenance are useful, some towns go way overboard with it, to the point that "ownership" almost seems meaningless. My town doesn't allow people to build garages that aren't attached to the home. Why? No idea. Now when your car ignites and burns down the garage your house gets to burn down too.
I saw one while looking through those regulations you linked. Okay, it makes sense that you want to hide your dumpsters from view. But the regulation goes so far as to specify that the enclosure must be made of bricks or concrete and have "a decorative pattern". That seems a bit needlessly specific.
Specificity prevents circumvention. This may not have been the full original intent of the law's writing, but the more specifically you write down restrictions, the more precisely you define measurements and distance, the easier it is for people to adhere to the law and the harder it is for people to contest when a rule is broken.
A transvestite hooker who turned an unused Elmhurst Dairy trailer into her longtime personal crack den and brothel burned to death there yesterday, according to eyewitnesses and police.
The 47-year-old woman, known only as Dee, was found dead at about 6 a.m. at South Road and 157th Street in Jamaica, in the parking lot of the city's only dairy, where workers had for years allegedly turned a blind eye.
She both "lived in the trailer" and lured men there, said a prostitute calling herself Coco Blue, adding that Dee -- tall, manly faced and in love with tight skirts -- "stuck out like a sore thumb."
The dairy had long failed to lock the containers, according to people who work in the area.
"They [hookers] were using them as free hotels," said mechanic Desmond Drew, 43.
Investigators said they were looking into what caused the fire.
A Hammonton, New Jersey man is dead after lightning struck so close to him that it sent a surge of electricity through his body.
Before Stephen Rooney, 54, walked away from his wife, family and friends at a barbecue on the Sunday he was struck. He'd just said, after seeing lightning in the sky, "Don't worry guys, lightning never strikes twice."
That line is much more than a cliché in the Rooney family. Stephen's father also died after being struck by lightning 48 years ago while he was fishing in Fortescue, N.J. Stephen was just five years old.
According to his family, Rooney was with his cousin Scott Digeralamo last Sunday when a bolt of lightning hit the ground where they were standing. The men had stepped away from the barbecue -- right by a tree -- to smoke a cigar when they were hit , according to police .
Digeralamo survived the strike. Rooney died five days later. His daughters are setting up a fund for him at St. Joseph's High School, which they all attended.. They are hoping to have an athletic field named after Rooney.
A Russian man who tried to rob a hair salon ended up as the victim when the female shop owner overpowered him, tied him up naked and then used him as a sex slave for three days.
Viktor Jasinski, 32, admitted to police that he had gone to the salon in Meshchovsk, Russia, with the intention of robbing it. But the tables were turned dramatically when he found himself overcome by owner Olga Zajac, 28, who happened to be a black belt in karate.
She allegedly floored the would-be robber with a single kick.
Then, in a scene reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, police say Zajac dragged the semi-conscious Jasinski to a back room of the salon and tied him up with a hair dryer cable.
She allegedly stripped him naked and, for the next three days, used him as a sex slave to 'teach him a lesson' - force feeding him Viagra to keep the lesson going.
The would-be robber was eventually released, with Zajak saying he had learned his lesson.
Jasinski went straight to the police and told them of his back-room ordeal, saying that he had been held hostage, handcuffed naked to a radiator, and fed nothing but Viagra.
Both have now been arrested.
When police arrived to question Zahjac, she said: 'What a bastard. Yes, we had sex a couple of times. But I bought him new jeans, gave him food and even gave him 1,000 roubles when he left."
Well, the second holds up the fact that you are more likely to be hit by lightning if your parents have also been hit. Which is still really creepy personally.
Sure. Or I could be talking about a certain OB member who I don't think has posted in a while. I'm not sure if he can actually throw thunderbolts though. I hope he can. That would be awesome.
3.34pm: Several people have been injured in a large explosion which has damaged government buildings in central Oslo, including the office of the Norwegian prime minster.
A Reuters correspondent said he counted at least eight injured people after the unexplained blast.
The tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building but the cause of the blast was unknown with police and fire officials refusing to comment.
The explosion at around 3.30pm (2.30pm BST) blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing prime minister Jens Stoltenberg's office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire. Norwegian news agency NTB said the prime minister is safe. Newspaper offices in the area were also reportedly damaged.
The city centre - which usually empties in July as Norwegians take holidays - is currently closed off with all public transport to and from the centre suspended.
5.31pm: Eyewitnesses told the AP that a man dressed as a police officer has fired several shots at Utøya in Buskerud. AP spoke with one of those who were on Utoya where there is an AUF event with over 700 people.
"Suddenly, we heard lots of shooting. People had to run and hide. We have been told to get off the island."
"We now have reports of a serious situation there - a critical situation on Utøya," Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told TV 2
The police are now on site and sealed off the area. Bjorn Jarle Røberg-Larsen of Labor, is not in Utoya, but has had telephone contact with young people who are on the island.
"They say that at least one person wearing a police-like uniform was firing shots with a handgun," he said.
He says that the young people he talked to were hiding and dared not speak on the phone anymore for fear of being discovered by the perpetrator.
"Young people have to swim in panic, and it is far to the mainland from Utoya. Others are hiding. Those I spoke with did not want to talk more. They were terrified," he said to VG Nett.
The new state biennial budget (FY 2012-13) in Texas, signed Tuesday by Governor Rick Perry, will reduce state funding for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission by 64 percent and will cut state funding for the agency's library programs by 88 percent.
According to figures provided by the state library, the overall state library budget will shrink from $19.8 million each year of the two-year budget to $7.2 million. Funding for the state agency's library programs will go from $12.8 million to $1.6 million. The Library Development and Library Resource Sharing divisions will be merged into a single division,
Budget cuts may not stop here
"This is a terrible storm that we must weather together," said Peggy Rudd, the director of the state library in a July 26 presentation to the Texas Library Association. "It will only be much worse if we don't work together to survive this," she said.
"I don't think the budget cuts will stop here," Rudd said. "The state still has a large structural deficit (about $9 billion), Medicare/Medicaid costs continue to soar, and the smoke and mirror gimmicks have been used up," she said.
"I don't know when we'll be required to make additional cuts, but it could be as early as next spring," she said.
Jerilynn Williams, the president of the Texas Library Association and the director at Montogomery County Library, said the situation was dire.
"Everybody is just shaking their heads because this is more drastic than any measures we've seen in the past, and I've been around Texas libraries for more than 40 years. This is the worst Texas has ever seen," she said.
"We are still reeling because programs that have been in place for decades, as well as the direct aid to libraries program will be no more when this budget goes into effect," she said.
19 percent reduction in state staffing
The budget will oblige the agency to "scale back dramatically, and we've had to re-examine and reconfigure nearly every facet of our services," Rudd wrote in a June 22 memo to the state's public library directors (see full text below).
The agency will have to lay off 20 workers, and it will not fill ten more vacant positions. When combined with the six staff members who have announced plans to leave before the end of the year, total staffing is being cut 19 percent, from 193 FTEs to 157.
"That is a devastating loss of talent," Rudd said.
All funding for the Loan Star Libraries program has been eliminated. This program provides direct aid grants to public libraries throughout the state. The program received $13.4 million for FY10-11.
In her memo to the state's public library directors, Rudd wrote that "creating the Loan Star Libraries program is one of my proudest accomplishments as Texas State Librarian. To dismantle this program just as we are beginning to see great returns on this modest investment in our state's public libraries is particularly painful."
Brenda Branch, the director of the Austin Public Library, said eliminating Lone Star Libraries has an immediate impact even on a large system such as Austin's.
"We had four really critical positions funded by that program," she said. "We could not operate without them." In order to maintain those positions, Branch will have to take positions away from public service and absorb the costs into her own budget.
Williams said the program allowed her to expand services and also provided a useful supplement when her local funding was being cut back. She recently used the state money to help bridge a gap in her materials budget, she said.
State funding for the TexShare database program was cut from $8 million to $2.5 million. The legislature directed the state library to raise an additional $500,000 in fees for this budget cycle, which will come from a 35 percent increase in fees paid by the libraries for this service.
The program is a collaboration established in the early 1980s among public and academic libraries under the administration of the state library to provide access at a reduced price to online resources.
"Those fees are collected from public and academic libraries who are also hurting badly in their budgets," said Ed Seidenberg, deputy director of the state library. "And, in fact, some of the public libraries use their Loan Star money to pay that fee, and so now they not only are losing the Loan Star money, but they will have to come up with funding from their own budget to pay this fee," he said.
For libraries like Austin Public Library, "It shouldn't be a big problem," said Branch, the director, "but for smaller libraries it will be very difficult."
Four hundred of Texas's 561 public libraries are classified as rural.
LSTA funding shrinks, too
Because of Congressional action, the agency will receive $10.6 million in federal Library Services and Technology Act funding for FY12, $900,000 less than in FY11. "We expect further reduction in federal funds in subsequent years because we will not meet our federal maintenance of effort requirements," Rudd wrote in her memo.
LSTA is the sole funding source for the state's regional library systems and interlibrary loan (ILL). The regional systems will receive $2.5 million in FY12, down from $4.2 million, but "the future beyond FY12 is uncertain," Rudd wrote.
"The regional library systems which have been around since the '70s basically are going to be so underfunded that a number of those locations that have been providing services and consultations and continuing education in the far-flung parts of our very big state will be closing their doors next year," said Williams, the TLA president.
As for ILL, Seidenberg, the deputy director, said that the state library is committed to interlibrary loan and will continue to cover the costs of providing ILL through OCLC's Navigator service.
"While the massive size of the state's budget shortfall necessitated broad measures, the cuts to libraries and educational institutions (including public schools and institutions of higher education) are shortsighted and undercut the very basis for economic growth and a vital educational infrastructure," said Gloria Meraz, the TLA's director of communications.
In a statement on his website, Perry said the budget will help the state's economy.
"... We followed the directions laid out by voters last November, and balanced our budget by prioritizing and reducing spending without raising taxes. I'm proud of Texas lawmakers' hard work to accomplish this goal, which positions Texas for continued job growth and ongoing prosperity for Texas families in the years to come."
Fuck that asshole. He's trying to run for president too. The idiot was told years ago point blank by his financial advisers that if he went with the budget plan he did, the state would have a $2billion deficit, it was even worse than they thought, he refused to take bail-out money from the federal government, there's no money for the high schools now, they don't get any new text books and they're firing 25% of the staff. And now he's holding a huge 1st amendment bashing prayer rally to ask Jesus (specifically, he said no other gods allowed) to save the state.
Comments
The amount of money being spent to prosecute and possibly incarcerate her for keeping a well maintained garden is ridiculous. At worst, this should have gone to a fine and stopped there.
Besides, it's not like you can just pick up your planter box and move it to the back yard. These plants have probably already put down roots so you'd probably have to rip up the boxes, transplant all the dirt, and re-plant the plants, probably killing some of them in the process.
I hope this gets fought as far as it is possible to go, to show that if such idiotic legislation exists, people will be willing to stand against it and hopefully stop any more of this type of legislation.
Also, she doesn't gets to decide what the word suitable means. Whether the law is written with poor language or not, she doesn't get to interpret it, the building dept does. There is very likely a precedent set for this situation. The representative who tried to define the word "suitable" as it appears in the dictionary is a moron. The code should have a glossary that defines the usage of fuzzy words that appear in the code. Typically, words like "shall", "reasonable time", "reasonable effort", "suitable", etc. Either way, she didn't check to see if this was ok ahead of time, they gave her warnings and she continued to ignore it and now she's not exempt from the law. This is not the way to try and change a law. If this was some civil rights issue that required a challenge in the supreme court, maybe, but not for front yard zoning. There's already a system in place for changing those laws. She's just acting like a spoiled brat who doesn't think she has to follow the rules when she doesn't agree with them.
EDIT: There's also an appeals process. When she got the warning, she could easily had made an appeal if she thought her garden was permitted by the code.
But you're right. They gave her a warning and she should probably be trying to fight it more productively.
I agree that the way she has her garden set up doesn't look bad and should be allowed. But that's why there's a appeals process. When she received the first warning she should have immediately contacted the town hall and requested a review. They send someone by to assess her individual case or she could have sent in pictures or even just gotten her neighbors to sign a petition saying they like the garden and feel it enhances the neighborhood, and then either a supervisor or a judge would decide if her specific case should be given an exception or not.
EDIT: Just for fun, here's the code being cited. http://library.municode.com/index.aspx?clientID=10289&stateID=22&statename=Michigan
Open "APPENDIX A - ZONING", click on "ARTICLE XVII. - GENERAL PROVISIONS", and it's under "Sec. 1716. - Screening and landscaping"
Also, who the hell WRITES this much stuff?
But yeah, while some rules and regulations as to yard maintenance are useful, some towns go way overboard with it, to the point that "ownership" almost seems meaningless. My town doesn't allow people to build garages that aren't attached to the home. Why? No idea. Now when your car ignites and burns down the garage your house gets to burn down too.
I saw one while looking through those regulations you linked. Okay, it makes sense that you want to hide your dumpsters from view. But the regulation goes so far as to specify that the enclosure must be made of bricks or concrete and have "a decorative pattern". That seems a bit needlessly specific.
Transvestite Hooker Found Dead in Milk Container
Lightning Kills Father, Son 48 Years Apart
Robber who broke into hair salon is beaten by its black-belt owner and kept as a sex slave for three days... fed only Viagra
YOURE FUCKED
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/jul/22/oslo-explosion-live-coverage
Holy god.
Texas Governor Signs Budget Cutting State Funding for Library Services by 88 Percent