Updates!
- I am pleased to report that SB 5615 has been re-introduced again this session in the Washington Senate. See "Bill Would Make Sasquatch Washington's Official State Cryptid" (Feb. 1, 2019). The bill did not pass last year, probably due to some sort of oversight.
- Also now subject to oversight: former U.S. Rep. Chris Collins (former R-NY), sentenced last week to 26 months in jail for what one expert called the "dumbest insider trading crime I've ever seen." See "Dumbest Insider Trading Crime I've Ever Seen' Was Pretty Dumb" (Aug. 9, 2018). Collins had pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight, and voters duly re-elected him. See "Assorted Election Stupidity" (Nov. 8, 2018). But then he changed his plea and resigned.
- Speaking of resignations, former U.S. Rep. Duncan D. Hunter (former R-CA) also did one. See "Campaign Funds Used for Rabbit Travel" (Aug. 27, 2019) and "Congressman Pleads Guilty to Using Campaign Funds for Rabbit Travel" (Dec. 3, 2019)). Oddly, Hunter also pleaded not guilty and vowed to fight, got re-elected, then changed his plea and resigned. He'll go to jail too.
- Even more impressive, in a way, was the victory of Texas Rep. Ron Reynolds (D-Fort Bend), who got re-elected while he was in jail. The question was whether he could serve from jail, because he was convicted of a misdemeanor (well, five) and state law only disqualifies felons. But as it turned out, Reynolds was released after serving only four months of his year-long sentence, just in time for the start of the 86th Legislature in January 2019.
- Bonus points: Reynolds was a personal-injury lawyer who was convicted of barratry (illegal solicitation of clients), and I say "was" because he was disbarred for that last year. The report says he and eight others were charged with paying someone to "scour Houston police records and recruit accident victims" to be clients. "We have discovered additional evidence in my favor and are confident that we will prevail on appeal," Reynolds said, apparently forgetting that you can't introduce new evidence on appeal.
- Thanks to the reader who alerted me to the capture of Winston Shrout, he of the many frauds and bogus tax schemes. See "Sovereign Citizen Convinces Jury He Is Innocent of No Charges" (May 2, 2017) and "UPDATE: Shrout's on the Run" (Sept. 18, 2019). According to the DOJ, Shrout was captured in Arizona about a month after that update.
- Finally, and most importantly, I received an email recently that read as follows: "This is Steven Turnage who got shot in a chicken suit in 2006, I was letting you know the guy who shot me died." See "Arkansas Chicken Man Plagued by Attacks" (July 27, 2006) and "UPDATE: Arkansas-Chicken-Man Assaulter Captured" (July 28, 2006). Turnage, who was wearing the suit to promote a local restaurant, said he had put up with people throwing tobacco cans and frozen drinks at him, but called police after being hit by bottle rockets fired from a car. It appears that the culprit has since passed away, but I have no further information at this time.
- I sent Steven a follow-up email, of course, but to date he hasn't responded. Steven, if you read this, congratulations on outliving your assailant and I look forward (I think) to learning further details.
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