Wednesday, June 20, 2018


SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES Syllabus LOZMAN v. CITY OF RIVIERA BEACH, FLORIDA CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 17–21.  Argued February 27, 2018—Decided June 18, 2018  After petitioner Lozman towed his floating home into a slip in a marina owned by the city of Riviera Beach, he became an outspoken critic of the City’s plan to use its eminent domain power to seize waterfront homes for private development and often made critical comments about officials during the public-comment period of city council meetings.  He also filed a lawsuit alleging that the City Council’s approval of an agreement with developers violated Florida’s open-meetings laws.  In June 2006 the Council held a closed-door session, in part to discuss Lozman’s lawsuit.  He alleges that the meeting’s transcript shows that councilmembers devised an official plan to intimidate him, and that many of his subsequent disputes with city officials and employees were part of the City’s retaliation plan.  Five months after the closed-door meeting, the Council held a public meeting.  During the public-comment session, Lozman began to speak about the arrests of officials from other jurisdictions.  When he refused a councilmember’s request to stop making his remarks, the councilmember told the police officer in attendance to “carry him out.”  The officer handcuffed Lozman and ushered him out of the meeting.  The City contends that he was arrested for violating the City Council’s rules of procedure by discussing issues unrelated to the City and then refusing to leave the podium.  Lozman claims that his arrest was to retaliate for his lawsuit and his prior public criticisms of city officials.  The State’s attorney determined that there was probable cause for his arrest, but decided to dismiss the charges.  Lozman then filed suit under 42 U. S. C. §1983, alleging a number of  alleging a number of incidents that, under his theory, showed the City’s purpose was to harass him, including by initiating an admiralty lawsuit against his floating home, see Lozman v. Riviera Beach, 568 U. S. 115.  The jury 2 LOZMAN v. RIVIERA BEACH Syllabus returned a verdict for the City on all of the claims.  The District Court instructed the jury that, for Lozman to prevail on his claim of a retaliatory arrest at the city council meeting, he had to prove that the arresting officer was motivated by impermissible animus against Lozman’s protected speech and that the officer lacked probable cause to make the arrest.  The Eleventh Circuit affirmed, concluding that any error the District Court made when it instructed the jury to consider the officer’s retaliatory animus was harmless because the jury necessarily determined that the arrest was supported by probable cause when it found for the City on Lozman’s other claims.  The existence of probable cause, the court ruled, defeated a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest.  Held:  The existence of probable cause does not bar Lozman’s First Amendment retaliation claim under the circumstances of this case. Pp. 5–13.  Read 23-page slip opinion at https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/17pdf/17-21_p8k0.pdf

Tony Packo's Cafe is a restaurant that started in the Hungarian neighborhood of Birmingham, on the east side of Toledo, Ohio at 1902 Front Street.  The restaurant became famous when it was mentioned in several M*A*S*H episodes and is noted for its signature sandwich and large collection of hot dog buns signed by celebrities.  During the depression in 1932, Tony Packo used a $100 loan to open his shop, which originally sold only sandwiches and ice cream.  In 1935, the Packo family purchased the current wedge-shaped building on the corner of Front and Consaul streets next to the Maumee River, which includes the former Consaul Tavern.  Tony's signature "sausage-and-sauce sandwich" on rye was first made when he decided to add a spicy chili sauce to his sandwiches for more flavor.  Eventually, his creation became known as the "Hungarian hot dog", even though no such thing had come from the Old Country.  The "hot dog" is really a Hungarian sausage called Kolbász, not unlike the Polish kielbasa, about twice the diameter of a conventional hot dog, and slicing the sausage in half yields about the same amount of meat.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Packo%27s_Cafe

May 26, 2018   A family squabble in 2011 put Tony Packo’s in receivership, then led to court-ordered sale of the famed eatery to fast-food operator Bob Bennett.  Barely a year after taking control, Mr. Bennett died unexpectedly in May, 2013.  His widow, Emily Bennett, is now chairman and president of her late husband’s Bennett Management Corp.  Research found that, despite long-time success at its original Front Street location on Toledo East Side and at the newer Packo’s at the Park downtown, confusion had developed over the company’s name and menu, especially among younger adults.  “You know the old Tony Packo’s logo with peppers?  People that don’t know Packo’s think we have Mexican food.  It’s one of the early-on things we learned,” CEO Jimmy Harmon said.  Packo’s recently won the 2018 Tourism Impact award from Destination Toledo, the area’s tourism and convention bureau, for having “a profound influence on the tourism industry in the greater Toledo region.”  The new logo adds “Eastern European Kitchen” after the Packo’s name.  Mr. Harmon said Eastern European could mean any dish from that region, and that would allow Packo’s to expand its menu, should it choose to do so.   Already, the CEO said, there’s an idea for a breaded chicken sandwich done in a Hungarian style.  Bennett Management hired Richardson Design LLC of Cleveland to rebrand Tony Packo’s and reinvigorate its concept.  But Mrs. Bennett also had a large role in designing the company’s next generation of stores.  “I think I’ve influenced the design and feel for the restaurants, combining the old with the new,” Mrs. Bennett said.  “With Jimmy’s help and Richardson Design’s help, and help from everyone on the team, I think we’ve got a very comfortable model going forward,” Mrs. Bennett said.

U.S. Senator Thomas Witherell Palmer donated 140-acre (57 ha) for a Detroit city park in 1893, on the condition that the virgin forest be preserved.  Palmer had inherited 80 acres from his grandfather, Michigan politician and Judge, James Witherell and, in his lifetime, expanded his holdings to 640 acres.  Palmer continued to donate land throughout his life, and following his death, and that of his wife, Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer, his benefactors subdivided what became known as the Palmer Park Apartment Building Historic District, which is now a part of the National Register of Historic Places.  A total of 296-acre (120 ha) was allocated to Palmer Park.  The name that Palmer gave it, Log Cabin Park, did not stick and in 1897, the Detroit Common Council unanimously approved an ordinance to officially rename it Palmer Park.  The park had a large white wooden casino, which burned down in May 1945.  The city planned to close Palmer Park in 2010 due to budget constraints, but relented after a public rally.  Palmer Park Golf Course is an 18-hole regulation length golf course within the park that hosts golf outings and tournaments through the Palmer Park Golf club.  Since 1927, Palmer Park Golf Course has been home turf for many notable Detroit residents including Motown performers Marvin GayeThe TemptationsFour Tops, and boxer Joe Louis.  The course has a short layout that is mostly flat.  A man-made lake dotted with small islands and anchored by a miniature red-and-white lighthouse that was once lit with an oil lamp.  It was created at Senator Palmer's behest and named for his mother-in-law.  The Recreation Department created a second lake west of the current site of the Splash Park, to use as a fish breeding pond.  Beyond it to the west, was Lake Harold with an island called Inselruh and a waterfall called Pontiac Cascade.  In the 1950s, Lake Harold was filled with earth excavated during the construction of the Lodge Freeway.  The Merrill Fountain was designed by the architectural firm of Carrère and Hastings and originally stood in front of the old Detroit Opera House in Campus Martius Park.  Built in 1904 at a cost of US$1,000,000 (equivalent to $27,237,037 in 2017), it was named for Charles Merrill and dedicated by his daughter, Elizabeth Palmer.  As automobile traffic increased in downtown Detroit, the city’s elders decided to move the fountain to the Merrill Plaissance, at the far southern boundary of Palmer Park, in 1926.  The fountain functioned for one season in the park and then pipes broke.  It has been dry for over 50 years and suffered from theft of pieces and destruction by vandals.  People for Palmer Park is a nonprofit organization created in 2010 that, with the Detroit government's blessing, supports renovation and revitalization work in the park.  On June 24, 2012, the group partnered with the City of Detroit to open the Palmer Log Cabin to the public as part of a fundraiser to restore the structure.  Near the western entrance to the Log Cabin is a large bell hanging—originally in a rustic wooden frame.  This bell was designed and cast by Paula Gomez in Spain in 1793 and was taken to Mexico over 200 years ago.  William A. Moore, Senator James McMillan and other friends of Senator Palmer raised funds to purchase the 1,015 pounds (460 kg) bell, as a gift, who in turn, presented it to the city.  The Palmer Park Splash Park, the second splash park in Detroit, opened August 18, 2013 through a donation by Lear Corporation.  The park is located just west of Woodward between Six and Seven Mile Roads, on what was once the grounds of an Olympic-size community swimming pool.  It features colorful spouts that spray water from several directions.  Read more and see pictures at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Park_(Detroit)

Former President Barack Obama shared his summer reading list on June 16, 2018, touting the array of "good writing" and "variety of thought out there these days."  “There’s so much good writing and art and variety of thought out there these days that this is by no means comprehensive,” he wrote on Facebook.  “Like many of you, I’ll miss ‘The Americans.’”  One of the books, written by Jennifer Kavanagh and Michael D. Rich of the global policy think tank the RAND Corporation, details the authors’ research into “the diminishing role of facts” in American life.  “The title is self-explanatory, but the findings are very interesting,” Obama wrote of “Truth Decay:  An Initial Exploration of the Diminishing Role of Facts and Analysis in American Public Life.”  Also on the list:  “Futureface:  A Family Mystery, an Epic Quest, and the Secret to Belonging,” by Alex Wagner; “The New Geography of Jobs,” by Enrico Moretti; “The 9.9 Percent Is the New American Aristocracy,” by Matthew Stewart of The Atlantic; and “In the Shadow of Statues:  A White Southerner Confronts History” by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu.  AVERY ANAPOL  http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/392628-obama-shares-list-of-books-hes-reading

June 18, 2018  This is not normal art … it is all about beauty,” said the artist Christo as a 600-tonne, 20-metre high floating sculpture made from more than 7,000 colourful oil barrels was unveiled on London’s Serpentine, gently bobbing amid ducks, swans and early morning swimmers.  The artist is known for spectacularly ambitious and slightly mad projects, which have included wrapping the German Reichstag in fabric and stretching a vast curtain over a valley between two mountains in Colorado.  The new work is his first outdoor public installation in the UK and takes the shape of a mastaba, a trapezoid shape which originated in Mesopotamia 6,000 to 7,000 years ago.  It is the Arabic word for bench.  The work has been constructed over the last two months on the banks of the Serpentine, the red, blue and mauve coloured barrels individually put in place using a crane.  Over the weekend it was floated out into the centre of the lake, tethered by 32 6-tonne anchors.  In three months time, it will be gone.  Mark Brown  Read more and see pictures at https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jun/18/alien-mother-ship-christo-sculpture-floats-on-londons-serpentine

The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued U.S. patent number 10 million on June 19, 2018.  The first U.S. patent, signed 228 years ago by George Washington on July 31, 1790 was issued to Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash, an ingredient used in fertilizer.  Patent 10 million for “Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pixel Quadrature Detection” symbolizes the breadth of American invention, with applications in such varied fields as autonomous vehicles, medical imaging devices, military defense systems, and space and undersea exploration.  It was invented by Joseph Marron and is owned by Raytheon Company.  Additional information on patent 10 million can be found at: https://10millionpatents.uspto.gov/docs/patent10million.pdf.

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 1905  June 20, 2018  Word of the Day  barcarole  noun  Venetian folk song traditionally sung by gondoliers, often in 68 or 128 time with alternating strong and weakbeats imitating a rowing motion.  A piece of music composed in imitation of such a song.  German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach was born on this day in 1819.  His duet “Belle nuit, ô nuit d’amour” (“Beautiful Night, O Night of Love”), known simply as the Barcarolle, from his last and unfinished opera The Tales of Hoffmann, is said to be the most famous barcarole ever written.

No comments: