July 06, 2006
Death and taxes
Some quick updates from the holiday weekend, while I prepare to head down to Philadelphia. (A reminder: I'm speaking tonight in Philadelphia, at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, at 7 pm, along with Dave Zirin. Come on down! It's free!)
- The Cleveland suburb of Eastlake announced that it's laying off five police officers to help pay off $1 million in debt (or maybe $1 million a year - accounts differ) on Classic Park, home of the minor-league Lake County Captains. In surely completely unrelated news, former Eastlake Mayor Dan DiLiberto, who got Classic Park built, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and four months of house arrest last week for helping a local developer get $615,000 in state loans for a never-built industrial park.
- Disgraced Enron founder Ken Lay died of a heart attack yesterday, leaving obit writers searching for something nice to say about the man who created the nation's biggest and most costly bankruptcy. The Associated Press turned to Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane, who credited Lay with being instrumental in helping the Astros win $180 million in stadium subsidies for what was at first called Enron Field: "He made 32 speeches for us in about a six-week period. ... I think Ken helped immeasurably in winning that referendum. We only won 50.7 [percent of the vote], so that was not a landslide." Hey, if you can't say something nice...
- There's still plenty of continued debate over soccer stadiums, from Salt Lake City (still up in the air) to Toronto (federal funding officially approved, though construction was underway already) to Vancouver (city council still discussing it). But who cares about soccer, anyway?
Posted by Neil deMause
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