Is Your Local Starbucks Closing?

Well, Google is always so Johnny-On-The-Spot ... thanks in large part to StarbucksGossip.Com, Google Maps has a list of rumored Starbucks closings (you know, Starbucks already issued its press release that it's closing 600 stores but has failed to delineate which stores comprise that list):

click here for the Google Map of Rumored Starbucks Store Closings

Whew. None in San Antonio. Yet.

Why Not Blow Off Jury Duty?

I don't know about your jurisdiction, but here in San Antonio, it's really not smart to blow off jury duty. Just ask Liz Chavarria, who didn't show up for the first day of trial after she was picked as a juror for a criminal case.

Yep, everyone had to set around and wait on her that day: the judge, the clerks, the court reporter, the attorneys, the witnesses, the defendant, the bailiff, and the 11 jurors who did show up.

So, Judge Vasquez-Gardner ordered her to over 100 hours of community service - in the Central Jury Room, where everyone who's called for jury duty sits around, waiting to be called for a panel - but no fine, because the Judge figured that Liz's parent would end up paying it. Liz also has to write 14 letters of apology: one to each juror (including Liz's alternate, who replaced her) and one to each of the attorneys (prosecutor and defense counsel).

Me? Cool Judge, I particularly like the letters of apology, and Liz is lucky she didn't get jail time. Other judges here simply send out the Bexar County Sheriff to arrest those who fail to show up - they are in contempt of court - and let them spend some time in the local jail.

They Settled Virginia Tech Today

They've reached a settlement in the Virginia Tech killings, and the Judge approved the agreement today. I'm not sure how I feel about this, or what I think.

I hope that these 24 families get some closure from today's ruling. What happened on that campus was such a horror, with so many of the victims, so young. So many years stolen from them.

I think about the legal fees. I wonder what the cut was. Forty percent - fifty? Plus expenses before the families see a dime? That's not unreasonable, that's sorta standard these days. How much of that $11 million will the 24 families really get?

I think about litigation from a legal perspective, and how being an attorney turned into a business somewhere in the past 30 years or so, and reading this newstory today makes me sad.

Did anyone sue the University of Texas after the sniper, Charles Whitman, shot students at random from the Tower? Did anyone ever seriously think to do so?

How responsible can any university truly be when someone with a severe mental illness turns violent?

Do we, as a society, really think money is this powerful and important?

Just some of the things I'm pondering this evening. My condolences to everyone who was harmed by the Virginia Tech Tragedy, as well.

Starting Over Heroes: Colonel Sanders and William Shatner

Colonel Sanders did not even BEGIN his chicken-selling business until he was 66 years old. I like that -- and he did so out of need: he had been running a service station and selling his fried chicken on the side for several years, when an interstate highway was completed that routed traffic away from his station and forced him to close. He used $105 from his first Social Security check to fund his new project, and began his KFC business out of his pickup, driving around and selling chicken that he was frying up in the back of the truck. Within a couple of years, he sold the franchise for $2 million and remained involved as company spokesman until his death at age 90.

William Shatner was a Shakespearean actor who had appeared several times on Broadway when he got the role of Captain Kirk on Star Trek. After its three-year run, he couldn't find work elsewhere - he'd been typecast as Kirk - and concurrently with the show ending, his wife divorced him. Soon, Shatner was living out of a camper-covered pickup truck, and finding gigs doing special appearances at kid's parties to make ends meet. He had to start over at age 44 - he kept on moving forward, and appeared in guest star slots in Columbo, and other tv shows, as well as on game shows, and got his second big break when he was 51, in the TV show TJ Hooker. He's gone on to write lots of science fiction books, win Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his role as Denny Crane on Boston Legal, achieve respect in horse circles for his thoroughbred ranches, and while his spoken-word album has been the source of lots of laughs, he's actually gained respect in jazz circles for his second album, which had lots of famous folk participating in it (Joe Jackson, Ben Folds).

Now Here's An Innovative Judge - $1000000 for 1 month

Wow. Lou Pearlman, con artist of boy band fame (Backstreet Boys, 'NSync, O'Town), was sentenced today to 300 months incarceration - with the proviso from the Judge that one month would be knocked off the sentence for each $1,000,000 that Pearlman provided in restitution.

Since Pearlman was found to have looted $300 million from his victims, the Judge pointed out, this was conceivable a Get Out of Jail Free card.

I'm lovin' this Judge -- of course, Pearlman has to still HAVE the money for this to be anything more than cocktail party fodder.

For more info, including the sentencing statement and the judge's comments from the bench, go here.