Who Said That
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Michael P. Donnelly in his recent dissent, after the state Supreme Court decided that “boneless” referred to a cooking style, rather than a true guarantee, after Michael Berkheimer, a patron at Wings on Brookwood, a chicken wing restaurant in Hamilton, sued the restaurant and its suppliers after ingesting a chicken bone. The one-and-three-eighths-inch bone tore Berkheimer’s esophagus and resulted in two surgeries. Berkheimer claimed the restaurant and the supplier were negligent for failing to warn him that “boneless” wings could contain bones. The court dismissed Berkheimer’s suit with a 4-3 verdict. (NPR — July 25, 2024)
California Attorney General Rob Bonta comments in announcing a $50 million settlement with oil trading companies accused of manipulating California gasoline prices. The settlement brings a lawsuit filed in 2020 regarding conduct in 2015 to a conclusion. (Office of the California Attorney General — July 10, 2024)
U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice presidential nominee, responding to remarks by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who is among those reportedly being considered as the Democratic vice presidential nominee, taking issue with Vance’s assertion that he considers his grandparents’ native Breathitt County, Ky., to be “home” despite having been born in Ohio. (News from the States — July 24, 2024)
Houston Police Department Interim Police Chief Larry Satterwhite, regarding comments by Council Member Edward Pollard that lives could have been saved if the city had been more prepared ahead of Hurricane Beryl. Pollard said that his comments were “solely focused on the logistics of mobilizing our officers a day earlier to ensure their safety and readiness.” Houston Mayor John Whitmire also defended his city’s response and has previously chided CenterPoint energy for their slow restoration of power to thousands of residents. (Houston Chronicle — July 22, 2024)
U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert, regarding her July 12 decision to grant a preliminary injunction that was sought by The Bail Project, a national nonprofit that aids thousands of low-income people behind bars. Calvert ruled that a new Georgia state law that limited people and organizations from posting more than three cash bonds in a year unless they met extensive requirements to become bail bond companies is essentially arbitrary. After Calvert’s ruling, The Bail Project reopened its doors in Atlanta on Monday, July 22. (Associated Press — July 22, 2024)
Brian Davis, general manger of the Linda County Water District in Yuba County, Calif., regarding the state’s next phase of water conservation. Of a dozen water systems projected to face cuts of 40 percent or more over the next 15 years, seven are located in the state’s Central Valley. Linda County Water District will need to cut an estimated 43 percent by 2040. (CalMatters — July 29, 2024)
Michael Webber, an energy resources professor at the University of Texas at Austin, on a derecho that slammed the Houston region in May with 100 mph winds, knocking out power for nearly 1 million customers. City officials, residents and utility companies were still trying to recover from the damage from that storm when Hurricane Beryl hit in July, knocking out power to more than 2.6 million customers and showing how vulnerable the Southeast Texas grid’s infrastructure is to high winds. (Texas Tribune — July 18, 2024)
Stanford University professor Bruce Cain, regarding the likelihood that California will meet its 2030 electric vehicle transition targets. The state would need one million public chargers by the end of 2030, almost 10 times more than the number available to drivers in December, to meet the target, and 129,000 new stations would need to be built every year for the next seven years, which is more than seven times the current pace. (Associated Press — July 16, 2024)
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican who vetoed a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature to pause evictions for tenants applying for emergency assistance. Though eviction filings in Las Vegas appear to be trending down from last year, they were 28 percent higher than pre-pandemic norms for the month of May, according to the Eviction Lab, a research unit at Princeton University. (Wall Street Journal — July 15, 2024)
Bobby Davis, senior adviser to Philadelphia District Council 33, pushing back against the city’s new mandate that all 26,000 city employees return to the office, five days a week, starting this week. Davis claimed that the Municipal Services Building has been taken over by birds and, therefore, is unfit for workers to return. Other workers are complaining about the unfortunate, mid-summer timing of the return-to-office mandate while others expressed concerns about health struggles and family caregiving responsibilities. According to the city, about 80 percent of its employees already work on site, full time. (NPR — July 15, 2024)
"Mediatrician" Michael Rich, writing in a new book to reassure parents that screen time isn't inherently damaging. If children are badly affected by their devices, he says, this is usually attributable to underlying conditions, not technology. Rich is founder of the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children's Hospital. (Axios — July 10, 2024)
Houston Mayor John Whitmire, regarding his call for CenterPoint Energy, Houston’s biggest power utility, to do a better job providing service. The utility said about 500,000 customers will lack power into next week due to outages from Hurricane Beryl. After making landfall in Texas on Monday, Beryl knocked out power for around 2.7 million households. (Associated Press — July 11, 2024)
“When there’s no minimum age, can a 9-year-old come into your store and buy a non-alcoholic Corona?”
Darryl Collins, owner of a zero-proof bottle shop called Hopscotch in Baltimore, Md., regarding his decision not to sell to anyone under the age of 18. In Maryland, as in a majority of states, there are no state age restrictions on buying adult non-alcoholic beverages. (NPR — July 9, 2024)
Drew Belt, a resident of Tupelo, Miss., regarding his recent stop in Death Valley, Calif., to experience extreme temperatures amid a heatwave over the Fourth of July weekend. A high temperature of 128 F was recorded Saturday and Sunday at Death Valley National Park. (Associated Press — July 9, 2024)
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng, regarding googly eye decals that have been attached to some subway trains in an effort to bring a smile to riders’ faces. (Associated Press — July 1, 2024)
Motto of a solar-powered city-owned liquor store in Morris, Minn., a conservative prairie community of 5,206 residents that has gone all in on wind and solar power, composting, electric school buses and geothermal heating. Its residents cite rural self-sufficiency, high energy and fuel costs, saving tax dollars and eliminating inefficiency and waste. The town had gone far beyond energy independence to make many times the energy it needs for itself, selling the bulk of the renewable power for a profit. Thirteen other towns in Minnesota are at various stages of adapting projects modeled on Morris' efforts. (Wall Street Journal — July 3, 2024)
A tweet from Indiana Secretary of State Diego Morales. His office sent letters warning more than 120 federal agencies operating in Indiana not to provide voter registration services without the state’s approval. In May, Morales joined eight other Republican secretaries of state in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the order. (News from the States — July 3, 2024)
Miami resident Alfredo Rodriguez, whose apartment has flooded five times since he moved in a year ago. Some are calling record rainfall in Florida a "1,000-year event," meaning that the likelihood of rainfall at levels now being seen is one in 1,000. (Miami Herald — June 15, 2024)
Richard Burke, a member of the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, who voted along with three fellow Republican commissioners to continue an investigation into Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek’s since-abandoned plans to give her wife an expanded policy role in her administration. The probe won't be further pursued because the commission deadlocked 4-4 on the question. None of the commissioners said they saw proof that Kotek did anything wrong, but those who voted to investigate Kotek further said they wanted to provide Oregonians with more certainty. (Oregon Capital Chronicle — June 28, 2024)
Ebony Clarke, behavioral health director for the Oregon Health Authority. A report released last week by the authority found that the state will need to increase the number of beds by 3,700 by the fall of next year in residential facilities that treat people with severe mental health or addiction issues. Doing so will require hiring more staff, which is already a challenge. (Oregon Capital Chronicle – June 27, 2024)
Jeffrey Louis, also known as B-Boy Jeffro, a Texas breakdancer who has qualified for the U.S. Olympic team. The Paris Olympics will be the first to offer medals for breaking, a sport that Louis describes as “a party”, that he said will add to the spirit of the entire games. (KPRC – June 23, 2024)
Shane Gero, a scientist and explorer with National Geographic. Gero said that whales share certain fundamental characteristics with humans, including being parts of families, having individual identities and being curious, especially when young. (Bioneers – May 16, 2023)
Susan Kent, a former Minnesota state senator. She is part of a group called Majority in the Middle that is calling for greater partisanship in the Legislature, arguing among other things that more work should be done in committees and there should be fewer omnibus bills. At the end of this year’s session, majority Democrats combined all remaining bills into one and pushed it through both chambers without debate. (MinnPost – June 21, 2024)
Shari Stuart, a North Carolina resident who wore a mask as protection against COVID-19. After the state House passed a bill restricting mask-wearing in public, a move several other states have made, a man confronted her and insisted what she was doing is illegal. Stuart has breast cancer and a weakened immune system. (Washington Post – June 24, 2024)
Michael Genest, former finance director for the state. Genest notes that past ballot initiatives have limited the state’s fiscal choices, including limits on property taxes and guarantees for school funding. (KFF Health News – June 20, 2024)
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who signed legislation mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom in the state. Civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom From Religion Foundation vowed to file lawsuits to block the law. (Louisiana Illuminator, June 20, 2024)
Marty Rosenbluth, an immigration attorney in Lumpkin, Ga. Compared to last year, Georgia is detaining 54 percent more immigrants for violating federal law. The number is expected to continue growing in part because of a state law requiring greater cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 18, 2024)
Jackie Kowalik, a San Diego yoga instructor, saying outdoor spaces that the city has designated for yoga classes are anything but serene, including some next to a freeway or under the airport flight path. The city has banned yoga classes from some other popular locales due to concerns about crowding and safety.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Denver is one of several cities across the nation that have built communities of tiny homes to provide housing for the homeless population, moving them up onto the first “rung” of housing. According to Denver city data, the city’s transitional homes program has moved more than 1,500 people indoors, with more than 80 percent still in such housing as of last month. (Associated Press — June 14, 2024)
Florida state Rep. Jason Shoaf, a Republican whose bill loosening regulations on the killing of wildlife has passed both houses of the Legislature. Shoaf made his remark at a January committee hearing on the legislation, though the British newspaper that first reported his remarks was “unable to find a documented incident of any of Florida’s estimated population of 4,050 black bears having ingested crack.” (News from the States — June 13, 2024)
