When panic “justifies” violation of constitutional rights

Under the guise of having students sign an “anti-violence” pledge, police gather handwriting samples to track down writer of a threatening note.  I really don’t remember whether the latest case law allows police to force someone to provide a handwriting sample that might incriminate him, but when school administrators cooperate in fooling students – minors – into unwittingly providing evidence against themselves, there’s something seriously wrong.

Yes yes yes, Newtown, Columbine, I get it, but this is still just plain wrong, as wrong in its own way as our internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. The constitution was drafted to protect us from hysteria trumping our god-given natural rights and liberties, and the overriding of those rights is a serious matter.

He’s still around? I thought he ran away with Megan Marshack thirty-four years ago

Kissing cousins?

Rockefeller to retire, concedes seat to Republican (well, almost). For those born too late to enjoy the story:  here.

PETA, meet the NRA

Come on people now, let’s get together ….

 

Oh noooo, Mr. Bill!

Homeowner shoots naked intruder discovered strangling dog.

This could prove another blow to back country prices

A reader reports that her son and husband saw a “big yellow animal with a long tail” up near the Audubon, and sends along these pictures? Mountain Lion II? Bob Cat? Just a little pussy? Heck if I know, but I found a chart comparing various tracks so decide for yourself, if you can. (Click to enlarge – no apparent claw marks, which the chart says is the mark of a lion. On the other hand, if that’s a “fifth toe” in the middle picture, we have a problem with it being any kind of cat at all – on enlargement, I think the dark “toe” on the left is not a toe, but …).

Real estate news

26 North Street

After several aborted deals, 26 North Street got a contract and a sale all in 24 hours and closed today at $4.250 million. It’s unclear to me whether that price includes both lots, which together were once priced at $5.695, or just one but either way, this one’s gone.

12 Sherwood Avenue

12 Sherwood has an accepted offer, last asking price $1.450 million. The seller paid $1.650 for it in 2002. It was put back up for sale in March, 2011 at $2.990 million and that struck me as a tad excessive because, at least so far as I could tell, nothing significant had been done to it since 2002. $1.450 was  more appropriate and four brokers and countless price cuts later, that’s where it landed. Given the mortgage loaded onto this place it won’t be a happy closing (for the seller or her lender) but that’s not the buyer’s concern. I have a number in my mind for the final sales price, one I suggested to my own clients when we viewed this place last fall, and it’s not $1.450. We’ll see how close I was when this closes and its selling price is disclosed.

Two “new” listings are really just old homes coming back with new brokers and new prices.

207 Old Mill Road is now offered at $3.095 million, which may finally prove the charm. This is a very nice house but I could never sell it when it started in 2005 and $5.450 million (!) and even at its various other iterations, each slightly lower that the rest. No sale in eight years seems to have finally driven some sense into the owner and at this price, it might just sell. A good house with a bad price is just a bad house. Looks better now.

5 Kernan Place, Old greenwich, is also back at a new price, $3.595, which is better than its original $4.450, set in August, 2011. Again, a decent house, but absolutely no yard (it backs up to Innis Arden Golf Club so it at least has views) and a hefty price tag.