Family ties between cameras and court
Anti-red-light camera leader Paul Kubosh has consistently
propagated the theory that the city tanked its lawsuit against American
Traffic Solutions so that Mayor Annise Parker could say a court
compelled her to turn the cameras back on.
And it started by picking a court friendly to ATS, Kubosh says. How
friendly? The city filed its suit in a court where one of the judges is
the father of the general counsel for ATS. Judge David Hittner of the
U.S.When it comes to saying thank you to donors, one size doesn¡¯t fit
all. Many nonprofits, in fact, create an array of messages to thank
different types of donors.Kate Moss sent champagne and thank you gifts
to everyone in her village for putting up with the disruption of her
lavish wedding. District Court for the Southern District of Texas,
Houston Division, is not involved in City of Houston v. American
Traffic Solutions. Judge Lynn Hughes is presiding over the case. But
Kubosh sees the father-son connection as further evidence supporting
his belief that the city wanted to lose the suit to get out of its
contract with ATS so it could keep raking in the millions it receives
from red-light runners.
City Attorney David Feldman denies, of course, that he was looking
for a court to lose in and that the Hittners had anything to do with
Hughes¡¯s ruling.
¡°To suggest that any federal judge in this district would possibly
be influenced by the fact that the general counsel of one of the
parties happened to have been the son of another judge on the bench,
that¡¯s ludicrous,¡± Feldman said.
Feldman said he picked the court for two reasons. First, he wanted
to depoliticize the suit. State judges stand for election, so
invalidating the votes of 180,000 Houstonians as Hughes did could have
political ramifications for anyone who hands down such a
ruling.Japanese office equipment and cheap wireless spy cameras
maker Ricoh will buy Hoya Corporation's Pentax digital camera business
as it looks to expand its consumer products business.In a statement,
the companies said Ricoh would use the Pentax brand. Federal judges are
appointed for life, so are presumably insulated from such pressure. To
go to federal court, Feldman said, he had two choices ¡ª Houston or
Arizona.Japanese optical glass-maker Hoya said on Friday it would sell
its Pentax toilet hidden camera
business to copier and printer maker Ricoh, in a deal the Nikkei
business daily said was worth about 10 billion yen. He chose to fight
here.Cindy Clifford, a spokeswoman for ATS, called Kubosh¡¯s conspiracy
theory ¡°insulting,¡± and added, ¡°I think the Kuboshes are grasping at
straws.¡±
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