John Hawkinson

As for turnins...

Some more people pulled papers this week in #cambma elections Michael P. Stead and Abra Berkowitz for Council. Luisa zde Paula Santas for School Committee.

Meeting adjourned.

(The City Solicitor addressed it and suggested there wasn't an objection to cleaning up that language in that way, and explained why it was the way it was ,resulting from union negotiations.)

Also, once again showing my trouble with the 4th wall, I spoke up and suggested that distinguishing between "Command Staff" and line officers was something that belongs in CPD internal operating procedures, but not in City Ordinance, so striking some words:

Here's the PN amendment which just passed.

Hi from the #cambma Ordinance Committee meeting on the "Welcoming Communities" ordinance that governs interaction between the Cambridge Police and ICE.

There is an amendment by patty Nolan to reduce the set of activities the CPD might need to cooperate with ICE on.

Caroline Hunter was turning in her 76 signatures as I arrived.

I feel like I missed an update? anyhow today's #cambma elections data: Jose Luis Rojas Villareal + Alex Bowers for SC, Louise Venden for CC. Apparently Yildiz was an error?

AAUP v. Rubio, Trial Transcripts

Err, to be clear, that's the transcript from July 15, Part II (Day 7 of the trial), as indicated by the window title in my screenshot. You can find them all at: knightcolumbia.org/content/aaup...

You can read the transcript, but facts about such a claim are not in the record. That said, ICE/HSI did not historically do these kinds of arrests of normal people, so, umm, it's not implausible that most of their work is undercover. They don't even have uniforms, they say.

Trump's top federal prosecutor in L.A. struggles to secure indictments in protest cases U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli has aggressively pushed for indictments in the high-profile prosecutions of people arrested during demonstrations against federal immigration actions in Southern California, le...

I cannot overemphasize how rare it is for both a) a grand jury to return no true bill and b) a reporter to get around grand jury secrecy rules to confirm it

I absolutely detect prefixing questions with "Would it be fair to say…" in witness testimony, and I don't know what to conclude when I find myself using a related phrasing in, err, casual conversation. "It's a different context and less deplorable," I tell myself? Or maybe even, it has its place?

(That is, he has before, and probably will again, written opinions castigating government conduct but still ruling in their favor because he finds the conduct distasteful but not illegal.)

I think it's fair to say I was not the only one in the courtroom surprised by that.

One might (wildly) speculate that it was because he is afraid the law might cause him to rule in favor of government conduct he finds extremely distasteful; but he is quite capable of threading that needle in print.

(I went back and linked from the original thread to this thread for each snippet. Doubtless I'll live to regret the circular doubly-linked list I have created.)

Threading in the transcript: bsky.app/profile/john...

Threading in the transcript: bsky.app/profile/john...

Threading in the transcript:
bsky.app/profile/john...

Threading in the transcript: bsky.app/profile/john...

Threading in the transcript:
bsky.app/profile/john...

Threading in the transcript: bsky.app/profile/john...

I think that's all I wanted to highlight from Monday's transcript.

On the merits, of course, both sides made cases consistent with the evidence presented, and WGY has a bunch of close calls to make, so we'll see how it goes…in September, most likely.

Although AAUP's press release said "weeks" (!?)

And when WGY asks what was wrong with his Henry II example, Kanellis gives…the worst possible answer? I'm not even sure if it is responsive, but it definitely won zero hearts and minds, and certainly not the one heart and mind that counts here (WGY): bsky.app/profile/john...

An error because it prompts WGY to talk about Henry II and "Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?" And the knights errant who kill Archbishop Thomas Becket.

And WGY notes President Trump "doesn't have errant knights, but he's got Stephen Miller."

bsky.app/profile/john...

Then, a few min. later, we have Kanellis w/ his Don Quixote metaphor of the plaintiffs' case. Huge strategic error on his part—if he'd just said "tilting at windmills" and left it at that, he'd have been fine, but he really opened himself up to judicial chastisement w/ this:
bsky.app/profile/john...

Why don't other law enforcement agencies wear masks, WGY wondered later:
bsky.app/profile/john...

And followed by his reference I didn't capture well to the death of a US Marshal enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act:
bsky.app/profile/john...

You really can't tell from the transcript that he was nearly yelling.

So, for instance, here we have WGY's "No[w], isn't that strange?" in response to masks:
bsky.app/profile/john...

Transcript: AAUP v. Rubio, Day 10 (7/21/25)

OK, we FINALLY have the closings transcript in AAUP v. Rubio.
Which had quite a few…"interesting" moments in the Government's closings.

knightcolumbia.org/documents/1y...