Well, the baby kept me in Hesperia, not San Diego, this weekend, so I missed out on staying on the CBR Yacht, which would have been very cool. Still, I edited a bunch of stories for the site this weekend.
Some of my favorite Comic-Con stories:
You know, it’s always on the week that you’ve got Blizzcon on Friday and video training in Irvine on Thursday (hence the big blank area on the front page of HesperiaStar.com) that local politicians get subpoenas, even when you’re already busy with covering multiple aspects of the school board recall story.
I’m going to end up falling asleep in the middle of a Blizzcon panel, I just know it.
After almost two and a half years, the shoes have started dropping:
2 leaders subpoenaed
Postmus, Mitzelfelt called to testify before grand jury
A grand jury has subpoenaed county Assessor Bill Postmus and Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt in what is believed to be an investigation into financial disparities at the now-defunct California Charter Academy.
Mitzelfelt confirmed late Friday that he had received a subpoena requesting that he appear before the grand jury as a witness.
“I will go in there and answer any questions that they have,” he said.
Postmus did not respond to requests for comment.
San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert said Friday that he had informed the Board of Supervisors that grand jury subpoenas had been issued in connection with an investigation into the charter academy.
The fact that two of the county’s top Republican officials have been subpoenaed does not necessarily mean they are targets of the investigation. It could be that the grand jury just wants their testimony in a broader review of the financial collapse of the charter school group in 2004.
It could also be that investigators are looking at one or both for possibly playing a more nefarious role.
Here’s the part most of interest to most Hesperians, I suspect:
Also named in the audit is Tad Honeycutt, a Hesperia city councilman who worked closely with Cox.
Honeycutt was the business-development director for the school’s private management firm. That gave him the ability to steer six-figure contracts to outside businesses and receive pay for work that auditors found questionable.
For example, Honeycutt started a company, Maniaque Management Group, which employed him as the chief executive officer and Cox as director. In one instance, the company received four checks for $6,750 each, totalling $27,000, from CCA.
“The audit team could find no evidence of services provided by Mr. Honeycutt or Maniaque for these payments that would justify the use of CCA funds,” the audit report stated.
The audit also states that Honeycutt used his company credit card for “often quite significant” purchases, which “did not appear related to educational purposes.” Cox totaled more than $712,000 over 2 years, while Honeycutt charged nearly $300,000 over two years, which included such purchases as $18,000 for two jet skis.
Honeycutt said Friday that he expected to receive a subpoena but had not yet. He denied all allegations of wrongdoing, explaining the purchases highlighted in the audit as normal for a private business.
“It’s baffling to me,” Honeycutt said. “The audit that the state did was completely baseless. It’s a glorified list of allegations based on nothing.”
J.K. Rowling told NBC what happens after the end of the final Harry Potter book. Don’t click unless you’re finished with Deathly Hallows!
This is a little different than last time:
Hello,
You are receiving this email because you are registered to attend the upcoming BlizzCon 2007 (www.blizzcon.com). Please review this important information so you can show up ready to attend and enjoy this unique event to its fullest.
***BADGE PICKUP INFORMATION***
You will be able to pick up your BlizzCon 2007 entry badge directly at the Anaheim Convention Center; Blizzard will NOT be mailing the badges out beforehand. Badge pickup will be available starting Thursday, August 2, 2007 between 4 p.m. and 11 p.m. Pacific Time, and will continue for each day of the event.
NOTE: In order to pick up your tickets, you will be required to provide the ACTUAL CREDIT CARD that was used to purchase your ticket on the website.
More general information can be found online at the BlizzCon 2007 FAQ:
http://www.blizzard.com/blizzcon07/faq.shtml
***BLIZZCON CHARACTER COPIES AVAILABLE***
If you are a World of Warcraft player, you have an exclusive opportunity to use a pre-made character OR your own level 68-70 characters to try out new World of Warcraft content at BlizzCon. You have the option to copy up to four level 68-70 characters to a special event realm to experience this content, which has not yet been seen on test realms.
Those wishing to make copies may do so at the Character Copy page, which will be available on the BlizzCon website (http://test.worldofwarcraft.com/blizzcon/) from July 23 until the end of BlizzCon on August 4, 2007. The character copy is completely optional–it is NOT required to attend the event or test the new World of Warcraft content.
For more information on event realms and how this special character copy works, please visit the event realm FAQ posted here:
http://linkhere
On behalf of everyone at Blizzard, we look forward to seeing you at the Con!
Regards,
The BlizzCon Team
Blizzard Entertainment
http://www.blizzard.com
And yes, that link really does just say “linkhere.”
Last Blizzcon, the new content was the Burning Crusade expansion, specifically the Blood Elf starting area.
This time, there’s a lot of extra areas on the way, but there’s also a rumor that the next expansion will be announced. Those folks who comb through data files say it rhymes with “Schmorthrend.” We’ll see.
I’ll certainly copy over my dwarf hunter so I can run around and get smacked around by whatever the new content might be.
