Richard Keyt, Author at KEYTLaw's Blog

About Richard Keyt

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far Richard Keyt has created 75 blog entries.

Tampa Devoid of Crime so Police Arresting People Wearing Clown Masks in Public

The Tampa, Florida, law enforcement agencies must not have enough crime because they recently arrested a teenage boy for walking along a public highway while wearing a clown mask. A sheriff’s deputy spotted the perp and followed him for a while until backup from the Tampa police department arrived to help make the arrest. I hope we can watch the arrest on the TV show “Cops.” It must have been a very intense and scary time for the deputy who had to follow the clown without any backup. The dude was arrested for violating a 1951 law intended to prevent KKK members from being on the streets in the hood while wearing their hoods. The clown was charged with two misdemeanors and released on $750 bail.

Owner of Danny’s Carwash May be Taken to the Cleaners

Four creditors of Phoenix area carwash mogul Daniel “Danny” Hendon sued him, his business partners and his businesses claiming defendants owe over $50 million. The first lawsuit was filed last month in the Maricopa County Superior Court by M & I Marshall & Ilsley Bank. M & I claims that the defendants defaulted on a $13.8 million business loan. Danny is involved in over 90 businesses, but four of them recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

In another lawsuit Comerica Bank alleges that Danny Hendon and nineteen of related companies defaulted on a loan with a balance of $24.7 million. A third lawsuit was filed last month by Diversified Funding Group LLC, alleges that Danny Hendon and Robert Banovac owe more than $12 million on a commercial loan. Rightpath Limited Development Group LLC and HB Equities LLC are also defendants in this lawsuit. Rightpath invested in the now bankrupt lender Mortgages Ltd. It was was co-owned at one time by Hendon, Banovac and former partner Rick Burton. The fourth lawsuit was filed by Western Starr Aviation Management Inc., and Starr Aviation Marketing LLC. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit allege that Danny Hendon and Robert Banovac breached a contract and owe $100,000 in damages and expenses.

I love this statement by Danny’s lawyer, “we’re a little confused about why these lenders would come after Danny’s Family Companies like this.” Let me clear up any confusion. The plaintiffs allege that THE DEFENDANTS DEFAULTED ON THEIR OBLIGATIONS TO PAY MONEY. I think most people understand that if you borrow money and don’t pay it back, the lender has a tendency to sue to collect the debt.

1995 Newsweek Article Completely Wrong on Its Predictions About the Internet

Clifford Stoll, author of “Silicon Snake Oil–Second Thoughts on the Information Highway” wrote an article published in Newsweek in which he makes a lot of predictions about the internet that are completely wrong. It’s funny now to read about the things he said would never happen on the internet, but which have happened in a big way. For example, he said few people would ever use the internet for shopping, telecommuting, multimedia classrooms, virtual communities, interactive libraries, Mr. Stoll said the visionaires incorrectly predicted that:

“Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. . . . Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? . . . . Try reading a book on disc. . . . And you can’t tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.”

To be fair, he was not alone in his predictions that the internet would never amount to much. In the early 1990s I ran a four phone line bulletin board system (BBS) that was an early version of the internet, but limited by direct computer modem to computer modem phone line connections. I remember going to a national convention of BBS sysops in the early 1990s where I attended a session at which a panel of speakers in the know told the audience not to waste time with the internet, but to keep investing in BBSs. That session probably delayed my movement to the internet a few years.

Toy Police Have an Unsupported Fear of Cadmium & Want to Ban it in Children’s Products

Recently the Associated Press ran a story about the metal content of a number of items of children’s jewelry made in China. The AP tested some jewelry products and found that some of the items contained cadmium. The article speculated that the manufacturers of these items substituted cadmium in place of lead because of the unrealistic minimum lead content requirement of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CSPIA). The federal toy police, aka the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has been cracking down on companies that import and distribute or sell children’s products that do not meet the lead content testing requirements of the CSPIA. Testing the lead content of every part of a children’s product is very expensive and impossible for many manufacturers of children’s products. Many manufacturers cannot comply with the CSPIA and simply stop making children’s products.

Eight states are now considering banning excess levels of cadmium in children’s products. These state are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, and New York. The only reason the states and the Consumer Product Safety Commission are considering regulating cadmium in children’s products is because of the January 2010 AP story. From the beginning of recorded time up to the date of the AP story, the toy police haven’t cared the least about the level of cadmium in children’s products. The reason nobody cared is because there are no scientific studies that have shown that “high levels” (what ever that is) of cadmium poses a danger to children who suck on products that contain cadmium.

Another Associated Press story called “N.J. Assembly bill tightens restrictions on toxic content in children’s jewelry,” makes the following unsupported allegation, “Cadmium is a known carcinogen, particularly when inhaled in a factory or other workplace.” It then states, “The exact risks to adults aren’t clear because it typically takes long-term exposure to the metal to cause the diseases.” The Handmade Toy Alliance CSPIA Blog says, “Cadmium, after all, is a naturally occurring element and is found in trace amounts in almost everything from carrots to carpet.” See

Food Police Bust Store for Giving Free Coffee & Donuts

The food police busted the B & B Do it Center in Camarillo, California, for giving customers free coffee and donuts in the morning. Owner Ty Brann says the business had been giving the free stuff for over 15 years. Recently a customer complained to the Ventura County food police and B & B was ordered to cease and desist unless the business installed stainless-steel sinks with hot and cold water and a kitchen to handle the food. For those of you living in Ventura County, you can sleep well at night knowing that the Ventura County Environmental Health Division is on duty 24/7 (well maybe 7/5 due to budget cut backs) making sure that nobody in the county dies or suffers serious injury from any unlicensed black market distributor of free coffee and donuts who preys on the unsuspecting and dumb citizens of the county.

Hey Ventura County food police, what about all the school bake sales and the other businesses that lack stainless-steel sinks with hot and cold water and a kitchen to handle the food? I can sense a need for the Ventura County Environmental Health Division to hire a ton of new people to enforce the county health laws and shut down all the other scofflaws like B & B Do it Center.

Previous 789 Next