You can find my and Meredith’s story on the public hearing here (PDF). I just had a few observations from the hearing:
- It seemed as though Doug Littlejohn, the GRIP lawyer, was almost trying to purposefully antagonize District Judge J.C. Robinson. After Robinson made a point of saying he had viewed a video of the Morenci smokestacks demolition, Littlejohn insisted on playing it for the court.
- During an exchange with John Zamar, the Phelps Dodge head of demolishing obsolete buildings (not his actual title), Littlejohn questioned why a hotline — to be manned by PD spokesman Richard Peterson — was established Tuesday, when Peterson was in court Wednesday morning. Robinson halted the questioning, saying “This is getting us nowhere, and your questions are borderline facetious.”
Finally, the quote of the day came after Zamar was excused as a witness. As he left the stand and walked toward the exit he knocked over a microphone stand, breaking a piece. Robinson:
“Can I file a claim against Phelps Dodge for that?”
Hopefully, this will give you a little indication of the courtroom atmosphere.
Ray the Wrecker
There is something rotten in Denmark here. The Pinnochio meter is in the red.
Loizeaux conveniently forgot to mention the time he blasted a chimeny for Houston Power and Light and it fell teh wrong way causing hundreds of thousands worth of damage or his $6 miilion “oops” in Detroit. Just for sh*ts and grins go to http://www.implosionworld.com and click on the Discovery Channel expose. They list all of CDi’s screwups.
P Diddy
Just another huge waste of time and taxpayer resources by the gripers at GRIP. I hope that people carefully scan the crowd when the stacks finally come down to see whether any of them are there for the festivities, despite the alleged health concerns.
Avelino Maestas
As near as I can tell, “Ray the Wrecker” is referring to this review of a National Geographic story on CDI. If somebody else can spot a link for a Discovery Channel story, post it here in comments.
In addition, I imagine “Ray” is referring to the implosion of the J.L. Hudson Department Store in Detroit, which caused some damage to Detroit’s monorail. More on that here.
I’ve also just received word that CDI did not do the Houston Power and Light job.