Johnny Worricker conspires with a fellow agent to get the goods on the prime minister
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For me the Worricker Trilogy is an example of the power of entertainment to distract me from relentless pain
Caution: Loaded with spoilers.
The prime minister’s press secretary attempts to console his boss (as is true of every cast member: played brilliantly by Ralph Fiennes) after our anti-hero, a secret service agent, progresses with eventual success with his campaign to remove the autocratic and corrupt Fiennes from office. The secretary says, “You are under a lot of pressure.” The would-be tyrant replies, “Pressure like whiplash does not exist.”
A hallmark of the Worricker Trilogy is the captivating quality of David Hare’s writing. “Pressure like whiplash does not exist” is a good example. As every schoolboy knows both whiplash and pressure do exist. Yet we the viewer are told it does not and for a brief moment we become nihilists and believe him. The conundrum; namely, how something can exist and not exist at the same time is the hallmark of the brand of British spy fiction that John le Carré’s Smiley series turned into the political action/thriller genre to which I am most attracted.
Before le Carré, authors of espionage novels presented us with good guys and bad guys. James Bond was a good guy. A hero. The ones implausible Bond was licensed to kill were bad guys. This was axiomatic.
By comparison David Hare’s Johnny Worricker (played by Bill Nighy) is an anti-hero who left his wife when she became pregnant. Despite Johnny severe character flaws (or perhaps because of them) we are nonetheless sympathetic to Johnny’s continual questioning of a world where the good guys do bad things; bad guys do good things. Concepts like good and evil (much like pressure and whiplash) are presented as mythological.
For me, this brand of existentialism bordering on nihilism consistently has been compelling. This is the way to hook me as Johnny Worricker and his Dickensian colleagues, lovers, enemies and friends did. From frame to frame The Worricker Trilogy stops time with its presentation of a world that appears to be true. Verisimilitude serves as catnip for me.
I am the kind of person who craves catnip given my personal circumstance. Yesterday, when I watched the series from start to conclusion without pause, my objective was distraction to the point where I no longer felt relentless pain–a consequence of surgery for kidney cancer. As with Ralph Fiennes’ ability to transfer pressure and whiplash from the real to the non-existent, the realization of David Hare’s words was entirely successful.
–Joel Solkoff is the author of Learning to Live Again, my Triumph Over Cancer
The Chabad religious service is entirely in Hebrew and Aramaic where men and women are separated during prayer. In August, this was the only synagogue service available to me. This (with the exception of women being separated from men) is the service with which I am most comfortable. Under the rules of the sabbath codified in Arabic in the Twelfth Century by the great Rabbi Maimonedes, one is not permitted to work on the Sabbath. Today that is defined as not driving a car, exchanging money, turning a light switch on or off, etc.
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Raw unedited transcript of my preliminary hearing
IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS CENTRE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA CRIMINAL DIVISION
COMMONWEALTH : NO. OTN X 198324-0
VS :
JOEL SOLKOFF :
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS (Preliminary Hearing)
BEFORE: Thomas Jordan, MDJ
DATE: August 15, 2018
PLACE: Centre County Courthouse Courtroom No. 3 102 South Allegheny Street Bellefonte, PA 16823
APPEARANCES:
FOR THE COMMONWEALTH: Amanda Chaplin, Esquire Assistant District Attorney
FOR THE DEFENDANT: Patrick Klena, Esquire Assistant Public Defender
NOTES BY: Patricia A. Grey, RPR Official Court Reporter Room 208, Centre County Courthouse 102 South Allegheny Street Bellefonte, PA 16823 814-355-6734 OR FAX 814-548-1158
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INDEX TO THE WITNESSES
DIRECT CROSS REDIRECT RECROSS
COMMONWEALTH:
Gregory Brauser
Andrew Sim
DEFENDANT:
Joel Solkoff
INDEX TO THE EXHIBITS
ADMITTED
COMMONWEALTH:
(None)
DEFENDANT:
(None)
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P R O C E E D I N G S
THE COURT: This is the Commonwealth
versus Joel Ezra Solkoff. Mr. Solkoff’s case is
identified by OTN No. X 198324-0.
Does the defense waive the reading of
this complaint? MR. KLENA: Yes, we do.
THE COURT: Is the Commonwealth ready to
proceed?
CHAPLIN: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Then you may go
ahead and call your first witness.
CHAPLIN: Lieutenant Brauser.
Whereupon,
GREGORY BRAUSER
was called as a witness and having been duly sworn, was
examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Lieutenant, could you please state your
name and then spell your last name for the record?
Yep. It’s Gregory Brauser,
B-r-a-u-s-e-r. I’m a lieutenant with the State College
Police Department.
And were you — what are your duties as a
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lieutenant at the State College Police Department?
I’m currently in charge of the community
relations division of our department.
Were you working back around August the
9th of 2018?
Yes, I was.
Are you familiar with the defendant in
this matter, Joel Solkoff?
Yes, I am.
Do you see him in the courtroom here
today? A. He’s seated next to his defense attorney.
THE COURT: I’ll note that he identified
the gentleman to Mr. Klena’s right.
CHAPLIN: Thank you, Your Honor.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
And can you describe for the Court what
your involvement with Mr. Solkoff has been leading up to
the events that occurred on August 11th of 2018?
Yeah. I was made aware by our chief of
police that on the 6th, which was the Monday, that
Mr. Solkoff was at the borough council meeting that
night and was complaining about the condition of the
downtown sidewalks and the inability that he was having
with his electronic scooter to get around downtown and
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that the borough was not making proper accommodations
for him to be able to get through the downtown. He at
that point had requested the chief arrest him during his
arguments in council. The chief declined to do so
stating that Mr. Solkoff was just exercising his rights
of free speech. Mr. Solkoff was very insistent on being
arrested and informed the chief that he was going
downstairs to get arrested.
He subsequently, Mr. Solkoff, rode his
device out into the middle of Beaver Avenue at the
intersection of Allen Street and blocked that
intersection for vehicular traffic. Our department
responded to that report from civilians that the roadway
was blocked by Mr. Solkoff. Officers on scene spent
approximately 15 to 30 minutes trying to convince
Mr. Solkoff to leave and securing an ambulance for him
to be removed from the roadway.
As a result of that, we later in the
week — I believe it was Thursday — were contacted by a
defense attorney representing Mr. Solkoff who wanted to
inform us of Mr. Solkoff’s wishes that we be aware that
on Saturday, the 11th, he was planning to repeat the
blocking of Beaver Avenue in protest for better access
for persons with disabilities on downtown sidewalks.
As a result of that notification, I was
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assigned to reach out to Mr. Solkoff and his attorney.
I did so and on Thursday of that week, I spent
approximately an hour with Mr. Solkoff going over his
concerns about the sidewalks down there. I informed him
that in the time between the notification that his
attorney provided us and speaking to him that I had
arranged for free public transportation for him to reach
specifically religious services that he was going to get
I had reached out to CATA bus services, the Centre
County transportation services, and his synagogue to
arrange those — free transportation for him to get to
and from services.
I also provided him with an alternative
route if he wished to still take his own means there.
Instead of coming out of his building and heading east
on Beaver Avenue, he could turn west to go half a block
and basically continue the exact same route that he
would have taken and avoided all the construction. He
advised me that that was not his wish; that he was at
this point protesting and demanding to speak to the
secretary of transportation for the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania in order to bring light to his cause and
insist on State Route 26, Beaver Avenue, be converted to
a pedestrian walkway either in whole or at least the
right travel lane being shut down and converted to a
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pedestrian walkway.
Like I said, I spent pretty close to an
hour with him and also a little bit of time with him and
his attorney during that time trying to convince him to
either protest peacefully on the sidewalk, even
mentioned I think going to Bellefonte where their office
was and protesting there, or using our alternate means
of transportation. And Mr. Solkoff was very polite
stating that those were not options that he wanted, just
being that he was very set on doing his protest in the
roadway and blocking traffic and very insistent that he
was to be arrested.
During the police’s first encounter with
him on the Monday prior, he was actually not arrested.
He was taken to the Mount Nittany Medical Center for an
evaluation to see if it was something that he was a
danger to himself or others for. He was very upset that
that was the process that was taken on Monday and
adamant that he wanted to be arrested and put in jail.
Okay. So, alternative means to reach his
destinations were provided?
Correct.
And alternative venues to protest were
provided?
Yes.
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But he refused those?
Yes, he was very adamant that he didn’t
want that. He wanted to be arrested and put in jail.
Did he ever obtain a permit from State
College Borough to protest in the street or to close
down the street?
He did not obtain a permit from anybody,
borough or PennDOT, to block the roadway.
Is that the extent of your involvement in
this case?
No. In preparation for his planned
protest, I actually reached out to the jail and made
them aware that this was a potential person coming in
with disabilities so that they would be prepared for
that. I contacted the District Attorney’s Office and
spoke to the district attorney about appropriate charges
for the case and actually pre-typed a criminal complaint
with the charge on there to provide to the day shift on
Saturday to expedite the removing him from the roadway
so that it was less of a safety hazard for himself and
the general public.
That information that I typed up was
provided to the day shift supervisor and officers
working for that Saturday where the protest was planned,
and we had arranged with Centre LifeLink EMS to
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transport for us so that it was a more comfortable
transport for him and his electronic device.
You say electronic device. Can you
describe it for the record?
He has a motorized scooter that he uses
to get around town. That’s seated right next to him.
Were you involved at all on October (sic)
11th or is your involvement everything before?
THE COURT: What day? It’s August.
CHAPLIN: August.
THE COURT: I thought she said October.
I’m paying attention actually. August.
CHAPLIN: I think I did say October.
THE COURT: All right.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
August?
After the incident on August 11th, I
actually secured the video from the patrol cars and
brought those into evidence and also took still shoots
from the downtown cameras that showed the defendant in
the middle of the roadway.
So there was video and still shots?
Yes. I also had some follow-up with the
office of the aging. He has a caseworker with them to
try and see what services we may be missing to provide
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or that they’re able to fill in the gap. That was one
other resource we reached out to.
CHAPLIN: I don’t believe I have any
further questions for this witness.
THE COURT: Mr. Klena, would you like to
ask the lieutenant any questions?
KLENA: Briefly.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLENA:
Lieutenant Brauser, in terms of his
charges, is he charged under Title 18 the Crimes Code
obstructing highways and other public passages, correct?
Correct.
Because he persisted on or this wasn’t
the first time, that’s what makes that offense a
misdemeanor of the third degree, correct?
I believe it’s because of the order from
the police at the day of. It doesn’t have to be a prior
incident. Just consistent or continued after being
ordered by police to leave the roadway while being
provided an alternate venue.
Okay.
So, there’s two sections. There’s a
misdemeanor and a summary section.
Now, did Mr. Solkoff express that the
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alternative route was not satisfactory or essentially
nonexistent? Did you have that conversation with him?
It wasn’t satisfactory to him. It was
completely existent.
And you would agree that the condition of
downtown State College in terms of the sidewalk does
prevent him from traveling his route to his synagogue,
correct?
No, it does not prevent him from getting
to that location. It prevents him from getting on
Beaver Avenue to that location, but there’s alternate
routes that he can take.
Did he express to you that the sidewalk
of the alternate route is dangerous?
He did, and I traveled that route and
verified that it is not. The route going down Beaver
Avenue to Allen Street, Allen Street down to Waring
Avenue and Waring Avenue across, every one of the
sidewalks has been replaced at the corners by the
borough to be ADH compliant with handicap ramps and
anti-skid plates on each one of those sidewalk corners.
Lieutenant Brauser, when he went out into
the roadway the — I guess the second incident — and
that was on the 11th; is that correct?
Correct.
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The phone call received from his
attorney, that would be Matt McClenahen, that was on
August 9th that both these things, correct?
Thursday, correct.
He went out onto Beaver Avenue; is that
correct?
Correct.
What location on Beaver Avenue? What
would have been one of the side streets?
On the first one or the second one?
The second one?
It would have been mid-block in the 100
block directly across from Uncle Eli’s.
Okay.
He basically came right out right of
Addison Court and right out into the roadway from their
driveway.
At that time did you receive any
complaints from the public that Mr. Solkoff was making
Beaver Avenue impassable?
I wasn’t working that day. He actually
pulled out directly in front of an unmarked police car
which was able to stop at that point and turned his
lights on to alert traffic that he was in the middle of
the roadway.
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Did he have any signs with him or
anything — to your knowledge, did he have signs with
him?
The video didn’t show any signs.
Mr. Solkoff is 70 years old?
Correct.
The issue with the sidewalks being
currently impassable, that’s not a permanent condition
or you don’t foresee that being a permanent condition,
do you?
No, it’s a temporary construction issue.
The south side of Beaver Avenue in the 200/300 block is
under construction due to a building being rebuilt. The
north side is a delay. They initially started to
replace all of the street lights in the downtown area.
The borough obtained permits from PennDOT to rip those
up and after they took out the old ones, an inspector
came in I believe and determined that the new ones —
there was an issue with something they were doing which
delayed the process of getting the new ones immediately
installed. So, it’s on delay that’s causing the
problems.
Okay.
So, it’s temporary construction on both
sides.
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But for now they are impassable to
someone in Mr. Solkoff’s condition in terms of requiring
either a wheelchair or a motorized —
I don’t know that they’re impassable.
They have taken up some of the blocks where there was
solid cement and replaced it with gravel.
Okay. Well, you would agree that it
would be difficult —
Inconvenient for sure, yes.
— to navigate on gravel on a wheelchair?
Correct. But there’s always a block
either direction that’s not being torn up at this point.
Did Mr. Solkoff show you a video that he
had made?
He did not. He had mentioned a video
that he had made during Arts Fest that he stated he
couldn’t get to some venues at Arts Fest. I had pointed
out that the construction was actually the opposite
direction from his house from where the Arts Festival
was. So, I was confused by how he couldn’t get to the
Arts Fest.
You would agree that Mr. Solkoff, like
every American, has a right to express grievances
against their government, local, state, or national,
correct?
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Absolutely.
You believe that was ultimately what
Mr. Solkoff is doing here by his going out onto the
roadway? He had a grievance and this is the way he was
going to bring attention to it; is that your
understanding?
That was what he stated his purpose was.
You have no reason to believe other than
that?A. No.
Did you have a meeting with the fire
chief with Mr. Solkoff?
Not over this incident.
KLENA: I don’t have any further
questions of Lieutenant Brauser.
THE COURT: Anything on redirect?
CHAPLIN: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Thank you for your testimony.
THE DEFENDANT: May I ask some questions?
KLENA: No, you can’t.
THE COURT: Well, you can’t now. I
excused him so. THE DEFENDANT: Well, that’s
unreasonable. The lieutenant made several errors of
fact.
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KLENA: That will be up to the jury
to determine whether or not his errors are fact.
THE COURT: You also have a right to
testify, too.
THE DEFENDANT: Can I testify now?
THE COURT: Well, that’s up to your
attorney.
KLENA: I would advise against it,
but if that’s what you wish to do, that’s your choice.
THE DEFENDANT: I want to testify.
THE COURT: Well then, we’ll wait until
it’s your turn, okay?
THE DEFENDANT: Of course.
THE COURT: There’s a certain protocol.
THE DEFENDANT: I’ll be glad to follow.
THE COURT: We’re going to allow the
Commonwealth to present additional evidence. It appears
they have additional evidence.
THE DEFENDANT: That’s fine.
THE COURT: We’ll let them present their
case.
THE DEFENDANT: That’s fine.
THE COURT: And let you, if you choose,
sir.
THE DEFENDANT: Okay. Thank you.
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THE COURT: Officer.
Whereupon,
ANDREW SIM
was called as a witness and having been duly sworn, was
examined and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Officer, could you please state your name
and then spell your last name for the record?
Andrew Sim, last name is S-i-m.
Where are you employed?
State College Borough Police.
In what capacity?
Patrol officer.
What are your duties as a patrol officer?
Calls for service, investigations,
traffic patrol.
Were you working back on August 11th of
2018? A. I was.
And on that date did you have occasion to
come into contact with the defendant in this matter,
Joel Solkoff?
I did come in contact with him.
Do you see him in the courtroom here
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today? A. I do. He’s sitting with defense counsel.
THE COURT: I’ll note he identified
Mr. Solkoff.
CHAPLIN: Thank you.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Can you describe for the Court how it is
that you came into contact with Mr. Solkoff?
I was actually told ahead of time — this
is out of the ordinary way things work. — that
Mr. Solkoff had already or his attorney had made our
department aware that he was going to block Beaver
Avenue as I understood he had done earlier in the week.
And we were given a time of 9:30. At 9:15 I drove to
that location going up Calder and then the alley that is
perpendicular to Beaver Avenue facing Addison Court
where I knew his residence was. I was made aware that
this would happen in the area of Unde Eli’s, which is on
that half block.As I pulled up there, I saw Mr. Solkoff
was already in the roadway and an unmarked car of ours
which was driven by Captain Fishel blocked the right
lane which Mr. Solkoff was in the middle of. I went
ahead and parked on the alley and walked across to make
contact with Mr. Solkoff.
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You say he was in the middle of the right
lane? A. Middle of the right lane, correct. Right
eastbound lane. That’s a one-way eastbound highway.
Okay. Can you describe for the Court
East Beaver Avenue? Is it a public roadway or highway?
It’s a public roadway. As I said, it’s
one-way eastbound. It’s State Route 26 that goes
through the heart of the Borough of State College. It’s
the business district.
And is that an area that sees daily
traffic?
A lot of vehicular traffic on that being
the main thoroughfare. There are also a lot of
pedestrians that cross that roadway.
And when you arrived there, was he, in
fact, blocking the roadway?
The right lane, correct.
So, were vehicles able to use the right
lane of East Beaver Avenue?
Yes, vehicles could use the left lane.
Were they able to use the right lane?
I am sorry. No, they could not use the
right lane. In fact, after he had it blocked, like I
said, for his safety, a patrol car had pulled up there
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to also block that lane while we dealt with him.
Is that so he wouldn’t get hit by —
For his safety and officers that were
going over there since we knew this was happening in
advance.
Were there cars on the road while this
was going on?
Yes.
I guess, what did you do once you got
there and saw this?
I spoke to Mr. Solkoff. I told him that
I understood that he had a protest and that he had the
right to protest but that he could not block, obstruct
the roadway; that he would have to move off the roadway.
He told me — and he did give me a name. I don’t
remember or know who the person is but he gave me the
name of the secretary of transportation I believe of the
State of Pennsylvania and said that he was blocking the
lane and he would like to speak to the secretary of
transportation of Pennsylvania. This is a female name.
I do not know what it was.
THE DEFENDANT: Leslie S. Richards.
THE WITNESS: Okay. I told him I was
unable to do that for him and asked him again to get off
the roadway, and he said that he would like to be
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arrested.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Do you know how many times he was asked
to leave the roadway?
I said it specifically to him twice. The
one response was to speak to the secretary of
transportation. The second one was to be arrested. And
following that Lieutenant Smail walked out and greeted
Mr. Solkoff. I believe they shook hands and
introduced — he introduced himself to him. He asked
him to leave the roadway and then read a prepared
statement to Mr. Solkoff which indicated that the
borough and police felt that they had taken measures to
accommodate him and he needed to leave the roadway or
would be arrested. I was there. I didn’t hear
everything read, but I know that he read from the
statement.
So, would you consider Mr. Solkoff being
in the roadway a hazard?
It is. At the time the right lane was no
longer a hazard because we had it blocked off for his
safety and the safety of officers dealing with this
incident. He is in a motorized scooter which at any
time he could have pulled into the only lane that was
available and so, yes, it could have been a hazard for
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him.
Would you consider it a hazard for
oncoming traffic for a person to be sitting in the
roadway?
Anybody. Even for officers that were
dealing with it.
Did all of this occur in Centre County?
It did.
I guess, ultimately did he refuse to
leave the roadway?
He did. We even, Officer McDannel at one
point — when we had initially determined to use the
LifeLink ambulance, we were made aware that they brought
a van specific for a mobility device. And
Officer McDannel offered for him to go over to the
Addison Court parking lot to pull into that and
Mr. Solkoff did not stating he wasn’t leaving the
roadway. He did comply once they pulled the van onto
the roadway. He went unassisted posing no problems into
that vehicle once he was told he was under arrest.
Did he have alternate areas where he
could have made this protest?
Right off the roadway where he was where
I believe is his residence, there’s sidewalk area there
where he could have, without even blocking the sidewalk,
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made any speech that he wanted to give. I don’t know
what other areas where provided to him but, yes, he
could have made a speech nearby.
CHAPLIN: No further questions at
this time.
THE COURT: Mr. Klena, would you like to
ask the officer any questions, sir?
KLENA: Briefly.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLENA:
Just to clarify for the record, Beaver
Avenue in downtown State College is a two-lane one-way
roadway, correct?
Yes, sir.
And the speed limit in downtown State
College is what; 25 miles per hour?
Yes.
He never went into the left lane. He
stayed solely within the right lane during this protest?
Yes, Your Honor — I’m sorry. Yes,
counsel.
THE COURT: You just got promoted.
KLENA: Maybe some day. Who knows.
THE COURT: Just not yet.
THE WITNESS: Can you strike that?
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THE COURT: No, leave that in there.
Patrick wants that in the record.
BY MR. KLENA:
He was — and in your interactions with
Mr. Solkoff, he was pleasant, polite but insistent upon
his grievance about the sidewalks and wanting that
situation corrected?
The grievance per se wasn’t so much given
to me as it had been done prior to other officers. The
demand to me was that he wanted the right lane open or a
lane of Beaver Avenue open and he wanted to speak to the
secretary of transportation.
His goal was to have at least one of the
lanes made into a pedestrian — for solely pedestrian
traffic?
That is my understanding, yes.
There was a potential for danger had the
police been unaware of this occurring beforehand; would
you agree with that statement?
There could be.
But with kind of the planned protest
through Attorney McClenahen contacting, saying this is
the date and time that he was going to be entering onto
the roadway, State College Police were able to take
preventative measures to stop any incident from
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happening either to motorists or Mr. Solkoff; would you
agree with that?
We tried to make it as safe as we could.
The street was closed off at the point
where he was ultimately then taken into custody on the
11th; is that right?
Just the right lane.
Just the right lane. The left lane was
still — there was still vehicular traffic in the left
lane? A. Vehicles were permitted to continue in
the left lane.
No one was — at that point you didn’t
take the keys out of his motorized scooter or anything
like that, correct?
I did not. I will say I have a lack of
familiarity with them but I did not.
In your opinion he could have backed it
up or drove it forward right into the left lane of
traffic?
Yeah. He was facing that open lane at
the time when we were dealing with him. He was
broadside to the lane he was in.
KLENA: I don’t have any other
questions.
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THE COURT: Any redirect?
CHAPLIN: One question very briefly.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Would his position in the road have
hindered public transportation or emergency vehicles in
the event of an emergency?
Yes.
THE COURT: Follow up?
KLENA: No questions.
THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Klena.
You may stand down, officer.
Does the Commonwealth have any other
evidence?
CHAPLIN: No, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Commonwealth’s closed their
case. Does the defense have anything?
THE DEFENDANT: I want to testify.
KLENA: Mr. Solkoff wants to testify.
THE COURT: I’m going to let you testify
from there, sir. I’m not going to make you take the
stand.
THE DEFENDANT: Okay.
THE COURT: I do have administer the oath
to you though. And I’m going to ask Mr. Klena if he
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would pull that microphone closer.
Whereupon,
JOEL SOLKOFF
was called as a witness and having been duly sworn, was
examined and testified as follows:
THE COURT: Are you going to direct him,
Mr. Klena?
KLENA: Yes.
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. KLENA:
Mr. Solkoff, you have expressed your
desire to testify. You understand what you are charged
with, correct?
Yes, I do.
Why do you believe that you shouldn’t be
charged with this offense?
I believe that neither the Commonwealth
nor the lieutenant are correct in there having been
provided to me any alternatives. CATA was not an
alternative. I was planning on praying, (inaudible) and
it’s a term that comes instantly to mind as Hubad, which
is an orthodox Jewish service. The reform service which
Lieutenant Brauser made contact with my rabbi did not
have a service at 10:00 o’clock in the morning on that
Saturday morning. The only service that was available
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was at Hubad which is an orthodox congregation which
follows the 12th century ritual established by
Maimonides in Cairo in Egyptian, in Arabic. And in
which the entire service is in Hebrew and in which men
and women are segregated and where no automobile traffic
is permitted. Going on CATA and going off CATA would
have been an offense to my synagogue.
And as to the notion that Allen Street is
passable, I have many videos of impassable streets and
the problem with Allen Street was that before the cross
street there where there is, in fact, a tree the
sidewalk was all cut up.
As for other side streets, Pugh, for
example, I have gone on the crosswalks. The street cuts
is what they’re referred to as. On Pugh Street and on
one occasion my scooter went one way and I landed on the
floor. It is true that in many cross areas that is to
say, for example, at the corner of Allen and Beaver, the
cross streets — the street cuts there are in absolutely
perfect condition and they have added to them because —
I mean, I’m a disability advocate, voice of America
citizen disability advocate. I have been a disability
advocate for the 24 years I have been a paraplegic.
Cross street — street cuts these days
also have little rubber things on the bottom if you’ve
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noticed them and, therefore, the blind or the visually
impaired so that if, for example, you’re there with a
white cane you don’t go falling down because suddenly
there’s a street cut. But in the interim in the middle,
for example, in the middle of Pugh when you’re going
down Pugh in the direction of Guacamole and Days Inn,
those street cuts are in a situation of considerable
disrepair.
The week before I met at the — at the
borough council. I met with Tom Fontaine who is in
charge of the borough council and is a wonderful person
and we discussed the situation. Now the reason that I
pulled Leslie S. Richard’s name out of the hat is that
she’s the secretary of transportation and she is in
charge of PennDOT and PennDOT owns Beaver Avenue and the
sidewalks on both sides of Beaver Avenue. And they are
in tragedy when it comes to simple issues such as making
Arts Fest available and such as making it possible for
me to go to synagogue.
What I did on the Monday at the meeting
of the borough council was I showed the borough council
the route I took to synagogue a couple years ago when I
went to Rosh Hashanah service and I showed the borough
council the way it is now. And it is not possible to
get from here to either Hubad or to my shul on Hamilton
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Brit Shalom in any way that is safe.
And it is my — and to further add insult
to injury, I attempted to celebrate my 70th birthday.
70th birthdays are regarded biblically as matters of
considerable import especially since based on the notion
of threescore and ten in the Solomon’s. I attempted to
celebrate it with my daughters, each of whom are
vegetarians and a new restaurant opened up on Beaver
Avenue called Cafe Vere which is not wheelchair
accessible but complied technically with the — with the
rules in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which requires
that 20 percent of the money be spent on
disability-friendly repairs. So as a consequence the
bathroom in Cafe Verve is wheelchair accessible but the
entrance is not. One reason the entrance is not
accessible is because —
THE COURT: I’m going to stop you here.
We’re way off point about the restaurant. Let’s stay
focused on the street.
I have a question for you. Where is
Hubad?
THE WITNESS: Hubad is on Weaver.
THE COURT: Weaver?
LIEUTENANT BRAUSER: Waring.
THE WITNESS: Waring. It’s a small —
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LIEUTENANT BRAUSER: Bottom of highlands.
THE COURT: Where at?
LIEUTENANT BRAUSER: Down by McCormick.
THE COURT: Okay.
LIEUTENANT BRAUSER: Between University
Drive and Garner Street.
THE COURT: Okay. I just wanted a
visual.
THE DEFENDANT: I was there a year ago.
I celebrated Shabbat there with my friend, Elliott
Weinstein.
THE COURT: I appreciate that. All
right. So I don’t need to hear any more about the
restaurant. That’s another issue. That’s an issue that
you can take up with — not with this Court, with
another entity. THE DEFENDANT: Okay. All right.
THE COURT: Are you satisfied that you
got to say what you wanted to say about the traffic
situation?
THE DEFENDANT: Well, two things I wanted
to say.
THE COURT: Let’s hear them. Go ahead,
sir.
THE DEFENDANT: Lieutenant Brauser and I
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didn’t just meet on this issue. Which — and this issue
may make it sound like I’m somewhat rattled in terms of
driving my scooter out into the highway and so on.
Lieutenant Brauser and I met at the fire department with
Steve Bair and we were there to protect — to institute
procedures to protect the 89 people in Addison Court.
THE COURT: Okay.
BY MR. KLENA:
When did that occur prior to this?
Three months ago? Two months ago?
It’s your recollection.
LIEUTENANT BRAUSER: Last fall I think.
THE WITNESS: Last fall. And then —
THE COURT: This was some time ago?
THE DEFENDANT: But earlier this year,
two months ago, the mayor and the police chief and
Lieutenant Brauser and I were all in the social hall at
Addison Court handing out earplugs.
THE COURT: Okay. All right.
THE DEFENDANT: So, you know, it’s —
this is — I mean, I understand that you don’t want to
talk about anything other than the street and I
appreciate that. But PennDOT is responsible for major
injury to the elderly and disability community that is
on Beaver Avenue and this particular issue, namely
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depriving me of the right to go to synagogue finally got
my goat as it were. And there was certainly, you know,
the officer was correct in everything he said. But, you
know, this was a planned arrest. There was no danger at
all to me or anybody on the highway when I went out into
the middle of the road with two police cars here, an
unmarked police car there which I knew was an unmarked
police car, and several officers there, and an ambulance
over there.
I mean, you know, I’m not — I am not
certifiable and proof that I’m not certifiable is that
the police chief and an officer sent me to the hospital
to try to certify me and they wouldn’t do it so.
THE COURT: Point taken.
THE WITNESS: I’m done, unless you have
questions.
THE COURT: Dare I ask if you want to
cross-examine?
CHAPLIN: Very briefly.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
Just for the record, it was your intent
to block the roadway that day, correct?
Oh, yes.
You did block the roadway on the right
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lane? A. Well, no, my van. You know, there was a
right side and there was a left side. The unmarked
police car was on the right side. I knew it was an
unmarked police car. I wanted to block the roadway but
I didn’t.
They were blocking the roadway because
you pulled into the roadway?
Because I told them I was going to get
arrested and I didn’t want to get killed because I have
a granddaughter who’s about to be born any day now.
It was your intent to be arrested that
day?
Yes.
You didn’t get a permit to protest in the
road? A. Well, no, I had gotten permission to
protest on Valentine’s Day.
But not on August 11th?
No, I didn’t.
THE COURT: Okay.
THE WITNESS: I did not.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
You can protest in an alternative manner
out of the road?
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Assuming that it didn’t do any good.
Martin Luther King protested in Birmingham, Alabama.
Okay. We’re not here about —
THE COURT: We’re way off course here.
BY MS. CHAPLIN:
You did repeatedly tell the police that
the only alternative was to be arrested and that was —
The only alternative other than to get
Leslie J. Reynolds there was to get arrested.
CHAPLIN: I have nothing further.
THE COURT: Okay.
Mr. Klena, do you have a closing
argument, sir?
KLENA: To the extent that the left
lane was still open on Beaver Avenue, I would argue it
didn’t meet the definition of obstruct in terms that it
made it impassable.
THE COURT: All right.
Ms. Chaplin, do you have a closing
argument?
CHAPLIN: Well, Your Honor, I think
that for today’s purposes of a prima facie case the
Commonwealth has met its burden on the misdemeanor
charge. The statute says a person, who having no legal
privilege to do so, intentionally or recklessly
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obstructs any highway whether alone or with others and
that if he persists after warning by law officer, it is
a misdemeanor of the third degree. I think all those
elements have been established. I don’t think it’s any
questions that the right lane did have to be closed down
because of his protest. I would suggest that does meet
the definition of obstruct because everyone then had to
be moved into the left lane. It did shut down an entire
lane of traffic. THE COURT: Safety is really not even an
element here. It’s whether or not he blocked traffic,
he obstructed traffic, and whether he was officially
told not to do that, and he was. The elements of the
offense are met. Therefore — it’s not my authority
today, Mr. Solkoff, to determine guilt or innocence.
It’s a preliminary hearing, sir. I simply need to
decide whether an offense was committed and whether you
were the person who could have committed the offense.
That’s the burden of proof.
So for today’s purposes, the Commonwealth
has met its burden. I’m binding you over to the Centre
County Court on the obstructing highway and other public
passage charge. Your case is bound over to the Common
Pleas Court. All right.
CHAPLIN: Your Honor, if I may ask a
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question about bail. I know you had changed it from —
THE COURT: Bail is ROR right now. He
refused to sign the bail bond but he is released on his
recognizance and if he’ll sign the bail bond today, I’ll
have him sign it. If he doesn’t want to, I’m not going
to force him — I can’t force him to sign it. But bail
— I was involved in this issue yesterday and bail has
been changed by Judge Lachman who was the issuing
authority who granted the complaint to ROR.
CHAPLIN: Okay. I guess, I was just
wondering is the condition that Judge Lachman had put in
the original bail paper to not go back into the roadway,
is that still — THE COURT: That is not a bail condition.
There are no non-monetary conditions on an ROR bail
bond.
KLENA: That would be a new offense,
Ms. Chaplin.
THE COURT: That’s right.
KLENA: If that occurs, then I
imagine the police will respond accordingly.
THE COURT: We cannot — we cannot issue
a non-monetary bail condition on ROR bond.
CHAPLIN: Thank you for the clarity,
Judge.
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THE COURT: My pleasure.
We’re adjourned.
E N D O F P R O C E E D I N G S
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C E R T I F I C A T E
I hereby certify that the proceedings and
evidence are contained fully and accurately in the notes
taken by me upon the hearing of the within matter and
that this copy is a correct transcript of the same.
Date Patricia A. Grey, RPR Official Reporter
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C E R T I F I C A T E
I hereby certify that a copy of this
transcript was made available to counsel of record for
the parties, advising they had until
in which to file any
objections or exceptions to the same. That time period
having elapsed without recording of objections or
exceptions, the transcript is therefore lodged with the
Court for further action.
Date Patricia A. Grey, RPR Official Reporter
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ACCEPTANCE BY COURT
Upon counsel’s opportunity to review and
to offer objections to the record, the foregoing record
of proceedings is hereby accepted and directed to be
This photograph should tell you all you need to know. All the rest is merely commentary.
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Homeless in Downtown State College the residential community for rich as Croesus Penn State
I took this photograph less than an hour ago. A homeless man is bundled over a cup of coffee as the wind chill factor is 27 degrees F and scattered flakes of snow are beginning to fall. Four blocks away a brand new multi-story Hyatt has gone up where on premium football weekends a single room costs $450 a night.
As the Manhattanization of Downtown State College progresses with abandon, it is no surprise that this month—just in time for Christmas—less than three blocks away one of this community’s homeless shelters shut down. The temperature is dropping rapidly. Will this man be dead by midnight when Santa Claus begins his rounds determining who has been naughty or nice?
Come back soon, hear, I have just begun this screed
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Footnotes
1. Wikipedia: “In Greek and Persian cultures the name of Croesus became a synonym for a wealthy man. Croesus’ wealth remained proverbial beyond classical antiquity: in English, expressions such as “rich as Croesus” or “richer than Croesus” are used to indicate great wealth to this day. “
Santa: In my Yiddisha stocking, please insert a plane ticket to New Mexico, a reservation for a mobility device when I arrive, one $1,00 ticket and enough moolah to make a donation to HIAS,*, pay off my most demanding creditors before dancing the tango at the inaugural ball for Michelle Lujan Grisham, the wonderful new governor of New Mexico, who will embrace refugees from the horrors of central America as the Statute of Liberty recommends.
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Joel,
I am so honored and excited to take office as Governor of New Mexico in just a little over a week. We’re about to begin a new chapter of our state’s history – and I can’t wait to get to work fighting for a brighter future for New Mexico’s families.
I want to kick it off with the folks who made it possible over the last two years – including you! That’s why the inaugural committee is giving away five tickets to one contest winner to celebrate with me at the Governor’s Ball.
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This is a chance to celebrate all we’ve accomplished. It was a long, hard road to get to this historic night, and I want to honor the hard work and dedication of my team and my supporters.
If you’d like to join me at the Governor’s Ball at 8 p.m. on January 1st in Santa Fe, you can donate any amount before midnight tomorrow to be automatically entered for a chance to win tickets for you and four of your loved ones.
Click here to give ANY amount to enter our contest to win five tickets for you and your loved ones to celebrate this historic moment for New Mexico at the Governor’s Ball.
Thank you so much for being part of my team,
Michelle Lujan Grisham
P.S. If you don’t want to leave it to chance, you can click here to purchase a ticket to the Governor’s Ball before January 1st.
https://www.mlginauguration.com/tickets
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Contributions or gifts to the Lujan Grisham Inaugural Committee are not tax deductible.
No purchase, payment, or contribution necessary to enter or win. Contributing will not improve chances of winning. Void where prohibited. Entries must be received by December 23, 2018. Enter by contributing here, or click here to enter without contributing. One (1) winner will receive the following prize: five tickets to the Lujan Grisham Inaugural Ball (approximate retail value of prize: $500). Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. All prizes will be awarded. Promotion open only to U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent U.S. residents who are legal residents of 50 United States, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico and 18 or older (or age of majority under applicable law). Promotion subject to Official Rules and additional restrictions on eligibility. Sponsor: Lujan Grisham Inaugural Committee, P.O. Box 4700, Santa Fe, NM 87505.
How we got the images you weren’t meant to see in Yemen July 3, 2018 2:44 PM EST As I arrived in Sana’a city late at night on June 6, the few working street lights cast a glow over the closed doors of shops, trash on the streets, and the earthen color of the buildings. All so familiar. Driving past the enormous Saleh Mosque — a major landmark in the capital — the sign now read “the people’s mosque” in Arabic. Yemen’s former, long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, had turned against the Houthi rebels occupying this city in December and paid with his life. All visible reminders of him have been removed. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/reporting-in-yemen-the-city-that-has-fallen-off-a-cliff
Jane Ferguson is risking her life right now to report the news from Yemen for PBS
Yesterday, at risk to her life, Jane Ferguson reported on the PBS’ excellent News Hour from the only open port in Yemen from which food and medicine can still be shipped to provide relief to millions of civilians . A fragile cease-fire the UN negotiated in Sweden may bring a modicum of hope in a country where tragedy prevails.
Meanwhile, also on the PBS network, Washington Week—once the premier weekly opinion program in the US—exemplifies the dominant isolationism of,the White House Corps. On Friday night Washington Week continued to ignore ( as it has for years) the humanitarian tragedy in Yemen and President Trump’s complicity in Saudi genocide.
PBS should immediately appoint Jane Ferguson Washington Week’s peermant moderator,replacing Robert Costa who covers the White House for The Washington Post. If Ferguson is not available, Reporters without Borders has many brave reporters on the front lines of the world’s humanitarian crises. American politicians tell the public we are the leading power in the world. If that power is to mean anything, it must be used to resolve crises— not hide from them and pretend they do not exist.
Reporters such as CNN’s Arwa Damon bring the news of US complicity or indifference to the millions of children and their parents dying . Meanwhile, their coverage of life and death issues do not receive priority coverage. Instead, the majority of the well-tailored White House Press Corps seems to focus exclusively on the Presudent’s soap opera machinations.
Remember, if the public had to rely on the White House Press Corps during Watergate, Richard Nixon would have completed his second term in office. Woodward and Bernstein were not a part of the White House Press Corps. They were low-level reporters covering night court.
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Friday night should cause Bob Costa and his Washington Week panelists shame for failing even make mention of the two Senate resolutions on Yemen
Subject: Kincaid recommended your comment on “Senate votes to withdraw support for Saudi-led coalition in Yemen | Financial Times”
Finally.
For the past four years, 88,000 children have died needlessly, avoidably in Yemen. The Guardian reports starvation on a mass basis has become so severe people are committing suicide rather than wait to die from hunger and cholera.
Is this US Senate vote too little too late? As international journalists risk death to cover the horror, will the US press (for the most part) continue to ignore the reports of US assistance in Saudi genocide?
Or will Robert Costa and his fellow Washington Week reporters on the US Public Broadcasting System (PBS) continue to disregard (as they have been for the past four years) infants being bombed in hospitals and schools—preferring to critique President Trump’s capitalization within his lunatic tweets?
PBS’ hour long nightly news is the best news program on American television broadcasting the courageous Jane Ferguson from a bombed out Physicians without Borders hospital tent in Yemen.
Yet, Washington Week—hitherto regarded as the premier opinion program in the country ( in the tradition of, for example, my late friend Eileen Shanehan)—will certainly devote considerable space to the President’s efforts to hire a new chief of staff.
I predict that tonight’s broadcast will devote more time opining on whether Jared Kushner is qualified for the job at the expense of any international news story.
Of the two Yemeni developments this week, the Senate non-binding resolution may be mentioned because of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ role in drafting the resolution. (No doubt Costa is aware a significant number of his viewers are Sanders supporters.)
I would be pleasantly surprised if the truly significant Yemeni story of the week was covered at all:
A UN brokered truce with the Yemeni combatants. The truce could easily result in hundreds of thousands of lives being saved because of the truce, Yemen’s last operating port will/may not shut down distribution of food and medicine.
—30–
Note: My comment was published early on Friday morning December 13th before the announcement that President Trump selected by tweet Mitch Mulvaney as his acting Chief of Staff.
Take note Washington Week, this is the kind of reporter your panelists should emulate
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“Once inside, there is an unnerving quiet to the children’s ward. The healthier babies cry, but many just stare blankly. It’s not immediately clear if their eyes look too big or their faces too small.
“Malnourishment can have very few tell-tale signs to an untrained eye — perhaps just a paleness, a smallness. As the scale continues, some children have lost hair or had their hair turn orange, some have swollen bellies, or no belly to speak of, or bones sticking out through wilted skin. Some of them have aged faces, with skin that wrinkles when they cry.
Their parents have exhausted all “coping mechanisms” as the aid organizations would say. To you or I, that’s anything we would turn to if a salary suddenly stopped: savings, relatives, a cow or some chickens in the backyard, a line of credit at the local grocery store. After three years of war, most people have exhausted all of those. Sweet tea and bread is keeping an untold number of people here alive, barely. It’s especially tough on the babies as mother’s cannot produce enough high nutrient milk when they themselves are not eating nearly enough.”
After years of effort— of driving his Senate colleagues crazy by insisting every time he rose to speak—that the Senate ratify the genocide treaty, it is now a matter of law that the kind of genocide the US participates in today ( right now) must result in the US being tried in the World Court if our country does not stop it.
Last week, when the Senate took initial steps to end this the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, this— to its shame—is what the trendy news organizations ignore. CNN, MSNBC, and nearly everyone else on US television have been flogging to death for the previous two days, the same old same old Washington Week’s host decided to repeat yet again on Friday night.
No one at Washington Week saw fit to even mention Yemen. How many more infants have to die in Yemen before Robert Costa decides it worthy of even ten percent of his show’s time?
On October 27th,eleven of my people were killed while attending Saturday morning synagogue services at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life Synagogue. The synagogue is affiliated with the Conservative Jewish Movement centered at the Jewish Theological Seminary at 125th Street in New York City.
When my mother Dr. Miriam P. Schmereler was 67, she received her doctorate in Hebrew letters from the Jewish Theological Seminary.
Words fail in my grief and that of my people as a consequence of this the worst anti-Semitic act in U.S. history. What follows is the obituary that appeared in USA Today for Rose Mallinger, the eldest of the eleven women and men killed because they were Jewish and because as Jews our obligation to assist refugees made Pittsburgh's synagogue a target because of its support for HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society], the organization that helped settle my father Isadore, his parents and sister before World War I who fled pogroms in Russia.
The corpses of the Jews killed during the 1906 pogrom of Bialystok are laid down in the yard of the Jewish hospital
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Synagogue shooting: Crowds mourn Rose Mallinger, 97, in the last funeral of 11 victims
Doug Stanglin, USA TODAYPublished 2:01 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2018 | Updated 2:56 p.m. ET Nov. 2, 2018
Despite gray, blustery weather, long lines formed early outside Rodef Shalom Temple where the services were held because the Tree of Life synagogue, the site of the shootings Saturday, has not reopened.
Mallinger, who once served as school secretary at Tree of Life, was a fixture there for 60 years, regularly attending worship services with her family.
The synagogue was the “center of her very active life,” her family said in a statement. “Her involvement with the synagogue went beyond the Jewish religion. … It was her place to be social, to be active and to meet family and friends.”
“She retained her sharp wit, humor and intelligence until the very last day,” the family statement said. “She did everything she wanted to do in her life.”
Mallinger was one of six siblings, had three children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
“It’s surreal to be here because you never think of losing someone who is 97 years old to gun violence,” said Michele Organist, a friend of both Rose and her 61-year-old daughter, Andrea Wedner, who was injured in the shooting.
“I’ve known Rose a long time and it was always going to be that she was so vibrant and bright and sharp-witted that she would live past 100,” said Organist. “You knew something was going to take her eventually, but it wasn’t going to be gun violence.”
Elizabeth Murphy of Sewickley said Andrea Wedner was her dental hygienist. Murphy emerged from the visitation for Wedner’s mother, Rose, with lines of mascara running down her face.
“I moved to Pittsburgh 22 years ago from Boston thinking I came from a strong Jewish community and the Pittsburgh community has been amazingly tight,” she said. “I felt integrated in just a few years and I felt like I needed to be here with my people.”
It was not immediately clear if Wedner was unable to attend the services. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, without naming the patient, said a 61-year-old woman fitting her description remained in stable condition at the hospital.
UPMC said on Friday that the two most seriously injured victims had been moved out of the intensive care unit. Hospital officials say a 70-year-old man has been upgraded from critical to stable condition. A 40-year-old police officer remains in stable condition.
The officer was previously identified as Timothy Matson, who suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The wounded congregant is Daniel Leger, a nurse and hospital chaplain.
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter
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On page two, I wrote: “Also, I have another painting. This one is of a boat house on Long Island. It is neat.
This is the painting that hung in my office in 1972: Harry Gottleib’s Ice House. ++++ Exhibition Label As workers like these knew well, it was cold, hard work filling the icehouses of upstate New York. In January 1934, artist Harry Gottlieb signed on with the PWAP and looked for American workers he could paint near his home in the artists’ colony of Woodstock, New York. He found these men harvesting ice off lakes and streams as local men had done every winter since the early 1800s. They sawed the thick layer of natural ice into long strips and then cut off large blocks. As Gottlieb’s painting shows, the red-faced workers dressed in warm coats used long hooks and wooden ramps to maneuver the slick, heavy ice into large commercial icehouses where they neatly stacked the blocks. Straw or sawdust packing minimized melting in warm weather. Throughout the year icehouses along the Hudson River stored ice that was shipped by train to New York City. Families and grocers put the ice into insulated iceboxes that kept food from spoiling. Artificial freezing dominated ice production after World War I, and then electric refrigerators became popular. When Gottlieb documented the natural ice business it was gradually melting away. 1934: A New Deal for Artists exhibition label Title Filling the Ice House Artist Harry Gottlieb Date 1934 On View Not on view. Dimensions 40 3/8 x 60 3/8 in.
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Page two of two
“I HAVE a secret to tell you. Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall has mice in his office. In fact, there are mice all up and down the second floor at the U.S. Department of Labor building in Washington, D.C. I have mice in my office. There are mice in the offices of the staff. There are mice in the conference rooms. When the coal negotiations were taking place in what the papers called the “blue-curtained room down the hall from Secretary of Labor Ray Marshall’s office,” there were mouse traps.” http://www.joelsolkoff.com/speechwriting-basics-how-to-apologize-without-saying-you-are-sorry/
ON SATURDAY AUGUST 11TH AT 9:15 I WAS ARRESTED ON THE STREET WHERE I LIVE FOR TRYING TO GET TO SYNAGOGUE http://www.joelsolkoff.com/on-august-11th-at-915-i-was-arrested-on-the-street-where-i-live-for-trying-to-get-to-synagogue/
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Defeat Rep. Tom Marino
In September 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Marino to serve as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (“drug czar”).[15][1] In October, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) called on Trump to withdraw Marino’s nomination.[20]Trump said he would “look into” reports about Marino, putting his nomination in question.[21] On October 17, 2017, Marino withdrew his nomination.[2]
