Top Federal Prosecutor in Manhattan + Court Reporters

choi

Benjamin Weiser and Ben Protess, Taking on Terrorism, Corruption and Cuomo; In 5 years, prosecutor shakes up New York. New York Times, Aug 19, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/nyreg ... st-story-lines.html

Note:
(a) “‘Some of the things that we’ve seen out of Albany and elsewhere are, quite frankly, appalling.’
Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan”                     

Such is the quotation underneath of a big photo of Mr Bharara, that splashed at the top of a report
(b) "And now, even though Mr [governor Andrew] Cuomo has said that the anticorruption panel, known as the Moreland Commission, was never supposed to be independent because it was an entity he created and controlled, Mr [Preet] Bharara has taken the cases the commission was forced to abandon.”
(i) Moreland Commission to Investigate Public Corruption was created in 2013. The legal basis is Moreland Act
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreland_Act
(ii) I do not know what “take the cases” means in this context. Usually it is used when a supreme court (of a state or United States), which has the discretion whether to take a case for further appellate review, after a lower appellate court’s issuance of a decision.

(c) "The only job he fought for, he said, was an assistant United States attorney’s position in the office he now runs. He took the job in 2000, handling narcotics and organized crime cases, after spending a few years working as a young associate at white-shoe law firms. * * * (President Obama nominated Mr Bharara for his current job in 2009 after Mr [Charles E] Schumer[, senior US senator from state of New York] recommended him.)"
(i) This sentence: "The only job he fought for, he said, was an assistant United States attorney’s position in the office he now runs." It means that he wants to return to his previous position as an assistant United States attorney, which is a government employee. United States attorney is a political appointee, serving at the pleasure of the president. And when a new president is inaugurated--whether from the same or the other party--almost always all US attorney are asked to resigned, or to be fired.
(ii) A senior, but not junior, senator enjoys a lot of prerogatives.
(iii) Peter Lattman, The Fabulous Bharara Boys. New York Times, June 10, 2011 (in the section DealB%k)
dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/06/09/the-bhararas-join-an-elite-band-of-brothers/
(A) take to: "begin or fall into the habit of"
www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/take-to
(B) fade out: "when you slowly stop hanging out, calling, emailing, and text messaging, a friend or more specifically a lover, with the intent of never speaking to them again"
www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fade%20out
(C) fade out:
"1. To disappear gradually.
2. To cause to disappear gradually. Used of a cinematic or television image or of a sound"
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Co (2000; updated 2009)
www.thefreedictionary.com/fade


(d) “No case, perhaps, touched Mr Bharara as personally as his office’s prosecution of an Indian diplomat, Devyani Khobragade, who was arrested in Manhattan last year on charges of visa fraud and making false statements related to her treatment of an Indian domestic worker. * * * Six days after Ms Khobragade’s arrest, as tensions escalated between the United States and India, the State Department issued a statement saying that Secretary of State John Kerry, in a call to a senior Indian official, had expressed ‘regret’ over the episode. That evening, Mr Bharara took the unusual step of issuing a statement defending his office’s decisions, and pointing out that State Department agents had been the ones who arrested Ms Khobragade.”
(i) Devyani Khobragade was arrested, stripped and had body cavity searched. Indians were upset about that. Then a videotape appeared, purporting to be her being searched. See
Arup Bhattacharya, Devyani khobragade Indian diplomat arrest and CAVITY Search by US marshalls. YouTube, "eight months ago."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjcQwuhcnmg
(ii) Marie Harf (Deputy Spokesperson), Daily Press Briefing. US Department of State, Jan 3, 2014
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/01/219287.htm
(Index: "INDIA[:] Hoax Video / Security Concerns")

choi

Zusha Elinson, Fingers Fly at Court-Reporting Championships; In steno showdown, dozens test skills; ‘Michael Jordan’ at keyboard. Wall Street Journal, Aug 202014
online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB20001424052702303967904580074112275375010
(Court reporters--official names for stenographers in court proceedings--holds annual contests called "Olympics of court reporting." A previous champion is Mark Kislingbury, who holds the world speed record in this arcane craft with a transcription rate of 360 words a minute. The 51-year-old Houston man has been called the Michael Jordan of court reporting—a comparison he terms "flattering." “The championships, held by the National Court Reporters Association, stretch back more than a hundred years to the days when the tools of the trade were pen and paper. Today, reporters use a machine that looks like a small typewriter with 22 keys.” “(The average typing speed is less than 40 words a minute on a regular keyboard, according to some studies.)”)

Excerpt in the window of print: The championships stretch back more than a hundred years.

My comment: The shorthand of individual court reporters may be unintelligible by other court reporters.