An elderly convenience store owner in California is being hailed as a hero after he shot at a would-be robber who ran out of the store screaming his arm was “shot off.”
Shocking surveillance footage from Norco Market & Liquor at the 2800 block of Clark Avenue in Norco, Calif., showed a masked assailant entering the business at about 2:47 am with an AR-15-style rifle pointed at the 80-year-old store-owner.
The suspect yelled, “Freeze, hands in the air,” but within seconds, the quick-thinking store owner pulled out his own rifle from under the counter and immediately shot once at the robber, hitting him in the arm.
Video footage further showed another man getting out of a black BMW SUV, but he stopped and got back inside the vehicle once he saw the first suspect run out of the store repeatedly screaming, “He shot my arm off!”
The three suspects involved in the attempted robbery were all caught, with the suspect who was shot in the hospital in critical but stable condition.Fox11
Riverside County Sheriff’s officials arrested three suspects—Justin Johnson, 22, of Inglewood, Calif., Jamar Williams, 27, of Los Angeles, and Davon Broadus, of Las Vegas, Nevada—at a local hospital.
The primary suspect, a 23-year-old man, remained in critical but stable condition at the hospital, officials said. His identity is being held pending his release from the hospital.
“In this case, a lawfully armed member of our community prevented a violent crime and ensured their own safety, while being confronted with multiple armed suspects,” Riverside County Sheriff’s said in a press release. “This investigation is active and ongoing and no additional information will currently be released.”
Employees at Norco Market & Liquor said the owner was watching the store cameras as the SUV pulled into the parking lot. Once he saw the first assailant get out of the SUV and pull a mask over his face from him, the owner immediately went for his rifle.
The 80-year-old store owner did not hesitate to defend himself and his business when the suspect entered with his rifle pointing directly at him. Fox11
“He just prepared himself … and he stood right here, aimed and shot,” store manager Marnia Tapia told Fox11.
The two other suspects frantically drove off after the suspect who was shot ran shouting, “He shot my arm off,” into the car.Riverside County Sheriff’s Office
Employees said the owner was not at the store on Monday, but Fox11 reported the man suffered a heart attack right after the shooting. He is expected to recover and will be discharged from the hospital sometime Monday night.
Sheriff’s officials said the SUV used in the attempted robbery was stolen and numerous stolen firearms were also found inside the vehicle.
Johnson, Williams and Broadus were booked into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside for robbery and conspiracy. They are being held in jail in lieu of a $500,000 bail.
The primary suspect will also be booked at the facility once he is released from the hospital, officials said.
Giant Supermarket Woolworth’s you have announced a national change to the trading hours of its in-store deli, meat and seafood sections.
The grocer said the move to standardize operating hours of its counters across Australia is due to a shift in customer shopping behavior and to “offer a consistent customer experience across our store network”.
“We’ve made a change to the trading hours of our fresh service counters nationwide, due to a shift in customer shopping behaviour,” a spokesperson for Woolworths told 9News.com.au.
Woolworths wish to “offer a consistent customer experience” across their store network by altering operation hours. (Janie Barrett)
“This includes our meat, seafood and deli counters.
“Customers can still purchase similar products, such as chicken breast fillets and salmon, within our packed Fresh Convenience range located in-store.
“Select stores across the country will open one hour later or close one hour earlier to align with other stores and better match customer shopping patterns.”
The changes mean Woolworth’s Fresh Service Deli will open from 7am to 8pm, seven days a week.
The Seafood and Meat Counters will trade from 9:30am to 7pm on weekdays, and 9am to 7pm at the weekend.
Woolworths fresh service deli, seafood and meat sections to see a change in operating hours. (Janie Barrett)
A handful of stores will operate longer fresh service counter hours due to high customer demand at those specific stores.
Woolworths have posted signage at the Fresh Service areas and at the front of stores for customers to be informed of the altered trading hours.
The changes come following a handful of trials across New South Wales stores in May.
Spotify is set to roll out separate play and shuffle buttons for it’s premium subscribers, replacing the current 2-in-1 button that the app currently features on playlists and artist pages.
Announced in a post on their ‘For The Record’ blog, Spotify announced the change would appear on iOS and Android “worldwide over the coming weeks.”
“This new change will allow you to choose the mode you prefer at the top of playlists and albums and listen the way you want to. Whether you love the joy of the unexpected with Shuffle mode, or prefer listening to tunes in order by simply pressing Play, Spotify has you covered.”
Being the most popular music streaming platform in the world, with over 350 million users and 150 million paid subscribers, this seems like a simple change that should have come long ago.
“We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason,” said Adele in a tweet she posted last year when the Shuffle Button was removed as the default last year.
This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry! We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening 🍷♥️ https://t.co/XWlykhqxAy
Now, both the Shuffle and Play Buttons will be displayed for premium users. Free users will still have shuffle as the default, something the company has enforced on free users since its launch.
Incoming Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens has confirmed he wants halfback Luke Brooks to remain at the club next season and beyond on a reduced contract.
The Daily Telegraph reported Sheens wants Brooks to see out the remainder of his contract which expires at the end of 2023, before signing an extension on a reduced salary.
Speculation is rife that the Tigers were keen to move Brooks on given his salary is worth a reported $1.3 million on their salary cap for 2023.
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Brooks reportedly twice sought a release from the remainder of his contract last season to move to the Knights, despite denials from the No.7.
The 27-year-old, who is currently injured, has scored 42 tries in 189 games for the Tigers since his debut in 2013, but has never tasted finals football during a tough period for the club, who have the longest finals drought in the NRL stretching back to 2011.
Brooks has been linked to the Dolphins and the Knights for 2023, but Sheens, who will take over the team for 2023 and 2024, wants him to stay, but on a reduced deal.
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Tim Sheens wants Luke Brooks to stay.Source: Supplied
“Obviously everyone would prefer it to be at less money,” Sheens told The Daily Telegraph.
“But we can sit down and negotiate with him and extend the contract out.”
Sheens categorically denied the club were looking to move Brooks on to free up salary cap space for 2023.
“On the record, he’s contracted,” Sheens said.
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Luke Brooks and Benji Marshall.Source: AAP
“Point blank. He is contracted to us and I expect him to turn up for pre-season training.”
Jock Madden starred in Brooks’ absence in a win over the Broncos in Round 20, but remains unsigned beyond 2022, while the club also has Adam Doueihi and Jackson Hastings on their books for next season.
Sheens and incoming assistant Benji Marshall have publicly thrown their support behind the embattled playmaker, but the former refused to guarantee Brooks would finish his career at the Tigers.
Tigers shock Broncos in Brisbane | 02:27
“Unless the world changes, that’s what I’m doing (trying to get Brooks to stay),” Sheens said.
“Can I ever (guarantee he’ll stay)? Not one can. But I’m not indicating he’s leaving.
“I like the kid and I want him in the side. Benji loves him and wants him in the side. But we can’t say any more than that.”
Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis also threw his support behind Brooks.
“A guarantee is not a word that I use comfortably in my capacity as chairman or as a lawyer, but Luke Brooks has a contract with the Wests Tigers for 2023,” Hagipantelis told Fox Sports News.
“Tim Sheens spoke publicly in the last 24 hours of his intentions to retain him. We are all big fans of Luke.
“He is a one club player. I would love to see him finish out his career at the Wests Tigers.
“Are there challenges there for both parties? Perhaps. Both have identified those.
“But the reality is he is a truly gifted footballer and I would love to see him perform at his best for the Wests Tigers.”
Hagipantelis clarified that there would be no pay cut for Brooks’ existing contract and it would be up to the club and the player to meet in the middle over a contract extension.
“There will be no pay cut concerned with his current contractual arrangements,” Hagipantelis said.
‘Not a fan’ Chairman shares frustrations | 10:15
“He will be paid in full. We will honor that. I think Tim was alluding to the end of the current contractual arrangements.
“Those are matters for the club and the player to negotiate what they think is a fair market value.
“It is always up in the air. There is an underlying tension of course. Players want to receive as much as they can, which is understandable and clubs want to pay as little as they can, which is of course just as understandable.
“At the moment those discussions have not been held. There is a long way to go.
“Tim Sheens, Benji Marshall and Robbie Farah are assimilating themselves into the roster at the moment. They will decide moving forward.
Is O’Brien under pressure at Knights? | 05:59
“Unfortunately the injuries to Luke and Jackson Hastings have thrown a little spanner into the works because I know the boys were very keen to see the combinations work for the balance of this year. But they will work it out.”
However, like Sheens, Hagipantelis left the door ajar for Brooks to potentially move on in the future if it suited both him and the club.
“Never say never because every option would be considered on its merits at the time,” Hagipantelis said when asked if he would consider an offer from another club for Brooks’ services.
“But as we speak at this very moment there is nothing on the table. There is no consideration. There is nothing before me or the board to suggest Luke Brooks will not fulfill his contractual obligations with the Wests Tigers and nothing would make me happier.”
So much of the heat over how we manage the current COVID-19 wave is about mandatory masks, yet Australia has dropped the ball where it matters most right now – booster vaccination.
Australia led the world in two-dose uptake, reaching 96 per cent of people aged over 16 years. But we have stalled on boosters, where rates have sat about 70 per cent for weeks. For NDIS participants, 76 per cent have had a booster; for First Nations people, it’s just 54 per cent.
The number of Australians receiving booster shots has stalled. Credit:AP
We need to focus our attention on boosters. They sit at the top of a limited set of COVID-19 management tools. A booster markedly reduces a person’s risk of severe disease if they have it three months after a previous vaccine or infection. A study of more than 2 million Sydney residents during the first Omicron wave estimated that one hospitalization or death was prevented for every 192 people aged over 70 getting a third dose. In an Israeli study, a fourth dose lowered the rate of severe disease by a factor of three.
Your postcode should not determine your likelihood of having a vaccine that could greatly reduce your risk of hospitalization from COVID. Yet, that is what is occurring. Some of this will be explained by people’s recent infections delaying their booster. But the huge differences in geographic vaccination rates tell a familiar story of inequity.
Local council areas of Queensland and western Sydney dominate the lowest-ranked booster rates. Just 49 per cent of people in Queensland’s Central Highlands have had three or more doses. In Cumberland, western Sydney – which includes Greystanes, Merrylands, Guildford, Granville and Auburn – it’s 55 per cent. Contrast that with wealthy Mosman in Sydney at 83 per cent. This drops even more for First Nations individuals – in one very remote community in Queensland, only 31 per cent are boosted.
The take-up of booster vaccinations has been poorest in areas that most need the protection.Credit:Wayne Taylor
It is easy to get outraged about so-called “anti-vaxxer” hotspots when such areas have the lowest vaccination rates. But we need to pay attention to the areas where people face disadvantage, and not with outrage or stigmatisation, but with listening and constructive solutions.
As a resident of western Sydney for two decades, I know there are many communities with different reasons for not vaccinating.
Social research, backed up by conversations I’ve had with people in my local community, reveals an information gap on vaccination. There is a lack of clear, translated, actionable information about why boosters are needed now. We learn how misinformation fills voids created when accurate information flows too slowly. We learn of the challenges in getting transport to the clinic and other practical barriers that remain for some.
The tree recognized as the tallest in the world is now off-limits to visitors.
The National Park Service announced last week that it is discouraging hikers from visiting Hyperion, an old-growth redwood in Northern California that holds a Guinness World Record for height at 380 feet, 9.7 inches, according to a 2019 measurement. People who are caught in the closed area of Redwood National and State Parks could face a $5,000 fine and six months in jail, NPS says.
The tree, which was “discovered” in 2006, is located off designated trails and amid dense vegetation that requires heavy bushwhacking.
“Despite the difficult journey, increased popularity due to bloggers, travel writers, and websites of this off-trail tree has resulted in the devastation of the habitat surrounding Hyperion,” a National Park Service bulletin says.
6 alternatives to America’s most popular national parks
According to the park service, the number of people trampling through the area over the years has caused the base of the tree to degrade and has wiped out ferns that would normally surround it. Trash and human waste have also been found littered on the way to the world’s tallest tree.
In addition to the damage and litter, getting to Hyperion can be dangerous because hikers have to go completely off the trail to access it. The tree is rooted in an area that doesn’t have cellphone reception and has spotty GPS coverage, according to NPS, so suffering a small injury could be scary and dangerous.
In its release, the park service discourages people from visiting Hyperion by pointing out that it’s not as exciting as it sounds.
“A view of Hyperion doesn’t match its hype,” the NPS statement says, adding that the tree’s trunk is small in comparison with many other old-growth redwood trees and its height can’t be observed from the ground.
The “tallest tree” label is a moving target of sorts. Years ago, the park created a Tall Trees Trail so hikers could see a tree then designated as the world’s tallest tree. That tree no longer holds the title, but the trail features many redwood trees that exceed 350 feet, NPS says.
It’s common for redwood trees to lose sections of their crown — the section above the tree trunk — because of wind and lightning.
More Australians are turning to local streaming video platforms, according to new data, threatening the dominance of Netflix in the country.
While Disney+ remained the top downloaded entertainment app in the country in the last 12 months, with almost 2m downloads, Netflix came in fourth after Amazon and TikTok, according to the data from Sensor Tower.
Four Australian brands took spots in the top 10 – the streaming apps of Nine, ABC, Seven and Stan. All but Stan are free streaming on demand platforms.
Sensor Tower tracks the number of new downloads from both the Apple and Android stores.
Last month Netflix reported its second quarterly decline in subscriptions globally, dropping 1m subscribers in the quarter.
Sensor Tower’s APAC managing director, Tom Cui, said while Netflix was still the dominant player, there was room for locals.
“When many people think of streaming services, it’s Netflix, Amazon and Disney that spring to mind,” he said. “What our Sensor Tower data has shown is that actually, homegrown streaming services are giving these global brands a run for their money in terms of both popularity and revenue.”
In terms of estimated revenue, Streamotion – the Foxtel-owned platform for Binge and sporting stream company Kayo – beat out Netflix with $15.1m in the past 12 months in Australia, compared to $12.3m for Netflix. Disney Plus was also estimated to beat out both, with $56.1m, followed by TikTok ($28m) and Amazon ($17.6m).
“Streamotion is a key performer with its sporting service, Kayo, ranking higher than most entertainment apps for revenue in Australia,” Cui said. “This is a reflection of how much Aussies love their live sport and if you work in the streaming industry, this is where you can expect to continue to see a surge in consumer downloads and spend.”
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PwC’s entertainment and media outlook for 2022 found that Australians spent $4.8bn on subscription services last year, and that was projected to rise to $6.5bn by 2026.
The report found 75% of households in Australia were paying for a streaming service in 2021, and that it was expected to rise to over 80% this year. The average household was paying for 2.3 subscription services, spending $40 a month.
A Roy Morgan survey in February found Netflix still dominated in terms of total subscriptions, up to 12m, compared to 7m for the group of Foxtel apps, and 4.7m for Stan.
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The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, has indicated the government will push ahead with plans commenced by the former Morrison government to regulate streaming platforms to ensure they are producing Australian content.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority reported that Amazon Prime, Disney, Netflix and Stan spent a collective $178.9m in the 2020-21 financial year on 1,765 Australian programs.
Pinterest may be best known for shopping inspiration and design ideas, but the company’s newest product wants to inspire its users to tap into their own creativity. The company has quietly launched a new iOS app called Shuffles for putting together collages using photos, image cutouts and other animated effects. The app is currently in an invite-only status with the ability to join a waitlist from its home screen.
According to Shuffles’ description on the App Store, users can build their own collages using Pinterest’s photo library or snap photos of objects they want to include using the camera. They can also cut out individual objects from within an image using a tap — a feature that recalls iOS 16’s own clever image cutout ability. Images in Shuffles can then be rotated, layered and resized on the screen to create the collage, and animations and effects can optionally be added. The final project can be shared with friends for collaboration or posted to public groups where others can “remix” the original creation in their own way.
The app’s description suggests it could be used for visualizing a room makeover, fashion ideas, mood boards and more.
While the company hadn’t formally announced its plans around Shuffles, a Pinterest spokesperson confirmed the app hails from its new in-house incubator, TwoTwenty.
“Shuffles is a standalone app created by TwoTwenty, Pinterest’s innovative incubator team. Shuffles is an engaging way to create, publish, and share visual content,” the spokesperson said. “With more people coming to our platform for creative inspiration, we’re continuously experimenting with new ways to help Pinners and Creators bring their ideas to life.”
“As this app is in its initial test phase, we don’t have any additional details to share on the record at this time,” they added, declining to share more about its future plans or monetization potential.
Image Credits: pinterest
Launched last November and named after Pinterest’s first office, TwoTwenty’s goal has been to foster more internal experimentation at the social network and increase its pace of innovation. Other tech giants, including Meta, Microsoft and Google, have similar efforts with their own incubators — NPE, Microsoft Garage and Area 120, respectively.
In Pinterest’s case, the company has been working to make the transition from its past as an image pinboard and bookmarking site that helps drive e-commerce transactions to adapt to today’s creator-driven era where consumers are prompted to make purchases through video content. To address consumer demand for video, Pinterest released its TikTok-like Idea Pins and a live shopping feature, Pinterest TV. The latter was also launched by TwoTwenty’s team, in fact.
But TwoTwenty isn’t just meant to experiment with video. The organization consisting of engineers, designers and other product experts aims to research, prototype and test a variety of new ideas to see if any gain traction. Those that do will be handed off to other teams inside the company to scale.
The early-stage project Shuffles is just one of those ideas.
What’s funny is that Pinterest’s new app is similar to a mobile collage maker Meta ran a couple of years ago through its own in-house incubator, NPE Team. Known as E.gg, the zine maker of sorts developed a small following who enjoyed creating mixed media collages that combined images, text and GIFs. But like nearly all of Meta’s NPE projects, E.gg was shut down. Pinterest’s Shuffles could be looking to tap into that same consumer demand for image-led creativity and inspiration, which Meta had abandoned.
The app also arrives at a time when there’s an undercurrent of resistance to the idea that video has to be the only form of social expression and creativity in social media, as all tech giants are trying to morph themselves into TikTok. This past month, user backlash against Instagram’s deprioritization of friends’ content and photos reached a head after even the Kardashians begged the app to stop trying to be TikTok. Instagram rolled back some of its recent changes as a result but it’s still set on a video-first future.
Pinterest, to some extent, likely understands that its own pivot to video may not be able to retain users’ attention indefinitely in the face of the TikTok threat. Finding another area of growth through an experimentation could give it new avenues to explore.
Financially, the company’s most recent quarter’s earnings provided solid from a numbers standpoint, but it had missed on user growth. Monthly active users were down 9% year over year to 433 million.
The company is due to report its second-quarter earnings after the market closes today. Of note, these will be the first earnings since new CEO Bill Ready took over the job from co-founder Ben Silbermann, who transitioned to executive chairman on June 29, 2022.
Brandon Smith has missed out on more than just game time after receiving a three-week suspension, with the Storm star revealing he was banned from training with his teammates.
Smith had been handed the suspension after he called Adam Gee a “cheating bastard” during the Storm’s shock loss to the Sharks last month.
The 26-year-old was immediately sent for 10 minutes in the bin, and later pled guilty to the charge of contrary conduct.
But the punishment from the NRL wasn’t the end of it for the New Zealand Test rake, who has had to train away from the main squad since.
The unusual banishment has been seen Smith train with the fitness coach for the entirety of the ban.
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Smith’s ref slur caught on mic | 00:36
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“No, that’s not the norm, that’s quite special,” Smith said on Tuesday.
“I think it was just a sort of just getting punished for not putting the team first.
“It’s been pretty hard and a bit of a grind.
“Waking up early and training by yourself, it gets pretty boring.
“But just being able to hang out with the boys now makes me a lot more grateful for being in a team sport.”
Smith believes that the club were trying to send him a message by banning him from training for those three weeks.
After being isolated from the squad for so long, the Kiwi international reflected on what the time away from the main squad had taught him.
“Just making you feel guilty for your actions by taking away what you love most,” he said.
“And for me with footy that’s playing with my mates and my friends and enjoying it.
“They kind of took that away from me and it sucks.
“I got to hang out with the fitness coach and he’s not that much fun either.”
Smith is available to return for Melbourne in their crucial Friday night clash with the Gold Coast Titans at AAMI Park.
Melbourne beat the Warriors in Auckland last Friday, and ended a four-match winless streak to boast.
Cheese sin-binned, held back from fans! | 00:51
The Storm are sitting inside the top four after the win, but are equal on points with both the Broncos and sixth-placed Eels.
“It’s been a weird old year for all of us, we’ve got heaps of injuries.
“It’s no surprise it’s going to be a little bit of a hard one this year.
“We’ve lost Welchy (Christian Welch), Reimis (Smith), George (Jennings) and Paps (Ryan Papenhuyzen) for the season and that’s four of our best 13.
“We’ve got numerous other injuries coming through and they are excuses, but I’m willing to make those excuses now as we’ve had like 16 pretty bad injuries this year and we’ve only got like a 26-man squad.
“We’re still fourth, which is the crazy thing that we’ve been able to keep ourselves in the fight.”
Premier Mark McGowan and billionaire Clive Palmer have been found to have defamed each other during their vicious war of words in 2020 — but the harm done was minor, according to the Federal Court — as they were the damages awarded.
Delivering his judgment today, Justice Michael Lee said the defenses of both sides to allegations of defamation had failed — and the back-and-forth barbs had been defamatory.
But because the Federal Court judge found that both were involved in political argument — as nasty as it was — finding “real or material” damage was almost impossible.
He declined to award claimed aggravated damages to Mr Palmer, and said he could not find he suffered any real damage from Mr McGowan’s comments.
He assessed the damage to Mr Palmer’s reputation warranted an award of $5,000.
And Justice Lee then pointed to Mr McGowan’s landslide election victory as to the fact his reputation was not damaged by Mr Palmer — and might actually have been enhanced.
However, he said Mr Palmer’s comments warranted an award of $20,000 to the Premier.
In summing up the case, Justice Lee said arguments that neither side was involved in political posturing was “unpersuasive and superficial”.
He said amid the feud, the pair had both taken the opportunities to advance their political stance — particularly Mr McGowan, who he said “had a bully pulpit”.
And he concluded the “game had not been worth the candle” — taking up valuable resources from the court and the WA taxpayer.
“These proceedings have not only involved considerable expenditure by Mr Palmer and the taxpayers of Western Australia, but have also consumed considerable resources of the Commonwealth and, importantly, diverted Court time from resolving controversies of real importance to persons who have a pressing need to litigate ,” Justice Lee said.
“At a time when public resources devoted to courts are under strain, and judicial resources are stretched, one might think that only a significant interference or attack causing real reputational damage and significant hurt to feelings should be subject of an action for defamation by a political figure.”
The defamation case between the Premier and the billionaire stemmed from public barbs traded more than two years ago, as the pandemic was still spreading — and with Mr Palmer’s $30 billion claim against WA not yet public.
In press conferences of varying ferocity, Mr McGowan labeled the mining magnate the “enemy of the state” and “the enemy of Australia.”
In response, Mr Palmer allegedly implied Mr McGowan lied to West Australians about the pandemic — and was willing to accept bribes from Chinese interests.
That prompted both Mr Palmer to sue, and Mr McGowan to sue right back – with both men called to personally give evidence, which at times bordered on the bizarre.
During the sometimes florid and emotional testimony, both Mr McGowan and his Queensland adversary made striking claims about how the other’s words had impacted.
The Premier linked the verbal Mr Palmer’s attacks on him to the threats of physical attack from others, which he said left him fearing for the safety of his wife and children.
He promotes these ideas. He encourages all these people to weaponise themselves physically against my family.
“He is the sort of person who gets a band of people out there who believe this stuff. A band of followers he acquires who get wound up and outraged,” Mr McGowan said.
“He promotes these ideas. He encourages all these people to weaponise themselves physically against my family.”
And Mr Palmer went as far as claiming he believed Mr McGowan had granted himself a James Bond-style “license to kill” – and might use it to murder the mining magnate and get away with it.
That clause, he claimed, was his reading of the so-called ‘Palmer Act’ – the extraordinary piece of legislation drafted and passed in haste to kill off Mr Palmer’s mega-bucks royalties claim from the Balmoral South iron ore project in the Pilbara region .
“I then thought about James Bond movies… how would you license someone to kill? I didn’t know what the limits might be,” Mr Palmer told the court.
WA Premier Mark McGowan. Credit: News Corp Australia
“I reached a view that that’s what I thought it enabled them to do if they wanted to at an extreme level… that was a level of concern.
“To my mind, that meant that they could make offenses under the criminal code and not be held liable for them.”
Embedded within the case — and teased out by the lawyers — were communications between Mr McGowan and state attorney general John Quigley, which revealed the level of enmity within the WA government towards Palmer.
In them, Mr Palmer was referred to as fat, as a liar, as a turd and as “the worst Australian who is not in jail.”
Mr Quigley texted that he was working on a “poison pill for the fat man”.
And the 73-year old attorney general even referenced his own love life, asking Mr McGowan: “Are you glad me single again?.”
“Not making love in sweet hours before dawn – instead worrying how to defeat Clive,” Mr Quigley admitted.
That opened him up to being called as a witness — which opened another can of worms. Because Mr Quigley’s performance on the witness stand prompted accusations that he lied on oath, and he had to admit making glaring errors in his evidence of him.
“I gave inaccurate evidence to the court,” Mr Quigley said. “I am embarrassed about them (the answers). What I said was wrong.
Justice Lee summed up his thoughts on Mr Quigley’s courtroom performance abruptly: “Not dishonest — but all over the shop”.
John Quigley. Credit: DEAN LEWINS/AAPIMAGE
In his summary to the case on Tuesday, Justice Lee cited a quote from British politician Enoch Powell, saying politicians complaining about the press was like a “ship’s captain complaining about the sea”.
And he said the war of words between Mr McGowan and Mr Palmer was the “hurly burly” of two politicians arguing about political issues — predominantly the WA response to the Covid 19 pandemic, and the state response to Mr Palmer’s claim of $30 billion in damages.
Justice Lee also commented that the legislation which blocked that claim proceeded with the “speed of summer lightning”.
He described Mr Palmer’s evidence that he feared for his life at the hands of the WA government was “fantastic” — and “so unbelievable” that it undermined his other evidence.
“Not safe to place any particular reliance on it,” Justice Lee said.
And on Mr McGowan, Justice Lee said he was largely an “impressive witness” — but sometimes fell into the “muscle memory” of non-responsive answers.
And of Mr Quigley, Justice Lee said his evidence was both “confused and confusing”.
“Being a confused witness is quite different from being a dishonest one,” Justice Lee said. “Mr Quigley was not a reliable historian of events.”
Arguments about costs of the case, and who will pay them, will be made later this month.
