Legal Commentary

Two Census Manager Fired For Creating over 10,000 Fake Census Forms

Posted on June 27, 2010
Brooklyn Census Bureau managers Alvin Aviles and Sonya Merritt have been fired for allegedly staying at home and making up census information with the use of phone books and the Internet. Officials believe that at least 10,000 such manufactured forms were submitted by Aviles and Merritt...

The Danger of Nabbing At A Sporting Event

Posted on June 27, 2010
This is what happens when the stadium camera catches you napping at a sporting event. This is also an example of how you can sometimes be perfectly sane in thinking that everyone is staring at you.

Biden Calls Manager a ?Smart Ass? For Asking Him to Lower Taxes

Posted on June 27, 2010
This is why our Vice President is God’s gift to reporters and YouTube fans. In a visit to an ice cream shop this week, the manager asked him to lower taxes and Biden responded by calling him a smart ass. I have tried to find the origins of the term “smart ass” with little success...

I Won?t Look, I Won?t Look . . .

Posted on June 27, 2010
This is perhaps the greatest example of restraint by any creature . . . I decided to avoid the next frame to see how this turned out.

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Bloggie Doggie: Meet Charlie, Our Pet of the Week

Posted on June 26, 2010
This week’s winner of the Pet of the Week is this beautiful creature, Charlie. The proud pet of Malcolm, Charlie is all personality, though a menace to slow-moving birds. If you are interested in nominating a pet (any species allowed), you can find the questions here...

?Not Kosher?: Rabbis Warn Kagan Confirmation Would Lead To New ?Sodom and Gomorrah?

Posted on June 26, 2010
Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for an alliance of 850 Orthodox members of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, has denounced Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan in not just political but Biblical terms. Proclaiming that Kagan is ?not kosher,? Levin warned that “Elena Kagan turns traditional Judaism on its head–from a concept of a nation of priests [...

North Korea Demands $65 Trillion From U.S. For Being a Meanie

Posted on June 26, 2010
Cash-strapped North Korea has also its economic woes: it is demanding $65 trillion in compensation for six decades of hostility. That is over $12 trillion a decade and over $1 trillion a year. They could have told us and we would have shown all our hostility in a more efficient period like a year...

So a Cop and a Horse Walk Into a Tampa Bar . . .

Posted on June 26, 2010
So a cop and a horse walk into a bar . . . This office in Tampa decided the best way to end that joke was to leave with his equine friend. In recognition of this officer’s unique patrol tactics, what is the best “horse goes into a bar” joke you have heard? Here is [...

Video Shows Officer Working For BP and Preventing Filming of Headquarters

Posted on June 25, 2010
There has been considerable controversy over BP preventing journalists and activists to film in public areas — showing the damage of the recent spill on animals and the environment. BP has no authority to do so, but it continues (as in this video) to prevent filming at various locations...

Prison Guard Fired For Posing For Playboy

Posted on June 25, 2010
We have been following a line of cases where teachers (and here and here and here and here and here), city managers, lunch ladies, police officers (and here), coaches, students and others have been fired for lawful conduct committed in their private lives...

Drunk Driver Opens Last Beer While Waiting To Be Cut Out of Overturned Car

Posted on June 25, 2010
Paul Nigel Sneddon, 47, is not someone to allow a wreck to stop him from enjoying a beer. Sneddon was trapped in his overturned car after driving drunk in Wellington, NZ. Since he had to wait for rescue crews to cut him out of the car, he proceeded to open one last beer because he [...

Drunk Chicago Cop Threatens Cabbie at Gunpoint . . . So Colleagues Give Him Back His Gun and Release Him Without Charges

Posted on June 25, 2010
Chicago police officer John Killackey, 32, will only receive probation and community service after pulling a gun on a cabbie during a fare dispute. Critics have charged that the sentence for aggravated assault and theft was too light — though he only faced a one year maximum jail sentence...

The [Early] Rising Sun: Sleeping Japanese To Slow Global Warming

Posted on June 25, 2010
Next time you see a sleeping Japanese, do not wake him . . . he is saving the planet. The Japanese government has launched a campaign asking people to go to bed and get up extra early in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Of course, it is not clear what carbon footprint will be [...

Mannequin Mascetomies: Iranian Officials Reportedly Ordering Removal of Breasts From Mannequins

Posted on June 24, 2010
There is another bizarre account from Iran where the government has been cracking down on “baldy veiled women.” It appears that it is not just actual women who offend Sharia-sensibilities. There is a photo running on the web that allegedly shows how Iran’s religious police are giving double mascetomies to mannequins to avoid the appearance [...

Salon: Author Details Controversy at LA Times Over Article on The Israeli Lobby and Denial of the Armenian Genocide

Posted on June 24, 2010
Author Mark Arax has written an article in Salon that details allegations against the Los Angeles Times in killing a story on how the Israeli lobby was helping efforts to deny the Armenian genocide in exchange for Turkey’s support of Israel. Despite the focus on media issues on this blog, I am embarrassed to say [...

Texas Officer Charges Homeowner With ?Illegal Photography? For Taking His Pictures During An Alleged Unlawful Entry

Posted on June 24, 2010
We have another case of a citizen arrested for photographing police. Francisco Olvera says that he was charged in Seeley, Texas with “illegal photography” when a police sergeant followed him into his own home, and he objected and took the officer’s photo with his cell phone...

Report: 1,300 Inmates Wrongly Given Over $9 Million in Homeowner Tax Credits

Posted on June 24, 2010
The Treasury Department has learned that roughly 1,300 prison inmates wrongly received more than $9 million in tax credits for homebuyers as part of the Administration’s stimulus effort. These unique homebuyers included 241 inmates serving life sentences...

Floaters: Surfers and Swimmers Complain Over Lack of Notice of Sewage Release Along Miami Beaches

Posted on June 24, 2010
Swimmers and surfers in Miami are a bit put out this week after they learned that 20 million gallons of raw sewage was released along beaches without adequate notice to the public. It brings a new meaning to the surfer term “floater.” The spill occurred during repairs to a 72-inch broken sewage pipe in Miami [...

Chattanooga Officer Suspended Over Arrest of Husband Rushing Wife To Emergency Room

Posted on June 23, 2010
Chattanooga police officer Jim Daves has been suspended in the controversy over his arrest of Eric Wright, the husband who ran red lights to get his critically ill wife to the emergency room. As we discussed earlier, Daves allegedly blocked Wright from carrying in his wife to the ER and later charged him with a [...

Veiled Threat: Iranians Issue Warnings To 62,000 ?Badly Veiled Women? and Confiscate Cars

Posted on June 23, 2010
We have been following the Iranian crackdown on “badly veiled” women. It now appears that at least 62,000 women have been issued warnings about their failure to properly cover their hair in the Shiite holy province of Qom. It appears that this crackdown is a summer tradition in Iran...

Two Chicago Men Intentionally Strike Bicyclists For Fun and Receive Probation for Aggravated Battery

Posted on June 23, 2010
Erik Fabian, 20, was sentenced this week in Chicago for an outrageous prank where he and his friend, Armando Reza, 18, took turns striking bicyclists with their car. He pleaded guilty and received a relatively light sentence of two years probation for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and leaving the scene of an accident...

Battle of the Briefs: Naked Cowboy v. Naked Cowgirl

Posted on June 23, 2010
The Naked Cowboy has previously fought against rivals to protect his unique brand in New York. Now, however, he is facing a new menace: the Naked Cowgirl. It sounds like a struggle more befitting the Garden of Eden than Madison Square Garden but both naked cow people are pulling out their briefs...

Firefighters Suspended For Performing Emergency Resuscitation on St. Pauli Girl

Posted on June 23, 2010
In British Columbia, firefighters bravely saved a half-dozen victims in a blaze and were suspended for performing emergency resuscitation. Canadian Mounties are investigating the firefighters, who pulled kegs of beer from a burning hotel and then tapped a couple of the kegs in celebration...

BP: The Disaster is the Relief

Posted on June 23, 2010
As BP flacks try to stem criticism of Tony Hayward going yachting during the crisis in the gulf, many have surmised that Hayward and his staff are living on a different planet. That seemed confirmed by Planet BP — the company’s in-house magazine — which quoted a local seafood businessman as saying “[t]here is no [...

Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Expansive Reading of Material Support Law

Posted on June 22, 2010
The Supreme Court rejected first amendment claims and upheld a federal law on providing “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project. The material support law (found in the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA)) is the darling of prosecutor and widely ridiculed by civil libertarians for [...

Ohio Officer Sentenced to Ten Years in Shooting of Unarmed Motorcyclist

Posted on June 22, 2010
We have been following the case of Ohio officer Thomas White who shot an unarmed motorcyclist, Michael McCloskey, Jr. The crime was captured on the video below. White was sentenced this week to 10 years in prison for the shooting which left McCloskey paralyzed two years ago White, 27, was charged with felonious assault with [...

You Got An A! Law Schools Retroactively Increase Grades of Students to Make Them More Attractive in Job Market

Posted on June 22, 2010
Students at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles suddenly got smarter. The law school has increased the grades point averages — retroactively — across the board to make graduates more attractive in a tough job market. Loyola is not alone in such grade revisionism...

Most Eligible Murderer: Peruvian Women Send Marriage Proposals to Van der Sloot

Posted on June 22, 2010
It appears that allegedly murdering two young women in Aruba and Peru makes you something of a chick magnet. Murder suspect Joran van der Sloot, 22, has received multiple marriage proposals from Peruvian women. In the meantime, one woman (his mother) says “he is not right in the head...

Text M for Murder: Judge Killed By Husband Who Then Texts Son With News Before Killing Himself

Posted on June 22, 2010
In Rowlett, Texas, Juvenile Judge Belinda Loveland, 52, was shot and killed by her husband Richard Loveland, 59. Richard then texted his son, a doctor in Galveston, with the message “I think I just killed your mother.” According to police, he then shot himself...

Drill, Baby, Drill: Obama?s Deep-Drilling Moratorium Lifted By Federal Court

Posted on June 22, 2010
A New Orleans federal judge lifted the six-month moratorium imposed on deepwater drilling by President Barack Obama after the BP spill. In New Orleans, U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman found that the administration had failed to satisfy requirements for notice and comment from industry...

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