There is a story that is roaring over the Internet that seems like a hoax. A website Adnkronos reported yesterday that Saudi imam Mohammed al-Najimi A Saudi imam has issued a fatwa or religious edict banning the use of alcohol as a fuel substitute for petrol. While I am always fascinated by fatwas, I did not run the story because it seems to me to be a hoax, even quoting a Saudi daily called “Shams.” Yet, various sites have picked up the story today.
Continue reading “Fun with Fatwas: Saudi Imam Allegedly Issues Fatwa Against Using Alcohol as Fuel”
Month: February 2009
Pillsbury partner Robert Robbins is facing some stern looks at his firm this week after it was revealed that he was the inadvertent source of the leaks of the firm’s plan to lay off lawyers that found its way to the Above the Law website. It turns out the Robbins took the opportunity to speak loudly on a cellphone on a train about the secret firings of almost two dozen lawyers, including listing them by name. He was sitting next to a law student at the time.
Continue reading “Pillsbury D’oh!boy: D.C. Partner Leaks Firing Plan on Train By Speaking Loudly Into Cell Phone”
Texas Judge Sharon Keller is having a bad month. Just last week, there was a move in the legislature to impeach her. Now the state judicial ethics commission has charged her with violating her duty and bringing discredit upon the judiciary. It is hard to be sympathetic with her position, however, given Judge Keller’s decision to told the Clerk’s office to close in 2007 when attorneys were rushing over with an after-hours final death row appeal for Michael Richards — who was then executed.
Continue reading “Judge Sharon Keller Charged With Five Ethics Violations”
Worcester’s buttonquail was long believed to be extinct, so you can imagine the joy of ornithologists when one of the birds was captured and photographed on the island of Luzon, Philippines. Then the learned that the bird was promptly sold for meat and eaten.
Continue reading “Well, You’re Extinct Now: Bird, Once Believed Extinct, Is Captured, Photographed . . . And Then Eaten”
Dustin Dibble, 25, admits that he was drinking for four hours before he went to the 14th Street station and then fell into the path of a train, which cut off his right leg. However, a jury still found NYC Transit was to blame and awarded him $2.3 million.
Continue reading “New York Jury Awards $2.3 Million to Drunk Man Who Fell into Path of Train”
Descendants of the Apache leader Geronimo have sued the ultra secret society, Skull and Bones, over rumors that the society stole his skull in a grave robbery detailed in society lore.
Aaron and Christine Boring have been dismissed in their lawsuit against Google for showing their home on the popular website. The Boring couple sued Google for $25,000 for the street view of their home.
Continue reading “Boring Couple Loses in Court: Federal Judge Dismisses Homeowners Google Lawsuit”
For those of you who believe that you have tough clients, you might want to consider the fate of Seattle attorney John Hicks. He represents rapist Curtis S. Thompson who must be wheeled into court with his chest, wrists and ankles bound due to prior threats against attorneys and a judge. That did not stop Thompson from lunging at Hicks in a recent hearing and screaming “You scared to death, ain’t you punk?” Hence the popularity of transactions law.
Continue reading “Accused Serial Rapist and Murderer Lunges At Counsel in Seattle Courtroom”
The Iberville Parish Council in Louisiana has voted 11-1 to allow Tiger Truck Shop owner Michael Sandlin to keep Tony, a Siberian Tiger, as a roadside attraction in Grosse Tete, Louisiana. The cruel confinement of the tiger does not appear to bother the good people of Iberville.
Continue reading “Grosse Tete’s Tiger: City Council Allows Truck Stop to Keep Tiger as Roadside Attaction”
If the recent video of the wailing and writhing Chinese woman in Hong Kong’s airport is not enough, this month’s report of Dispax World shows that other airlines have had to deal with a spate of other bizarre incidents in the last few weeks.
Continue reading “Airlines Reports Spate of Bizarre Passenger Incidents in December-January”
North Dakota appears intent on triggering another round of litigation in the hopes of overturning Roe v. Wade. North Dakota’s House of Representatives has voted 51-41 to declare that a fertilized egg has all the rights of any person. The vote would make abortion murder.
Continue reading “Microscopic People: North Dakota Votes to Give Full Legal Rights to Fertilized Eggs”
Japan’s Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has announced that he will resign after getting drunk at last weekend’s G7 summit in Rome. The video is below. It may be a bad economic sign when the finance ministers of major countries are self-medicating in this fashion.
Continue reading “Last Call: Japanese Finance Minister Resigns Over Alleged Drunken Scene at G7”
Gov. Sarah Palin has joined the ranks of politicians with tax problems. Palin has been informed that she must pay income taxes on thousands of dollars in expense money claimed while living at her Wasilla home. It is not exactly the stuff of “small town values”: Palin charged $17,000 for meals and incidentals for 312 nights spent in her own house. It appears that such charges are perfectly legal and need only to be taxed.
Continue reading “Taxing Small Town Values: Palin Must Pay Back Taxes on Food and Incidentals Charged While Staying At Her Own Home”
It appears that it will take a federal court to clear the air over a trademark dispute over the phrase “Pull My Finger” and the rights to iFart. Florida-based Air-o-Matic and Colorado-based InfoMedia, Inc. are in court over the allegations of Air-o-Matic that Infomedia infringed its trademark and engaged in unfair business practices.
Continue reading “Smell Test: Air-O-Matic Sues Over Use of “Pull My Finger””
Former Missouri Rep. Kenny Hulshof secured six terms as a Republican member of the House and ran for Governor on his tough-on-crime record. That record, however, is now under scrutiny with another abuse cited by a court from Hulshof’s work as a prosecutor — leading to the conviction of a teenager for a murder that he did not commit.
Continue reading “Former Missouri Rep. Kenny Hulshof Accused of Another Case of Prosecutorial Abuse”