There is an interesting science story out this week that could raise legal issues as to risk of radiation for airline passengers. A new study at the Florida Institute of Technology, University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of Florida found that passengers could be exposed to a radiation dose equal to that from 400 chest X-rays if their airplane is near the start of a lightning discharge or related phenomena known as a terrestrial gamma ray flash.
Continue reading “Study: Airline Passengers May Be Exposed to Harmful Levels of Radiation From Storms”
Month: December 2009
Sergei Magnitsky, 37, was a courageous lawyer who fought the corruption in Russia and went public with his accusations. The result was first his arrest on tax evasion charges and then his death in a Moscow prison. Now, President Dmitry Medvedev has fired the prison head and 19 other officials. However, there will apparently be no investigation into his original arrest or its connection to his allegations against government officials.
Continue reading “Anti-Corruption Advocate and Lawyer Dies in Jail — Kremlin Fired Prison Head and Others”
Ohio officer Ken Roth doesn’t need no stinking radar guns, he has speed-calibrated hearing. Well, he did until the Ohio Court of Appeals ruled that a motorist cannot be convicted based solely on what Roth said he “heard” as speeding.
Continue reading “An Ear For Crime: Ohio Appellate Court Rules that Officer Cannot Issue Speeding Tickets Based on Sound Alone”
Larry Flynt has won a jury verdict in a four-day trial over his nephew’s violation of his trademark and invasion of his privacy. Flynt prevailed on the trademark case. One of the more interesting aspects of the trial was Flynt’s admission that (while his company is worth many millions of dollars) he fired his brother and his nephews’ father, Jimmy Flynt Sr.,to help pay for the costs of suing his sons.
Continue reading “Skin Flynt: Jury Rules In Favor of Hustler Owner in Dispute With Nephews”
Daniel Noble, 31, has a novel defense after he was caught by Washington State University Police after speeding down a country road and hitting two people while wearing only pajamas and flip flops (in 5 degree weather) — he was over-caffeinated.
Continue reading “Starbucks Psychosis: Washington Man Claims Caffeine Induced Hysterin”
By last count, we were roughly 25 votes out of first place in the ABA competition. Twenty-five votes stand between us and ever-lasting glory. Who among us can now claim that we have done enough when we are mocked from across the Internet?
Continue reading “Flog the Blog: A Call to Arms for the Greatest Blogging Generation”
Some relationships are too profound to describe in words alone.
Continue reading “DEEP REM WITH REX”
Despite my work with older prisoners at the Project for Older Prisoners (POPS), you sometimes find people that buck the trend and commit crimes late in life. Police say that Laura Lundquist is one such “later bloomer.” She is 98 years old and accused of killing her 100-year-old roommate Elizabeth Barrow (shown here) in Massachusetts at the Brandon Woods Nursing Home.
Continue reading “Ninety-Eight-Year-Old Woman Kills 100-Year-Old Roommate in Massachusetts”
While Thomas the Tank Engine may be a capitalist stooge (here), one train employee has become a proletarian hero. A London Underground or tube announcer had some unconventional advice for riders recently: if they are frustrated with the service they might want to consider suicide as an option.
Continue reading “Railing Against the Bosses: London Train Announcer Suggests Suicide as Option for Travelers”
Professor Shauna Wilton and colleagues at the Department of Social Sciences Research at the University of Alberta have made a disturbing discovery: Thomas the Tank Engine appears to be a vehicle used to implant a “conservative political ideology” in our children. This is the liberal version of the campaign against Purple Teletubby Tinky Winky by Jerry Falwell as sending hidden gay messages. The professor, however, may find proletarian values in another railway, the London underground: here.
Continue reading “Thomas the Capitalist Stooge: Professor Finds Dark Messages in Children’s Series”
A recent study found that as much as three-fourths of the state schools were holding back the most talented and brightest students because they wanted to combat the scourge of “elitism.” These students were not being given more advanced work even though they were not being sufficiently challenged by grade-level material.
Brian Ross at ABC has aired the results of his investigation into the use of alleged mercenaries by the United States. I was interviewed on the story, though I was obviously not at liberty to discuss it before it aired yesterday. Ross found evidence that private contractors were being used in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq for combat missions — a role that raises very disturbing legal and policy questions.
Continue reading “Shadow Army: ABC Discloses Use of Blackwater Contractors as Possible Mercenaries”
Federal prosecutors allege that high school drug counselor was a bit too close to his subject. They have charged the intervention specialist with conspiracy to distribute and distribution of oxycodone.
Continue reading “High School Drug Counselor Arrested For Drug Dealing”
It is a good thing that Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) represents Montana and not Minnesota, here. New details have emerged in the ethics scandal surrounding the Senator. Baucus allegedly gave his girlfriend Melodee Hanes a nearly $14,000 pay raise in 2008 when he started his romantic relationship and later took her on a taxpayer funded trip to Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Continue reading “Baucus: “I Went Out Of My Way To Be Up And Up” On His Romantic Relations With Staff Member”
There is an interesting fight in Minnesota where State Senator Ellen Anderson made the modest suggestion that the state repeal laws making it illegal for a married woman to cheat on her husband and another statute that makes it a crime for single women to have sex at all. The response of the powerful Minnesota Family Council is to call for the law not to be repealed but strengthened to make it a crime for men to have sex outside of marriage.