We have been discussing for years how the United States and other nations continue to underfund preparations for the next pandemic. While spending billions for wars in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. has not done enough to fund medical research in anticipation of a worldwide killer that is now overdue from a historical standpoint. MIT researchers, however, have at least given citizens some help in planning for their pandemic travels. The researchers found that Kennedy and LAX are the leading risk airports. The third airport to avoid? Honolulu International. The research was published in the journal PLoS ONE.
Month: July 2012
Donald S. Dobkin, 59, has taken an unconventional approach to getting on a law faculty. Dobkin has repeatedly sued the University of Iowa and the College of Law after they turned him down for a faculty position — alleging age discrimination. Dobkin has sued Iowa before after he learned that an allegedly younger and less qualified lawyer was hired over him.
Continue reading “Lawyer Sues Iowa Over Refusal To Add Him To Law Faculty . . . Again”
The University of Illinois College of Law has had a tough run in recent years. The school was hammered by an admissions scandal after it allegedly admitted unqualified or less competitive students to secure jobs or to please powerful politicians. Now it has been hit with a public censure and $250,000 fine by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar for intentionally reporting and publishing false admissions data in six out of the last 10 years.
Continue reading “University of Illinois Censured and Fined By ABA For False Admissions Data”
There is a fascinating defamation case out of Fairfax Virginia this week. A Fairfax jury has found Hong Kong financier Eric Hotung guilty of defamation and awarded his son $1.2 million. It is an award that seems difficult to square with the conventional definitions of defamation as well as the reaction of some of the jurors.
Continue reading “Defamer Or Tiger Dad? Virginia Jury Rules Hong Kong Tycoon Defamed Son”
Casey James Fury, 24, of Portsmouth, N.H., reportedly wanted to leave work early. Not an uncommon desire in the American workforce. However, Fury acted on his desire by setting fire to a nuclear-powered submarine — the USS Miami attack submarine — causing $400 million in damage. He now faces life in prison for allegedly seeking a day off through arson. One fire was reportedly set after Fury was dumped by his girlfriend.
Why do most cats seem constantly shocked by human behavior? They are often “shocked, shocked” by everything from a suggestion that it get off the couch to the accusation that the feathers all over the floor indicate that it finally ate the family’s pet cockatoo.
Indiana University Southeast near Louisville, Kentucky is at the center of a free speech controversy over a school code that bars students from expressing opinions on campus except in designated free speech zones. The code flips the presumption of higher education: students must generally refrain from free speech and even apply for the right to express opinions. The code, first promulgated in 2004, is being challenged as an example of how universities are cracking down on free speech.
Tony Robbins is facing a series of potential lawsuits after at least 21 people were treated for burns after a late-night firewalking event. The fire walking resulted in second- and third-degree burn injuries at the motivational speaker’s event at the San Jose Convention Center. He called the event “Unleash the Power Within” — it was not clear if the burns were caused by the unleashing of the inner power or the superheated coals that they were walking on.
Continue reading “Third Degree Self-Realization: Dozens Injured In Robbins Fire Walking Exercise”
Dominick L. Verducci, 69, may be the first person arrested for an aggravated raspberry. Verducci was arguing with his apartment manager when he say he would would “knock the nose” off his face and then blew a raspberry. The Gainesville police officer determined that a particle of spit hit Sunrise Villas Apartments property manager Thomas Stommel’s face. Accordingly, he was charged with battery.
Continue reading “Florida Man Charged With Battery Over Raspberry”
Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the National Union Party in the Israeli Knesset, wanted a staff member to film him recently for his constituents to see. While most politicians go for the baby kissing scene or memorial day speech, Ben-Ari wanted to be shown tearing out the New Testament from a bible and throwing it into the garbage — a despicable act of religious intolerance and hate.
Continue reading “Member of Israeli Knesset Rips Up New Testament In Protest Over “Revolting Book””
We previously discussed the case of Paul Chambers who was arrested for a tweet joking about blowing up an airport after his flight was canceled in England. Now a New Jersey man, Bill Miller, is in a similar situation after he joked to a friend in a text message that his catamaran had capsized. His friend notified the authorities and he is now charged with felony charge of causing a false public alarm — a charge that comes with a potential five year jail sentence.
Continue reading “World’s Dumbest Joke Leads To World’s Dumbest Charge”
Marketing is everything on adoption day at the pound
Continue reading “Can You Pick Out The Canine Character At The Pound?”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)- Guest Blogger
I have written in the past about corporations dodging taxes, but this latest story out of Washington takes the cake. Susan Ford, an executive with Corning, Inc. testified recently at a House Ways and Means committee meeting and made the following claim. “American manufacturers are at a distinct disadvantage to competitors headquartered in other countries. Specifically, foreign manufacturers uniformly face a lower corporate tax rate than U.S. manufacturers, and virtually all operate under territorial systems which encourage investment both abroad and at home.” Think Progress That is a very strong statement coming from Ms. Ford. What is really interesting is that her claim that foreign companies face a lower corporate tax rate would be important issue, if it only was true! Continue reading “Corporate Liars and the Lies They Tell”
Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
(Updated below.)
I think the following story out of Kentucky is an interesting one. Savannah Dietrich, a seventeen-year-old, is the victim of a sexual assault. Last August, she was assaulted by two boys she knew after she passed out at a party. It wasn’t until months later that Dietrich learned that pictures of her assault had been taken and shared with other people.
The victim told a newspaper that she cried herself to sleep for months. She added, “I couldn’t go out in public places. You just sit there and wonder, who saw (the pictures), who knows?”
According to the Courier-Journal, Dietrich felt frustrated by what she thought “was a lenient plea bargain for two teens who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting her and circulating pictures of the incident.” She took to Twitter and named her attackers. She also tweeted, “There you go, lock me up. I’m not protecting anyone that made my life a living Hell” and “Protect rapist is more important than getting justice for the victim in Louisville.”
by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
U.N. Visitor’s Plaza, New York, New York
A gift from Luxembourg.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last forty-eight hours, you have no doubt seen the coverage concerning the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado. If you possess even a minimal level of empathy for your fellow human beings, twelve dead and fifty-eight wounded when their only crime was wanting to see a movie can only be properly described as tragic. Among the dead accounted for up to this point are a man who had been celebrating his twenty-seventh birthday (Alex Sullivan), a member of our Navy (Petty Officer Third Class John Larimer), a twenty-four year old aspiring sports journalist (Jessica Ghawi), and a six year-old girl. Some less responsible outlets are reporting this little girl’s name (Huffington Post, looking your direction), but other more responsible outlets are not. I will not post her name for the same reason others have declined: the little girl remains unidentified because her mother, also a victim of this horrific crime with gunshot wounds to the neck and abdomen, remains paralyzed in hospital and has not yet been told of her daughter’s death. Even in reporting on events, sometimes a little discretion goes a long way and does not impair the “public’s right to know” in any substantive manner.
Over the next few days, you will see many attempts by people with various political agendas trying to monopolize on this shooting to promote their pet causes. In fact, it has already started and in a most heinous manner. During a radio interview on The Heritage Foundation’s “Istook Live!” show, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) said Friday that the shootings were a result of “ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs” . . . and questioned why nobody else in the theater had a gun to take down the shooter. Gohmert in one fell swoop illustrated that not only is he a base political opportunist, but that he apparently doesn’t understand the 1st or 2nd Amendments very well – a common affliction among Texas pols. Others pols are already using this as a way to promote their anti-gun agendas, their pro-gun agendas and the Twitter-verse is filling with statements from “our leaders” about this tragic event and all of them in some way self-serving.
I urge you to ignore these opportunists for a moment and to think about something else related to the Aurora shooting.
Multiple outlets are reporting that the accused gunman, James Holmes, had dyed his hair red and told the police he “was the Joker”.
There is the fantasy of violence. There is the reality of violence. They could not be more different in outcome. This presents the issue of instances like this where the line between fantasy and reality have clearly been crossed in some meaningful manner. Does this problem exist in the individual or in society itself? I submit the answer might be “a little of both”.