Journalist Mark Hales is facing bankruptcy after he blew the engine of a £1.3million replica Porsche 917 during a test drive. Hales says that the owner, veteran Formula One ace David Piper, told him that he would cover any damage. However, Piper denied the oral agreement occurred and a court ordered Hale to pay $76,000 to cover repairs to the car, plus $100,000 in legal costs.
Month: January 2013
In Bolivia, North Carolina, former teacher Leah Gayle Shipman, 42, was spared a criminal trial on statutory rape of a student on a rather novel ground: she married the student. Shipman married Johnnie Ray Ison, 17, after divorcing her husband of 19 years. Ison married with the consent of his mother.
Continue reading “North Carolina Teacher Avoids Rape Charges By Marrying Student”
Remember the moving rendition of the National Anthem by Beyoncé at the Inaugural? Not only does it now appear that she lip synced but it took a British newspaper to uncover the truth. The Times is reporting that the spokesperson for the Marine Corp Band Kristen DuBois confirmed that Beyoncé did a Milli Vanilli with the National Anthem.
Continue reading “What So Proudly We Hailed at Beyoncé’s Lip Syncing . . .”
Three police officers in Schaumburg, Illinois (outside Chicago) have been indicted for allegedly teaming up with a drug dealer to sell narcotics. Matthew Hudak, John Cichy, and Terrance O’Brien were all members of the tactical unit and charged with a female companion, Nicole Brehm, 44.
Continue reading “Three Illinois Police Officers Indicted In Narcotics Sting”
In perhaps the world’s least surprising news item, former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has been indicted on federal corruption charges. Nagin was a disgrace during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was notorious for bizarre and self-absorded conduct. His reelection in New Orleans soured many on the idea of giving additional relief to a city that would retain such an utter failure as a mayor. Now, Nagin will face 21 charges including bribery, money laundering, fraud and filing false tax returns.
Continue reading “Former New Orleans Mayor Nagin Indicted On Federal Corruption Charges”
This is really how all roadside sobriety tests should go.
Minnesota attorney Thomas P. Lowe, 58, has been suspended indefinitely after he was found not only to have had an affair with a client in a divorce case but then charged her for time they spent having sex.
I have already given my view of the Inauguration Speech. However, I just read MSNBC’s Chris Matthews comparison of this unremarkable speech to the Gettysburg Address. I previously tweeted about the now formulaic approaches of Fox and MSNBC to covering the president. However, this comparison demonstrates the detachment from the actual observed news once filtered through these cable programs.
Continue reading “Chris Matthews: Obama Speech Akin To Gettysburg Address”
Below is my column today in USA Today on the Inauguration Speech of President Obama. Unfortunately, my family got back and reported that the Jumbotron or giant screen was malfunctioning so they missed the entire inauguration speech. Thousands of people were similarly deprived by whatever contractor was handling the screen — a terrible disappointment for thousands who came from all over the country.
Here is the column.
Continue reading “The Obama Inauguration: A Case Of Hope Over Experience”
President Barack Obama is set to give his inauguration address today. The crowd is much smaller than his first term as is his popularity. The new Gallop poll shows Obama at a 49 percent popularity rate. While he remains personally popular, the overall popularity rate below fifty percent is comparable to Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford — two presidents who ultimately languished in office.
Gun Appreciation Day across the country was marked by various gun shot wounds. At the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina, the owner of a 12-gauge shotgun was asked to remove his gun from its case at a security check point and accidentally discharged the weapon — wounding three people.
We previously discussed the scandal surrounding Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane Hathaway who was accused of an array of misconduct leading to her resignation from the Court. Many of us wondered why she had not been hit with a criminal indictment. Now she has. Only a few days before leaving the court, Hathaway is now officially indicted of fraud.
We have yet another mindless enforcement of a zero tolerance rule. A 5-year-old Pennsylvania girl was suspended from kindergarten after she who told another girl that she was going to shoot her with a pink Hello Kitty toy gun that blows soapy bubbles. Originally, the charge was “terroristic threats” against the student. The Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania reduced the charge but still suspends the kindergartener to end her reign of soapy terror.
This was the unsettling scene this weekend after a man walked up to the head of an ethnic Turkish party in Bulgaria and tried to fire in the head of Ahmed Dogan, 58, the leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The gun used by Oktai Enimehmedov, a 25-year-old Bulgarian national and ethnic Turk, was a non-lethal “gas pistol” which will lower the potential charge for the assailant.
Continue reading “Bulgarian Politician Attacked In Public Speech”
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty(rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
On the eve of President Obama’s Inauguration for his second term, I thought it might be useful to look more closely at one of his policies that is not working for students or parents. I am referring to his educational policy, better know by its marketing name, Race to the Top. This “quaint” title for his corporate backed privatizing plan hides the negative impact it has had in the schools themselves. It is has led to school closings and teacher firings for the sole purpose of school districts being eligible for the Race to the Top grants from the Federal government! Continue reading “Obama’s Race to the Bottom”