I pledge not to use The Jerk in the following story. Steve Martin has been named as one of the victims in an impressive international forgery scheme. Martin paid $850,000 in July 2004 for Landschaft mit Pferden (Landscape With Horses). Later he sold it at a loss of 200,000 euros to a Swiss businesswoman. It was then found to be a fake.
Continue reading “Real Men Don’t Buy Campendonk: Steven Martin Named As Victim in Massive Forgery Scheme”
Author: jonathanturley
There has long been criticism of the employment rates claimed by some law schools after graduation. However, Anna Alaburda, a 2008 graduate from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, has taken the matter to court with a lawsuit over alleged misrepresentations that led her to go $150,000 in debt. She cites the statistics given by the school to U.S. News and World Report showing an 80 percent employment rate.
Continue reading “Thomas Jefferson Law Graduate Sues Over Allegedly Misrepresentations Over Employment Rates”
One of the most senior figures in Australia’s Church of Scientology has been criminally charged in a case of sexual abuse. Jan Eastgate is accused of encouraging a young girl to lie and deny allegations of sexual abuse in the church. In the meantime, another leading Church figure, Tom Cruse, is being sued in an action unconnected to the cases in Australia by ex-Scientologist, Peter Letterese, for $250 million under a RICO claim that includes allegations of bribing a judge.
Continue reading “Senior Scientology Figure Criminally Charged After Allegedly Telling Minor To Lie About Abuse”
Things were going so well until he tried to climb on his car . . .
Continue reading “How Not To Pass A Sobriety Test”
While Congress continues to plan for hundreds of billions in cuts and states are closing parks and educational programs, we continue to gush billions on three wars. This fiscal year alone the cost of just Afghanistan will be $113 billion. Just this year. Just for Afghanistan.
Continue reading “Cost of Afghanistan War This Year: $113 Billion”
There was a refreshing moment of truthful clarity last week from Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal during an interview on “CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.” Prince Talal admitted that the Saudis want to lower oil prices to avoid moves toward other energy sources and away from oil. It is the same principle upon which drug dealers offer cut-rate narcotics to keep the addiction going for their customers.
Tiffany Startz, 22, is facing has been charged in a bizarre case after she punched a rapper on a dare last September in Joliet, Illinois — killing John “Fatboy” Powell. It is a modern version of the case of Harry Houdini who reportedly died after a college student punched him repeatedly in the stomach to test his claim of being able to withstand blows. As discussed below, the student was never charged. Startz, however, is facing reckless conduct and battery charges stemming from the incident at a garage party.
Continue reading “The Death of Fatboy: Criminal Charges Brought In Dare Gone Bad”
A British author Alan Shadrake, 76, is the latest victim of a worldwide trend of attacks on free speech. Shadrake wrote a book entitled Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore’s Justice in the Dock detailing the inequities and unfairness of the Singapore justice system. The response of Singapore’s courts was to convict Shadrake and throw him in jail for contempt. The abusive case should be a rallying point for civil libertarians around the world, not to mention any Singaporeans who value free speech and the rule of law. The Singapore government compounded the abuse by banning the book.
I thought a video of a nice Australian waterspout from this weekend would be a nice way to get you going after a week day weekend. I just returned with the family from North Carolina and had a great time.
Continue reading “A Waterspout To Start Your Day”
We previously followed the bizarre story of Pop — a child being raised genderless by his Swedish parents. Now, Canadians Kathy Witterick and David Stocker are raising a five-month-old child, named Storm, and are hiding his gender to raise the child as an “it.”
Continue reading “Storm Rising: Canadian Parents Under Fire Over Plan to Raise Genderless Child”
Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) has sent a letter challenging the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s signing the Patriot Act with an autopen. I discussed this issue on CNN where I explained that, while this is not a good practice, it would likely be upheld under long-standing precedent going back to the 1600s. While obviously the autopen post-dated such precedent, the idea of signing by direction or surrogate is not new.
Continue reading “Is The Autopen Mightier Than The Sword? Rep. Graves Challenges Use of Autopen Presidential Signatures”
I just saw this video of a teenager who reportedly was spotted texting and driving. For years, police have argued that texting has the same impact as alcohol on drivers. This video certainly shows the truth of that claim.
Continue reading “OMG I Just Crashed . . .”
When asked where is the happiest place on Earth, you might have said “Disneyland” but, according to North Korea’s state-controlled media, it is China . . . followed in close second by North Korea.
Continue reading “And The Happiest Place on Earth Is . . .”
Zimbabwean police sergeant Alois Mabhunu has joined a large number of his countrymen in jail under the tyrannical rule of President Robert Mugabe. His crime, however, is rather unique: he used Mugabe’s private toilet. The murder detective was arrested for the offense despite the fact that there is no specific law of criminal commoding. However, in Mugabe’s paradise laws are of little import.
Continue reading “Messing With Mugabe’s Throne: Detective Thrown In Jail For Using the Presidential Privy”
In case you have not seen the YouTube hit below, this is German Shepard Dunder who was pictured in the same spot everyday for a year. You can watch Dunder age from two months to one year old in forty seconds.
Continue reading “See Dunder . . . See Dunder Age”