It took almost 150 years, but Virginia has finally surrendered at the Battle for the Wilderness — without firing a shot. In a terrible blow to historians and preservationists, the Orange County Board of Supervisors caved into pressure from Walmart and business groups to allow the construction of a huge Walmart store next to the historic Wilderness battlefield where 145,000 Union and Confederate soldiers fought and close to 30,000 were killed or wounded. Despite international objections to the damage to this historic area, the pro-development board voted 4-1 to side put a big box store ahead of its own proud legacy.
Category: Academia
We have been following questionable uses of tasers by police. This video from 2004 raises some disturbing questions where a former BYU professor Tom Lowery is tasered in court during a rambling argument. It is clear that the use of the force, in my view, was unnecessary and improper — particularly in a court of law.
Continue reading “Shock Video: BYU Professor Tasered in Court”
U.S. News and World Report has released this year’s ranking of the top colleges and universities in the country. Harvard and Princeton tie for the top spot among national universities.
Continue reading “U.S. News and World Report Releases 2010 Top Rankings of Colleges”
A study by Yuegang Zuo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, has made a surprising discovery: ninety percent of U.S. bills tested by this laboratory had traces of cocaine on it.
Continue reading “Study: Ninety Percent of U.S. Bills Have Traces of Cocaine”
It is not that Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman do not have a prayer, they had too many prayers. The two officials defied a settlement barring prayers on constitutional ground and now face six-month sentences — a matter of widespread protest among parents.
Continue reading “Florida High School Principal and Athletic Director Face Six Months Over Prayers”
Next time some parents carries on about how smarter their toddler is, throw the little boy a ball and tell him to roll over. A recent student has shown that dogs are actually as smart or smarter than most 2 1/2 year old toddlers. I was told about the study after my speech at the American Psychological Association in Toronto this week.
Continue reading “My Dog Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student — Really”
John Quincy Adams is tweeting. The Massachusetts Historical Society has begun posting daily tweets from Adams’ diary that he began 200 years ago when he went to Russia as the first U.S. Minister. As a line-a-day diary it is perfect for Twitter.
Continue reading “NFW! John Quincy Adams is Tweeting Me”
<img src="http://jonathanturley.wordpress.com/files/2009/08/180px-herbal.jpg?w=150" alt="180px-Herbal” title=”180px-Herbal” width=”150″ height=”130″ class=”alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-13524″ />A study of pipe stems and bowls from the homes of William Shakespeare by the South African Police Services Forensic Science Laboratory in Pretoria has made an interesting discovery: traces of cannabis and possibly cocaine. The report by the South African Journal of Science suggest that Shakespeare might have tripped the light fantastic like a seventeenth century Hunter S. Thompson.
Continue reading “The Bawdy Bard and “The Noted Weed”: Researchers Find Traces of Cannabis and Cocaine in Pipes at Shakespeare’s Homes”
Scotsman Rudi Boa, 28, and his girlfriend Gillian Brown were on a trip to New South Wales, Australia when they met English backpacker Alexander Christian York, 33. The couple and York had some drinks and soon got into an argument over evolution. York ended up stabbing Boa to death but was given just a five-year sentence because the court found him a decent chap and the killing an “aberration.”
Continue reading “Creationist Kills Evolutionist With Knife But Is Sentenced to Just Five Years After Court Finds Him a “Person of Good Character” and the Killing “A Complete Aberration””
We have all seen them. People who have had far too much cosmetic surgery and skeletal diets who lay on beaches until they turn the color and texture of aged leather. It appears, however, that the Italians were able to find an actual skeleton among these sun-dwellers on a Roman beach — a 4,500 year old Roman.
Continue reading “4500 Year Old Skeleton Found on Italian Beach”
Trina Thompson does not feel that she got a sheepskin from Monroe College — just skinned. Thompson, 27, has sued after she failed to get a job and wants her $70,000 back.
Continue reading “Graduate Sues College After Failing To Get Job”
Lubna Hussein, a former journalist and current United Nations worker, is facing 40 lashes for the crime of wearing pants in a public place — an act of unspeakable “indecency” under Sharia law in Sudan. She says that 10 other women arrested at a restaurant in Khartoum, including some non-Muslims, were already flogged.
The debate continues to rage this week over the push by Vice President Dick Cheney and others to have former President George Bush deploy active military units in a suburb of Buffalo to arrest a small group of men who were suspected of supporting terrorism (here). Nor surprising, Bush officials went to Berkeley law professor John Yoo to tell them that (surprise!) the President was not bound by the Fourth Amendment or federal law if he unilaterally declared the operation to be a national security matter. Yoo and his former colleague conclude that “the president has the legal and constitutional authority to use military force within the United States to respond to and combat future acts of terrorism, and that the Posse Comitatus Act does not bar deployment.” I discussed the controversy on this segment of Countdown.
Continue reading “Yoo Must Be Kidding: Professor Argues That Bush Could Negate Both The Fourth Amendment and The Posse Comitatus Act By Simply Declaring Deployment To Be A National Security Matter”
The State Bar of California will allow a remarkable graduate of UC Davis School of Law to sit for the bar exam after the intervention of the California Supreme Court. Sara Granda is a quadriplegic who was barred from sitting on the exam due to a technical glitch on her online application.
Continue reading “California Supreme Court Orders Bar to Allow Quadriplegic To Take Exam”
There is a bizarre story out of China where dozens of Chinese students have seen their future wiped out by the disappearance of the manila folders containing their records. In China, these paper folders follow a student throughout his or her career with every achievement, score, and prospect for a college education. While Chinese officials say that the folders were lost in a move of an office to a floor above, reformers believe that corrupt officials sold the folders to the parents of underachieving students, who then use their records to secure valuable jobs and college entrance.