Mayor William Lantigua of Lawrence. Massachusetts has announced that the city will no longer pay legal bills for police officers, including the bills for officers currently in court in nine brutality cases pending in U.S. District Court.
Continue reading “City Stops Payment of Legal Fees for Accused Police Officers”
Category: Bizarre

As we continue to spend billions every week in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, states continue to cut basic programs for lack of funding. The latest is Illinois, which just cut all funding for drug and alcohol abuse treatment in the state and Michigan which has ordered Detroit to close half of its schools (driving class size to 60 students). What is striking is the lack of any connection drawn between these states which are short hundreds of millions of dollars in their budgets and the expenditures of billions each week in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Continue reading “Illinois To End Funding of Alcohol and Drug Programs While Michigan Orders Detroit To Close Half of Its Schools”

Texas Tech University seems to be sending a rather curious message about its priorities. Faculty members are objecting after the administration froze faculty salaries for the entire university but then gave Texas Tech football coach Tommy Tuberville a $500,000 a year raise.
Continue reading “Texas Tech Freezes Faculty Salaries While Giving Its Football Coach a $500,000 Year Pay Increase”
I just saw this on Reddit and thought it was a bit of a curious sales pitch for Florida State University. I note that they do not give the same assurance of “mostly sober” for their faculty.
Continue reading “FSU: The S is For (Semi-)Sober”
Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Cat Lafitte has become the latest victim of the enticement of Facebook. Lafitte reportedly posted an assortment of shocking comments on her accounts, including bragging about cutting a hospital worker’s face when he tried to get her to stop screaming profanities into her cellphone.
Continue reading “Dallas Officer Suspended Over Facebook Postings”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Steve Martin’s character, Navin Johnson, has nothing on two West Virginia residents hell-bent to rescue a relative with car trouble. Hearing the plea for help, but without sufficient funds to finance the 34 mile trip from Somerset, PA to New Stanton, PA, cousins Michael Allen Graham, 37, and John Edward Barry, 35, got resourceful. Believing they could “live off the land,” so to speak, the Milton, WVa duo began an alleged shoplifting spree at gas stations and auto parts stores in the general direction of the disabled motorist.
Continue reading “Politics of Contraband: Jerks Smuggle Jerky to Finance 34 Mile Trip”
Hastings Law Professor Clark Freshman has acquired some real-life material for his next class. Narcotics police raided his home on January 11th in the belief that he had an illegal marijuana growing operation. They found only a rather ticked off law professor.
Continue reading “Hastings Law Professor Subject To Mistaken Drug Raid”
Harvey A. Updyke, 62, reportedly really really likes the Alabama Crimson Tide . . . and does not think much of trees. Police arrested Updyke in the poisoning of the historic oak “Toomer’s” trees at Auburn where victories have long been celebrated by students and faculty.
Continue reading “Meet Harvey Updyke: ‘Bama Tide Fan and Alleged Tree Killer”
Evan Emory, 21, is the focus of a curious case of pornography in Wisconsin. Emory convinced a first-grade teacher at Ravenna’s Beechnau Elementary School to allow him to come into her class and sing two kid-themed songs. He videotaped the songs and then went home and substituted sexual lyrics to make it look like the kids were listening to provocative songs. He now faces a potential sentence of twenty years for the crime.
Continue reading “Wisconsin Man Charged With Child Porn After Altering Video of School Song To Look Like Kids Were Listening To Sexual Lyrics”

In an example of unparalleled hubris, Iraqi officials are demanding that the United States apologize and pay $1 billion for the damage done to the city. Officials are complaining that the blast walls installed by the U.S. to protect the public are ugly and that Humvees and vehicles have caused damage in patrolling the city and fighting insurgents.
Continue reading “Iraq Demands $1 Billion And An Apology From U.S. For Damage To Baghdad”
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minnesota, has come up with an easy way to say $100 million: end military sponsorships of NASCAR. Most people might be a bit surprised to learn that we are spending $100 million for NASCAR endorsements, but that cost is quite modest when you consider that the military is willing to spend almost $500,000 for a flyover of a closed football stadium.
Continue reading “Congresswomen Moves To Stop Military From Spending $100 Million in NASCAR Endorsements”

There is a rather considerable controversy over academic freedom out of Widener School of Law where professor Lawrence Connell has been suspended after using Dean Linda Ammons in hypotheticals in class. Two students filed complaints alleging that his use of Ammons (who is black) was violent, racist and sexist. The school is demanding that he retract the statements.
Continue reading “Widener Law Professor Suspended For Using Dean In Hypotheticals”
In Sarasota County, Florida, Neil Lansing, 34, proved a virtual Cornucopia during a cavity search during booking. Officers removed everything short of his lawyer in their routine search.
Continue reading “Horn-O-Plenty: Inmate Found With 30 Items During Cavity Search”
Former President Jimmy Carter has been named in a disturbing and clearly frivolous lawsuit over his representations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his 2006 book “Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid.” The five plaintiffs are seeking $5 million, but, in my view, should be held for Rule 11 sanctions in filing a vexatious and frivolous lawsuit. There is certainly a basis for the court to conclude that the lawsuit is a case, to paraphrase the book, “sanctions, not damages.”
Continue reading “A Basis for Damages or Sanctions? Jimmy Carter Sued Over His Book on Palestine”
The Dallas County Commissioner’s Court meeting this week became the scene of a racially charged incident after citizens confronted Commissioner John Wiley Price. Price, who is black, responded by telling the citizens “All of you are white. Go to hell!”
Continue reading “Dallas Commissioner Tells Complaining Citizens “All You Are White. Go To Hell””