This weekend, the New York bar lost one of its most accomplished lawyers, David Buckel, 60. Buckel reportedly burned himself to death in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on Saturday morning. Buckel was the lead attorney in the lawsuit brought by Teena Brandon, a transgender man who was raped and slain in 1993 in Nebraska. The case inspired the 1999 movie “Boys Don’t Cry.” He left a suicide note reading “I am David Buckel and I just killed myself by fire as a protest suicide. I apologize to you for the mess.”
One of the least reported stories this year has been the building catastrophe unfolding in our oceans due to pollution and climate change. There is no better example of our failure to protect our environment than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) now stretching 600,000 square miles, according to a study published last week in 
Now this is a case only Stuart Smiley can truly understand. An Egyptian “court” has sentenced well-known singer Sherine Abdel-Wahab to six months in prison and a fine for telling a joke. Sherine, as she is known, simply made an oft-hand remark that people should not drink out of the Nile. For that, she was
Douglas Tompkins, who founded The North Face and Esprit clothing companies has left a truly inspiring legacy with his wife Kristine McDivitt Tompkins in the creation of one of the world’s greatest national parks. Chile has agreed to the establishment of a park in Patagonia stretching 10 million acres. The park was based on land purchases for $345 million by the couple to protect this gorgeous and unique place. I cannot imagine a greater gift to humanity.
