Category: Society

Constitutional Law, Courts, Society

Washington Supreme Court Rules City Of SeaTac’s $15.00 Minimum Wage Applies To Port Of Seattle’s SeaTac Airport

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

City of SeaTac LogoIn January of 2014 we featured an article about the City of SeaTac Washington, where the Seattle Tacoma International Airport (SEA) is situated, passed a set of labor codes that included a fifteen dollar per hour minimum wage. Immediately afterward opponents filed suit in Superior Court objecting to, among other issues, that the Port of Seattle was a separate legal entity not subject under state law to Proposition 1, granting these increased wage benefits and city oversight. The trial court partially ruled in favor but struck down parts of the law’s provisions. The judge however certified the case for direct appeal to the state supreme court.

Today, the Washington Supreme Court published its opinion, siding with defendants, the City of SeaTac and Its clerk in her official capacity, in a five to four decision.

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Courts, Lawyering, Media, Politics, Society

Federal Judge Says Hillary Clinton Violated Government Policy In Using Personal Server While Secretary of State

170px-Msc2011_dett-clinton_0298sullivanHillary Clinton has insisted throughout the ongoing email scandal on two points repeated as a virtual mantra: there was no classified material sent on her unsecured personal email system and she was in total compliance with the law. I have questioned both points and noted that she is really saying that no “marked” classified material was sent (a less than compelling argument) and she is speaking of federal criminal laws as opposed to the clear official policy not to use such personal servers. It appears clear that some of this material was indeed classified and, as I discussed this week on NPR, the policy against doing what she did was clear and strong at the time of her tenure at State. Now, United States District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan has weighed in with comments this week that Clinton clearly did violate State Department policy and that violation caused much of the difficulty in retrieving her communications while in office.

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Animals, Criminal law, Environment, International, Society

Fowl Attack: Spanish Woman Captured On Film Beating Animal Rights Activist With Duck

55d69d2ac461884c108b45a2For an animal rights activist, the only thing worse than being beaten by a deranged individual at a protest would be to be beaten by a deranged individual using one of the very animals you are trying to protect. That happened to a man in the Catalonian town of Roses when a woman hit him with one of the ducks that protesters were trying to protect from use in an annual festival. The video is below.

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Bizarre, Media, Politics, Society

State Department First Claims There Are Zero Emails Related To Scandal . . . Then Admits To Court That There Are Thousands

StateDepartmentWhile the attention nationally has been on the server of Hillary Clinton and the ongoing investigation, there is a new development in the effort to acquire another set of emails that should cause public outcry. Two years ago, the State Department officially stated that there were no emails responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request about a close Hillary Clinton adviser’s contact with the media. Now, after the intervention of a federal judge, the Department has admitted that it has located 17,855 emails that appear to match the criteria. From 0 to 17,855 and no one seems particularly bothered by the false statement of the State Department in its early response to the lawful request under FOIA. No one is under review at the State Department for possible termination or even discipline. No one is being transferred or retrained. The government first says that there were no emails and then is forced to admit that there are potentially thousands. It is being treated as just another day in the life of our government.

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Criminal law, Media, Society

Private Company Used By Clinton Reportedly Kept Its Servers In Bathroom Closet Of Loft Apartment

170px-Msc2011_dett-clinton_0298The growing scandal surrounding Hillary Clinton’s use of an unsecured server now involves a little known Denver company that she used for the system. Clinton has repeatedly dismissed concerns about her decision not to use the secure State Department system by saying that she had her own security team and that the server was always protected. Now there is a media report that Clinton actually used a small company with Democratic party ties in Denver which reportedly kept its server in a bathroom closet in a loft apartment. The report raises again questions of the security used for the system while there are also questions being raised about Clinton lawyers lacking clearances to deal with possibly classified material in deleting thousands of messages and holding copies of messages. There has not been a response printed to the story thus far and the position of the Clinton campaign (including challenging the accuracy of the story) is unknown at this time.

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Free Speech, International, Politics, Religion, Society

Russian Orthodox Extremists Destroy Russian Avante Garde Art In The Hermitage

1280px-Spb_06-2012_Palace_Embankment_various_14While the world has followed the appalling destruction of art by ISIS and Muslim extremists, it is easy to forget that such religious extremism is not limited to Islam. We saw such an example recently in Israel. Another such case has emerged in Russia where Russian Orthodox activists destroyed Soviet avant-garde art deemed insulting to their religion. The attack led the head of the Hermitage Museum Mikhail Piotrovsky to denounce the attack as further evidence of a “sick” Russian society and the rise of “marginal forces against cultural rights” in the country.

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Bizarre, Society, Torts

Man Seeks To Prevent Suicide at University of Hawaii . . . Rescuer Dies While Suicidal Man Survives From Fall From 14th Floor

UnknownThere is a bizarre tragedy in Honolulu where a man sought to keep a 19-year-old man from committing suicide at the University of Hawaii. The man on the ledge of the campus housing ended up taking both himself and the older man, aged 24, down with him. As fate would have it, the older man died and the suicidal man survived with serious injuries.

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Criminal law, International, Media, Politics, Society

The State Department Flags More Than 300 Clinton Emails As Possibly Classified

170px-Msc2011_dett-clinton_0298This week, Hillary Clinton doubled down on the email scandal in a speech that appeared to mock the ongoing investigation of her use of an unsecured email system during her time as Secretary of State and dismissing questions over her use the system as pure politics. She even joked “You may have seen that I recently launched a Snapchat account. I love it. I love it. Those messages disappear all by themselves.” It is a great line but it is only funny for those who are entirely untroubled by the real danger that Clinton put national security secrets at risk by insisting on retaining control over her own emails and server. One group that is not laughing are former intelligence officials who have accused the government, again, of showing special treatment for powerful figures in the mishandling of classified material or current officials who are continuing to classify hundreds of emails from Clinton’s records. The number of Hillary Clinton emails now flagged for classification has grown to 300. The number is expected to rise even higher as the agencies plow through thousands of emails that remain after the Clinton staff erased thousands of others from the server.

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Bizarre, Society, Torts

Woman Sues “House of Throwed Rolls” After Toss Leaves Her With Torn Cornea

240px-LambertsCafeAlJul07Lambert’s Cafe in Missouri calls itself the “Home of the Throwed Rolls” after its signature practice of lobbing dinner rolls by servers to guests. It is now accused of serving up an unrequested tort after Troy Tucker was hit in the eye and has sued the restaurant for medical bills and legal fees.

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Criminal law, International, Society, Torts

Massachusetts Man Alleges That He Was Raped At Airbnb In Madrid After The Company Refused To Act On Pleas For Help From His Mother

UnknownAirbnb is a growing phenomenon as people rent out their homes and apartments as an alternative to hotels: often giving visitors more room and costing less than hotels. (For the record, we recently used Airbnb to rent a house in California) A recent case in Madrid has shown the inherent danger in such sites. On July 4th, Jacob Lopez called his mother on her cellphone in a desperate call for help. He said that when he arrived at his Airbnb, he found his host in the apartment who locked him in a room and demanded sex from him. The mother, Micaela Giles reportedly tried to get Airbnb to act but they refused and told her to call police.

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Criminal law, Society

Federal Agent Carjacked and Kidnapped By Four High School Students

fedagentjacked_smallFour high school students picked the wrong guy to allegedly kidnap and rob. Texas border patrol agent Armando Alaniz was was vacationing with his family in Florida and was packing up his car when four teens jumped him and threw him into his car. Gregory McDonald, 19, Dante Askins, 18, and two other teens, 15 and 16, are accused of pistol-whipping the agent, tying him up, robbing him, and then abandoning him at a vacant drug house in Orlando. What is interesting is that an OnStar vehicle security representative called the car after the victim’s wife called police. The agent heard someone screaming for help and notified police.

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International, Society

KRD Top Level Domain Will Provide Kurds A “Virtual” Homeland

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

krg-dit-logoDespite decades of division and in many cases a denial of what is hoped for a united Kurdistan, the Kurdish people may soon have a common homeland that geopolitics has deprived them—albeit virtual.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, encompassing the northern territory of Iraq, will soon launch the .KRD Top Level Domain (TLD) and allow registration for individuals, organizations, and companies.

Though the .KRD domain is administered by the KRG’s Department of Information Technology (Iraq), the scope of the domain is envisioned to foster a common community that is presently divided among several nations such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia.

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Constitutional Law, Courts, Politics, Society

Washington Supreme Court Fines State $100,000.00 Per Day For Legislature Failing To Fund Education

By Darren Smith, Weekend contributor

washington-flag-sealNearly eleven months after holding the State of Washington in contempt for failing to provide an adequate funding plan for financing primary education in the state, the Washington Supreme Court issued an order fining the state $100,000.00 per day until the legislature satisfies the Court’s judgement in its landmark McCleary decision.

After three special sessions, the Legislature failed to provide a clear and fully funded plan. The Court acted, much to the chagrin of many of the state legislators. A few of which had some rather interesting solutions to address their failures to act.

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Bizarre, Society

Washington Officer Fired After Bus Driver’s Videotape Contradicts Account Of Profanity Laced Confrontation

2B46D37C00000578-3193896-image-a-32_1439308568705King County Deputy Sheriff Deputy Amy Shoblom has been fired after after an internal investigation determined she falsely accused a bus driver of using a profanity during an argument with her sergeant. It is an interesting case where the question turned on whether a bus driver used profanity. The case is one of honesty and integrity as the basis for termination of one and possibly two officers.

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