It would seem a straightforward journalistic piece when Susan Keating at PEOPLE Magazine decided to inform readers that Congressman Steve Russell, R-Okla., and others were questioning the qualifications and training of the first women to pass the Army Ranger school. Russell has asked the secretary of the Army for documentation pertaining to the passage of 1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Capt. Kristen Griest after he said various sources complained that (in direct contradiction of official Army statements) the women were given help in passing the rigorous tests. Keating, however, has been attacked as “anti-woman” for writing the story in a strong backlash as the Army denies all of the allegations.
Category: Society
There is an interesting controversy out of New York county where Acting District Attorney, Madeline Singas in Nassau County has prohibited prosecutors from owning a handgun. This is a curious way for an “acting” district attorney to start if she wants to be an actual district attorney since I believe that rule is unconstitutional. Prosecutors like other citizens have a second amendment right to own a gun. [Update: Singas has withdrawn her clearly unconstitutional condition on prosecutors]
There is a deeply disturbing trial unfolding in Germany involving another “honor killing.” Asadullah Khan, 51, strangled his 19-year-old daughter to death for bringing dishonor on his Muslim family after she stopped wearing the Islamic head scarf and continued to see her boyfriend and was then caught shoplifting condoms. The father and mother, Sharzia, 41, then dressed the dead body of Lareeb, put the corpse into a wheelchair to bring it to a car, then drove from Darmstadt to a remote forest where they rolled her down an embankment (she was found the next day). Both are charged and the key witness against them is their daughter Nida. The parents are from Pakistan and Khan speaks little German.
Continue reading “Muslim Couple On Trial For Strangling Daughter In “Honor Killing” in Germany”
This week, there has been considerable discussion of a series of pictures released by the office of Representative Bob Brady that shows him pouring water in the mouths of family members and staff from the glass used by Pope Francis after speaking in Congress. Yesterday, Brady admitted to taking the glass and sharing the water (while insisting on holding the glass himself) but proffered that he asked permission to take the glass. He also confirmed that he did the same with a glass used by President Obama. What is really astonishing is that Brady not only took these pictures but instructed his staff to release them on social media.
I have long been a critic of the use of shock belts, particularly in courtrooms. Those concerns were magnified this week when Judge Jack Skeen or his deputies shocked criminal defendant James Calvert for failing to stand while addressing the court. Calvert had a long history of disrupting the court proceeding.
Continue reading “Texas Prisoner Reportedly Shocked For Failing To Stand While Addressing Court”
Last week, Qatar’s Sheik Khalid bin Hamad Al-Thani first took a dangerous high-speed race through the streets of Beverly Hills and then allegedly told a reporter that he could kill him given his diplomatic immunity (which he didn’t have) . . . . and then fled the country in contempt of U.S. laws. Now, a Saudi prince has been arrested at a hillside compound near Beverly Hills after allegedly trying to force a worker to perform a sex act on him. Saudi prince Majed Abdulaziz Al-Saud was arrested on suspicion of forced oral copulation of an adult. The arrest followed the reported sighting of a woman covered in blood trying to escape the compound by climbing an eight-foot wall. He is now accused of sexually abusing and beating at least three women during a three-day party in his $37 million Beverly Hills home.
Continue reading “Another Arab Prince Faces Criminal Charges In Beverly Hills”
Just last June, we passed the 26,000,000 mark and today we hit 27,000,000 views. We used these milestones as a time to reflect and give thanks to our many regular readers around the world and give you an idea of the current profile of readers on the blog. This remains a unique place for many of us to gather and exchange ideas and values. I feel enormously privileged to host this site and to have such wonderful weekend contributors and regulars. As our site motto states, “the thing speaks for itself” and that is certainly true of our success. The success of this site is due to this entire virtual community at RIL. We continue to rank in the top legal blogs in the world and we are continuing to see a growing international readership. Indeed, we are currently competing for the top legal blog in a global competition and have moved up to third place despite starting much later to call for votes. If you haven’t voted, it only takes a couple of seconds and you can vote with a single click right HERE.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Yazidi Rights Groups, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq Petitioned the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute ISIS for crimes against humanity and genocide for the terrorist organizations atrocities committed against citizens in Iraq and Syria.
Ekurd Daily reported how the new effort to bring legal accountability to actors in the war torn region.
Members of Yazda International and Free Yazidi Foundation, backed by the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq (KRG), met with ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda today to present their new report outlining how [ISIS] fighters have slaughtered, enslaved, and raped thousands of Yazidis since it invaded their communities in the Nineveh province in northern Iraq last August. Thousands of Yazidi women and girls remain captive as sex slaves among IS militants.
These acts of violence committed by [ISIS] fighters against the Yazidis and other non-Muslim minorities in the region have been documented before. But Murad Ismael, co-founder of Yazda, told VICE News his group’s report provides further evidence of abuses against Yazidis at the hands of foreign fighters. According to the report, there’s an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people from Australia, Jordan, Europe, and beyond fighting for [ISIS].
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We have followed the plight of several reporters for the news medium Al Jazeera who were imprisoned and subjected to various appeals on behalf of the prosecution to ensure their place amongst the incarcerated, accused under dubious evidence of involvement with terrorist organizations and the crime of reporting of false information. The courts even went so far as to accuse them of doing the work of the devil. (HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)
For over a year there has been much outcry in the world media and the public about the abuses against free speech, journalists, and citizens; especially focused it was on these reporters. Now, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi grants a pardon to these Al Jazeera reporters.
Continue reading “Egypt President Pardons Imprisoned Al Jazeera Reporters”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Lewiston Maine Mayor Robert Macdonald advocated enacting a state law that would require welfare recipients’ “names, addresses, length of time on assistance and the benefits being collected” be enumerated on a state website that is made accessible to the general public. Mayor Macdonald claims that because recipients of public pensions, they are government employees, that if this information is public record then the people have a right to know where the money is being spent on welfare recipients.
It is rather difficult in reading the mayor’s letter to the editor of the Twin City Times to accept his notion that his actions are in the public’s interest to see where tax dollars are paid, when he simultaneously makes many references disparaging recipients and those who advocate their plight. Yet, he claims to support privacy rights in other respects.
There is a first amendment controversy that has erupted at Wesleyan University over a column written by Bryan Stascavage, a 30-year-old student who served two tours in Iraq, penned an op-ed in the school newspaper that criticized the Black Lives Matter movement. Stascavage is a sophomore majoring in philosophy and political science at Wesleyan and staff writer for the Argus. He wrote a piece criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement — a position shared by many who view some in the movement as espousing anti-police sentiments and, as discussed on this blog, often denouncing people for declaring that “all lives matter” as racists. However, Stascavage and the editors of the college newspaper were met by a torrent of criticism and calls for funding for the newspaper to be withdrawn. To its credit, the University stood strongly with free speech. However, the editors then issued an abject apology that clearly portrayed the decision to publish Stascavage’s column as a mistake.
We discussed this week the case of two Texas teenage football players who viciously attacked a ref under orders from one of the coaches. The shocking incident was captured on videotape. Now an eighteen-year-old Linden High School (NJ) football player is on videotape (below) pulling off the helmet of an opponent’s helmet and then hitting him in the head with it. After an outcry, supporters insisted that the opposing player had used a racial slur and cheated. Once again, however, (as with the same allegation in Texas) a physical assault is not a justified response to either alleged act.
The Clinton email scandal continues to get worse by the day with State Department officials directly contradicting the long-standing account given by Hillary Clinton. Clinton has long maintained that she turned over a portion of her emails (those not deleted as “personal”) after receiving a letter that went to her and three of her predecessors: Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice as a routine inquiry. The gist is that there was nothing alarming about her exclusive use of a server under her control rather than the secured State Department system. State Department officials now confirm that the request was specifically related to the discovery that Clinton was using a personal email system as her exclusive means of communication. This revelation occurs the same week that the FBI has announced that it has already retrieved some of the emails and that the Clinton staffers who “wiped” the system did a poor job that left the material easily accessible — deepening the earlier concerns over the presence of what is now confirmed to be classified material on Clinton’s unsecured server. The FBI sources described Clinton’s IT person as “not very good.”
Continue reading “State Department Contradicts Clinton’s Long-Standing Account On E-Mails”
There is a new development in the controversy over two Texas High School players, Sophomore Victor Rojas, 15, and senior Michael Moreno, 17, who tackled a referee during a game earlier this month. The players said earlier that they were following the orders of John Jay High School assistant football coach Mack Breed. Now, there is a report that Breed admitted to giving such an order. Beyond the disciplinary issues, that also raises some interesting criminal and tort issues. Update: Breed has now been fired.
Continue reading “Texas High School Coach Reportedly Admitted That He Ordered Vicious Hit On Ref”
Tired already of the presidential election? Well, I learned today that we have been nominated for another blog award. The Expert Institute has nominated the blog for best Education legal blog in competition with some of our friends in the blogosphere. These competitions are always fun and allow us to interact with other blogs and potential readers. If you want to vote, click here.
Continue reading “Flog the Blog: Res Ipsa Blog Nominated For Top Educational Blog”