This newly released photograph has raised concerns that the recent deadly crash at the Nevada air race may have been caused by a defective cockpit seat. The pilot, Jimmy Leeward, should have been seen in the cockpit even if he had passed out in the Galloping Ghost, his vintage WWII-era P-51 mustang.
Continue reading “New Picture Shows Pilot Missing on Galloping Ghost Shortly Before Fatal Crash”
Category: Society
On shows like The Daily Show, people have chuckled that former Senator Rick Santorum’s name is synonymous with a graphic sexual act. Gay columnist Dan Savage launched a campaign for people to link the name to the act on Google. This prompted Santorum to contact Google and complain that the company is “spreading filth.”
Retired international law professor Detlev Vagts, 82, has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in the death of Marcia Kearney in Newton, Massachusetts. In light of his plea and presumably his age, Vagts was spared prison time in favor of three years probation and six months of house arrest. He has been ordered not to drive for the rest of his life.
Continue reading “Former Harvard Law Professor Pleads Guilty to Vehicular Homicide”
If brevity is the soul of wit, Walter Maksym may be the most witless lawyer in practice. That may soon change if the Seventh Circuit has its way. The court slammed Maksym recently for writing a brief full of gibberish, including a 345-word sentence. The court has ordered Maksym to show cause why he should not be disbarred.
Continue reading “Seventh Circuit Slams Attorney For 345-Word Sentence and “Gibberish” — Demands Show Cause On Possible Disbarment”
The use of informers by police have always been criticized, particularly jail house snitches who will implicate anyone for a better deal. Scotland Yard has used 158 “supergrasses” used since 2006, including Gary Eaton, 51, who is now the center of a scandal over such procured testimony. Called a “pathological liar” by two courts, the Metropolitan Police still used Eaton to the trial of various people of murder. While records show the police were aware of his prior record, pathological lying, and mental instability, Scotland Yard has announced that no officers or prosecutors will be punished for his use as the star witness in two murder trials.
There may be need for an intervention in Congress after Rep. John Fleming, a Louisiana Republican, admitted to what appears an eating disorder. Fleming went on television to denounce Obama’s plans to tax the wealthy and explained how he really does not have a lot of income left over from earning $6.3 million a year from his string of Subway and UPS businesses. He insists that after paying taxes, salaries, and support for his businesses, he only takes home $600,000 — of which $200,000 goes to food for his family. Fleming is the father of four adult children and lives alone with his wife.
Continue reading “Eating Out of House and Home: Republican Opposes New Taxes By Noting That He Needs $200,000 a Year for Food”
For years, we have discussed the abusive litigation by the Recording Industry Association of America in seeking obscene damages against people for downloading songs. Congress, again, caved to demands by lobbyists to allow for such lawsuits. The result has been thuggish lawsuits where industry lawyers threaten not only citizens with ruin but, in the case of the Copyright Group, those who try to help them. Now, one of the most obscene verdicts against Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum has been reinstated by the First Circuit — $675,000 for downloading and sharing 30 songs. The court, however, takes the rare step of suggesting that Congress may want to look again at the law. The problem is that these citizens do not have well-paid lobbyists and massive campaign funds to motivate many members to act. The Obama Administration joined the industry in defending the law and the original fines as not unconstitutional.
Stealing kid’s lunch money has long been a scourge in schools, but usually the thieves come from the ranks of adolescent bullies. Prosecutors allege that Joanna Fan and her husband, Ziming Shen, never got out of the habit and stole at least $2.5 million in federal funds meant for nutritious meals for preschoolers.
Continue reading “Stealing Kid’s Lunch Money: New York Couple Charged With Theft From School Programs — And Then Go Bonkers Outside Court”
Submitted by Gene Howington, Guest Blogger
Webster’s defines compassion as:
compassion \kəm-ˈpa-shən\, n.,
: sympathetic of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it
In yet another instance of corporate callousness, Claudia Rendon, a 41-year old mother from Philadelphia, was fired from her job at Aviation Institute of Maintenance after taking leave to donate a kidney to her son, Alex. Kidney transplant surgery normally takes six to eight weeks recovery time. Rendon had discussed taking unpaid leave from July 19 to undergo the kidney transplant surgery on July 21 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and to return to her job on September 1. She told ABC News that on her last day of work, her manager presented her with a letter to sign acknowledging that her job was not secure one hour after telling her that she would have her job upon her return. On August 24, Rendon informed Aviation Institute of Maintenance that she might not be able to return to work September 1 due to severe lower back pain; a common complication of such surgery. Aviation Institute of Maintenance said they wanted a letter from the doctor. The University of Pennsylvania hospital and her short-term disability provider each wrote letters to Rendon’s employer stating she would return to work Sept. 12. Upon making a social visit to Aviation Institute of Maintenance on September 8, she found out her position had been filled by someone else on September 6. Alex, who was a student at AIM, has also suffered repercussions of undergoing this lifesaving transplant. The school is trying to collect $2,000 related to time he took off in addition to trying to charge him $150 to re-enroll. Did Aviation Institute of Maintenance break the law? Or are they just another example of a callous employer lacking in compassion?
Respectfully submitted by Lawrence Rafferty(Rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
I admit that I get a headache when I read any news about former Bush administration officials, but it seems that former Vice President Dick Cheney is in the news again and I am left scrambling for my migraine medicine. He has written a book detailing all the wonderful things he accomplished as Vice President under George W. Bush. Unfortunately for Mr. Cheney, in his efforts to explain his work as Vice President under George W. Bush, he may have provided an admission of some of the alleged lies that critics claim were being spread by Cheney and the Bush administration in the lead up to war in Iraq. Continue reading “Recent American History According to Cheney”
Here is our picture of the week from our erstwhile colleague in the City of Light, Eric Tenin.
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Most people who regularly visit this blog know that I am Jewish. While I am not what one would call a pious Jew, being a Deist in outlook, I have always been very proud of my ethnicity and of the religion, which plays a central part in it. From their infancy, my children were immersed in Judaism both through education and by our family regularly taking part in Jewish Rituals, including regular Synagogue attendance. Where I part personally from normative Judaism is that I view the Torah, The Five Books of Moses, as primarily allegory with some real history thrown in. To me it is a work of some wise and some not so wise men, not the writings of God. I believe and have seen demonstrated in many families though, that the Torah and its 613 Commandments can serve as blueprint for living a fulfilling life.
The issue becomes complicated when it comes to my feelings about Israel. To me the existence ofI srael is a necessity for Jews to have a future in this world and if it comes to it, a final haven to make our last stand. I am an American first, so I would not willingly emigrate away from the country of my birth, unless those who hate Jews come to power. Contrary to the opinion of many, Jews are far from being a homogeneous ethnicity/religion. One cannot for instance refer to being an Orthodox Jew with any precision of description since that movement is in itself splintered on many details of interpretation. This is true of the other main branches of Judaism: Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionism. Perhaps it is because there is no central Jewish religious authority speaking for all Jews, as much as organizations like ADL, AIPAC, et. al. would claim to, that the range of Jewish opinion is so wide on so many subjects.
This brings me to an article I read at the PublicEye.org titled: “The New Christian Zionism and the Jews”. Its’ thesis is that many Jewish supporters of Israel and the current Israeli government have allied themselves with Christian Fundamentalists whose “love” for Israel and Jews come from the wish to fulfill the prophecies of The Book of Revelations, where in fact Jews not willing to accept Jesus, will die in a horrid holocaust. This trend has been one disturbing me for a long time. I have watched Jews and Israeli’s embrace Fundamentalist Christian support, in what to me is a shortsighted and irrational policy. This could be justified by saying that a country takes its allies where one can get them. Sometimes what seems an example of realpolitik is merely an instance of dangerously narrow opportunism, as I will elaborate. Continue reading “The Christian Zionist Movement and Jewish Confusion”
For about a week, I have been hesitant to post on the Solyndra scandal. There seemed to be a bit of too much of a pile on due to this being a green tech company. However, it is now serious and new evidence suggests that the White House was not just cavalier with such stimulus funds but willfully blind that this company (run by a major Democratic donor who visited the White House repeatedly before the public support by the President) was likely to fail. At best it was a remarkably moronic move by the President and his staff.
Continue reading “White House Warned in 2009 That Solyndra Was Poor Investment”
There is a disturbing story out this week that four-star Air Force Gen. William Shelton testified under oath that the White House tried to pressure him into changing his testimony on a new wireless project in a way that would benefit a large Democratic donor. There is also an allegation that someone in the Administration leaked the intended testimony to the company.
Continue reading “General Accuses White House of Pressuring Him To Change Testimony To Favor Company Run By Democratic Donor”
A new report on the quality of police in England found that some officers are “barely literate because entry standards are so low.” The author suggests that these standards were lowered to allow for greater numbers of minority officers. However, now the lack of literacy is delaying proceedings and causing problems for judges and lawyers alike.
Continue reading “Report: English Police Officers “Barely Literate” Due To Lowering Entry Standards”