The radical art collective Voina is facing charges for hooliganism after the group painted a 210-foot penis a drawbridge in St. Petersburg. The group, however, will also receive an art prize from the Ministry of Culture and the National Center for Contemporary Art.
Continue reading “Russian Ministry Awards Art Prize To Group That Painted 210-Foot Penis on Drawbridge — While Criminal Charges Are Pending”
Category: Society
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has handed down a ruling against both a client and his lawyer for the violation of a gag order. The ruling against Don Hill, the former Dallas official, and his lawyer, Ray Jackson, could have implications for lawyers defending their clients in public against alleged governmental misconduct. Hill was given 30 days on top of the 18-year prison sentence in 2009 for corruption and Jackson was given a $5,000 fine levied by the trial court as well as a 120-day suspension from any client appointments in the Northern District of Texas
A poll released this week shows that 46% percent of Mississippi Republicans believe that interracial marriage should be illegal. That staggering number is accompanied by only 40% who believe that adults should be free to marry who they want. This poll just happens to come out on the anniversary of the argument in Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), where the Supreme Court in a 9-0 vote struck down Virginia’s anti-miscegenation statute.
Continue reading “Mississippi Polling: Roughly Half of Polled Republicans in Mississippi Believe Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal”
The Idaho House just passed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that grants no exceptions for rape, incest, severe fetal abnormality or the mental or psychological health of the mother. As if to avoid any question of the religious basis for the measure, the sponsor state Rep. Brent Crane, R-Nampa, explained to the House that this was God’s will.
Continue reading “Idaho Passes Strict Anti-Abortion Measure After Sponsor Invokes “Hand of God””
Former prosecutor and judge Clifford J. Minor has confessed to taking a bribe, procuring a false confession, lying to investigators, and falsifying documents. Before serving as a prosecutor and a judge, Minor was a police officer. He later ran for mayor of Newark.
Continue reading “Former Judge and Prosecutor in Newark Confesses To Arranging False Confession By Innocent Man To Clear Career Criminal”
Australia is upping the ante in the war on smoking. Previously we saw how some countries have put disgusting pictures on cigarette packages to discourage smoking. Now, Australia is set to require “ugly packaging” where companies are prevented from putting their logos on cigarettes and must use the least attractive color found in government research for smokers: dark green. (For the record, dark green is my favorite color and this move is likely to push me toward smoking).
Maine lawmakers are addressing what appears to be a pressing public policy issue: one-armed people who want switchblade knives. A bill will allow one-armed persons to possess the currently illegal switchblades knives.
Continue reading “In the Land of the Armless Men, The One-Armed Man is Gang Leader: Maine Moves To Legalize Switchblades For One-Armed People”
For those of us who are lifelong Bears fans, there are few icons quite like William “The Refrigerator” Perry. It is well-known among Bears fans that Perry hit tough times financially and then was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome. I saw this story on Reddit and was moved by the kindness shown to Perry by a Cliff Forest, 10, who saw that Perry’s Super Bowl XX ring was being sold. Realizing that Perry may have had to sell it, Forest used $8,500 from his college fund to buy the ring . . . and then tracked down Perry and gave it to him.
Continue reading “Ten-Year-Old Boy Uses College Money To Buy “The Fridge’s” Super Bowl Ring . . And Returns It To The Ailing Bears Linebacker”
There is an alarming report the FBI had a senior ABC news journalist as a confidential informant in the 1990s — a report who was actually given a confidential source designation with other snitches. The reporter appears to have passed along confidential information to the FBI including the identification of a confidential source. The reporter is identified only as informant number NY290000-SI-DT and the description as “a senior official employed by ABC News for over 15 years.”
Continue reading “Who Was The FBI Mole At ABC?”
Many people were a bit surprised when the Candie’s Foundation, a nonprofit group, selected Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, 20, to be their national advocate against teen pregnancy. Now, the judgment of Candie’s Foundation officials has been put into even greater question with the disclosure that the nonprofit paid Palin $260,500 for this role.
Continue reading “Raiding the Candie’s Jar: Bristol Palin Paid $260,500 To Campaign Against Teen Pregnancy”
China has continued its effort to avoid the type of protests for freedom seen in other authoritarian regimes. By permitting free speech or association? No, a more classic approach. The Chinese are rounding up bloggers, lawyers, activists, and anyone who has expressed free thought in the last few years. The latest is prominent artist Ai Weiwei, who was arrested trying to board a flight to Hong Kong.
Continue reading “China Arrests Leading Artist in Crackdown on Free Speech”
I confess I delayed in posting this story because I was convinced that it an April Fool’s joke but various media outlets are reporting that a police officer in Marble Hill, Missouri was forced to resign after she shot to death a threatening . . . Chihauhua. The dog was shot by deputy, Kelly Barks.
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
A couple of months ago, my daughter recommended that I take a look at an adoption case that was just ruled on by the Missouri Supreme Court. I did not have a chance to look at in-depth until recently and it is both interesting and heart wrenching. It involves a Guatemalan immigrant mother whose baby was born in the United States while she was in the country illegally and the baby was adopted while the mother was in prison. Thankfully, the Missouri Supreme court ordered a new adoption hearing which could still be another hurdle for the biological mother, but she now has a chance at regaining custody of her son. Missouri Supreme Court Continue reading “Adoption Nightmare for Guatemalan Mother”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
In honor of Major League Baseball’s opening day, here’s a little item from Irvin, Texas Lawyer Darrell W. Cook who’s a huge Texas Rangers fan. Last year when the improbable happened and the Rangers made it to the World Series Cook was taking no chances. Seeing a pretrial conference on his calendar which conflicted with Game 1, Cook filed this emergency motion for continuance excerpted here:
Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty, (rafflaw), Guest Blogger
It seems like everywhere you turn there is a story about the how bad the deficit is and how the government must make drastic cuts to save the economy and reduce the deficit. The Tea Party is clinging to their demands for $100 Billion in budget cuts or they say they will shut down the government. “Rep. Mike Pence (R) of Indiana, a tea party favorite in Congress, urged taking a hard-line on budget cuts – and if that meant a shutdown, then so be it. “If liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and shut down the government instead of making a small down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say, shut it down,” Congressman Pence said, eliciting a chant of “Cut or shut! Cut or shut!” from the crowd. Republicans worried about blame for a shutdown might not be so happy with Pence for that.” Christian Science Monitor Continue reading “Tea Party Versus the Middle Class”