The Federal Communications Commission lost a major decision to Comcast when the D.C. Circuit ruled that it does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers on Tuesday.
Continue reading “Court: FCC Lacks Authority To Impose Net Neutrality”
Category: Society
The West Virginia coal mine that exploded this week and killed 25 workers has a less than pleasing legal back story. Upper Big Branch mine, operated by the Performance Coal Company, is a subsidiary of Massey Energy. That should ring a bell for lawyers and academics as the company owned by Don Blankenship, who was at the heart of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Caperton v. Massey — a case involving Blakenship’s alleged control of the West Virginia bench through massive campaign contributions.
Continue reading “West Virginia Mine Involved in Deadly Blast is a Massey Subsidiary”
Three Massachusetts teenagers have pleaded not guilty in the bullying of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after what prosecutors call months of threats and harassment. Sean Mulveyhill, 17, (shown here) with the victim Phoebe Prince is one of those charged and reportedly had a brief relationship with Prince before turning against her. Also charged are Kayla Narey, 17, and Austin Renaud, 18. They are among six teens (also including Ashley Longe, Flannery Mullins and Sharon Chanon Velazquez) charged in the bullying of Prince that led to her hanging herself on Jan. 14.
Continue reading “Six Teens Charged After Bullied Girl Hangs Herself”
Many civil libertarians and liberals were critical of President Barack Obama’s selection of Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter. Sotomayor voted with conservatives on the Second Circuit in key police abuse and free speech cases. (here and here and here and here. At the time, many of us opined that Obama would not dare appoint such a nominee to replace liberal icon John Paul Stevens. If the three candidates leaked by the White House on the short list is any indication, there is a two out of three chance that he will do precisely that.
Continue reading “An Uneasy Feeling: Obama’s Short List Reportedly Includes Two Controversial Possible Nominees”
Evelyn Burgess, 42, in Columbus, Ohio appears to enforce a strict dress code for Easter dinner. Police say that Burgess shot her cousin, Danielle Pickens, 19, (shown left) in the head when she showed up for Easter dinner in a T-shirt and jeans.
Wikileaks has released what it claims to be a video contradicting U.S. accounts of an attack that killed a Reuters photographer and 11 other people in Iraq in July 2007. Wikileaks says that it received the tape from a whistleblower in the military.
Continue reading “Wikileaks Releases Alleged Video Showing Killing of Civilians and Reporter — In Contradiction of U.S. Accounts”
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has been named as the person most responsible for allowing a serial child molester to remain as a priest in Wisconsin. He has been named as the party who blocked the defrocking of Reverend Lawrence Murphy.
Continue reading “Vatican’s Second in Command Implicated in Abuse Scandal”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai continued his attacks on the United States and the West — not long after his high-profile event embracing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, here. Despite demands for explanations of earlier criticism of the U.S., he ramped up the attacks by telling leaders that he would consider joining the Taliban against the U.S., which he accused of “massive fraud” in the country.
Continue reading “Karzai Threatens to Join Taliban and Accuses the United States of “Massive Fraud””
Police have been looking for Frank Dryman for 38 years — a hitchhiker accused of murdering a man who picked him up during a blizzard. They found him last week running a wedding chapel in Arizona.
Continue reading “Murderer Arrested After 38 Years On the Lam — Running a Wedding Chapel”
Scientists have found what may be the long-sought “missing link” — a new species of hominid that was a bridge between ape and man. This week they are expected to unveil a two-million-year-old skeleton of a child. As always, we must warn that creationists like Sarah Palin and others believe that such scientists are miscalculating by around 2 million years since the Earth is only around 5000 years old.
Continue reading “Scientists Announce Find Believed To Be Missing Link”
Disneyland Paris is facing a possible strike over work conditions after three employees committed suicide since the first of the year.
Continue reading “The Unhappiest Place on Earth: Paris Disney Experiences Rash of Suicides Among Complaints Over Working Conditions”
Senegal and North Korea have two things in common. One is abject poverty. The other is that they are now neighbors. North Korea, which is gradually starving an entire nation out of existence, bought a piece of Senegal in exchange for funding the construction of a massive statue designed by President Abdoulaye Wade. While others have condemned the exchange (and the use of over $20 million for such an extravagance), Jesse Jackson appeared at the ceremony to praise President Wade, stating “This renaissance statue is a powerful idea from a powerful mind.”
Continue reading “Monumental Failure? Senegal Trades Land to North Korea For Massive Statute Designed By President — Jesse Jackson Applauds Result”
A local priest reportedly succeeded in stopping the convulsions of Sangeeta Persaud, who he accused for being filled with the devil in Guyana. The 15-year-old girl died as the priest, family, and friends worked to rid her of demonic possession.
Continue reading “Fifteen-Year-Old Girl Dies in Exorcism Rite”
A group of women in Portland staged an interesting protest — walking topless to fight the double standard applied to male and female nudity. It is the reaction of the organizer to the men who followed the protest that is notable.
Continue reading “Cause and Effect: Protest Organizer Objects to Men Staring At Topless Demonstration”
The police department of South Glendale California has stopped their use of a man dressed in a bunny outfit to ticket drivers failing to yield to pedestrians. Glendale Police Officer Tom Broadway ended his performance as a street bunny after complaints from a city council member on the expense and necessity of the operation.
Continue reading “Doing the Bunny Cop: Police Cease Use of Easter Bunny for Sting”