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.
The Obama Administration is in talks with BP over the resumption of deep water drilling after the President’s call for more drilling of oil and more coal development. They could have an agreement before the one year anniversary of the April 20 blowout on the Deep water Horizon rig. In the meantime, Transocean Ltd. gave its top executives bonuses for achieving the “best year in safety performance in our company’s history” — despite the explosion killed nine of its own employees and spilled 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
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 David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Boumediene v. Bush was a 5-4 Supreme Court decision with the majority opinion written by Justice Kennedy. The case was a writ of habeas corpus submission made in a civilian court of the United States on behalf of Lakhdar Boumediene, a naturalized citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, held at Guantánamo for six years.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
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”
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
On December 23, 2010, Bei Bei Shuai, a 34 year old pregnant woman who was suffering from depression, attempted suicide, which in Indiana is not a crime. Friends found her in time and persuaded her to go to the hospital and get help. Six days later, the baby was delivered, prematurely, by cesarean section and four days after that the newborn girl died.
On March 14, 2011, the State of Indiana arrested Shuai, jailed her, and charged her with murder and attempted feticide.
-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger
Kipp Hagaman, an Ivins, Utah man, enters a Chase branch with $3 in his pocket and withdraws $2000, in cash, from his account. He takes the twenty $100 notes and goes to America First Credit Union to pay bills. A teller and the assistant branch manager at America First Credit Union tell Hagaman that one of his $100 bills is counterfeit.
Continue reading “Utah Man Claims Chase Branch Passed Him a Counterfeit $100 Bill”
Submitted by Mark Esposito, Guest Blogger
Spanish police are still trying to figure out how alleged kidnapper Jose Carlos Serna twice escaped from jail on the authority of a fax. Serna was arrested after police discovered him hiding in a carved out sofa in his home in a Madrid suburb. The reputed head of a kidnapping gang, Serna was freed after jailers received a bogus fax purportedly from the regional court ordering his release. A call was even placed to the jail confirming the fax. Jail officials tried to verify the order with the court but their calls went unreturned.
There is a very disturbing first amendment case this week in Knoxville, Tennessee where a federal jury convicted Army Sgt. Franklin Delano “Dale” Jeffries II of threatening Knox County Chancellor Michael W. Moyers. The threat came in a juvenile song that Jeffries posted — raising very serious concerns over free speech.
Continue reading “Army Sergeant Convicted Of Threatening A Judge Due To One Line In A Song”
There is a disturbing case out of Florida where EllenBeth Wachs, 48, the legal coordinator for the Atheists of Florida had been arrested for unauthorized practice of law because she signed letters using “Esq.” for esquire.
Continue reading “Florida Prosecutors Charge Leading Atheist Advocate With Unauthorized Practice of Law Due To The Use of Esquire”
The Old Bailey appears to have radically changed notions of punishment in the criminal justice system. Satpal Kaur-Singh, 44, confessed to forcing his autistic son, Ajit Singh-Mahal, 12, to drink bleach to kill him. She succeeded in Barking, England. Her sentence: seven years — less than what you get in this country on some burglary charges.
In Benbrook, Texas, two teenagers were charged after a bizarre sacrificing of two chickens to enhance the performance of their baseball team. The teens, 15 and 16, were also barred from playing baseball for the rest of the season.
Continue reading “Two Texas High School Students Charged With Animal Cruelty Over Chicken Sacrifice”