Texas authorities continue their criminal crackdown on potty mouths. The latest criminal is Joseph Loflin, 48, who was charged with using the word “shit” in front of a 13-year-old girl in Texas City, Texas. Loflin used the word to describe cat droppings left in his garden.
Continue reading “Texan Criminally Charged For Using Bad Word In Front of Teenager”
Here is today’s column in USA Today concerning the argument today before the United States Supreme Court in the case of April Redding.
Continue reading “Lockdown High: Zero-Tolerance Policies and Authoritarian Learning”
You really can’t say it better than this.
Aisha al-Hamzi, 40, was executed by firing squad in Yemen for the murder of her husband. She insisted that she killed her husband after he molested their oldest daughter, who is now 14. Notably, she would have been spared if any of her seven children asked for a pardon. Critics blame the husband’s family for pressuring the children in their control not to ask for a pardon. In the meantime, another woman was executed by beheading in Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading “Mother Shot By Firing Squad After Children Refuse to Ask for Pardon”
The Supreme Court today accepted U.S. v. Stevens, which will decide whether Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Virginia can be prosecuted for selling videos of pit bull fights. The case could decided the broader question of animal snuff films, crush films, and other disturbing images being sold on the Internet. This case focuses on a federal law criminalizing sale or possession of such images.
Continue reading “Supreme Court to Rule on Free Speech Claim Over Animal Cruelty Films”
A British tabloid is reporting that it conducted an undercover sting and confirmed that the father of Rubina Ali (one of the child star’s from the movie Slumdog Millionaire) is trying to sell the girl for £200,000.
Continue reading “Oscar Special: Father of Slumdog Millionaire Child Actress Accused of Trying to Sell Daughter”
I just completed the discussion below on NPR’s On Point with Professor Robert Turner of the University of Virginia. It shows the flood of different rationales being put forward from every quarter to excuse not investigating war crimes.
Continue reading “On Point Debate With Professor Robert Turner”
This week involved not one but two leading lawyers nailed for shoplifting. In Wichita, Troy Ellis the former chief counsel at Invista was forced to resign after filmed allegedly stealing food from the company cafeteria. In the meantime, in Utah, former prosecutor Gary Guymon (left) was arrested for stealing a necklace from a jewelry shop at a resort.
Continue reading “Two Leading Lawyers Face Shoplifting Allegations in Two Separate Cases”
Erie Police Chief Steve Franklin has a remarkably distorted view of good police work. After Erie Police officer James Cousins II, 40, in Pennsylvania was shown on a video joking about a murder and tasering someone in an unrelated case, Franklin said it was entirely appropriate to assign Cousins to participate in his own investigation and to find the person who posted his drunken boasting on the Internet.
Continue reading “Video: Police Officer Shown on Drunken Video Joking About Murder and Tasering Suspect — Later Assigned to His Own Investigation”
Chicago attorney Nathan Billmaier, 35, was convicted of smuggling drugs and paraphernalia in legal briefs and materials to a client, Donald Jordan, in prison. He is the second attorney in Chicago to be nailed for smuggling in contraband.
Continue reading “Chicago Attorney Convicted of Smuggling Contraband into Prison”
Finally, an Olympic event in which I could compete.
Continue reading “Synchronized Sleeping — The New Olympic Sport”
U.N. special rapporteur Manfred Nowak has gone public with a stinging indictment of President Barack Obama’s failure to investigate and prosecute officials for the American torture program, a clear war crime under existing treaties. Obama is in open violation of international law due to his failure to uphold the clear legal and moral obligations of this country.
Continue reading “United Nations Official Strongly Suggests That Obama Is In Violation International Law in Refusing to Investigate War Crimes”
One of the more shocking revelation from the May 30, 2005 Bradbury memo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003. Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002. Unless I am missing something, that would mean that that KSM was tortured roughly six times a day.
Continue reading “Memo: Bush Administration Tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 Times”
There are major question being raised about the failure of state authorities and police to respond to complaints by students at the St. Andrew’s Christian school. Sarah Johnson and Bec Gavan say that, not only were their complaints about St. Andrew’s Christian School headmaster Frank Bailey, but they were later expelled from the associated college. In late 2006, Hazel Bell, a science teacher, also raised the alarm to the board, but was terminated by Bailey. Bailey later pleaded guilty after being charged with drugging and raping a different teenage girl.
Continue reading “Headmaster at Religious School Admits Rape of Students — Prior Complaints of Teacher and Students Ignored by Police and Board”
A Quebec judge has handed down a curious ruling is dismissing a 13-year-old Sikh boy who was charged with brandishing his ceremonial dagger or Kirpan and a large pin in school. Youth court judge Gilles Ouellet ruled that, while there was evidence to convict the boy, “If the three boys had the same nationality, and the same faith, this case would not have ended up before the court.” What exactly does that mean?
Continue reading “Sikh Teenager Cleared in School Assault With Kirpan and Long Pin”