Harrisburg, Pa. Mayor Linda Thompson and Harrisburg City Controller Dan Miller are in a remarkable confrontation that could virtually shutdown the city. Thompson issued an order to city workers that bar them from speaking directly to the city controller’s office, city council members and the media. Miller responded by giving her an ultimatum: rescind the gag order or he will rescind his payroll signature stamp.
Continue reading “Harrisburg Mayor in Showdown With Controller Over Gag Order”
The Virginia legislature passed a flurry of bills stripping away limitations on gun possession in the state. After intense lobbying from the National Rifle Association and over $1 million in NRA campaign contributions, the lawmakers passed 20 gun bills expanding possession and ownership rights in the state.
Continue reading “Guns-O-Plenty: Virginia Passes 20 Gun Bills”
Senior Judge Geoffrey P. Morris has ordered the removal of two billboards proclaiming “hell is real” in Kentucky after finding that they have stood without a permit for five years.
Continue reading “Kentucky Judge Declares Permits (like Hell) Are Real”
A Scottish brewery has achieved the dubious record of the beer with the highest level of alcohol — a response to a German brewery that produced a 40 percent beer. BrewDog returned fire with a 41 percent beer named “Sink the Bismarck.”
Continue reading “Sink the Bismarck: British Brewer Releases a 41 Percent Beer”
Joseph Reyes may be unique in the annals of criminal law: he is facing potential jail time for baptizing his daughter. His ex-wife Rebecca Reyes is Jewish and was awarded custody of the girl. The mother is raising her in the Jewish faith. Hon. Edward R. Jordan has issued an order barring Reyes from “exposing his daughter to any other religion than the Jewish religion. …” Now Reyes faces the ultimate baptism under fire.
Continue reading “Crossing the Jordan: Father Faces Jail for Baptism of Daughter”
Christina FourHorn is suing the Denver police department in a bizarre mistaken identity case that led to her jailing — and an alleged refusal of police to listen to repeated efforts to show that they had the wrong person. It is only the latest in such mistaken identity arrest cases.
Continue reading “Close Enough For Police Work? Denver Police Arrest Mother on Way to Pick Up Daughter At School — Despite the Fact that She Looks Nothing Like Suspect”
Redondo Beach City Prosecutor Brenda Wells is receiving considerable heat over her decision not to charge Torrance Police Sgt. Michael Mastick, who was involved in an off-duty hit-and-run collision. He admitted that he fled the scene because “judgment was impaired by alcohol.” A novel defense to be sure but it seems to have worked.
Continue reading “Prosecutor Refuses to Charge Police Officer Who Allegedly Commits Hit-and-Run, Lies About Accident, and Then Defends His Actions As “Impaired By Alcohol””
If falling ratings were not enough, CNN’s Anderson Cooper now has to deal with falling interior designers. He is being sued by an interior designer, Killian O’Brien, who fell at the site of his new home — an old Manhattan firehouse that is being converted. She fell 17 feet through the hole that once held the station’s fire pole.
Continue reading “Anderson Cooper Sued Over Fall At NYC Home”
Somebody drug test this man. U.S. snowboarder Graham Watanabe was asked what it was like to compete in his second Winter Olympics. He responded it was like “Pegasus mating with a unicorn and the creature that they birth I somehow tame it and ride it to the sky and clouds and sunshine and rainbows.”
We have another case of officers arresting a distraught family members at the scene of an accident. This one involves James Rourke of Doylesburg, Pa., who had rushed to the scene after he learned that his 19-year-old son Freddy was in a serious car accident with a friend and still trapped in the car. The photos from the scene are horrific. If he thought things could not get much worse, Rourke was wrong. The arrival of two officers lmer Hertzog and James Erme would result in Rourke’s arrest and charges with a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.
U.S. figure skater Johnny Weir is the subject of an international outcry over his insistence on wearing real animal fur in his figure skating outfit — despite his prior promise to yield to demands that he use faux fur.
Continue reading “Ready to Weir: Fur Flies At Olympics Over Outfit of U.S. Figure Skater”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney came out this weekend in an interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl to proclaim “I was a big supporter of waterboarding.” It is an astonishing public admission since waterboarding is not just illegal but a war crime. It is akin to the Vice President saying that he supported bank robbery or murder-for-hire as a public policy.
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While the Obama Administration and Congress continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, legislators continue to dismantle our public services, parks, and educational programs due to budget shortfalls. In Utah, state Sen. Chris Buttars proposed one way of dealing with a budget shortfall: just eliminate the 12th grade. It is not clear why legislators have decided to keep public education at all. If we simply eliminate education, we can send children directly into military training or to work for foreign companies from countries that are expanding their research and educational budgets at the same rate of our decline.
Continue reading “Utah Legislator Proposes To Deal With Budget Shortfall By Eliminating The 12th Grade”
In a remarkable discovery with transformative implications for humans, researchers have discovered and detailed the process by which a protein serves as the switch for releasing cancer cells throughout a body from an original cancer site. The protein called disabled-2 (Dab2) is critical to many of the most common and deadly forms of cancer, including breast and colon cancer.
Continue reading “Scientists Find “Switch” That Releases Cancer Cells Throughout the Body”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is fighting with another judge and this one seems ready to hold him in contempt in Mesa, Arizona. While Arpaio routinely disregards and even investigates local judges who oppose his controversial policies or actions, here, he picked the wrong fight with a federal judge this time. U.S. district judge Murray Snow has formally found grounds for sanctioning Arpaio for the acknowledged destruction of records in a lawsuit involving racial profiling.
Continue reading “A Mesa in Arizona: Judge Finds Basis for Contempt Sanction Against Arpaio”