Yesterday I had the pleasure of addressing the American Association of Clinical Urologists on recent developments in law and medicine as well as the controversy over the Supreme Court vacancy left by the passing of Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. I walked past the White House to the speech at the Willard Hotel and was stopped in my tracks by a state funeral in the making. The gun carriage and white horses seemed eerily familiar. It turned out to be the shooting of a scene for a movie called “Jackie,” which I gather is a reference to the former first lady. The procession was meant to reenact the JFK processional.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
In the aftermath of one of the worst shootings of police officers in Washington in decades–where four Lakewood officers were gunned down as they dined at local coffee shop–citizens expressed their grief and horror for such a tragic and senseless act. The Lakewood Police Independent Guild formed a memorial fund for the benefit of widows, husbands, children, and other family members. Donations poured in from within the state and elsewhere. It was a remarkable showing of solidarity and compassion towards a grieving family of law enforcement officers and their friends.
Yet to the disgust of everyone, Skeeter Manos, one of Lakewood’s own officers, took advantage of their generosity and bilked these families out of $112,000.00. He also stole $47,000.00 from the guild’s funds in his capacity as treasurer.
To take money after the slaying of his brother and sister officers is just about as low as you can get. As a further act of his depravity, he burned through these families’ money by purchasing luxuries such as expensive vacations and other frivolous toys.
Manos later pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court and was consequently sentenced to two years of a potential twenty year maximum. Several months ago, he was unfortunately released.
In a testament to the old parable “There is no honor among thieves” he again is in trouble with the law. This time, he is alleged to have stolen from a new employer who wanted “to give him a second chance.”
Continue reading “Former Officer Convicted Of Embezzling Money From Slain Officers’ Fund Arrested Again For Theft”
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
We previously featured beleaguering Missouri Professor Melissa Click who generated controversy by obstructing a student journalist and calling in “muscle” to push him away; denying his first amendment rights. She was later videotaped in another incident yelling at police officers while blocking a protest at a homecoming parade.
After the former incident, she was charged with assault.
Now, the Missouri Board of Curators voted 4-2 to terminate Assistant Professor Click’s employment. Since late January she was on paid administrative leave
Continue reading “Embattled Missouri Communications Professor Sacked”
I have long been critical of the indictment of former Texas Governor Rick Perry. Two years ago, Perry was indicted by a grand jury in Austin on charges of abuse of power. The charges stem from Perry carrying out a threat to veto funding the budget for the Travis County Public Integrity Unit, which handles political corruption investigations. The charges have now been dismissed but I remain concerned that such charges were brought in the first place.
Continue reading “Court Tosses Out Indictment of Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry”
There was a gut-wrenching moment in the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration this week as Leo Perrero, former Disney IT worker, broke down in tears as he recounted how the company fired him and his colleagues despite record profits so that the company could give their jobs to cheaper foreign workers. The video is below. The company then ordered them to train their replacements or lose their severance pay. At the same time, Disney CEO Bob Iger sent a letter to the remaining company’s employees, asking for them to donate money to support the company’s lobbyists in Disney’s political action committee, DisneyPAC. Disney has been at the forefront in securing draconian copyright laws and protections from Congress.
Academics often get a raw deal when people question public accounts of research that seems frivolous or obvious. Often it is not. That may be the case with the research of Professor Astrid Willener and the team from the University of London. The team studied fat and svelte penguins and discovered that fat King penguins are unsteady on their feet while waddling. Fat penguins were also found to be caught more easily. While the films of fat penguins on a treadmill were worth watching just for the novelty, some may be less surprised by the finding that fat penguins are easier to catch and less likely to find mates. The study does show that some realities cross species lines.
If you said “Rogaine Theft” you nailed it. According to police in Ohio, the bald suspect is being pursued in a series of Rogaine thefts from a Walgreens and other stores in Mt. Healthy, Ohio (outside of Cincinnati). If the Rogaine works, they may want to post a before and after picture to help with identification.
Continue reading “Quick: What Crime Is This Man Suspected Of Committing?”
The Malaysian High Court has issued a ruling that confirms the virtual eradication of free speech rights in that country, one of our closest allies in Asia. The Court upheld an absurd edict from Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi banning T-shirts with the word “clean” in Malay as a national security threat. That’s right. A t-shirt calling for clean government has been declared a threat to national security and High Court Judge Muhammad Yazid Mustafa has declared that there is nothing preventing the government from barring such speech. The t-shirts were a response to reports that nearly $700 million had been deposited in the personal bank account of Prime Minister Najib Razak (left).
Demetrius Johnson, 24, died this week and you should know about who he was and how he died. Johnson rescued his his fiance Tempest Thomas and his 8-year-old daughter when a raging fire broke out in their two-family home in Buffalo. He then went back into the fire to rescue his 3 year old son. The boy was found near his father’s body after they both perished in the fire.
A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) contains a staggering new statistical finding: roughly half of the gay black men in the country will be infected with HIV in their lifetime. As if the high rate of incarceration and poverty found in the black communities is not enough, this epidemic appears to be racing through the ranks of gay black men. The CDC also found that a quarter of gay Latino men in the United States will be infected with HIV in their lifetime.
Continue reading “CDC: Half of Black Gay Men Will Be Infected By HIV In Their Lifetime”
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan sent shockwaves through Washington yesterday by ruling that State Department officials and top aides to Hillary Clinton will be subject to discovery on whether they intentionally violated federal open records laws by using or allowing the use of a private email server throughout Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The case opens up another front for Clinton who is facing rising criticism over her decision to exclusively use her own private server for communications as Secretary of State — a decision that gave her control over her email system but exposed classified information to interception. The State Department supplied a secure system for her use but Clinton opted not to use that system. Over 1,700 emails on Clinton’s private email system have been classified (22 at the highest level of “top secret”). While Clinton insists that the information was not marked classified at the time, that is not the test under federal law. Yet, this case concerns the use of the private server to circumvent open record laws. The court also indicated that it may order subpoenas for Clinton officials in light to the failure to fully disclose information. Sullivan, who I have appeared before regularly over the last two decades, is a widely respected judge and a Clinton appointee.
Federal and state courts have handed down a virtually uniform line of rulings protecting the right of citizens to film police in public. That is until the February 19th decision of U.S. District Judge Mark Kearney. Kearney was only put on the federal courts in 2014 by President Obama but has written his first major ruling in curtailing the rights of citizens under the First Amendment. Kearney used that there is no First Amendment right to film police unless they can show that they are challenging or criticizing the police conduct.
After excerpts from Ahmed Naji’s novel Istikhdam al-Hayat, or Using Life, were published in a literary newspaper, a reader brought charges against the author and said that reading sexually explicit passages caused him distress and heart palpitations. An Egyptian court has now sentenced the author to two years in jail for public indecency. Notably, Naji was first acquitted by a court in Egypt on the basis of free speech, however the prosecution appealed. He was retried and convicted.
We recently discussed the difficulty faced by the lawyers for Curtis James Jackson III (aka 50 Cent). While claiming bankruptcy, 50 Cent posted an image of himself with piles of money spelling out the word “broke.” Just to make sure that the court did not miss the disconnect, 50 Cent also posted himself on a bed covered with piles of money. Judge Ann Nevin responded by ordering 50 Cent to appear in court to explain. Despite the court order, 50 Cent published a new picture that shows him in front of a tower of money while referencing his song “Too Rich for the B—h.”
While the Obama Administration has staked a great deal on moderates in the Iranian regime, it is hard to see much progress in the Islamic Republic. That was made clear this week with the news that forty state-run Iranian media outlets have jointly offered a new $600,000 bounty for the death of British Indian author Salman Rushdie. Ayatollah Khomeini, the First Supreme Leader of Iran, issued the fatwa against Rushdie on charges of blasphemy for his novel The Satanic Verses on 15 February, 1989. Ayatollah Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in 2005 in the hateful fatwa remains in full force not just against Rushdie but anyone associated with the book. The fatwa captures the continuing problem that Islamic countries have with basic free speech and free exercise rights.
