Criminal law, Lawyering, Politics, Society

State Department Contradicts Clinton’s Long-Standing Account On E-Mails

170px-Msc2011_dett-clinton_0298StateDepartmentThe Clinton email scandal continues to get worse by the day with State Department officials directly contradicting the long-standing account given by Hillary Clinton. Clinton has long maintained that she turned over a portion of her emails (those not deleted as “personal”) after receiving a letter that went to her and three of her predecessors: Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice as a routine inquiry. The gist is that there was nothing alarming about her exclusive use of a server under her control rather than the secured State Department system. State Department officials now confirm that the request was specifically related to the discovery that Clinton was using a personal email system as her exclusive means of communication. This revelation occurs the same week that the FBI has announced that it has already retrieved some of the emails and that the Clinton staffers who “wiped” the system did a poor job that left the material easily accessible — deepening the earlier concerns over the presence of what is now confirmed to be classified material on Clinton’s unsecured server. The FBI sources described Clinton’s IT person as “not very good.”

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Courts, Lawyering

New Jersey Judge Faces Judicial Complaint Over Crude and Personal Comments

108669155Passaic County Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Portelli (New Jersey) is facing formal judicial conduct charges over what was allegedly “poor judgment and a lack of dignity and respect for his office.” What is interesting is the range of comments, including some that would not have been previously considered a basis for discipline but now raise serious judicial conduct questions. The charges could raise an interesting hearing as subject to different interpretations with Portelli claiming that he is merely salty or familiar in his language while others would call it sexist or intrusive.
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Bizarre, Society, Torts

Texas High School Coach Reportedly Admitted That He Ordered Vicious Hit On Ref

920x920imagesThere is a new development in the controversy over two Texas High School players, Sophomore Victor Rojas, 15, and senior Michael Moreno, 17, who tackled a referee during a game earlier this month. The players said earlier that they were following the orders of John Jay High School assistant football coach Mack Breed. Now, there is a report that Breed admitted to giving such an order. Beyond the disciplinary issues, that also raises some interesting criminal and tort issues. Update: Breed has now been fired.

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Academia, Society

Flog the Blog: Res Ipsa Blog Nominated For Top Educational Blog

blog-nomineeTired already of the presidential election? Well, I learned today that we have been nominated for another blog award. The Expert Institute has nominated the blog for best Education legal blog in competition with some of our friends in the blogosphere. These competitions are always fun and allow us to interact with other blogs and potential readers. If you want to vote, click here.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Religion, Society

New Jersey School District Grapples With Demand For Official Holiday For Eid al-Adha

SchoolClassroomThere is a new conflict over religious rights in public education in New Jersey where Muslim families demanded an official holiday for Eid al-Adha. The meeting erupted when the school board refused to create such a holiday just six days before Eid al-Adha, which would have required thousands to families to scramble to find accommodations for their children. It also raises the slippery slope of adopting some religious holidays and not others. For example, the Jewish community noted that their families do not have official holidays for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. The confrontations raises the question of why public schools should create religious holidays as opposed to giving students excused absences for such holidays, which New Jersey does.

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Constitutional Law, Criminal law, Free Speech, International, Media, Politics, Religion, Society

Le Pen To Stand Trial For “Inciting Racial Hatred” Due To Criticism of Muslims In France

Le_Pen,_Marine-9586Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right National Front, has been criminally charged with inciting racial hatred in the latest example of the rollback on basic free speech rights in France and other European nations. I have been a critic of the crackdown on free speech in France, including the hypocrisy of the government in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. In this case, Le Pen compared Muslim street prayers to a Nazi-like occupation, a statement that should be clearly protected as political speech in France. Instead, she will be pulled before a tribunal in another example of how free speech is being eviscerated by anti-discrimination and hate speech laws.

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Academia, Constitutional Law, Politics, Society

Muzzling Ole Mizzou: Missouri Law Professor Challenges Ban On Guns On Campus

University_of_Missouri_sealBarondes-RoyceUniversity of Missouri associate professor of law Royce de R. Barondes has placed himself at the forefront of the gun rights debate with a lawsuit challenging the ban on guns on campuses in the state. The lawsuit follows the gunning down of history professor Ethan Schmidt on the Delta State University campus. Schmidt was unarmed and Barondes does not intend to go so easily, it appears.

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Criminal law, International, Military

Bacha Bazi: U.S. Soldiers Told Not To Interfere With Afghan Officers Raping Boys At Base Out Of Respect For Cultural Practice

3251700552Marine Lance Cpl. Gregory T. Buckley, 21, of Oceanside, N.Y., died Aug. 10 in Garmsir, Afghanistan, while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force. There is an incredibly disturbing story in the New York Times this week where soldiers have reported being told by American officials to ignore the rape and abuse of Afghan boys at a base by Afghan officers so not to interfere with a cultural practice. The boys were brought to the base to be raped as part of what Afghans call bacha bazi, literally “boy play.” Lance Cpl. Gregory Buckley Jr. told his father that he would lay on his bunk at night and listen to the screaming of the boys as they were sexually abused by Afghan officers. Buckley went to his superiors and was allegedly told not to interfere. Buckley was later shot to death by an Afghan policeman at the base in 2012.

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Bizarre, International, Politics, Science, Society

CEO Buys Rights To AIDS Medication And Immediately Jacks Up Price From $13.50 to $750 . . . Then Calls Reporter A “Moron” For Asking Why

CMN7JlVUYAAzwS5Turing chief executive Martin Shkreli (shown here) has become an overnight villain after public interest organizations raised alarm over his company buying a long-used medicine, Daraprim, in the treatment of AIDS and immediately raised the price of $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill. When a reporter asked him to explain the increase for a drug that has been on the market for 62 years, Shkreli called him a “moron” and refused to answer the question. The company has now become a target in the presidential election as an example of how companies are still profiteering on these drugs.

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Academia, Bizarre, Politics, Society

Oklahoma Teacher Forces 4-Year-Old To Stop Writing With Left Hand Because It Is Considered “Evil”

220px-Alexander1256President_Barack_ObamaZayde did something evil this week in his class in Oakes Elementary in Okemah, Oklahoma. He wrote with his left-hand. That prompted a teacher to explain that the left hand was “bad” and should not be used. When his mother wrote to inquire, the teacher sent an article explaining how the left hand is associated with the devil and is deemed evil. Of course, a few left handers who seemed to do all right range from Alexander the Great to President Obama.

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Bizarre, Criminal law, Lawyering, Society, Torts

Lawyer and Intern Charged With Robbery and Murder After Celebration At Bar

Screen-Shot-2015-09-15-at-5.42.09-PMThere is a tragic but interesting criminal case set for trial in San Francisco involving a tenants rights attorney and a claim of self-defense during a robbery. Eviction Defense Collaborative staff attorney Carlos Argueta, 31, and former intern (and Swiss native who lives in London) Pascal Krummenacher, 21, are charged with murder after they alleged were robbed outside a bar where they were celebrating the end of Krummenacher’s internship. Argueta is accused of stabbing to death James Thomas, 61. There is a videotape in the case reviewed by the Examiner.

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Academia, Environment, Politics, Society

2015 Already Set To Be Hottest On Record

290px-The_Sun_by_the_Atmospheric_Imaging_Assembly_of_NASA's_Solar_Dynamics_Observatory_-_20100819earth-screensaver_largeThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released new data on global warming that, again, the data supports the over-whelming view of scientists that climate change is a dire reality. The world has experienced record-breaking hot weather every month in 2015 and the year is all but guaranteed to be the hottest on record.

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Bizarre, International

Indian State Posts Openings For 368 Low-Level Jobs . . . 2.3 Million Apply

1024px-Flag_of_India.svgAs we struggle with our own unemployment issues, it is easy to lose sight of how much worse the situation is in countries like India. That comparative point was driven home this week when the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh announced that it had a few hundred job openings for low-level office workers who run errands and make tea. The response was a deluge of 2.3 million people applying for the 368 jobs.

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Bizarre, Science

The Monkey Horror Picture Show

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

scary-monkey-cymbalsFor a bit of a break from this weekend’s topics on troublesome issues we bring you a new dawn in primate research. It is true, monkeys like horror movies.

Researchers in Kyoto, Japan were interested in if chimpanzees and their cousins bonobos could display the trait of long term memory through anticipating and predicting outcomes of two similar situations. To do this, the primates were placed watching a movie with an eye tracking device to gauge their interests and whether they would predict what would happen next. Just like in any human horror movie, when the teenage actor looks to the left, we anticipate the zombie will attack from the right.

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