A recent report shows that 47 percent of U.S. households pay no federal income taxes. The Tax Policy Center found that the percent of non-paying households had risen from 38 percent in 2007 to 47 percent this year.
Continue reading “Report: Fifty Percent of Households Pay No Federal Income Taxes”
Charlie Vandergaw has discovered the perils of fame. Vandergaw was featured on Animal Planet in a segment called “Stranger Among Bears.” He has now pleaded guilty to eight counts of intentionally feeding game and given a suspended sentence and large fine.
The Federal Communications Commission lost a major decision to Comcast when the D.C. Circuit ruled that it does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers on Tuesday.
Continue reading “Court: FCC Lacks Authority To Impose Net Neutrality”
Lin Yu Chun is being touted as the Asian Susan Boyle after blowing away the competition at the Taiwanese singing competition Super Star Avenue with his rendition of Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
The West Virginia coal mine that exploded this week and killed 25 workers has a less than pleasing legal back story. Upper Big Branch mine, operated by the Performance Coal Company, is a subsidiary of Massey Energy. That should ring a bell for lawyers and academics as the company owned by Don Blankenship, who was at the heart of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Caperton v. Massey — a case involving Blakenship’s alleged control of the West Virginia bench through massive campaign contributions.
Continue reading “West Virginia Mine Involved in Deadly Blast is a Massey Subsidiary”
Three Massachusetts teenagers have pleaded not guilty in the bullying of a 15-year-old girl who committed suicide after what prosecutors call months of threats and harassment. Sean Mulveyhill, 17, (shown here) with the victim Phoebe Prince is one of those charged and reportedly had a brief relationship with Prince before turning against her. Also charged are Kayla Narey, 17, and Austin Renaud, 18. They are among six teens (also including Ashley Longe, Flannery Mullins and Sharon Chanon Velazquez) charged in the bullying of Prince that led to her hanging herself on Jan. 14.
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Many civil libertarians and liberals were critical of President Barack Obama’s selection of Sonia Sotomayor to replace David Souter. Sotomayor voted with conservatives on the Second Circuit in key police abuse and free speech cases. (here and here and here and here. At the time, many of us opined that Obama would not dare appoint such a nominee to replace liberal icon John Paul Stevens. If the three candidates leaked by the White House on the short list is any indication, there is a two out of three chance that he will do precisely that.
Continue reading “An Uneasy Feeling: Obama’s Short List Reportedly Includes Two Controversial Possible Nominees”
Police in in the Liverpool John Lennon Airport have arrested two women aged 41 and 66 for the crime of trying to sneak the body of a dead relative on a flight to Berlin. They face the relatively low charge of failing to give notification of death.
Continue reading “Dead Weight: Women Try to Check in Corpse on Flight to Berlin”
If the sign encouraging you to laugh out loud at drowning people was a bit confusing (here), it is the model of clarity when compared to this Italian street sign.
Continue reading ““Attenzione Prostitute”: Italian Road Signs Causes Driver Confusion”
Evelyn Burgess, 42, in Columbus, Ohio appears to enforce a strict dress code for Easter dinner. Police say that Burgess shot her cousin, Danielle Pickens, 19, (shown left) in the head when she showed up for Easter dinner in a T-shirt and jeans.
The government may want to reconsider the design of this particular sign.
Wikileaks has released what it claims to be a video contradicting U.S. accounts of an attack that killed a Reuters photographer and 11 other people in Iraq in July 2007. Wikileaks says that it received the tape from a whistleblower in the military.
Continue reading “Wikileaks Releases Alleged Video Showing Killing of Civilians and Reporter — In Contradiction of U.S. Accounts”
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has been named as the person most responsible for allowing a serial child molester to remain as a priest in Wisconsin. He has been named as the party who blocked the defrocking of Reverend Lawrence Murphy.
Continue reading “Vatican’s Second in Command Implicated in Abuse Scandal”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai continued his attacks on the United States and the West — not long after his high-profile event embracing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, here. Despite demands for explanations of earlier criticism of the U.S., he ramped up the attacks by telling leaders that he would consider joining the Taliban against the U.S., which he accused of “massive fraud” in the country.
Continue reading “Karzai Threatens to Join Taliban and Accuses the United States of “Massive Fraud””
Police have been looking for Frank Dryman for 38 years — a hitchhiker accused of murdering a man who picked him up during a blizzard. They found him last week running a wedding chapel in Arizona.
Continue reading “Murderer Arrested After 38 Years On the Lam — Running a Wedding Chapel”