Officer Rolls Jeep and is Allegedly Found With Open Liquor Bottle While Smelling of Alcohol . . . But Is Not Charged After She Refuses Sobriety Test and Other Officers Deny Smelling Alcohol

Questions are being raised about the handling of a Bartlett, Tennessee police officer who was found off-duty in an accident where she rolled over her jeep, which contained an open liquor bottle. EMTs reportedly smelled alcohol and Officer Teresa Brignole refused a sobriety test. However, the officers at the scene supported her in saying that they did not smell alcohol and she was not charged with DUI.
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Family Sues Funeral Home After Grandmother’s Brains Are Returned With Personal Items

An unnamed family in New Mexico has filed a lawsuit after a horrific discovery among the bag of personal belongings returned to them by the DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory in Espanola Valley: the brains of their deceased grandmother.

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Accenting the Positive in Polygamy: South African President Marries Fifth Wife in Zulu Ceremony

South African president Jacob Zuma has decided to accent the positive in marrying his fifth wife (he is currently married to three other women). He tied the knot for the fifth time and is now married to three women. Zuma insists that his polygamist lifestyle is more “honest” than leaders who simply cheat with mistresses.
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Plaintiffs in World Bank Protest Case File for Forensic Expert

This week, the Plaintiffs in the World Bank/IMF protest case filed a notice with the Court on the appointment of a forensic expert to investigate the destruction of evidence in the case. As lead counsel in one of the two cases (with my colleague Daniel Schwartz of Bryan Cave), I am limited in what I can say on the case. However, to reduce calls to my office, I am posting the filings below.
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Chicago Police Considers Dropping Entrance Exam To Increase the Number of Minority Officers

A police officer in the Chicago Police Department sent this story to me. It appears that the CPD is moving oward dropping the entrance exam for officers to add more minority officers and avoid legal battles over applicants rejected on the basis of the exam.
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Japanese Whaling Ship Cuts Off Bow of Environmentalist Ship

Sea Shephard’s hi-tech anti-whaling speedboat Ady Gil was virtually cut in half by a Japanese ship running interference for whalers this week. The Japanese Shonan Maru hit the speedboat during one of the confrontations at sea. At video of the ship is found at the site below.
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Please Check Your Carry-On: Slovakian Police Plant Explosives and Contraband on Unwitting Airline Passengers . . . Leading to the Arrest of Innocent Irishman

There is a bizarre case out of Ireland where a 49-year-old man was arrested after being found with contraband and an explosive at the airport. It turns out that the Slovakian police planted the explosives and contraband on passengers at the Bratislava Airport, but did not bother to tell the Irish authorities.
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Fur Flies Over Advert: PETA Runs AD With Picture of First Lady Without Permission

PETA’s new ad featuring Carrie Underwood, Tyra Banks, Oprah Winfrey and the First Lady bills them as “among the most stylish and influential women in America” who “all refuse to wear real fur.” The First Lady also refuses to make such endorsements. The ad raises questions over the use of celebrity images without consent and possible appropriation of name or likeness in torts.

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France To Make Psychological Abuse in Marriages a Crime … With Electronic Monitoring

There is an interesting debate occurring in France over a law that will make the country the first to criminalize “psychological violence” within marriage. A spouse who engages in psychological abuse will be criminally charged and potentially forced to wear “electronic tagging.”

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Tennessee Judge Reprimanded and Sued For Policy of Forced Drug Tests Based on Courtroom “Hunches”

Tennessee General Sessions Judge Durwood Moore has a curious view of the fourth amendment and the doctrine of judicial notice. Moore is the subject of a judicial ethics complaint and lawsuit after he had an observer in his courtroom arrested and forced to do a urinalysis. Moore insisted that this is simply his routine practice when he has “a hunch.”

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Iranian Court Orders Economics Journalist Jailed for Over Seven Years and Flogged

AFP is reporting another outrage out of the Iranian legal system where a journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amoui has been sentenced to over seven years in jail and a flogging with 34 lashes. Amoui was a critic of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies.

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Gestational Surrogates Win Custody Rulings in Michigan and New Jersey

There is a significant ruling out of New Jersey on the rights of gestational surrogate who gave birth to twin girls who are not genetically related to her. Angelia G. Robinson, agreed to have the children in 2006 for her brother, Donald Robinson Hollingsworth and his spouse, Sean Hollingsworth. The men arranged for the use of an anonymous donor’s eggs and fertilized with sperm from Sean Hollingsworth. The decision follows a similar win by a gestational surrogate in Michigan.
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