Dismissing a police officer for being out of shape is one thing, making it stick in court is another.
Archive for March, 2009
March 20 roundup
- Elena Kagan’s changing views of Senate confirmation process: “Lobster in Pot Re-Evaluates Pro-Boiling Stance” [Spruiell, NR “Corner”]
- “Federal Courts React to Tide of Pro Se Litigants” [NLJ]
- We get permalinks in nice places including a prominent Dutch business paper [NRC Handelsblad]
- Someone who needs research done should snap up Kathleen Seidel, model practitioner of citizen journalism on autism-vaccine fray [Neurodiversity] When she got a call from a charity telemarketer recently, she began checking them out online. Results? Devastating. [Neurodiversity, Popehat]
- How far does Britain’s new animal welfare law go? Does it really cover little Nicholas’s pet cricket? [Never Yet Melted]
- Constitutionalizing judicial ethics: Caperton v. Massey case before Supreme Court is a bit more complicated than you’d think from the NYT editorial [Point of Law]
- If you’re not in favor of government cracking down on what is said in online forums, are you “trivializing women’s harms”? [Danielle Citron/ConcurOp, Scott Greenfield] On the other hand, it doesn’t take a commitment to feminism to note that there are online bullies and they’re a nasty, overwhelmingly male lot [Popehat, language]
- Attorney walks away from a whole bunch of cases after accusation he bribed a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line employee, and his troubles may not be over yet [Florida Daily Business Review]
CPSIA: a season of activism
A season of activism has begun:
- Today’s the day (4 PM Pacific time) that motorbiking legend Malcolm Smith intends to publicly break the law by selling youth motorcycles and ATV at his store in Riverside, Calif. in defiance of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Smith starred with Steve McQueen in the 1970s documentary On Any Sunday, which did much to popularize motorcycle sports. More details at KidsLove2Ride.com:
As a sign of support, a group of small business people and high-profile motorcycle industry celebrities, including racers Jeff Ward and Jeremy McGrath, Glen Helen Raceway owner Bud Feldkamp, and motorsport design guru Troy Lee have all agreed to be on hand to purchase banned units for use by their own children and grandchildren.
No word on whether Public Citizen, or perhaps some on the staff of California CPSIA sponsors/defenders Rep. Henry Waxman, Sen. Barbara Boxer or Sen. Dianne Feinstein, will show up to perform a citizen’s arrest. More from Rob Wilson (“A year ago I would have been shy about supporting ‘illegal’ activities”), Pashnit Motorcycle Forums (“A stupid law that must be defied”), Motorcycle.com, Motorcycle USA, Cycle News, Racer X, Eastern Dirt (Smith has had so many offers of support that he changed the time of the protest to the afternoon so that more could attend).
Advance press notice has already been strong: Daniel McDermon, New York Times “Wheels” blog; USA Today (CPSC has gotten as many as 5,000 emails, letters and calls in one day protesting the ban); Riverside Press-Enterprise. Earlier here.Update: Early protest coverage at DirtRider and at Smith’s KidsLove2Ride.
- Meanwhile, affected crafters, small business people and dealers are making plans to attend the Washington, D.C. fly-in rally, public hearing and CPSIA outreach events in Washington, D.C. April 1. A new website is up on the event titled AmendtheCPSIA.com (not “Repeal”?) and Rick Woldenburg has many updated details at his site. More: David Foster, Chicago Boyz.
CPSIA: transcripts, audio of Hugh Hewitt show
An audio is now up of my guest appearance yesterday on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. And Canadian blogger Charles Henry has generously compiled a transcript of the segment, an especially useful resource because he’s embedded relevant links. He’s also posted a transcript of another segment of the show in which attorney/guest Gary Wolensky talks about this week’s big library/CPSC outcry, as well as vacant toy shelves (“That’s A CPSIA Toy, We Can’t Sell It To You“).
Connecticut divorce: $43 million post-nup isn’t enough
Marie Douglas-David, wife of former United Technologies CEO George David, “says the money isn’t enough to maintain her $53,000-per-week living expenses”. [Chicago Sun-Times, Hartford Courant]
Update: Washington family’s suit over cannon death
“The parents of an 8-year-old boy who died after his grandfather fired a cannon that exploded at an outdoor Fourth of July celebration in 2007 have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Thurston County.” [The Olympian; KOMO; earlier]
CPSIA on the radio: Hugh Hewitt show today
I’m scheduled to be a guest on Hugh Hewitt’s very high-rated radio show today (6:20 p.m. EDT). He’s taken the leading role among talk hosts in publicizing the disasters brought on by the law, so it should be interesting.
CPSIA on the radio: “Kresta in the Afternoon”
I was a guest this hour on the popular Michigan-based radio show “Kresta in the Afternoon” with substitute host Nick (whose wife is a crafter of kids’ items and has been bugging him to cover the law for months…). We discussed the general problems with the law, motorbikes, thrift stores, kids’ garments, libraries and books.
Having finished a draft yesterday on my big unrelated writing project, I’m a little freer now to do radio, and I suspect there may be more of it coming given the interest stirred by the AP’s new piece on libraries.
More baseball liability woes
A state Supreme Court ruling that allows a Bettendorf woman to sue over injuries her daughter suffered when she was struck with an errant bat at a minor-league baseball game threatens the spirit of America’s pastime, according to a judge who said his fellow justices have “taken a mighty swing … and missed by a mile.”
Cynthia Sweeney had signed a liability waiver, but sued anyway after her daughter, sitting in the bleachers as part of a school field trip, was struck by a bat that went flying. For more baseball-liability reports, follow our baseball tag.
Didn’t know it was unsafe to dance on bar, cont’d
This time a New York city judge has dismissed the claim of Irish tourist Valerie Morris, who slipped while dancing on a bar and sued the bar owners. We’ve covered previous dancing-on-bar suits from Illinois here and here.