Word Around the Net and Construction Risk Blog report on the results of a contest that featured some doozies.
Archive for 2010
January 18 roundup
- Already-infamous Coakley-for-Senate rape-ad mailer: did they really line up all those photo permissions? [Lopez, NRO] Earlier on photo-permissions legal exposures here, here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.
- “Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Peyton Thomas: Blame the Libertarians!” [Balko, earlier]
- Georgetown lawprof Robin West takes such a rude tone with homeschoolers, it’s enough to make you wonder who brought her up [Common Room, Izzy Lyman/Big Journalism, “The Harms of Homeschooling” (PDF)] Parents charged with child endangerment for homeschooling their kids without submitting lesson plans [Albany Times-Union]
- Videogames and the ADA: “Sony Launches Defense to Gamer’s Equal Access Suit” [OnPoint News, earlier]
- Regulations may spell end for independent New England fishermen [AP/MSNBC, earlier]
- Veteran California pol Willie Brown criticizes civil service entrenchment [Kaus] Government employment has its privileges [Stuart Greenhut, Reason]
- New Jersey appeals court reverses $260K award over student’s fatal window fall at Fairleigh Dickinson U. [Star-Ledger]
- Georgia federal judge orders plaintiff to pay $268K costs of discovery for stretching patent claims [Fulton County Daily Report]
Welcome WTIC listeners
I was a guest on Ray Dunaway’s Hartford-based show this morning to discuss the important trial lawyer/state AG earmark lately discovered in the health care legislation. I mentioned the earlier attempt to sneak a massive trial lawyer bonanza into the bill; for details on that, follow links here, here, here, here, and here.
“Posner Blasts ‘Out of Control’ Class-Action Lawyer in Fee Fight”
Rex Carr of East St. Louis is fighting his former partners at Korein Tillery. [ABA Journal]
Panic over middle schooler’s science project
A lockdown and evaluation results, and now authorities are recommending that the student and his parents get counseling. The project in question was an empty half of a Gatorade bottle with some wires and other components, intended to work as a motion sensor; the school is a tech magnet school. [San Diego Union-Tribune, Greenfield, Alkon]
John Stossel on the Amirault case
Didn’t realize the newsman had covered the story (quite a while back, it would appear from the look and feel of the video):
Via Andrew Sullivan. On Massachusetts AG and Senate candidate Martha Coakley’s role, see this earlier post, as well as critical videos here and here, Popehat, Jury Box, and Radley Balko.
“Electrosensitives tortured by a radio tower that had been switched off for six weeks”
A news item that recalls this recent comment thread.
January 16 roundup
- Caution: Warning label overload. Why wacky warnings matter. [Ted Frank @ Sphere]
- Further evidence of efficiency of product liability limits when federal safety regulation is already in place. [Philipson/Sun/Goldman NBER Working Paper No. 15603]
- Army seeks to court-martial soldier in Afghanistan for possessing “child pornography” when his mother sends him family photos that include a four-year-old in a swimsuit. [AP/WaPo via Riehl; WQAD]
- Burger King coffee is hot, too. [Virginian-Pilot]
- The “slush pile” disappears, in part because of fear of plagiarism litigation. [WSJ]
- Schwarzenegger faces fight on his proposed tort reforms. [Legal Newsline (I’m quoted)]
- I’m speaking at NYU Law January 21 at an American Constitution Society panel on class action issues. [NYU Law]
- Off topic, but I believe that this may be the first time I’ve been listed in the index of a book.
“Mother sues party mates of dead teen”
A late-night binge drinking outing by some high school friends in Norfolk, Mass. ends badly. The mother says her late daughter “is absolutely 100 percent responsible” for what happened to her but is still is suing seven (7) teenagers and adults for their roles. [Boston Globe]
John Stossel on CPSIA
In his show last night on “Crony Capitalism”, with CPSC Commissioner Anne Northup as a guest, he told how Mattel and Hasbro are fine with the law that is wiping out many of their smaller competitors. Other segments of the show can be watched here.