Told in cartoon panels [xkcd via Coyote]
Archive for 2011
Att’n Boston Mayor Menino
It doesn’t count as a “healthier choice” unless you actually let people choose. [Amy Alkon] And: Are we surprised that federal tax money is bankrolling the Boston mayor’s demonize-sweet-drinks kick? Not really, given that the federal government has been dishing out money to Michael Bloomberg’s administration in New York for similar purposes.
P.S.: “To encourage healthful eating, [a Chicago public] school doesn’t allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home.” [Chicago Tribune]
April 11 roundup
- “Teacher threatens student with defamation suit for complaining about her grades” [Bassett, Calif.; San Gabriel Valley Tribune via TortsProf]
- Rolls-Royce case: “Judge Posner Provides Preview of Wal-Mart v. Dukes Ruling?” [Trask]
- But note Davidoff comments: “Plaintiffs Lawyers Eyeing Marcellus Shale Work” [Legal Intelligencer]
- Massachusetts: for its 85-year-old administrator, is an anti-poverty empire forever? [Lawrence Eagle-Tribune via Zincavage]
- Senate Judiciary advances Rhode Island nominee Jack McConnell by 11-7 vote [PoL, earlier]
- Bonuses for arrests? Way to disgrace a law enforcement system [Greenfield, related]
- “Insulting Your Boss Online Is Now Protected Speech” [AtL, earlier]
- Treasury’s Do Not Shop list [five years ago on Overlawyered]
Heritage, Heartland talks on Schools for Misrule
The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. and the Heartland Institute in Chicago have posted videos of my talk on Schools for Misrule. (Although I adapt the talk to fit audiences and time constraints, if you’ve seen one version, much will be familiar about the others.) The Heritage talk is the same one that C-SPAN2’s “Book TV” broadcast over the weekend; it can be watched at Heritage here.
The Heartland version is broken into two parts on YouTube (parts one, two). Here is part one:
Volokh Conspiracy blogger David Bernstein, who teaches law at George Mason, generously recommended the book the other day. And liability reformer Bob Dorigo Jones (“Let’s Be Fair”) devoted his radio commentary to it.
CPSIA: “Toymakers Would Get Relief Under Republican Plan”
Reform efforts are finally afoot in the House of Representatives, at least two years after they should have started, but a three-member majority of the CPSC (two Obama appointees and a holdover) is defending the law on many though not all of its worst points. [Bloomberg, HuffPo] “This is by far the best bill we’ve seen to date,” declares the Handmade Toy Alliance. Tireless CPSIA critic Rick Woldenberg testified with other witnesses at a House Commerce hearing and contributes an op-ed to The Hill about the law’s irrationality. More coverage: Carter Wood/ShopFloor, Sean Wajert. And a memo by committee staff discussing some of the key issues is here (PDF).
“Please trick the old lady to say that she did not see the shooting…”
Great moments in criminal defense, as revealed at a murder trial in Washington, D.C. [WaPo] Eric Turkewitz has many more links on the story, and also is put in mind of a lawyer advertising angle.
April 10 roundup
- Civil libertarian Wendy Kaminer on feminism and the Yale speech complaint [Atlantic, earlier]
- Baylen Linnekin’s Keep Food Legal organization is having a membership drive;
- Bounty-hunting West Coast lawyers can now sue employers for large sums over temperature and worker-seating violations of the California Labor Code [Cal Labor Law]
- Current set of urban, suburban parking policies amount to “another great planning disaster.” [Donald Shoup, Cato Unbound]
- $7500? Tennessee lawyer charged with rape of client released on $7500 bond [WMC via White Coat]
- Stella Liebeck hot coffee case: Abnormal Use suspects that Cracked never read its FAQ on the subject (or for that matter many of our own postings);
- Baltimore public housing refuses to pay lead poisoning awards; “too strapped” [Baltimore Sun]
- “Mr. Potato Head” contest cited in discrimination lawsuit charging anti-Irish bias [Lowering the Bar]
The value of a liquor license moratorium
A moratorium on new liquor licenses in Washington, D.C.’s popular Adams-Morgan neighborhood might account for why an existing license appears curiously valuable. [Matthew Yglesias]
Libel reform in Britain, finally?
At long last it may be moving forward [Arthur Bright, Citizen Media Law] More: Alison Young.
Turnabout in demon-nurse case
St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley is suing a lawyer and law firm “for proceeding with cases that the attorneys [allegedly] knew were ‘baseless and lacking in evidence,'” and is also suing an expert for allegedly filing a “boilerplate” certificate of merit. The cases in question are among many filed claiming that patients were killed by notorious “Angel of Death” nurse Charles Cullen; hospitals say that while some of the suits were filed on behalf of actual Cullen victims, others piled on seeking compensation for bad outcomes that had nothing to do with the murderer. Damages for wrongful litigation are notoriously hard to win in American courts. [White Coat]