“A North Hollywood woman has filed suit against her psychic reader, claiming the medium fraudulently took her $11,000 without lifting a curse on the plaintiff’s love life.” [Molly McDonough, ABA Journal; our all-time-classic psychic fraud lawsuit]
Archive for July, 2013
“U.S. Repeals Propaganda Ban, Spreads Gov’t-Made News To Americans”
Congress relaxes the longstanding Smith-Mundt Act, which had banned the U.S. government from aiming propaganda at domestic audiences. Sure, what could go wrong? [John Hudson, Foreign Policy “The Cable”]
Banking and finance roundup
- Employer mandate not the only impractical reg being postponed: “IRS Delays Implementation of FATCA” [Paul Caron; earlier]
- Foreign banks whipsawed betwen U.S. terrorism-finance liability and privacy laws in home countries [Daniel Fisher]
- “NY Fed Official: Let’s ‘Facilitate’ The Seizure Of Underwater Loans” [Kevin Funnell]
- “If anything, the data suggest [home] ownership … inversely correlated with political stability and rule of law.” [Michael Greve]
- Revisiting the Randy and Karen Sowers structuring case [Kathleen Hunker, Bell Towers; earlier]
- “Can we improve payday lending?” [Andrew Sullivan]
- When if ever should the SEC pay bounties to attorneys to snitch on their clients? [Prof. Bainbridge]
Kitty Wells, “Will Your Lawyer Talk To God?”
1962 country hit.
Exit Mr. Kruidbos
State’s attorney Angela Corey fires the IT director who testified critically regarding the state’s non-sharing of evidence with George Zimmerman’s counsel. [Florida Times-Union] And Jacob Sullum’s latest: “Prosecutor Says George Zimmerman Is Guilty No Matter What Happened in His Fight With Trayvon Martin” [Reason]
Does Silver tarnish if exposed to sunlight?
Last year New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s income from prominent personal injury firm Weitz & Luxenberg, where he is of counsel, was between $350,000 and $450,000, a disclosure eagerly awaited by some Gotham reporters since details about Silver’s financial arrangement with the firm have previously been kept under wraps. Silver also has a relationship with Counsel Financial, which lends money for the furtherance of lawsuits. “Critics have suggested that the two-year gap between the old and new reporting requirements gave Silver enough time to front-load his salary from Weitz & Luxenberg before the new rules went into effect, thus making it appear he has a smaller salary when he had to finally publicly disclose it. Those close to Silver have dismissed such speculation.” Silver’s Assembly salary is $122,500. [New York Daily News; Ira Stoll]
Cronyism in your school lunch
A manufacturer of Greek yogurt “paid $80,000 to Cornerstone Government Affairs to lobby Congress on its behalf, according to federal records.” And now Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York — upstate being a leading center of production for the premium product — has made sure it will be included in federally prescribed school lunches, even in places where local budgets and tastes might not have generated much demand for it. [The Hill; Ira Stoll]
P.S. And plenty of bad GOP behavior on the farm bill too, notes my colleague Mike Tanner.
Canada: prosecutor sacked over side payment to charity
Cy pres, public-sector style? “A veteran Manitoba Crown attorney has been fired after he dropped charges against a Winnipeg company involved in a workplace accident — only to have the company make a substantial financial donation to a charity he oversees.” The prosecutor has defended his actions on the grounds that he did not direct the donation and that “the company made its own decision to choose the charity he was connected to”; he is not alleged to have benefited from the charity. [Winnipeg Free Press]
Richard Epstein: “The Myth of a Pro-Business SCOTUS”
Left-leaning lawprofs like Erwin Chemerinsky and Arthur Miller regularly flog the idea that decisions they disagree with — such as Twombly and Iqbal on pleading, AT&T v. Concepcion and AmEx v. Italian Colors on arbitration, and Vance v. Ball State and Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire on workplace liability — show the Supreme Court to be biased in favor of business defendants. Richard Epstein rebuts.
Nanny state roundup
- “Sneaky public-health messaging appears to be on the upswing across the country” [Baylen Linnekin, NY Post; earlier here, here, etc.]
- Scotland: “Parents warned they could face court for lighting up at home in front of kids” [The Sun] And Sweden: “Law professor calls for ban on parents drinking” (in presence of kids) [The Local via @FreeRangeKids]
- Speaking of tobacco: “Former German Chancellor Stays One Step Ahead of European Nannies, Hoards Cigarettes” [Matthew Feeney on Helmut Schmidt]
- Speaking of alcohol: ObamaCare slush fund bankrolling anti-booze advocacy in Pennsylvania [Mark Hemingway, earlier]
- To fix the nation’s weight problem, socially discourage processed foods. Right? Wrong [David Freedman, Atlantic]
- Mark Steyn on federal regulation requiring emergency bunny plan for magicians [NRO, more, earlier]
- Run for your life! It’s a falling toilet seat! [Free-Range Kids]