Great moments in blame-shifting: In Dade City, Fla., an ex-con with cocaine and other drugs in his system tried to outrun the cops in a high speed chase, then veered into a farm neighborhood where he smashed his car into two trees on a one-lane dead-end private road, instantly killing himself and a passenger. Now the estate of his passenger (who was also on drugs) is suing 21 local residents who jointly maintain the private road, saying they should have kept it clear of trees and did not provide adequate signage. “There were no apparent visual roadway obstructions or environmental factors that would have contributed to this crash,” a report from the Florida Highway Patrol stated at the time. [Tampa Bay Times](& Alkon)
Archive for 2013
Live-tweeting President Obama’s State of the Union address
I’ll be part of the Cato Institute commentary team Tuesday evening.
Sign squabble ruins HOA community
In Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington, a court-ordered trustee has ordered the sale of the Olde Belhaven association’s “pleasant square, with its trees and benches, [which] had in better times been the site of community picnics and Christmas festivities.” The association was put on the road to ruin by a dispute that began over a complaint that a sign in a homeowner’s yard was 4 inches too high. It escalated into costly litigation, and “as the case ground on, the HOA increased dues from $650 a year to about $3,500, mostly to cover legal fees.” Courts sided with the dissident homeowners, and hundreds of thousands in legal costs sank the association’s finances. [Washington Post]
Technology and intellectual property roundup
- The term “space marine” dates way back in sci-fi writing, but Games Workshop says it’s now a trademark [Popehat] “Site plagiarizes blog posts, then files DMCA takedown on originals” [Ars Technica; related, Popehat]
- D.C. suburban school district: “Prince George’s considers copyright policy that takes ownership of students’ work” [WaPo]
- New book Copyright Unbalanced [Jerry Brito, ed.; Tom Palmer/Reason, David Post/Volokh] “Copyright, Property Rights, and the Free Market” [Adam Mossoff, TotM]
- Neither doll left standing: “After Long Fight, Bratz Case Ends in Zero Damages” [The Recorder]
- “Podcasting patent troll” [Gerard Magliocca, Concur Op]
- “The EU-funded plan to stick a ‘flag this as terrorism site’ button on your browser” [Ars Technica]
- “The Most Ridiculous Law of 2013 (So Far): It Is Now a Crime to Unlock Your Smartphone” [Derek Khanna, Atlantic]
“If you have four people hurt, you suddenly will have four attorneys after you”
Liability insurance rates soar for Florida retirees’ souped-up golf carts [Orlando Sentinel]
NYT op-ed: sic the International Criminal Court on “unregulated…capitalism”
A Yale professor calls for using the fledgling U.N.-system court to prosecute multinational businesses and their executives (“Treat Greed in Africa as a War Crime”). Red meat for some Times readers, no doubt, but among others alarm bells might start belatedly going off. I have more details in a new post at Commentary.
P.S. More on the Dutch court’s decision in the Shell Nigeria pollution case from Roger Alford/Opinio Juris, @annaholligan.
NYC: Bloomberg mulls ban on Styrofoam cups, containers
Joining Seattle and Brookline, Mass., the “Bloomberg administration is considering banning Styrofoam cups and containers — popular at thousands of delis and food carts across the city — as it prepares to roll out a major recycling announcement in the coming weeks, a Sanitation Department official said yesterday.” [NY Post] “At the end of 2006, the New York Post rounded up what is very likely a partial list of items the New York City Council banned or considered banning.” [Ed Driscoll, via]
Pro-safety, yes; pro-safety-law, no
Maryland bicycling advocates can tell the difference, and are opposing a proposal by Del. Maggie McIntosh (D-Baltimore) to mandate helmet use. There’s a lesson somewhere in there, or so I surmise in my new Cato post. Update: more details from an opponent.
Massive new mandate for schools to provide disabled sports
Don’t you wish we’d heard more about this before the election, and not just afterward?
Breaking new ground, the U.S. Education Department is telling schools they must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options. The directive, reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for women, could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.
Schools would be required to make “reasonable modifications” for students with disabilities or create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing as mainstream programs.
[AP/Yahoo, New York Times, Michael Petrilli/NR (“The Obama Administration Invents a Right to Wheelchair Basketball”)]
Chicago judge not guilty by reason of insanity
At Cook County Judge Cynthia Brim’s trial this week, “she was found not guilty of misdemeanor battery because she was ‘legally insane’ at the time.” Cook County voters re-elected Brim in November despite reports of her troubles [South Bend Tribune/Chicago Tribune, earlier]