Making the rounds, this dramatization of an Ohio deposition (we covered it in 2011) arising from a lawsuit over photocopy fees at the Cuyahoga County Recorder’s Office. [New York Times, Cleveland Scene]
Up to $275,000 asked in Oregon duck attack
“The lawsuit claims [owner] knew the duck had ‘Abnormally dangerous propensities in attacking people.'” [Lowering the Bar, KATU; Estacada, Ore.]
Police and prosecution roundup
- Anonymous tip as basis for search? Thomas, Scalia divide in 5-4 SCOTUS decision [Tim Lynch/Cato; Popehat and Scott Greenfield vs. Orin Kerr]
- Undercover police target Uber, Lyft drivers to “send a message” [Alice Truong, Fast Company; related on New York AG Eric Schneiderman; yet more from NY state senator Liz Krueger (claims AirBnB could also lead to gambling and drugs)]
- Judge Rakoff on plea deals: “hundreds… or even tens of thousands of innocent people who are in prison, right now” [Tim Lynch, Cato]
- “Everybody’s trafficked by something,” claims one Phoenix police lieutenant [Al-Jazeera via Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Reason] “Lies, damned lies, and sex work statistics” [Maggie McNeill]
- Small town police get feds’ surplus armored military vehicles. What could go wrong? [Radley Balko, with reader comments on challenges of supplies and maintenance]
- Good: “Obama to consider more clemency requests from nonviolent drug offenders” [CBS, Tim Lynch, my take in December]
- Arkansas: “Mom Arrested for Breastfeeding After Drinking Alcohol in a Restaurant” [Free-Range Kids]
Immediate SLAPP-ruling appealability
It’s one of those procedural yawns that makes a huge difference in practice, notes Ken at Popehat, focusing on Michael Mann’s defamation suit against Mark Steyn, National Review and others. Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Driver who killed teen is suing dead boy’s family for $1 million”
Ontario: “The family of a teenage bicyclist who died after being hit from behind by an SUV is now being sued for more than $1 million by the woman who was behind the wheel.” The suit is in the nature of the counterclaim; the family has a suit going against the driver. [Fox News] According to the Ottawa Citizen:
A collision-reconstruction team from the South Simcoe Police Service investigated the crash; their 26-page report found that the “lack of visibility” of the cyclists “was the largest contributing factor,” and that on a dark overcast night, “the driver of the Kia did not see the cyclists on the roadway and was unable to make an evasive reaction.”
Labor and employment roundup
- Resistance mounts to NLRB’s revived “ambush unionism” plans [Epstein Becker Green, Fred Wszolek, three members of Congress/Washington Times, earlier]
- Fifth Circuit: employer’s blanket “don’t talk about company personnel or financial matters” policy violates NLRA [Texas Employment Law Update, Jon Hyman]
- Minimum wage: “Silver Bullet or Poisoned Chalice?” [U.K.-based Institute of Economic Affairs] Nonmonetary impact of minimum wage hikes found “not only in reduced fringe benefits but in increased work demands and decreased job training”” [Richard McKenzie/NCPA via Tyler Cowen]
- Connecticut lawmakers press for pro-labor-union curriculum in public schools [AP/Albany Times-Union]
- Labor/employment, tougher regulatory enforcement top business concerns in new Norton Rose litigation trends survey;
- Incumbent practitioners, not consumers, nearly always the ones pushing for tougher occupational licensure [David Stokes’s Missouri testimony, Show-Me Institute, PDF]
- Court again upholds Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s public sector labor legislation against challenge [Journal-Sentinel, earlier here, etc.]
Class action lawyers vs. high speed trading
The city of Providence R.I. has consented to serve as their client [Kansas City Star, Reuters, Center for Financial Stability, earlier on Michael Lewis book]
Advice for Peoria mayor Jim Ardis
To curtail parody, stop being so parody-able in the aftermath of your decision to send cops after your Twitter critics [Radley Balko, more, earlier] Related: “Watch Repairer Goes Legal Over Tame Yelp Review, Streisand Effect Takes Over” [Geigner, TechDirt]
Dissents that read like dissents
“With respect, the majority opinion ignores the physical evidence, the expert testimony, the eye-witness testimony, and the laws of physics.” [from Purvis v. Grant Parish School Board, Louisiana Supreme Court, Feb. 14, 2014]
Speaking of European labor-law rigidity…
The Wall Street Journal last month (paywalled, no link) reported on how the long-moribund British auto industry now has a striking success, BMW’s Mini plant in Oxford, along with a hopeful sign for the future, Tata Motors Ltd.’s plans to invest $2.5 billion in its Jaguar plant in Solihull:
Workplace flexibility is a big factor behind the success of the U.K.’s auto industry, experts say. The Mini plant operates under the “working time account” model, which lets employees build up extra working hours that they can then draw on in downtime. …
“This is impossible in the rest of Europe on any relevant scale because of local legislation that protects workers’ rights and pay,” said John Leech, head of the U.K. automotive section at consultancy KPMG.