Ed Morrissey at Hot Air checks out what it will mean for Davanni’s, a 21-outlet pizza chain in the Twin Cities. Earlier here, etc.
Lawyer ads that look like VA hospital sites
The sleaziest asbestos-suit-marketing practice yet? You decide. In what is unfortunately not an April Fool’s joke, Roger Parloff at Fortune exposes a network of client recruitment sites that would fool many casual visitors into thinking they are sponsored by the federal government’s Veteran’s Administration, under headings like “VA Medical Center Palo Alto” and corresponding domain names. A founding partner of well-known New York plaintiff’s firm Seeger Weiss expressed regret about his firm’s listing as a sponsor of the site. The full story is here (& welcome Legal Blog Watch readers).
Answering constituent mail, in the old days
“One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains reforested and I have been in Congress two months and haven’t done it. Will you please take two running jumps and go to hell.”
— Congressman John McGroarty, engaged in constituent service (1934).
(via Magliocca/Concur Op).
“How a pit bull is like a Prius”
Michael Fumento on “misinformation cascades” [Philadelphia Inquirer]
New report on civil asset forfeiture
Too many giblets, they said
Russell Jackson records a federal court’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit filed against Perdue.
Harassment and sex-bias charges on campus
Tony Judt reflects on many bemused years in a history department, and commenters have their say [NY Review of Books Blog via Amy Alkon]
Andrew Giuliani’s Duke golf lawsuit dismissed
The son of the former mayor had sued over being kicked off the university’s golf team. [“Campus Notes” News & Observer blog, WSJ Law Blog; earlier coverage]
U.K.: great moments in animal welfare law
“Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 year-old”, Telegraph:
Joan Higgins, a pet shop owner, was caught selling the fish to the teenager in a ‘sting’ operation by council officials. She was then prosecuted in an eight month court process estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £20,000.
Under new animal welfare laws, passed in 2006, it is it illegal to sell goldfish to under 16s. Offenders can be punished with up to 12 months in prison.
Mrs Higgins, 66, who thought the boy was much older than 14, escaped jail but was instead ordered to wear an electronic tag and given a night time curfew. She was also fined £1,000 by Trafford Magistrates Court. … [Her son] said the punishment she had received would prevent her from attending her weekly bingo sessions as well babysitting her one month-old great grandchild.
Teen commits suicide, 9 classmates charged with felonies
“See if you can figure out how the shock and sorrow of the young girl’s death got processed into criminal charges against 9 teenagers and whether this reaction is helpful or just.” [Ann Althouse]
More: there’s not enough in the article to reach conclusions either way, says Scott Greenfield.