A few such cases have made news recently, notably a high-profile attempted theft of Elvis Presley’s former home, a tourist attraction owned by his granddaughter. It’s something that gives property owners the willies, and computer technology enabling crooks to create very realistic-lookin[...]
Archive for the ‘Law and Courts’ Category
June 17th, 2024 - 8:45 pm § in Law and Courts, Republicans
GOP senator calls bump stocks a “fake problem”
Last Friday the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s bump stock ban. Today Democrats wasted no time introducing ban legislation. Sen. J. D. Vance (R-OH) responded by claiming the bill is aimed at a “PR problem, not something that’s going to meaningfully reduce gun violence in this country[...]
June 16th, 2024 - 3:21 pm § in Law and Courts
A psychiatric patient took the fall for a killer cop
A very confused psychiatric patient spent 43 years in prison for a murder committed by a cop. The only evidence against her was a string of rambling, incoherent, and frequently changing confessions, ultimately coerced by threatening her with the death penalty. Absolutely nothing tied her to the cr[...]
Racist punches Bellingham boy
Republicans deny racism exists. In June 2023, the Atlantic said, “One of the core beliefs that binds the modern GOP coalition is rejection of the idea that minorities and women face structural bias in American society” (see story here). In January 2024, GOP candidates Nikki Haley and Ro[...]
June 15th, 2024 - 2:07 pm § in Law and Courts
Supreme Court voids bump stock ban
Six conservative justices ruled they’re not covered by the 1934 federal machinegun law. Lawyers for the Texas gun owner who challenged the rule argued “it’s a difficult skill to master.” In other words, a 12-year-old with a grudge against classmates couldn’t fire an AR-15 like a machinegun[...]
June 13th, 2024 - 6:38 pm § in Law and Courts
Inhumane cop gets humane sentence
Pearl, Mississippi, pop. 27,115 (photo below), is a suburb of Jackson, the state capital. It’s in Rankin County, where 6 former sheriff’s deputies were sent to prison in March 2024 for torturing black men (see that story here). Michael Christian Green (photo, left), 26, a Pearl city cop [...]
June 13th, 2024 - 3:47 pm § in Law and Courts
The Stars and Stripes upside down
“The veteran organization the American Legion weighed in on the upside-down American flag controversy Thursday, noting that flags should only be flown this way if there is ‘extreme danger to life or property,'” NBC News reported on June 13, 2024 (story here). But that’s not t[...]
June 12th, 2024 - 10:42 pm § in Law and Courts, Racism
FBI arrests racist plotting mass shooting to start race war
Mark Prieto, 58, of Prescott, Arizona, would later tell cops he wasn’t serious when he told an FBI informant at a gun show that he wanted to incite a race war before the 2024 election by shooting up an Atlanta rap concert. Nobody should believe that. When somebody tells strangers he’s tr[...]
Magistrate doesn’t dismiss lawsuit against Boebert
In 2022, a “gadfly journalist” named David Wheeler, d/b/a American Muckrackers, made sensational allegations about GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s personal history which I won’t repeat here. In response, Boebert went on Fox to defend her reputation, and threatened to sue Wheeler, A[...]
June 10th, 2024 - 3:16 pm § in Law and Courts, Schools & Colleges
Student tests school free speech with anti-gay tee-shirt
The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that students have some free speech rights, but left the water muddied, perplexing courts and schools to the present day. Consequently, school free speech cases are very complicated. School authorities usually “are motivated by a desire to maintain order, av[...]