September 30 roundup

  • “Sexting” Wisconsin prosecutor to resign [AP, AtL] Was bar discipline too lax? A contrarian view [Esenberg]
  • Update: jury finds “caffeine killer” guilty in wife’s death [CBS, earlier]
  • Not an Onion story: “New Orwellian Tax Scheme in England Would Require All Paychecks Go Directly to the Tax Authority” [Dan Mitchell, Cato]
  • “The Fight Over Fire Sprinklers in New Homes” [Popular Mechanics via Fountain, earlier]
  • Pre-Miranda interrogation of (no relation) Jimmy Olsen [another legally-themed comic book cover from the series at Abnormal Use]
  • Slow customer service at pizza restaurant deemed “sabotage” in employment suit [Fox, Jottings]
  • Website offers defendants’ perspective on some of the Enron prosecutions [Ungagged.net via Kirkendall]
  • Pedestrian killed by out-of-control driver, and jury awards $37 million against California municipality for not having built sidewalks [six years ago on Overlawyered]

6 Comments

  • Re the Brits and the taxes:

    All your pay belong to us.

    How much does anyone want to bet that there are some upstanding members of congress who are greedily eyeing a similar proposal?

  • Sure… the government should just give us an allowance, based on all the good things we did for society this week. Forget ‘Nanny State’, this is ‘Mommy State’.

  • Fire sprinklers in new homes? It’s bad enough having to stand on a chair and pull the battery out of the smoke alarm every time I burn toast. Now I’ll have to throw plastic sheets over the furniture when I cook.

  • Since fire sprinklers only respond to heat, typically 160 degrees F. I sincerely hope your ceiling doesn’t get that hot when you cook.

  • Outlawing workplace sabotage would be fought by organized labor, as it would muzzle one of its most frequently used weapons.

  • The Ungagged.net site referenced above is terrific. It was clear at the time that the public wanted heads to roll over the Enron collapse so principles of evidence and fair play were distorted and eliminated. The use of theft of honest services meant that there was no evidence found of Jeff Skilling doing something criminal in a common sense use of the term. Enron was brought down by a run-on-the bank that was built into the boilerplate of loan contracts. It, and the Iraq war, are shameful incidents. America deserves the heart ache of the great recession and more!