More legal consequences of the lurid Texas “Internet paramour extortion scheme” (as the ABA Journal calls it); Above the Law; earlier. Among highlights of the saga: testimony for the lawyer-husband at his criminal trial from a former bar president who said Ted Roberts was just behaving as lawyers do when he sent demand letters to his wife’s lovers under threat of exposing them in legal action (“litigation is coercive”); and an unsuccessful libel suit against the San Antonio Express-News, which had reported on the couple’s doings.
Archive for August, 2011
“Thanks for the doctors, New York”
“According to State Health Facts, a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, the total amount paid in medical-malpractice claims in 2009 was almost eight times higher in New York than Texas, with the average New York payment nearly three times higher.” Physicians keep voting with their feet to escape the New York model. [Joseph Nixon, NY Post; Coyote]
“I, on the other hand, will not let people push me around”
Says the Arkansas man who has sued Microsoft for $500 billion over his XBox Live contract. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
NLRB “quickie election” plan, cont’d
Today is the last day for public comment on the National Labor Relations Board’s controversial plan to speed up the timetable for unionization elections, and a flood of opposing comment has already come in. Earlier here.
More: NAM “ShopFloor” (“ambush elections”); Matthew Boyle, Daily Caller; Don Todd, Examiner.
“The Mess at Widener Law School”
Charlotte Allen and Orin Kerr with more on what began as a report of a complaint about a professor’s classroom hypotheticals and has spiraled into a major embarrassment for the Delaware institution. Earlier here, etc.
Drug test positive…
…on an old bottle of motor oil, resulting in 12 days in jail for a 66-year-old Minnesota woman. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune via Balko]
“Cutting the ‘food desert’ myth down to size”
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines a food desert as a low-income census tract where a large number of residents are more than a mile from a grocery store…. [L]ess than 4.5 percent of the U.S. population [falls into that category], yet roughly two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.” And that’s just the start of the difficulties with the food-desert theory [David Gratzer, Washington Examiner]
Gone fishin’
I will be taking a week or so away from the blog to enjoy the summer and will be holding comments until my return. See you soon.
“If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law…”
In a new Reason symposium on how to revitalize the American job market, I explain my answer to that question.
More: This set off a round of discussion on employment blogs including Jon Hyman (nominating FLSA for vaporization), Suzanne Boy (concur), Daniel Schwartz (leave laws), Suzanne Lucas (citing “the fabulous Overlawyered.com”), the ABA Journal, Tim Eavenson, Jon Hyman again, HR Daily Report, and Russell Cawyer. Also relevant on age discrimination laws: a June symposium in the NYT’s “Room for Debate” feature; ComputerWorld on age bias and IT.
August 12 roundup
- More reviews of Schools for Misrule: Counterpoint (U. of Chicago), Wilson Trivino at PurePolitics.com;
- “Cops Collar 12 Year Old for “Walking Alone” in Downtown Toronto” [Free-Range Kids] Cop tells mom kids under ten “by law are not allowed outside unsupervised except in their parents’ yard.” [western Maryland, same]
- As lawmakers seek budget cuts, school finance litigators are on the march to counter their plans [WSJ Law Blog]
- Wouldn’t waive regs: “U.S. blocks $1 million Italian supercar” [CNN Money]
- You see, entrepreneurial suit-filing does create jobs: “Hike in Wage-and-Hour Litigation Spurs Demand for Calif. Employment Law Associates” [ABA Journal] How U.S. Congress devastated American Samoa through minimum wage hikes [Mark Perry]
- CCAF objects in Sirius class action settlement [PoL, earlier]
- “The Phantom Menace of Sleep Deprived Doctors” [Darshak Sanghavi, NY Times Magazine]