February 19, 2008CNN and Mental Floss spread the true life stories behind some America’s favorite toys!
Tim Moodie’s article highlights:
1. How the Slinky got stuck between a cult and a mid-life crisis (Betty James took over the company her husband founded–the husband who left her for Bolivia–and led the Slinky into the future with Slinky Jr., Plastic Slinky, […]
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January 8, 2008FindLaw explains how Britney Spears is highlighting principles of Family Law and child custody disputes. Joanna Grossman identifies and discusses three lessons:
Lesson #1: Courts, not Divorcing Parents, Ultimately Decide Custody
Lesson #2: Parental Behavior Matters in Custody Battles
Lesson #3: Britney: The Paparazzi Are Not the Only Ones Watching Your Every Move
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January 3, 2008Ireland On-Line reveals the breakup of Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane (excerpt):
In Spider-Man No. 545 the web-slinger agrees a deal with villain Mephisto, to protect his identity and spare his elderly Aunt May.
In return Spider-Man’s alter ego Peter Parker must turn his back on Mary-Jane and their history together - which has been erased […]
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December 21, 2007 The Grand Rapids Press reports on the adopted man who found his birth mother at work.
Pat Shellenbarger writes (excerpt):
For more than two months, Steve Flaig eyed the woman running the cash register in the home improvement store where both worked, trying to decide how to tell her what he knew and she didn’t.
In early […]
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November 28, 2007 The New York Times rings up “two hours of inexplicable madness” with a report on the Niagara Falls judge who heard a cellphone ring in his courtroom. When no one fessed up, he played the “Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Pass Go” card.
Danny Hakim writes (excerpt):
On the morning of March 11, 2005, […]
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September 21, 2007The ABA Journal shows how a New York judge [Arlene Silverman]’s ‘incessant’ questions interfered with a trial and resulted in reversal.
Debra Cassens Weiss reports (excerpt):
“While we recognize that the dynamics of a criminal trial may result in some intervention by the trial judge in the examination of witnesses, the cumulative effect of the court’s extraordinarily […]
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March 8, 2007It was a warm, sunny evening. I felt safely enveloped by the cozy surroundings of Empire along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Escaping to the Leelanau Peninsula; a pilgrimage my wife Stephanie and I take often, since honeymooning there some 19 years ago. As we walked to the lake, we noticed a group of young people […]
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February 13, 2007Michigan Reentry Law Wiki was launched to help transition people from prison to the community. The website is supported by Legal Aid of Western Michigan and the Michigan Poverty Law Project.
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January 30, 2007CNN and AP reveal what may be a new frontier for grandparent rights. After a four-year battle, an Israeli court in Tel Aviv has granted the wish of the family of a dead soldier. They had a hospital take and preserve a semen sample shortly after the single 20 year old’s death so […]
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January 26, 2007USA Today reveals the loneliness of being the only woman on the US Supreme Court.
Joan Biskupic writes (excerpt):
For now, O’Connor’s absence is more symbolic. In court, the sight of Ginsburg — a slight figure in a tall, black leather chair, flanked by eight men — contrasts with the rising prominence of women in Congress. The […]
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January 4, 2007The LA Times reveals problems with Do-It-Yourself divorces: you might still be married!
Jessica Garrison writes (excerpt):
Many of them are not quite as divorced as they think they are. Some of them, like Chan, are even accidental bigamists, carrying not only hopes and dreams but also an earlier marriage to their new one.
****
Also a factor, he […]
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September 17, 2006CNN/AP reports on the ’scorched earth’ divorce case between H. Beatty Chadwick and Barbara Jean Crowther Chadwick, now Bobbie Applegate. Mr. Chadwick has spent 11 years in jail on a charge of civil contempt. Ms. Applegate says–and the courts believe–he hid over $2.5 million overseas. Mr. Chadwick says he didn’t.
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June 25, 2006Andrei Codrescu is worth listening to as he traces the history of public hugging on NPR’s All Things Considered (6/23/06).
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June 14, 2006UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT–MIDDLE DISTRICT OF FLORIDA–ORLANDO DIVISION
AVISTA MANAGEMENT, INC., d/b/a Avista Plex, Inc., Plaintiff,
-vs- WAUSAU UNDERWRITERS INSURANCE COMPANY, Defendant.
Case No. 6:05-cv-1430-Orl-31JGG (Consolidated)
______________________________________
ORDER
This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiff’s Motion to designate location of a Rule 30(b)(6) deposition (Doc. 105). Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of
Gordian knots that […]
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May 16, 2006The Grand Rapids Press shows how a moment of kindness can affect profound changes in another person.
Ted Roelofs writes (excerpt):
Sitting in a court hearing in January 2002, Cheryl Orean abruptly crumpled to the floor, her body twitching in a seizure brought on by years of addiction to prescription drugs.
Orean came to a few […]
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May 12, 2006USA Today focuses on five members of the United Supreme Court and their evolving roles on the bench.
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January 8, 2006Hugh Thompson died this week. He was a key witness in the My Lai court martial trial and, many years later, a recipient of the Soldier’s Award. In the face of a massacre, he put himself between officials in his own military and villagers in Vietnam:
I walked over to the ground units and […]
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December 31, 2005The New York Times examines the relative “funniness” of Supreme Court Justices.
Adam Liptak writes (excerpt):
Justice Scalia was the funniest justice, at 77 “laughing episodes.” On average, he was good for slightly more than one laugh - 1.027, to be precise - per argument.
Justice Stephen G. Breyer was next, at 45 laughs. Justice Ginsburg produced but […]
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December 19, 2005USAToday interviews William Swanson from Raytheon who wrote Swanson’s UnWritten Rules of Management. His rules include (excerpt):
1: Learn to say, “I don’t know.” If used when appropriate, it will be used often.
14: Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15: Be extremely careful in the accuracy of your statements.
20: Cultivate the habit […]
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December 17, 2005There are Christmas Lightsaholics in this world. We need to have a 12-step approach for helping these folks out. Here are 12 steps adapted from the wisdom of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over Christmas Lights - that our lives had become unmanageable.
We believed in the past that […]
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