Right Juris

An advisory panel to the FDA issued a Tylenol recommendation today. The advisory panel voted 20-17 to remove prescription drugs such as Vicoden and Percocet which were ruled danagerous because they combine narcotics with acetaminophen which can cause severe liver damage if an overdose occurs.

This ruling is not binding upon the FDA, but they generally follow these types of recommendations. So what does this mean? Well, it means that most likely you will see the over the counter Tylenol have its dosage reduced and most likely the drugs Vicoden and Percocet will be taken off the market.

Photos and Video

Seven Detroit teenagers were shot today while standing at a bus-stop. Three of the students were critically injured after being shot down the street from Cody 9th Grade Academy. Two masked men opened fire on the teenagers as they stood waiting for a bus. Five Cody 9th Grade Academy Students were shot and three of the victims were in critical condition after being shot.

According the the Detroit Free Press

Today’s shooting was the second in two weeks at a Detroit Public Schools high school building offering free summer classes to make-up for failed courses. Free summer classes have drawn thousands of high school students, placing teens from different schools and neighborhoods in the same buildings.

Photos and Video

Robert Tite is an Ohio man who was arrested for driving his bulldozer while drunk. Read about the bulldozer drunk driving arrest and see his mug shot below.

Robert Tite

Who says you can’t get arrested for drunk driving in your own yard? Well, I don’t know that we ever said that, but this most recent arrest ranks right up there for amusing arrests. I’m sure the perpetrator isn’t amused, but we admit that we are a bit.

The Huron County Ohio Sheriff’s Department got called out to nab a drunk driver, of a bulldozer. It seems that last Friday Robert Tite, 57-yers-old, decided to do some yard work while intoxicated. He climbed onto his bulldozer and proceeded to tear up his neighbor’s yard, uprooting trees and digging up a portion of the lawn. Whoops.

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A Flordia man was arrested and charged with Domestic Violence Assault for drenching his wife after she was found smoking in the house. The garden hose assault occurred because John Jeffrey Murray was upset that his wife was found smoking in the house. Apparently Mr. Murray decided that he was a volunteer firefighter and decided that it would be a good idea for him to spray his wife for smoking in the house. He just wanted to put out the fire. Right?

Wrong. Murray’s wife picked up the phone to call a friend and Murray thought she was calling the police, so he did what any reasonable wife beater would do, and tried to take the phone and elbowed her in the face in the process. I don’t think he’s going to win any awards for “Husband of the Year” anytime soon. Read the rest of the story and see a video below.

Photos and Video

Tech Crunch is reporting today that the Pirate Bay, famous for their file sharing bit torrent network, is going to be purchased by Global Gaming Factory X for about $7.7 million dollars. What is ultimately ironic about this it that for 5 years or so The Pirate Bay has been seen as the anti-establishment hackers fighting for freedom of speech and a change in our copyright system (which needs changing). They have even taken pride in posting letters from the RIAA and MPAA demanding that they stop what they are doing on their webpage and making fun of them. Recently, the founders of the Pirate Bay were convicted in Sweden of violating copyright laws, fined about $3.5 million dollars and sentenced to a year in jail. The case is still on appeal, but many view this sell-out as the Pirate Bay essentially throwing their hands in the air and giving up, something they swore they would never do. In a statement from the Pirate Bay, the founds say:

“A lot of people are worried. We’re not and you shouldn’t be either!

TPB is being sold for a great bit underneath it’s value if the money would be the interesting part. It’s not. The interesting thing is that the right people with the right attitude and possibilities keep running the site.
As all of you know, there’s not been much news on the site for the past two-three years. It’s the same site essentially. On the internets, stuff dies if it doesn’t evolve. We don’t want that to happen.

We’ve been working on this project for many years. It’s time to invite more people into the project, in a way that is secure and safe for everybody. We need that, or the site will die. And letting TPB die is the last thing that is allowed to happen!

If the new owners will screw around with the site, nobody will keep using it. That’s the biggest insurance one can have that the site will be run in the way that we all want to. And - you can now not only share files but shares with people. Everybody can indeed be the owner of The Pirate Bay now. That’s awesome and will take the heat of us.

The old crew is still around in different ways. We will also not stop being active in the politics of the internets - quite the opposite. Now we’re fueling up for going into the next gear. TPB will have economical muscles to let people evolve it. It will team up with great technicians to evolve the protocols. And we, the people interested in more than just technology, will have the time to focus on that. It’s win-win-win.

The profits from the sale will go into a foundation that is going to help with projects about freedom of speech, freedom of information and the openess of the nets. I hope everybody will help out in that and realize that this is the best option for all. Don’t worry - be happy!”

I’m not sure I buy what they are saying here. It is pretty clear that they are settling for about the same amount that they were fined for and giving up the good fight. Why do I call it the good fight you might ask? Aren’t they essentially hackers who are breaking the law anyway, why would I defend them? These are good questions, but sometimes when laws are so unjust there must be civil disobedience in order to get them changed. Not that I compare a bunch of Internet hackers to Martin Luther King Jr., but the fact is that current copyright laws (especially in the United States) are unjust. Of course artists should be compensated for the fruits of their labor, that is not what this fight is about. This fight is about large recording studios using lobbyists to change copyright laws so that they can prevent information from ever reaching the public domain. Just as an example, Disney was able to get copyright laws changed so that Mickey Mouse would not advance to the public domain until the middle of the century, and I have no doubt they will attempt to do it again when the current expiration date approaches. The studios were also able to get the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed, which changed the law in numerous ways. You see, for these large studios, its not about protecting copyrights as they claim, its about protecting a business model that is clearly past its time. This is why people like the Pirate Bay are invaluable; they keep pushing the boundaries and help us think of better ways of doing things.

RIP Pirate Bay, we hardly knew thee. Oh, and I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.

John Mullarkey, accused of killing girlfriend Demi Cuccia in 2007, was found guilty today. Read about this story, see pictures and a video below.

After almost 2 years and days after trial began for John Mullarkey he was found guilty of first degree murder. Mullarkey has been sentenced to life in prision.

On August 15, 2007 Mullarkey showed up at Demi Cuccia’s home in an attempt to reconcile their relationship. That meeting turned into a brutal slaying of Demi, whom had celebrated her 16th birthday the day before the attack. After stabbing Cuccia 16 times Mullarkey attempted to kill himself by slitting his throat with the same knife he killed his girlfriend with. Mullarkey survived his suicide attempt.

Trial began for Mullarkey on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 and lasted through the end of the week. Court was back in session Monday, June 29, 2009 for a verdict.

Read all of this story, see photos and a video here

Judge Mitchell Beckloff has issued an order in which Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s 79 year old mother, was granted custody of the singers minor children. The Jackson children temporary guardianship was granted by the Court today. This allows Katherine Jackson some legal rights to the children pending a final hearing to determine who will ultimately end up with custody of the children.

Jackson’s three children Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., known as Prince Michael, 12, Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 11, and Prince Michael Jackson, II, 7 are residing with their grandparents in Encino, California at this time.

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Bernard Madoff was sentenced today to the maximum term allowed. Federal Judge Denny Chin handed Bernard Madoff a 150 year sentence today in what was the largest ponzi scheme in the history of the United States. The prosecutors in the case had urged the judge to hand down the 150 year sentence based upon the number of victims in the case and the amount of money involved.

Madoff plead guilty to 11 criminal counts related to the Ponzi Scheme, including fraud, perjury, money laundering, and false filings with the SEC. A number of victims had asked the judge for the maximum sentence while Madoff’s attorney had asked for a sentence of 12 years.

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Comedian and impersonator Fred Travalena, also known as “Mr. Everybody”, passed away Sunday, June 28, 2009. Read this story, see photos and a video below.

It has been a sad few weeks for the world with the recent loss of such amazing talents. Today I learned not only did Billy Mays pass away Sunday but so did Fred Travalena. For those who do not know of Mr. Travalena he was a very talented comedian with outstanding impersonations, a regular on the Johnny Carson show as well as a headliner in Vegas showrooms.

Travalena was diagnosed in 2002 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was then diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2003. The lymphoma returned in 2008 after five years of remission. Since that time he has been through surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy treatments.

Read the rest of this story, see photos and a video here

Today the Supreme Court has ruled on behalf of a group of white firemen in Conn. who claimed they were unfairly denied promotions and pay raises based upon their skin color. You can read the opinion here. The cases was decided along the ideological lines of the court with the 5 conservative judges ruling in favor of the firefighters and the 4 liberal judges writing in dissent. This case is also thought to have some impact on the nomination of Judge Sotomayer to the Supreme Court as she was part of the lower court that originally ruled against the fireman. Of course, its never good when judges are overruled, but one of the knocks against Sotomayer is that she has been “criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with ‘indisputably complex and far from well-settled’ questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.” (from the FSN article). This also conforms with my opinion that she bases her opinions more on her ideological bent as opposed to a firm reading and understanding of the Constitution.

Having gone through this opinion, here are some thoughts and quotes that I found interesting. First, Justice Kennedy writes:

We conclude that race-based action like the City’s in this case is impermissible under Title VII unless the employer can demonstrate a strong basis in evidence that, had it not taken the action, it would have been liable under the disparate-impact statute. The respondents, we further determine, cannot meet that threshold standard. As a result, the City’s action in discarding the tests was a violation of Title VII. In light of our ruling under the statutes, we need not reach the question whether respon-dents’ actions may have violated the Equal Protection Clause.

and then concludes:

The record in this litigation documents a process that, at the outset, had the potential to produce a testing procedure that was true to the promise of Title VII: No individual should face workplace discrimination based on race. Respondents thought about promotion qualifications and relevant experience in neutral ways. They were careful to ensure broad racial participation in the design of the testitself and its administration. As we have discussed at length, the process was open and fair.
The problem, of course, is that after the tests were completed, the raw racial results became the predominant rationale for the City’s refusal to certify the results. The injury arises in part from the high, and justified, expectations of the candidates who had participated in the testing process on the terms the City had established for the promotional process. Many of the candidates had studied for months, at considerable personal and financial expense, and thus the injury caused by the City’s reliance on raw racial statistics at the end of the process was all the more severe. Confronted with arguments both for and against certifying the test results—and threats of a law-suit either way—the City was required to make a difficult inquiry. But its hearings produced no strong evidence of a disparate-impact violation, and the City was not entitled to disregard the tests based solely on the racial disparity in the results.

Our holding today clarifies how Title VII applies to resolve competing expectations under the disparate-treatment and disparate-impact provisions. If, after it certifies the test results, the City faces a disparate-impact suit, then in light of our holding today it should be clear that the City would avoid disparate-impact liability based on the strong basis in evidence that, had it not certified the results, it would have been subject to disparate-treatment liability.

Petitioners are entitled to summary judgment on their Title VII claim, and we therefore need not decide the underlying constitutional question. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The biggest impact of this case is that it will probably provide protection to employers to avoid disparate impact liability, we shall see. I also think it is interesting that it took the Supreme Court 93 pages to discuss and deal with this issue while Sotomayer was able to dispose of it with a single nifty paragraph.