dr. conrad murray found GUILTY for death of michael jackson

source: imdb.com

RIP, king of pop.

the jury has found dr. conrad murray guilty of involuntary manslaughter, concluding a long and emotional six week trial filled with disturbing and intimate details in the life of the pop star. 

in other news, occupy LA protesters apparently went to the courthouse. what.

earlier:
opening statements for the trial of michael jackson's doctor

lindsay lohan going back to jail

[Photo: Getty]

this time for violating her probation. however, according to tmz (the most reliable website ever), she'll probably get out of jail in no time.

this is hilarious and depressing at the same time.

earlier:

lilo ordered to work in morgue

lilo to pose for playboy

boa calls of $5 fee

source: wikipedia

"just kidding," says bank of america.

earlier this year, boa announced it would impose a $5 fee for debit purchases starting next year. shouldn't have been greedy in the first place.

other banks said hell no to charging customers. so now boa is backing out of the fee. too late, boa. you still lost a ton of customers.

kim kardashian banked $2k/hr off her 72 day marriage

Photo: Brian Lindensmith/PatrickMcMullan.com

she may seem clueless, but she's actually brilliant when it comes to churning the dough. kim raked in approx $2,314/hr during her brief marriage, thanks to the massive publicity.

there are laws against sham marriages (e.g. marrying a U.S. citizen to stay in this country). but there's nothing we can do about this parade.

see the breakdown of the calculation here [nymag.com]

lilo to pose for playboy

[source]

once a teenage idol who claimed to never accept a nude scene in a movie, lindsay lohan will allegedly be featured in january's issue of playboy for $750,000. she's probably the first person in history to go from morgue servitude to playboy spread.

this would be impressive, except we recall guilty not guilty casey anthony getting an offer of $500,000 to pose nude for hustler magazine.

in other lohan-related news, papa lohan was arrested for domestic abuse after his 28 year old ex-girlfriend called the cops following an argument. 

this family is dysfunctional to the max. but they have more money than most of us will ever see.

inappropriate tsa note went to...a lawyer

 [source]

most of you probably heard of the woman who opened her suitcase and found a note from tsa reading "GET YOUR FREAK ON GIRL," apparently a response to a particular sex toy the girl packed in her suitcase that was found during a tsa search. 

it has now come to light that said suitcase belongs to lawyer/blogger at feministe jill filipovic. good job man. jill has indicated she will likely file a complaint with the tsa when she returns to the states.

full story here [abcnews].

lsat results out today!

good luck fellow lawyers-to-be!!! maybe you will score like elle woods did (fyi 179 lsat = 99.9th percentile).

perfect timing, because there was an article [nytimes.com] this morning on whether law schools and bar exams are even necessary. this article makes an interesting point--if we did away with the formal legal education (lsat + 3 years at an aba accredited school + the bar exam + cle and other aba requirements), people could seek basic legal services such as will drafting without paying a buttload of their savings. at the moment, many of these legal services are only available through lawyers, who charge a substantial amount because of lack of competition.

law school is fun if you are in the right mindset and have at least a majority of non-asshole classmates. but what is with our obsession with formal education?

just look at the folks who did not attend or did not graduate from the traditional route of formal, structured college education but nonetheless succeeded:

bill gates, steve jobs, michael dell, abraham lincoln, clarence darrow, john rockefeller, walt disney, mark zuckerberg...see a list of more dropout success stories here [businessinsider.com]

bagged spinach salad recall over salmonella fear

FDA just announced that Taylor Farms Retail has voluntarily recalled salad over concerns of salmonella contamination. No illnesses have been reported.  

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/20/health/bagged-salads-recall/

lindsay lohan ordered to work in a morgue

more importantly, what on earth happened to her face?? that purple blush should be ILLEGAL.

See Not So Glamorous: Lindsay Lohan Sentenced to Morgue Duty [time.com]

actress sues IMDB for $1 mil for revealing her age

oh, the things people will sue over.

actress's full complaint here [hollywoodreporter.com].

the glass ceiling: pierced or still intact?

 

I suspect this phenomenon applies pretty universally across all professions, but because I am immersed in the law world, I notice the pervasiveness of this problem in the legal industry.

In our perfect world fantasy, women are increasingly taking control of corporate board positions and professional rankings. We rejoice in the prospect of breaking the glass ceiling and finally being “equal” to men. If we examine things closely, we will see that this is clearly not the case. In a NYTimes editorial [nytimes.com], the statistics for law firms was cited as follows: “[i]n law firms, women make up 45 percent of associates but only 15 percent of equity partners and 6 percent of equity partners at the 200 largest firms.”

We have not arrived at a time when women are equally represented in the workplace. Of course, several reasons account for this. First and possibly most important, women with children are heavily restrained from fully participating in the workplace because they not only must juggle motherhood and full time working hours, but they must battle predisposed assumptions of their ability to even be in the workplace. “[T]hey often have to show more evidence of achievement than men” and “the median income [for women] is 74 percent of what men earn,” according to the editorial.

I don’t have the solution to the problem, because I confess that the prospect of working in a law firm jungle while raising young children is near impossible. But what if law firms and other companies are willing to facilitate things for women by allowing more flexibility in schedules? It seems tedious at first, but “[l]egal employers should understand that unless they retain a higher share of women, the profession will continue to lose talented lawyers.” The world will lose talented and strong women who would have otherwise been able to contribute to their companies.

Supreme Court to consider whether strip searches must be limited by the constitution

 

No one feels comfortable undergoing a full body scan, pat down, and being asked by TSA to remove layers of clothing during a security check at the airport. Still, we accept this because we understand the probative value of safety such checks bring to air travel.

This Wednesday, the US Supreme Court will be hearing a case coming from New Jersey on a single issue: “whether the Fourth Amendment permits a jail to conduct a suspicionless strip search of every individual arrested for any minor offense no matter what the circumstances.”  

In this case, two police departments conducted strip searches on everyone who was booked, even if the individual did not actually pose a danger. There was an outstanding warrant for a man’s arrest after the man failed to pay a fine. The man was subject to a strip search and is now arguing that there was no reason to strip search him because his arrest warrant was more akin to civil contempt rather than criminal charges.

Stay tuned -- this case has huge implications on the future of government searches on civilian bodies.

 

Read a thorough analysis here [scotusblog].

for anyone following the crazy Wall St Movement people

Here is a list of their demands. It's hilarious.

Demand one: Restoration of the living wage. This demand can only be met by ending "Freetrade" by re-imposing trade tariffs on all imported goods entering the American market to level the playing field for domestic family farming and domestic manufacturing as most nations that are dumping cheap products onto the American market have radical wage and environmental regulation advantages. Another policy that must be instituted is raise the minimum wage to twenty dollars an hr.

Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare system. To do this all private insurers must be banned from the healthcare market as their only effect on the health of patients is to take money away from doctors, nurses and hospitals preventing them from doing their jobs and hand that money to wall st. investors.

Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of employment.

....

Demand three is my favorite. Continue reading this list of demands here.

Italian court finds amanda knox not guilty of murder

After a tearful plea to the Italian appeals court and 11 hours of jury deliberation, Knox has been acquitted of the 2007 murder of her British flatmate, Meredith Kircher.

See a detailed timeline of trial proceedings leading up to the decision here.

Amanda Knox appeal verdict expected Oct 3

 Stefano Medici/AP

Her four year nightmare may finally be coming to an end. Knox pleaded her innocence to the Italian appeals court just now. 

"She had her bedroom next to mine, she was killed in our own apartment. If I had been there that night, I would be dead," Knox said. "But I was not there...I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn't there. I wasn't there at the crime," Knox said.

The court is currently deliberating her appeal and a verdict is expected to be rendered by the end of today.

Amanda Knox Appeal Verdict Expected Oct. 3 [CBS]

earlier post: amanda knox defense closing arguments

amanda knox defense closing arguments today

This will hopefully be the end for Amanda Knox. I don't "know" that she's innocent. It's the fact that I don't know anything at all anymore given the tainted evidence that she must be found innocent.

For the latest story:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/world/europe/knox-court-saga/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

For one of the best op-eds on the bad evidence:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2011/09/my_amanda_knox_obsession.html

Bank of America to charge $5/mo for debit card purchases

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

awesome. because money isn't tight enough already with the economy. BOA claims this fee is in response to the Federal Reserve Board's change in "swipe fees," which will supposedly cost BOA $2 billion per year.

http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/09/29/8038360-bank-of-america-to-charge-5-monthly-fee-for-debit-card-purchases

If you are the owner of a pair of Reebok EasyTone sneakers

you may be entitled to a refund.

Reebok has settled an FTC case over allegations that EasyTone's claims of exercise benefits including toning thigh muscles were unsubstantiated. 

It's too bad. EasyTone seemed like godsend. Cute pink shoes that look like normal sneakers and can be worn to class and around town. The glory is forgetting about the shoes until you go home at night and unveil some sexy, toned legs! Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to a slim and toned body. There is only eating right and cardio on a daily basis.

More information about the settlement is available here.

i see you driving round town with the girl i love and i'm like GPS you!

My non-law friends hate pretty much all law-related discussions. However, this is one debate that they have been thoroughly interested in.

This November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for U.S. v. Jones on the Fourth Amendment issues of 1) whether the government’s act of adding a GPS device to a civilian vehicle without a warrant is an unlawful seizure and 2) whether tracking the movements with the GPS is an unlawful search.

In this case, the government had attached a GPS and mapped the car’s movements for a month in order to muster up evidence of a drug ring conspiracy.

The arguments (stripped to the core):

United States (Petitioner): There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s movements in the public nor is there reasonable expectation of privacy in the exterior of the car.

Jones (Respondent): Installing a GPS was a seizure and tracking movements with the GPS was a search in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

I have no idea how the Court will rule because a) I’m not one of those people who “know” the Justices and their positions on certain issues, b) I’m not that smart, and c) my predictions (about anything) are usually wrong.

For those unfamiliar with the case, I recommend this concise yet informative article.

opening statements for the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor today

 

 

Will his children be called to testify?

The prosecution or defense could call the children to retell the story of the last days of Jackson, but whoever opens the door should do it only if they think they will gain something particularly probative, something they could not obtain without calling the children. Children are often unpredictable as witnesses and also gain the sympathy of the jury right off the bat. 

 

Continue reading detailed coverage here