Since the US Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments regarding Trump's travel ban Republicans have once again fixed their attention on immigration. On June 29 the House of Representatives passed "Kate's Law," named after Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old who was allegedly ...read more
During the presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised for months that he would be the "law and order" candidate. So it was no surprise when he nominated Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions to head the Justice Department. Sessions' views on crime and punishment are similar to ...read more
Donald Trump came into office following a campaign during which he spoke repeatedly of how dangerous and crime-ridden the United States has become. That description didn't match reality for most Americans, whose safety hasn't been at a higher level in years. Now Trump's new ...read more
Finally, it seems serial rapist Bill Cosby will finally face some appropriate justice for his monstrous behavior towards women. Reports CNN: Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault in relation to a 2004 accusation in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Cosby, whose legacy ...read more
(pic: Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun Time) According to Chicago Sun Times columnist Mary Mitchell, rape is only rape if the woman isn't a sex worker. Yes, you read that right - prostitutes aren't actually human beings because they sell their bodies for sex. 29 year old Austin ...read more
As one of my Twitter friends noted yesterday regarding the decision not to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner: James Holmes, who shot and killed 12 people while wounding 70 others in an Aurora movie theater, was apprehended alive. But ...read more
Sen. Rand Paul has a white supremacy problem, and it isn't MSNBC's (completely true) "lousy lies" about the Civil Rights Act, or his defense of the Southern Avenger, or his dad's racist newsletters. Instead, it's with his devotion to protecting the white supremacist status quo, ...read more
Yesterday, Chez Pazienza wrote a heartfelt and thought provoking piece on the execution of child killer Juan Carlos Chavez. Chez argued that Chavez's crimes against nine year old Jimmy Ryce were so horrific that he deserved to die (and that he did - Chavez was executed last ...read more
In one of the most horrifying stories of child abuse in recent times, Ian Watkins, singer of Welsh rock band 'Lostprophets', pled guilty to multiple "depraved" sex offenses against children, including even an animal. Most horrendously, Watkins pled guilty to the attempted rape ...read more
Remember the good 'ol days when after you were gangraped, you only had to relive the horror in your head for years on end, not see a play-by-play video of it on the Internet uploaded by your mocking, gleeful attackers? Calling themselves “The Roast Busters” (which I don't ...read more
The windy city is often associated with a lot of things: advertising agencies, Barack Obama, cold weather, bad pizza, good rap, the list goes on. One thing you wouldn't expect to put on that list is bat-sh*t violence you would only ever see playing Grand Theft Auto. That is ...read more
12 years after robbing the InterAsian Market and Deli in Nashville, Tennessee for $300, the anonymous man went back to the store with $400 and an apology note. "I am a drug addict. About 11 or 12 years ago I robber (sic) this store with a gun," read the note. "I do not use ...read more
Ok, no, he didn’t. His assertion the Stop, Question and Frisk law has been instrumental to the city’s crime rate is equally as absurd. The data simply doesn’t back him up on this. The mayor gave a press conference this afternoon about today’s ruling that the law is ...read more
For anyone who thinks that the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin was justified, there are several assumptions you must have made to get to that conclusion. In short, anyone who believes Zimmerman was justified in killing the unarmed teenager are ...read more
London is still in shock from the public beheading of an off-duty soldier, innocently going about his business in the streets of Woolwich two days ago. The callousness of this random attack has disturbed the whole country and those, like myself, who are a little too curious, ...read more
In all the hoopla about James O'Keefe and Rand Paul's filibuster (still support him on that), I completely forgot aout International Women's Day (IWD), which was yesterday. I was impressed to read the list of countries who now recognize the day. IWD has been observed since the ...read more
By now you probably have heard that President Obama signed 23 executive orders on gun safety. You might also have heard Senator Rand Paul’s (R-KY) comments that by signing them, President Obama morphed himself into King Obama and that he plans to introduce legislation to nullify ...read more
In the wake of the horrific Sandy Hook shooting, the National Rifle Association (NRA) missed a golden opportunity. They could have been a voice for gun safety. As a leading gun organization, this is something they should know a lot about. They could have taken a stand that ...read more
by Ari Rutenberg Editor's Note: Ben Cohen is on vacation for a few days, so I'll been posting in his stead. If there are any topics of particular interest to readers that have not been covered, please let me know and I'll do my best to get something going. Also I love ...read more
Not good news from the UK capitol. From the Independent: A young man shot in his car during last night's "unprecedented" rioting died today. A murder hunt was launched as police announced that the 26-year-old victim had died after being admitted to hospital. He was discovered ...read more
Matt Taibbi on how the phone hacking scandal was a natural consequence of modern corporate capitalism: Once the media business made the collective decision to always put money above editorial judgment, I think scandals like the News of the World affair became inevitable. ...read more
Ouch. Albert Gonzales, 28, of Miami, Fla., was indicted today for conspiring to hack into computer networks supporting major American retail and financial organizations, and stealing data relating to more than 130 million credit and debit cards, announced Assistant Attorney ...read more
As I said time and again, good riddance to bad garbage. A federal jury convicted a former Louisiana congressman Wednesday of taking bribes on 11 of 16 counts in a case in which agents found $90,000 in his freezer. Former Rep. William Jefferson, a Democrat who had represented ...read more
Link A criminal complaint says 48-year-old John Zaubler called 911 Saturday and said he was going to kill Sotomayor by "blowing her up" because he did not want his girlfriend to go to federal prison. The complaint also says he wanted to kill Obama by "blowing him up." Sketchy ...read more
It shouldn't surprise anyone that the assassin of Dr. Tiller was a member of Operation Rescue. Operation Rescue and their leader, Randall Terry was most recently in the news as part of the actions against the President's speech at Notre Dame. It was on Fox News a lot. Dr. ...read more
The Big Lead: Nabbed for DUI, Hall of Famer Bruce Smith Appears Ageless, Like Richard Alpert ...read more
As John notes, whether Nancy Pelosi knew or didn't know about the Bush administration's authorization and execution of torture doesn't matter. Either Pelosi didn't know or she abdicated her responsibility as a political leader and American by not speaking up and opposing it. ...read more
Link Rep. Jane Harman , the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to drop espionage charges against two officials of the American ...read more
And then it happens Pittsburgh police say a man wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call, killing three of them. Police chief Nate Harper says the motive for Saturday's shooting isn't clear. Friends say the gunman recently had been ...read more
As I've said in the past: Until the church is subject to a full RICO-style investigation of its serial crime, justice will not be served. As early as the mid-1950s, decades before the clergy sexual-abuse crisis broke publicly across the U.S. Catholic landscape, the founder of a ...read more
So says Sec. Clinton. “Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers ...read more
It's usually the students who get in trouble for cutting class. An Ohio fourth-grade teacher had a side job as a prostitute, and even skipped class after using a school computer to arrange an afternoon tryst at a motel, authorities say. Logan County sheriff's officials said ...read more
Seriously. Jail. Not a fine or a slap on the wrist. This guy (and others in his company) are the reason behind several homicides. A peanut company blamed for a salmonella outbreak discovered the dangerous bacteria at its Georgia plant as far back as 2006. Darlene Cowart of JLA ...read more
Link Police arrested the former manager of Sen. John McCain’s Pueblo presidential campaign office Wednesday on charges he sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy left in his care so the boy’s mother could attend a rally for McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, The Denver ...read more
It's not as bad as that crazy party Captain Picard had, but its getting there. Colorado police say a man with too much 'Star Trek' on his mind used a sword modeled after the weapon carried by Klingon warriors to demand money from two convenience stores. Investigators say the ...read more
Way back when I was writing about Cardinal Law and the coverup by the archdiocese in Boston, I was in favor of using RICO to go after the church for their systematic hiding of pedophiles. Connecticut's Catholic Church is charged with racketeering in a suit that claims church ...read more
From the indictment of Illinois Gov Rod Blagojevich (backstory): "ROD BLAGOJEVICH said that the consultants (Advisor B and another consultant are believed to be on the call at that time) are telling him that he has to “suck it up” for two years and do nothing and give this ...read more
Since the voters of Louisiana won't do the right thing. A federal appeals court upheld bribery and other charges against Louisiana Democratic U.S. Rep. William Jefferson on Wednesday, clearing the way for a trial. Jefferson, who cruised to victory in a primary last week and is ...read more
Link The ATF says it has broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree. In court records unsealed Monday, agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target an ...read more
Shame. Shame. Shame. Police sources tell KDKA that a campaign worker has now confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter 'B' in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker. Ashley Todd, 20, of Texas, initially told police that she was robbed ...read more
If this is true, it's pretty insane. Police are investigating after a local woman working at a campaign call center says she was attacked by a suspect who became enraged after seeing a McCain bumper sticker on her car. According to police, the 20-year-old woman said she was ...read more
Some guy is so lucky he didn't get Oliver "They're All Guilty" Willis deciding his fate. ...read more
I confess I haven't followed this case, and it is highly likely the jury (correction: it was a judge trial) had every reason for deciding as they did. But I hope people understand that just from a gut level it is very hard for black people to reconcile that there was nothing ...read more
What John Stagliano is doing is perfectly legal and falls under the first amendment. A grand jury has socked Stagliano with eight obscenity violations for selling adult videos online and via unmarked packing envelopes shipped by the U.S. Postal Service. None of the films contain ...read more
Good news. A federal appellate court today ordered former Gov. Don Siegelman released from prison while he appeals his 2006 conviction, saying there are "substantial questions" about his case. A federal jury in 2006 convicted Siegelman and HealthSouth founder Richard Scrushy of ...read more
This guy is really ridiculous. Totally. Georgia's attorney general confirms that he's trying to keep behind bars a man who was sentenced to ten years in prison for consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. A judge today ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, ...read more
The reason I support the death penalty is not because I think it's a deterrent, but because I believe that some crimes can only be punished by death, still if it's also a deterrent that's a positive in my eyes. What gets little notice, however, is a series of academic studies ...read more
Clearly winning a championship trumps stopping a sex criminal. A former high school principal was indicted Wednesday on charges that he failed to report on-campus sex crimes to protect a star running back who eventually led his team to a state title. Dwight Bernard, the former ...read more
This is the video Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui sent to NBC. UPDATE: The AP has extended video that wasn't seen in the NBC broadcast. ...read more
Maryland has this reputation as one of the sleepier members of the mid-Atlantic region, but once in a while a news story comes along to alter that perspective. Rosibel Aparicio Jandres, age 45, of Germantown, Maryland, was sentenced today to 24 months in prison, followed by three ...read more
