Ohio County Pays for Bat Attack
Those of you who live in Ohio and have recently been attacked by a rabid animal, please be aware that you only have four months to ask for compensation under state law. (File now – you can thank me later.)…
January 2010
Polling Firm Says John Edwards Is Its Most Unpopular Person Ever
According to its website, the Public Policy Polling firm got its start in 2001, so it's only been polling for nine years. Given the low numbers for politicians generally, though, it still seems like a pretty remarkable achievement to be…
Man Cited for “Rocking Out” to John Denver Tunes
Responding to what must be the first and only nuisance complaint ever based on the music of John Denver (based on its volume, anyway), police in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, ticketed a man on January 13 after neighbors complained the Denver…
Judge Randomly Drug-Screened Courtroom Spectators, Complaint Alleges
The term "due process" is hard to define exactly, but one thing it doesn't mean is "we do this all the time," a lesson that a judge in Tennessee learned the hard way. Judge Durwood Moore was censured last year,…
Note: Affair With Client’s Spouse Tends to Create Conflict of Interest
Actually, it's hard to think of a situation in which doing this would not create a conflict of interest, but if you represent a client in divorce proceedings even though you are the one his spouse has been cheating with, that…
Dangerous Cub Scout on No-Fly List
Michael Winston Hicks is the name of a suspicious individual who is on "the list," according to the TSA. It is also the name of 8-year-old "Mikey" Winston Hicks, left, who according to a January 13 New York Times article…
Israeli Minister Makes Turkish Ambassador Sit on Little Sofa
I guess when you have as many friends in the Middle East as Israel does, you can afford to humiliate one of them. Turkey, which has been an ally of Israel's for some time, is threatening to recall its ambassador…
Deputy Tracks Fugitive Through World of Warcraft
Alfred Hightower had been on the run since 2007, when a warrant was issued for his arrest on drug-dealing charges. Hightower was apparently from Kokomo, Indiana, but had fled to Canada. His downfall, though, was that he spent a…
2009 Lowering the Bar Awards
Here are my selections for the best of 2009’s worst. As was the case last year, all nominations and selections were determined though a complex and scrupulously fair process which involved me drinking and then picking the ones I liked…
2009 Roundup, Part Four: The Bill That Changed “No” to “Yes”
I guess we are now a full week into 2010, so I'll just do one more of these. "Woman Says Boss Made Penis Puppets," read this headline. She alleged the puppetry involved, among other things, animal shapes including a goat and some…