A ban on same-sex marriage in the state of California has been declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court on Tuesday. The measure ruled unconstitutional is known as Proposition 8, which could now hit the United States Supreme Court.

The decision came down at 2-1 by a panel of three judges. Those judges sit on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the city of San Francisco. The panel of judges, with its ruling, agreed with a judge from a lower court who declared that the ban was a violation of gay and lesbian people’s civil rights back in 2010.

“Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples,” Stephen Reinhardt wrote for the ruling.

“Although the constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently,” explains the ruling from the court.

“There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted.”

The ruling from the panel also stresses that this only applies to the state of California. Gay marriage was previously allowed prior to Proposition 8, which has jurisdiction in nine states out West.

“Whether under the Constitution same-sex couples may ever be denied the right to marry, a right that has long been enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, is an important and highly controversial question,” said the court’s judges. “We need not and do not answer the broader question in this case.”

The founder and the president of the group Freedom to Marry, Evan Wolfson, exclaimed:

“Today’s powerful court ruling striking down the infamous Prop 8 affirms basic American values, and helps tear down a discriminatory barrier to marriage that benefits no one while making it harder for people to take care of their loved ones. The ninth circuit rightly held that a state simply may not take a group of people and shove them outside the law, least of all when it comes to something as important as the commitment and security of marriage.”

Proposition 8 was passed by voters in the state of California back in 2008. Vaughn Walker, a federal judge, ruled that it was unconstitutional in 2010. The ban on Proposition 8 has stood in tact since then because a stay was placed on the ruling by the ninth circuit.

Marriage for same-sex couples within the state will not be allowed until after February 28, which is the deadline for supporters of Proposition 8 to appeal to a larger panel of judges at the Ninth Circuit.

A lawyer who was against Proposition 8, Ted Olson, also is a former solicitor general. He said that the case against Proposition 8 dealt with “equality and freedom and dignity and fairness and decency … It is about us. It is about every one of us … Today we are more American because of this decision.”

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William Baer, an attorney from the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, has been nominated by the White House to become the head of the antitrust division in the Justice Department.

Baer, if he is confirmed by the Senate, will replace Sharis A. Pozen. Pozen is serving as the acting assistant attorney general for antitrust. Pozen will step down from the position once the month of April ends. Pozen was named to the position as interim chief when Christine Varney stepped away from the position to become an attorney partner at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

Baer did not comment on the news, according to a spokesperson from the law firm of Arnold & Porter.

The Justice Department recently opposed a $39 billion acquisition proposal submitted by AT&T of T-Mobile USA. Baer’s law firm, Arnold & Porter, was the representing law firm for AT&T when it came to antitrust matters that dealt with the proposed merger with T-Mobile USA.

Baer used to be the director of the competition bureau within the Federal Trade Commission. He is also a member of the antitrust-law establishment within Washington. When Baer worked at Arnold & Porter he worked on multiple antitrust cases. One of those cases dealt with General Electric, which was charged with fixing prices in the decade of the 90s. Baer was on the defense team, which was successful.

The White House announced the nomination of Baer back on Friday night but no one knows for sure if his nomination will be approved in 2012. Anyone nominated by a president in an election year typically has to wait until the next year for the nomination to be approved or denied. Already this year, the Senate has stalled on deciding other nominations within the judicial system and the Justice Department.

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The divorce between basketball player Kris Humphries and reality star Kim Kardashian is turning into a train wreck and a bitter fight to the end. Recently, the lawyer for Humphries said that he will put reality television on the stand, which is something that could be thrown back into his face.

Humphries’ lawyer, Lee Hutton, has said that he wants to “expose the M.O. of reality TV.” He said he would do this by showing the world that Kardashian had no intention of remaining married to Humphries. He wants to prove that Kardashian used the wedding and early stages of the marriage to obtain high ratings for the television show.

There is a bit of irony involved in this method because the two have asked to have the trial broadcast by television networks across the country and websites alike. For all we know, the judge could turn down the request stating that it would be a hypocritical move.

Kardashian originally filed for divorce, stating that there were irreconcilable differences between her and Kris. On the other side of things, Humphries has said that he wants the marriage to be annulled because it was fraudulent.

Humphries could run into a couple of roadblocks regarding his claim of a fraudulent marriage. The first of those problems is the fact that he proposed to Kardashian. The second problem is the fact that the marriage to Kardashian has made Humphries a world-wide popular figure, helping him market himself, making him millions of dollars more than he would have made if none of this happened.

A third possible roadblock for Humphries in his fraud claim is the fact that Kardashian has a very long and very complicated prenuptial agreement. The prenuptial agreement supposedly deals with what would happen well into the future of the couple’s marriage. If Kardashian was planning to end the marriage this early on, would she really have such a complicated and long prenuptial agreement drawn up at the time of the marriage?

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The law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison had an excellent year in 2011 and some might say that 2011 was in fact a year that set records for the firm.

The law firm saw its gross revenue rise by 3.9 percent to $780 million in 2011. A couple of the reasons for the increase in revenue are litigation that involves clients in the industry of financial services and a record-setting fiscal year for the law firm’s practice in transactions. The law firm added five partners in 2011 but the profits per equity partner still increased. This number increased by 1.5 percent when it chit $3.1 million. The law firm also hired 28 new lawyers in 2011, bringing its total amount to 737. The revenue per lawyer stayed the same, at $1.06 million for 2011.

“We were very fortunate in 2011 to have the highest revenues and profits in our firm’s history, driven by record litigation and transactional activity,” the firm’s chairman, Brad Karp, said.

Karp goes on to say that the numbers, which he described as raw, describe a minor part of the story from the law firm’s 2011 success. Back in the year 2010, the firm made $97 million in a contingency fee from a pension agency’s $500 million negligence settlement. The settlement came between a pension agency from Alaska and a unit from Marsh & McClennan. If the law firm was to subtract the $97 million from its 2010 profit results, the law firm’s gross revenue for 2011 would show an increase of 19 percent.

According to Karp, the law firm dealt with the most multibillion-dollar litigations and transactions in the year 2011 than in any other year of the firm’s history. The law firm won five major trials involving juries in 2011 and arbitrations for its key clients. One of the victories for the law firm was in favor of Citigroup. The case included a reward of $7.5 billion in arbitration that was started by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.

“We are fortunate to be counsel of choice to some of the world’s leading financial institutions in their most challenging litigations and regulatory matters,” Karp says.

Karp also informed the media that the law firm dealt with over a dozen multibillion-dollar merger and acquisition transactions for 2011. One of the more notable lateral moves for the law firm included the addition of Gregory Ezring, from O’Melveny & Myers. Ezring is the law firm’s former co-chair of its corporate and finance capital markets practice. Six other lawyers from O’Melveny joined Ezring at Paul, Weiss in 2011 too. Karp described the private equity practice of the law firm as “extremely active right now.”

Karp went onto explain that 2012 could also come with more record breaking for the law firm:

“Our inventory at year-end is more than 15 percent ahead of where we were entering 2011. We will continue to be opportunistic in adding exceptional lateral partners to enhance our practice strengths, and we’re fortunate that interest in Paul, Weiss is so high.”

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The 52-year old singer, who lives in Tioga, Texas, was apparently celebrating the Super Bowl and after a night of revelry was found drunk in a parked car outside a Baptist church in Sanger, Texas. Travis had an open bottle of wine with him and was in a fight with his girlfriend when a police officer approached him. Travis was cited with misdemeanor charge and was jailed for a few hours.

Travis is not only a Grammy winner but has also won 7 Dove awards. The Dove awards are given out by the Gospel Music Association for outstanding achievements in the Christian music industry.

Today Travis released a statement apologizing for his behavior. “I apologize for what resulted following an evening of celebrating the Super Bowl. I’m committed to being responsible and accountable, and apologize for my actions.”

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Autopsy results conducted on the bodies of Josh Powell and his sons, Braden, 5 and Charlie, 7, show that there were chop marks on both the children.

The grisly results show that even though the primary cause of death of both the boys was smoke inhalation, they were struck with a hatchet before the house explosion happened. Braden had marks on his skull and neck, while Charles had marks on his neck. All three bodies were discovered in the center of the house with a big gasoline canister next to their remains.

Authorities and acquaintances of Josh have concluded that he had been planning all this for some time. In the past few weeks, Josh had donated his boys’ toys and books. And minutes before his children came to see him, he sent emails to acquaintances as well as his cousin and pastor on how to find his money and switch off his utilities. In none of the emails that he sent, did Josh admit to being responsible for his wife’s disappearance.

But in recent times, the boys had started verbalizing about the night that their mother disappeared and one of them, Charlie, drew a picture in school – of the family in a car and saying “Mommy’s in the trunk”.

The boys were also interacting with their grandparents and other relatives more normally. Earlier, they would not talk about their mother at all, being instructed not to do so by their father.

The boys’ grandparents, the Coxes, who had custody of them, were not happy about the fact that the boys had to visit Josh under a supervised visit and had already warned that he was capable of doing something drastic if he felt cornered.

Cops say that the case about Susan Cox-Powell’s disappearance will stay open as it still has several unanswered questions. There will be three investigations into the murder-double homicide as well.

One will be by the local law enforcement authorities; which will be a criminal investigation. Another will be by the social and health services which will be an internal investigation and a state mandated child fatality review.

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She said within earshot of other Patriots’ wives and cameras “My husband cannot f—king throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.”

Sources close to the team say that Brady’s fellow teammates did not appreciate his wife taking pot shots at them.
The 31-year old Victoria’s Secret model from Brazil got married to Tom Brady in February 2009 and they have a son together – Benjamin, born in December 2009.

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“The way he talked, the way he smiled … everything made me realize that no one has the same picture of the world that he does,” said Heleven Gergson, a 17-year-old survivor of Breivik’s attack.

The attack in July, which is Norway’s greatest peace-time massacre, was Breivik’s scheme to draw worldwide attention to his 1,500 page manifesto, which he had recently made available on the internet, and which focused critical attention on Muslim immigration and European liberalism.

Breivik has stylized himself as a commander of a militant organization aiming to replace European governments with patriotic and anti-Islamic regimes. The document describes initiation rights, oaths, and explained that his “clenched fist salute,” expressed “strength, honor, and defiance against the Marxist tyrants of Europe.”

Though 1,500 people have been questioned regarding the attacks, there has been no trace of the group Breivik claims to lead.

Breivik has plead not guilty, though he admits to the shootings, calling them an act of self-defense to save Norway. His lawyer, Geir Lippestad, sees his remarks and gestures as “a preparation for the trial. Much of this case is about his personality.”

Despite Breivik’s protests, his lawyers are seeking to prove that he was psychotic. If he was insane at the time of the attack, he will not face time in prison, but will be detained in a psychiatric ward.

Recognizing that Breivik’s mental health was the integral question of the trial, the court had ordered two psychiatric evaluations, which declared him to be psychotic. Due to public outcry that he would receive less punishment if declared insane, the judge ordered another evaluation, but Breivik refused to cooperate. When the report was read in court of his psychosis, he called it “ridiculous.”

“What a clown” said a father of one of the teenagers killed at the summer camp attack. “The only thing he lacked was a red nose. To sit and look at us like he did, you can see that he is sick.”

His infamous attack and his later court comments are drawing attention to what Breivik has made his mission: to express Norwegian tensions over Muslim immigration.

“It wasn’t good that he got to say what he wanted to say, “said Amel Baltic, a 16-year-old survivor of the attack. “It got me irritated.”

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg recognized that the attacks had fundamentally changed Norway, but vowed that it would remain an “open society.”

The court has found legal ways to keep Breivik detained till his trial. If convicted, he could face up to 21 years in prison. His trial is set for April 16 and is expected to run 10 weeks.

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Check out the video in this post. The video shows a tank being destroyed by a rocket. It is a major reason as to why the Arabs are frightened of the Israelis. This video is an actual event and it was filmed in real time by the Israeli Armed Forces.

The video shows a fully armored Syrian tank that has been hit by a laser-guided, steel-penetrating, hand held rocket that is filled with phosphorous and operated by the Israelis. It is a small rocket that is easily portable and is a tightly controlled weapon. When the rockets are checked out and checked in, each one is accounted for. To verify the use of the rocket, no fewer than two soldiers must be present. One of those soldiers must be a senior officer with at least 10 years of military service. The name and the type of program are classified from the public.

The tank in the video was on its way to a settlement in Israel. There were four other tanks one mile behind this one in the video. Those tanks decided to turn around before arriving in the area after those tanks learned the fate of the first tank.

If you turn the volume up on the video you can hear the ammunition exploding after the initial strike of the rocket. Not one member of the Syrian tank crew survived the rocket attack and it never reached the news.

This is somewhat of an everyday occurrence for the Israel Armed Forces. They also do not allow news reporters to get embedded with their armed forces much like the United States allows. The tactical use of this weapon has been described as not for ‘news’ entertainment but for the survival of the Israel Armed Forces. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below the article.

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“It is the right decision and I commend them for reaching it. I look forward to continuing my life as a father, a competitor and an advocate in the fight against cancer without this distraction.”

Armstrong has consistently and categorically denied drug use, and as history’s most tested athlete — over 500 times in his 20-year career — he has never once failed a test.

After being diagnosed in 1996 with testicular cancer, which had spread to his brain and lungs, Lance became an international hero when he recovered and went on to win the Tour de France consistently each year from 1999 to 2005, two times more than the previous record of five wins.

Such success may have inspired envious accusations against Armstrong. Johnny Weltz, the sporting director of the American team which competed with Armstrong in 1995 said “The people who [made] these charges, they wanted to be Lance and didn’t manage it. So OK you can hit him in another way. These aren’t the right people to judge. For us and cycling, it was best that it was a federal investigation. They had no knowledge up front and no past in the sport. I think most justice happens this way.”

The sport, which once lacked such drug regulations, has lately banned the use of performance enhancing drugs, such as the blood thickener erythropoietin. Around the 1950s, bike riders could even use amphetamines, cocaine and heroin.

Those who are specifically accusing Armstrong of drug use include Tyler Hamilton, a fellow cyclist who himself lost his title after failing drug tests twice. In a “60 minutes” interview, he claimed Armstrong used EPO in the 1999 Tour de France and again in the 2000 and 2001 tours.

“I saw EPO [erythropoietin] in his refrigerator. I saw him inject it more than one time like was all did, like I did many, many times.” Hamilton also said, “Armstrong took what we all took — the majority of the peloton took. There was EPO, testosterone, blood transfusions.”

Armstrong’s lawyer retorted that “Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book. He has completely changed the story he always told before so he could get himself with publishers. Greed and hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports: He has passed nearly 500 tests over 20 years of competition.”

Though they did not specify why they dropped the case, Justice Department prosecutors probably dropped the case for lack of evidence. Other than the accusations of a few other cyclists, there was no incontrovertible evidence to justify the expense of the case.

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The blaze of light, which is bluish-green, was seen as far north as Oklahoma City and as far to the south as Houston. Officials are saying that the light was most likely a piece of space junk or a meteor.

Troy Hess, the Little River-Academy Police Chief, supplied the FAA with video footage of the light so the organization could examine it. Hess saw the light show Wednesday night at Bell County town.

“It kept getting bigger, and the color kept changing,” Hess said.

Residents in nearby small Texas towns were thinking that the lights were from a distressed aircraft or even a UFO that would normally be seen in a Steven Spielberg movie.

Back in September of 2011, a streak of light that looked green was spotted in the sky across multiple West Coast states. This sighting opened a door to a lot of discussion about UFOs. The director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, Edwin Krupp, said discussion is always expected when lights are seen in the sky that cannot be explained.

“Certainly, it’s correct to say that most people are not used to looking at the sky, not used to evaluating either brightness, distance or angular size in the sky, and therefore, have a very good chance of misidentifying objects or effects in the sky,” said Krupp. “There are all kinds of explanations for UFOs, and the least likely is that they’re spacecraft from another world.”

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A thief is being hunted by police who they suspect is trying to grow new hair for his head. Police in New York have been searching for two men who fled from a CVS Pharmacy located on Long Island with what they say was $150 worth of Rogaine hair products. One of the two suspects who were caught on surveillance video is bald.

The two men went to the CVS store on December 17 and have been accused of putting three of the Rogaine boxes in a gift bag and then leaving the store without paying for any of the merchandise. The products cost around $50 apiece. The second of the two suspects has a full head of hair, as seen on the surveillance footage.

A reward of up to $5,000 is being offered by the Suffolk County Crime Stoppers in any information leading to the arrest of the thieves that stole the Rogaine back in December.

Stealing Rogaine is not something new to stores across the country, no matter if the stolen products are being used or being resold. Back in September of 2011, a thief in Illinois stole an entire shelf of Rogaine.

The suspect in this crime was a woman, who has yet to be identified. She allegedly took over $400 worth of Rogaine from the pharmacy, according to police officers investigating the theft. The woman escaped the pharmacy and the area in a get-away car that had three unidentified men in it. On a lighter side, there was no report as to whether or not any of the four suspects were bald.

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Since her days as a toddler, Stacey Irvine fell in love with chicken nuggets and simply could not find the desire to change her diet. Irvine has never tasted fresh vegetables or fruit, and has eaten hardly anything else besides chicken nuggets. Occasionally, she will have a portion of french fries to accompany her  meal.

Over the years, the 17 year old girl has been urged to change her diet by her mother and physicians. However, she says that she is unable to give up her fast food lifestyle. The girl has been hooked on nuggets since she first tried them at two-years-old.

“I loved them so much they were all I would eat. I just couldn’t face even trying other foods. Mum gave up giving me anything else years ago.”

Living in Castle Vale, Birmingham, the teenager admits to eating a slice of toast for breakfast or the occasional package of chips. However, that’s about the stretch of her diet’s variety.

She was rushed to the hospital after collapsing due to an extreme vitamin and nutrient deficiency. Although she refuses to change her diet, she is back at home recovering with an incredibly high dose of vitamins.

“I am starting to realize this is really  bad for me. My main meal is always chicken nuggets every day. McDonald’s chicken nuggets are my favorite. I share 20 with my boyfriend with chips. But I also like KFC and supermarket brands”

Evonne Irvine, Stacey’s mother, does not know what else to do. She is struggling with the inability to make her child eat a varied and healthy diet. She desires that the child go see a specialist.

She says, “She’s been told in no uncertain terms that she will die if she carries on like this. But Stacey says she can’t eat anything else. It breaks my heart to see her eating those nuggets. I am at my wit’s end. I’m praying she can be helped before it is too late.”

Evonne is not neglecting her child. In fact, she is doing all she can to convince Stacey to change her diet. The beauty therapist has two other children, Ava, 3, and Leo, 5. Both of those children eat healthy diets.

She has tried everything she can think of to get her to change. The caring mother has even gone as far as trying to deprive Stacey in a bid to prick her desire for another type of food. However, all attempts were to no avail.

The 17-year-old is facing serious heath problems and will face death soon if she does not change her diet.

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During the arrest of Mel Gibson on suspicion on drunk driving, the arresting officer now claims that he was discriminated against. Attorneys for the officer desire for Gibson to serves as a witness in the upcoming trial. Deputy James Mae claims that he was discriminated against after the arrest of the Oscar-winner because he is Jewish. The trial will focus its attention on things happening after the arrest of Gibson in 2006, and hope to use Gibson as a prime witness to determine if the officer did, indeed, suffer discrimination because of the arrest.

Mee’s attorneys want to prove to the court that due to a close relationship with Gibson, the Los Angeles County’s Sheriff’s Department acted to protect the star instead of put him to justice.

The county refuses to submit to the accusation that Mee faced retaliation or discrimination from the department.

During the arrest, Gibson made several anti-Semantic comments. This is where most of the trail will focus. Mee claims that department superiors forced Mee to remove the comments from the report. He also claims that he did not receive a promotion because of this incident, and he was ostracized from the rest of the department.

In 2009, the conviction of Gibson was expunged because he had complied all of the terms laid out in his sentence. However, the expungement did not do anything to repair his damaged reputation. Shortly after his arrest, details of his sexist rant and anti-Semitic remarks were shared with TMZ, a celebrity gossip website. Because of this leak, Gibson’s reputation was destroyed for years. The actor apologized for his behavior and worked hard to completed the terms of his sentence to begin rebuilding his reputation.

Prior to the arrest, Gibson worked as a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Mee’s attorneys are seeking the opportunity to show a public service of Gibson in a Deputy’s uniform he filmed before the arrest. The attorneys feel it will give a good context to the jurors regarding the actor’s relationship with the department.

In a court filing, his attorneys wrote that “the circumstances that serve as a backdrop to the harassment and hostile work environment that Deputy Mee suffered. Gibson wasn’t just another arrestee. He was the ‘public face’ of the department.”

Sheriff Lee Baca has also been requested to testify, according to a filed witness list for the case. Steve Whitmore, Baca’s spokesman, said, “He’ll do whatever is legally appropriate. We look forward to telling the whole story.”

The trial is scheduled to begin on February 14.

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We believe that he killed his kids and himself,” said Sgt. Ed Troyer, spokesman for the Pierce County’s Sheriff’s Department.

Powell, who was living in Puyallup, Washington, is reported to have sent a short email to his attorney before causing the home explosion. The email just says “I’m sorry. Goodbye.”

Powell was a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, Susan Cox-Powell and had been under intense media scrutiny from the police, media and the public.

The trigger for Powell’s suicidal rage appeared to be the recent ruling against his petition to regain custody of his two sons and the judge ordering him to undergo psychological evaluations. Powell’s sons – Braden, 5 and Charlie, 7 were visiting their father. A social worker had brought them over for a supervised visit. A Washington court had given their custody to Susan’s parents – the Cox family in Utah.

When the social worker brought them to Powell’s house, he pushed her and brought his sons inside the house and locked himself in. After repeatedly pounding on the door and smelling a gas leak, she called her supervisor. But as she was on the call, the house exploded. The case worker was not hurt in the explosion. Shots taken from police and local channels’ helicopters show the house completely gutted.

In Utah, this was heartbreaking news for the Cox family, who had always blamed Josh Powell for Susan’s disappearance in December 2009. Soon after his wife was reported missing, Powell shifted with his kids from Utah to Washington.

Josh always claimed complete innocence and said that he was trying to raise his two kids in a normal manner while dealing with extraordinary circumstances. But investigators looking into Susan’s disappearance say that they had started verbalizing about what they saw on the night their mother disappeared. Josh was the only person named as a person of interest in the case.

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The 17-minute long phone call was first posted on YouTube and has now spread across various sites. In the call, both sides are heard discussing how to co-ordinate their current investigation of Anonymous.

 
It appears that the group first got access to an email that an FBI official sent to his colleagues and other intelligence officials in U.K., Ireland, France, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands. The email contained the phone number to call in and the access code needed to be a participant in a conference call scheduled on January 17. Anonymous also called in and recorded the entire conversation.

 
The conversation involves intelligence officials discussing key suspects in several recent hacks carried out by Anonymous and most of the names have been bleeped out by Anonymous to protect its own.

 
Experts in the intelligence community have pointed out that the FBI should not have been using unencrypted and unsecured communications to discuss such sensitive issues. They point out that it could have been terrorists listening in on the conversation.  The FBI and Scotland Yard; both have tried to downplay the damage done.

 
FBI has released a statement which says that the recording was legitimate, but it was not obtained by breaching any of the agency’s systems. Scotland Yard has also said that it is aware of the recording and the matter was being looked into by the FBI.

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By filing this lawsuit, Schneiderman has made it pretty clear where he stands on the deal that the Obama administration has proposed for the banks in their role in the foreclosure crisis. The deal is seen by some as being excessively soft towards the banks.

Schneiderman even went on record to pretty much call the proposed settlement the equivalent of giving a blanket plea deal to a criminal. States have till February 6 to decide if they want to join the settlement.

The fact that Schneiderman has filed this lawsuit is made even more interesting by the fact that he is one of the five co-chairs of a task force that President Obama announced to investigate fraud related to bonds backed by mortgage loans.

At the heart of the suit is the fact that these three banks used MERS – Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems. This system is used to register ownership of mortgage loans. Before the system was put in place, that work was done at the local courthouses, which many felt slowed down the entire mortgage process. But after its introduction in 1995, over 70 million mortgages have been handled by it.

But the system has problems. Schneiderman’s suit says its use resulted in many fraudulent foreclosures and also undermined New York’s process of reviewing each and every foreclosure case. Homeowners also faced difficulties in accessing mortgage-related documents while they were facing foreclosure.

Schneiderman believes that the banks used the system to give out mortgages more quickly and then when they began foreclosure proceedings, abused it to throw out homeowners from their properties without following proper procedures.

The New York Attorney General’s office issued a statement where it explained the charges against the banks. The major charges against the banks and MERS are:

• MERS has filed over 13,000 foreclosure actions against New York homeowners listing itself as the plaintiff, but in many instances, MERS lacked the legal authority to foreclose and did not own or hold the promissory note, despite saying otherwise in court submissions.

• MERS certifying officers, including employees and agents of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, have repeatedly executed and submitted in court legal documents purporting to assign the mortgage and/or note to the foreclosing party. These documents contain numerous defects, including affirmative misrepresentations of fact, which render them false, deceptive, and/or invalid. These assignments were often automatically generated and “robosigned” by individuals who did not review the underlying property ownership records, confirm the documents’ accuracy, or even read the documents. These false and defective assignments often masked gaps in the chain of title and the foreclosing party’s inability to establish its authority to foreclose, and as a result have misled homeowners and the courts.

• MERS’ indiscriminate use of non-employee “certifying officers” to execute vital legal documents has confused, misled, and deceived homeowners and the courts and made it difficult to ascertain whether a party actually has the right to foreclose. MERS certifying officers have regularly executed and submitted in court mortgage assignments and other legal documents on behalf of MERS without disclosing that they are not MERS employees, but instead are employed by other entities, such as the mortgage servicer filing the case or its counsel. The signature line just indicates that the individual is an “Assistant Secretary,” “Vice President,” or other officer of MERS. Indeed, these documents often purport to assign the mortgage to the certifying officer’s own employer. Moreover, as a result of the defendants’ failure to track the designation of certifying officers and the scope of their authority to act, individuals have executed legal documents on behalf of MERS, such as mortgage assignments and loan modifications, when they were either not designated as a MERS certifying officer at the time or were not authorized to execute documents on behalf of MERS with respect to the subject loan.

• MERS and its members have deceived and misled borrowers about the importance and ramifications of MERS’ role with respect to their loan by providing inadequate disclosures.

• The MERS System is riddled with inaccuracies which make it difficult to verify the chain of title for a loan or the current note-holder, and creates confusion among stakeholders who rely on the information. In addition, as a result of these inaccuracies, MERS has filed mortgage satisfactions against the wrong property.

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Manning, a 24-year old private, was working as a low-ranking intelligence analyst. He is accused of being the person responsible for handing over to WikiLeaks over 700,000 secret documents last year. Among the several charges laid against him, the most serious are – aiding the enemy and wrongful publication of intelligence on the Internet. If he is found guilty, he could be imprisoned for life.

 
Manning served in Iraq from November 2009 till May 2010. It was during this period that he gave away to WikiLeaks, State Department cables, assessments of Gitmo detainees and several videos of military air strikes.

 
The publication of such a huge amount of classified material resulted in top government officials, including Hilary Clinton, running around the world, trying to assure allies and trying to underplay the damage done.

 
In a preliminary hearing that took place in December, military prosecutors showed evidence of Manning downloading and transferring to WikiLeaks classified and sensitive battlefield reports from Afghanistan and Iraq.

 
Manning’s defense team claims that he was emotionally unstable at the time when he had access to the intelligence reports. They say he should have never been cleared for that work considering his previous behavior which had already earned him red flags in the system.

 
The team also claims that one of the reasons for his emotional turmoil was the fact that he was a gay soldier while the military was still following the now abandoned “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. He later on even sought out online counseling for gender reassignment surgery.

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Micron, the memory chip making company, lost its chief executive and chairman on Friday morning when a small, experimental fixed-wing plane crashed. The plane was being piloted by Steve Appleton when it crashed at the Boise Airport, according to the company. Appleton was 51 years old and company spokesman Dan Francisco confirmed Appleton’s death. Appleton was a professional stunt plane pilot and former motocross racer. He was the only person in the plane when it crashed at the airport.

A reporter in 2006 asked Appleton about his thrill-seeking hobbies, noting, “you nearly killed yourself flying aerobatics in a plane.”

“The older you get, the more risk you should take,” Appleton told the reporter.

“If I were to die tomorrow, I have no complaints,” he said to the reporter. “I’ve experienced more than anybody should expect in a lifetime.”

A statement was issued by the board of directors at Micron that said, “Steve’s passion and energy left an indelible mark on Micron, the Idaho community and the technology industry at large.”

The company manufactures DRAM, NAND and NOR flash memory chips.

Back in 1983, Appleton began work on the factory floor at Micron and started to work his way up the corporate ladder. He was then named president and chief operating officer in 1991. He was named chairman of the company in 1994 as well as chief executive officer and president. Appleton was named to his current position back in 2007. The company is headquartered in Boise and employs 20,000 people across the world. It is one of the largest employers in Idaho.

A spokeswoman for the airport, Patti Miller, said that the airplane was a fixed-wing single-engine Lancair. Dispatch for Ada County said that it received calls for a plane on fire before it landed. The airplane is constructed from kits and many others like it have characteristics in its design that allow it to fly faster than other small planes. The FAA issued a warning in 2010 to pilots, saying that these planes can stall when operating slowly near the ground.

The FAA also released an analysis report showing that these planes have a higher number of fatal accidents than other small planes, personal use planes, and other kinds of planes that are made from kits. This advisory was released after a Lancair plane killed a person jogging on the beach in South Carolina.

This is the second time Appleton was involved in a small plane crash. Back in 2004, on July 8, Appleton suffered a punctured lung, head injuries, a ruptured disk and broken bones. This happened when his plane crashed in the desert east of Boise. Questions previously had been raised as to whether the head of the company should be involved in such dangerous activities.

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Recovering drug addict and current Texas Rangers outfielder, Josh Hamilton, announced on Friday that he suffered a relapse and consumed a couple of drinks earlier this week at a bar in the Dallas area. He called it a ‘weak moment’ that he will employ specific steps to make sure that this mistake does not happen ever again.

Hamilton was suspended for a little over three years from baseball for various drug and alcohol problems while playing within the Tampa Bay organization. Hamilton missed the entire season in 2004 and 2005 but played on the Texas Rangers last two American League Championship teams and was named the American League MVP in 2010.

Hamilton did announce that he has not taken any drugs and also said that he has been tested twice this week, which is part of his normal routine now. He also announced that he is expecting to meet in New York with doctors from Major League Baseball. In the past three years, this is the second known alcohol relapse for Hamilton. Back in January of 2009, he drank alcohol in excess at a bar located in Tempe, Arizona. Prior to that incident, Hamilton said he had not had even a sip of alcohol since October 6, 2005.

Katie Hamilton, Josh’s wife, tweeted:

“Truly appreciate all the encouraging & supportive tweets we’ve been getting. God is Faithful and forgives- so thankful that you all are.”

Josh Hamilton said that his life “in general is based on making the right choices, everything as far as my recovery, as far as my baseball goes, it’s all based around my relationship with the Lord.”

“You all know how hard I work on the field, I give it everything I have,” said Hamilton. “When I don’t do that off the field, I leave myself open for a weak moment. I had a weak moment on Monday night.”

Hamilton then went into a little more detail:

“I ended up ordering a drink … probably had three or four drinks, ended up calling (teammate) Ian Kinsler, to just kind to come out hang out with me. Ian did not know I had been drinking.”

Hamilton was acquired by the Rangers in December of 2007 by the Cincinnati Reds, knowing about Hamilton’s previous problems and told Hamilton that they had a zero-tolerance policy regarding his alcohol problems. Three times per week Hamilton is tested for drug use and previously had an accountability partner supporting him during his recovery.

Hamilton’s wife, who gave birth to the couple’s third child over the summer, said that the year was an up and down one for the family:

“It’s been good for me to see all the guys and how they react and how they respond to things I have gone through — injuries, tragedy at the ballpark,” he said in October. “But those things, you learn from them, you learn how to deal with them, how to cope with them, and you move forward.”

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Could it be that racist people are dumb? Here is another question to ponder; are conservatives less intelligent than liberals? Brock University, in Ontario, has released an interesting new study that suggests the answer to both of those questions could be a resounding yes.

The study was published in ‘Psychological Science’ and it showed that those who score low on I.Q. tests during their childhood are more likely to develop prejudiced beliefs. They are also more likely to become socially conservative politics when they get older.

The Intelligence Quotient, or I.Q., is determined by issuing a group of standardized tests. Psychologists still argue over whether these tests truly show intelligence in people.

A professor of psychology at Brock University, Dr. Gordon Hodson, was the lead author of the study. He said that the data found by the study represents evidence of a vicious cycle. It shows that people of a lower intelligence tend to move towards conservative ideals. These ideals tend to stress resistance to change, which then creates prejudice.

Hodson said that some people are drawn to conservative ideologies because they feature “structure and order” that help to comprehend a difficult world. “Unfortunately, many of these features can also contribute to prejudice,” he said.

A University of Virginia psychologist, Dr. Brian Nosek, pretty much agreed with Hodson’s points.

“Reality is complicated and messy,” said. “Ideologies get rid of the messiness and impose a simpler solution. So, it may not be surprising that people with less cognitive capacity will be attracted to simplifying ideologies.”

Nosek also said that less intelligent people could be attracted to simpler ideologies from the liberal side just as much as conservative ones.

The debate has been raging since the data from the report was released, pitting conservatives and liberals against one another. Conservatives claim that the data from the study has been misinterpreted while liberals have said that the study validates their thoughts about conservatives.

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The sister to Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter and singer Aaron Carter, Leslie Carter, passed away on Tuesday in upstate New York.

A spokesperson for the Carter family released the following statement regarding the death of Leslie Carter:

“Our family is grieving right now and it’s a private matter. We are deeply saddened for the loss of our beloved sister, daughter, and granddaughter, Leslie Carter. We request the utmost privacy during this difficult time.”

Leslie was an aspiring singer and her single “Like wow!” was included on the ‘Shrek’ movie soundtrack that was released in 2011. Leslie was following in the footsteps of her brothers Aaron and Nick. Leslie is the younger sister of Nick. She appeared on the 2006 reality television show about the family called “House of Carters.”

The cause of death for Leslie is unknown at this time. She leaves behind four siblings, a husband, Mike, and Alyssa Jane, her daughter who is almost one.

A representative for Nick Carter released the following statement regarding his sister’s death:

“Nick Carter is thankful to the many people and the fans who have shared their wishes and prayers during this tragic time. We want to let the fans know the tour will go on as promised.”

Nick also said, “Performing is cathartic to me and I am dedicating the rest of my tour to my sister since she loved to watch me perform.”

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Harvard Law School debuted its new Wasserstein Hall this week, which is a massive law building that will help generations of law students at Harvard. Harvard had to perform a ton of fundraising to construct such a building, but the school is not shy when it comes to naming buildings or rooms after donors. Do not forget that the university is named after a man who made the wisest donation of books in the history of academia. The new Wasserstein Hall includes the Caspersen Student Center and plenty of commemorative plaques to spread across a handful of universities.

So what else does Wasserstein Hall include? Wasserstein Hall also features a men’s room that is dedicated to William Falik. Falik made money as a lawyer and as a developer of real estate and now teaches in Boalt Hall. The bathroom at Harvard Law School is not the only one named after Falik either. There is a Falik Gentlemen’s Lounge at the Berkeley Repertory’s Roda Theater.

The story as to how the Falik gift and subsequent naming of the men’s room came about is quite funny, as told by Falik himself, according to Above the Law:

“The naming has a curious history involving conversations I had with a now distinguished Supreme Court Justice — Elena Kagan.

After several meetings with then Dean Kagan, I created a public interest fellowship in honor of my father’s 100th birthday by donating $100k to Harvard Law School.

Although I have developed several new communities in California, with a name like “Falik,” there are limited naming opportunities. (Somehow “Falik Blvd” or “Falik Ave” does not cut it). [As the] piece in the SF Chronicle suggests, I thought the best use of my name would be to name a Gentleman’s Lounge (aka Men’s Room), when I made a large donation to the Berkeley Repertory Theater. Dean Kagan, who has a great sense of humor, liked the idea, but for reasons that I cannot articulate, the Falik Gentleman’s Lounge moniker did not get through the chain of command at HLS, so alas, it is now the Falik Men’s Room.”

Falik is a 1971 graduate of Harvard Law School, which you can see from the dedication plaque in the picture in this post. Tell us your thoughts on schools, especially law schools, putting donor names on bathroom plaques to raise money for their schools. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section at the bottom of this post.

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David Anziska and Jesse Strauss, two law school litigators, filed class action lawsuits against Cooley Law and New York Law School last year. These two lawyers have now filed 12 new lawsuits against 12 new schools. In a media conference call earlier today, Anziska said the following, according to Above the Law:

“Now that fifty-one additional recent law school graduates, represented by some of the most accomplished consumer protection lawyers in the country, have sued their law schools, it is time for the schools to take responsibility, provide compensation, and commit to transparency. These lawsuits are only the beginning.”

The 12 new law schools facing lawsuits, in alphabetical order, include the following:

Albany Law School (with job placement rates between 91% and 97%); Brooklyn Law School (with job placement rates between 91% and 98%); California Western School of Law (with job placement rates between  90% and 93%); Chicago-Kent College of Law (with job placement rates between  90% and 97%); DePaul University College of Law (with job placement rates between  93% and 98%); Florida Coastal School of Law (with job placement rates between  80% and 95%); Golden Gate University School of Law (reports rates of 85% nine months after graduation); Hofstra Law School (with job placement rates between  94% and 97%); John Marshall School of Law (Chicago) (with job placement rates between  90% and 100%); Southwestern Law School (with job placement rates between  97% and 98%); University of San Francisco School of Law (with job placement rates between  90% and 95%) and Widener University School of Law (with job placement rates between  90% and 96%).

More information from the press release issued today is below:

“Each lawsuit has been filed by multiple graduates as representative plaintiffs. The lawsuits allege that many schools falsely inflated graduate employment rates by, among other artifices, employing their own graduates in temporary jobs and counting graduates working in non-legal-related jobs and part-time and temporary jobs as “employed” even though such jobs either do not require a law degree or do not pay enough to service the massive debt taken on to finance the degree. The representative plaintiffs further allege that many schools reported “average” salaries based on a small sample of high earning graduates. As a result, the representative plaintiffs enrolled and remained enrolled at the school only to find themselves burdened with debt and with limited job prospects.”

The law firms that have gotten involved in the lawsuits include the following:

The Law Offices of Frank Raimond from New York; The Clinton Law Firm from Chicago, Illinois; Concepcion Martinez & Bellido LLP from Miami, Florida; Finkelstein Thompson LLP from Washington, D.C. and San Francisco, California; Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff LLP from Sacramento, California and Stone & Magnanini LLP from Short Hills, New Jersey and New York.

The duo of Strauss and Anziska claim that they will sue between 20 and 25 law schools each month. Strauss had the following to say about the scrutiny they face by filing the lawsuits:

“There has been a lot of positive movement in terms of more transparency from law schools, but it’s not happening fast enough, and not as thoroughly as we’d like. There’s been a lot of resistance. Folks coming into law school now have much better information than people who enrolled a few years ago, but people are continuing to enroll based on misleading information, and they continue to have massive debt. We’ve been working with Law School Transparency and we endorse a lot of their ideas, but in addition to the advocacy, there also needs to be compensation.”

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Nkonyana, described as a petite girl who could pose no physical threat to her assailants, was attacked by Lubabalo Ntlabathi, Sicelo Mase, Luyanda Londzi, and Mbulelo Damba, not too far from her home. Such brutal intolerance is common throughout the continent of Africa, where vestigial sodomy laws from the days of British colonialism linger in most countries, and is not even exceptional in South Africa, which officially supports a person’s choice to live a homosexual lifestyle. Homosexuals, though free to be who they are in South Africa, must endure an atmosphere of homophobia of such cruelty that lesbians are often targeted for “corrective rape” by men attempting to “cure” their homosexuality. “This court has a duty to show that intolerance — be it of race, sex, or religion — will not be allowed to go unpunished,” said Magistrate Raadiya Whaten.

It took six years of legislation, with 50 postponements, and with what many regard as poor police work and incompetent prosecution, but the case is considered a triumph for homosexual rights in South Africa. Hundreds of gay activists outside the court room cheered, raised their fists, and danced upon hearing the sentence.

“It was the first time discrimination based on sexual orientation was named as an aggravating factor in a South African criminal trial,” said the Triangle Project gay and lesbian rights group of Cape Town.

The case was important because the motive for the murder was clearly homosexual intolerance, and because the perpetrators remained unremorseful throughout the trial.

“It was truly a significant victory for us in terms of setting some kind of precedent for future cases that involve an element of hate or discrimination or bias in respect of sexual orientation,” said Jayne Arnott, the director of the Triangle Project. “The magistrate in the sentencing recognizes that Zoliswa had a right to live as she chose, as a lesbian in the community, and that there was a clear indication of intolerance and hatred towards her on these grounds.”

Gay rights activists worldwide realize that South Africa still has a way to go in realizing the rights of equality and nondiscrimination that are framed in its constitution and laws. Two men guilty of poaching rhinos in a national park were sentenced, last Tuesday, to 25 years in prison. Said David von Burgsdorff of rights group People again Suffering, Oppression and Poverty:

“I had no idea that for rhino poaching you can get a bigger sentence than for murdering somebody. That’s a bit of a jolt. [But] the sentence [upon Nkonyana's murderers] could have been less also. We’re happy with it. We think justice has been served.”

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On Friday, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity decided to abandon its plans to eliminate grants to Planned Parenthood. Komen’s image was in jeopardy after rumors began swirling the past couple of days that the charity would stop sending grants to Planned Parenthood.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” a Komen statement said.

Komen adopted new criteria that would exclude Planned Parenthood from future grants from Komen for breast cancer screenings because it was placed under government investigations.

Komen then said that the charity would change its criteria “to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”

“We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants,” the statement said.

The funding from Komen to Planned Parenthood totaled $680,000 in 2011. Earlier this week, one of Komen’s affiliates in Aspen, Colorado, said that it would not follow the new criteria and continue to donate money to Planned Parenthood. There were thousands of negative comments left on Komen’s Twitter and Facebook pages along with being inundated by emails. Those negative comments included threats to stop donating money to the charity, which organizes the Race for the Cure event.

Ever since the story broke the media, Planned Parenthood has received an outpouring of support, to the tune of $3 million in donations. The president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, thanked everyone for their support.

“We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grant-making criteria,” Richards said. “What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer.”

Planned Parenthood said that its health centers provide 170,000 clinical breast exams and over 6,400 mammogram referrals over the previous five years because of the Komen grants.

“We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue,” Komen said. “We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.”

Some of Komen’s top leaders held a news conference on Thursday since the controversy was announced earlier in the week. Officials from Komen said that the charity does not make its decisions based on pressure.

“We don’t base our funding decisions … on whether one side or the other will be pleased,” said Komen’s founder and CEO, Nancy Brinker.

The statement released by Komen is printed in its entirety below:

We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives.

The events of this week have been deeply unsettling for our supporters, partners and friends and all of us at Susan G. Komen. We have been distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.

Our original desire was to fulfill our fiduciary duty to our donors by not funding grant applications made by organizations under investigation. We will amend the criteria to make clear that disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political. That is what is right and fair.

Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities.

It is our hope and we believe it is time for everyone involved to pause, slow down and reflect on how grants can most effectively and directly be administered without controversies that hurt the cause of women. We urge everyone who has participated in this conversation across the country over the last few days to help us move past this issue. We do not want our mission marred or affected by politics – anyone’s politics.

Starting this afternoon, we will have calls with our network and key supporters to refocus our attention on our mission and get back to doing our work. We ask for the public’s understanding and patience as we gather our Komen affiliates from around the country to determine how to move forward in the best interests of the women and people we serve.

We extend our deepest thanks for the outpouring of support we have received from so many in the past few days and we sincerely hope that these changes will be welcomed by those who have expressed their concern.

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The job market took a massive step towards recovery in the month of January but it is still on a very long road to full recovery. Nonfarm payrolls in the United States picked up 243,000 jobs in the month of January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which is an increase from the revised 203,000 jobs in December.

In January, the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent, which is a drop from the 8.5 percent in the month of December. Economists estimate that if the number of workers who dropped out of the labor force were included, then the unemployment number could be over 10 percent, which is still a very bad sign.

“This report is encouraging, but it still underscores how far a distance we have to go and how many people are still long-term unemployed and disconnected from the workforce,” said Harvard economist Lawrence Katz. “Even if we were willing to say that the scars of the great recession mean a couple of million people drop out permanently, we still have many years to go before we get back to where we were.”

The early expectations for job growth came in at 155,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate hovering at 8.5 percent. With the new job numbers, the total amount of nonfarm payroll jobs sits at 132.4 million jobs, which is 5.6 million jobs lower than the 138 million at its peak in January of 2008. In layman’s terms, it will take many more months to get job numbers back to where they were four years ago.

Hamilton Place Strategies, a Washington, D.C. consulting firm, released a study on the economy and jobs. The data released estimates that there could be three million long-term unemployed people in the country who are not being included in the count by the Labor Department because those three million people have stopped looking for new work. If these people are pushed back to the workforce because of signs that the job market is improving, then the unemployment rate would increase. In January, the participation rate for the workforce fell to 63.7 percent compared to 64 percent in December. This is the lowest number since January of 1982, which suggests that employees are still leaving the job force in massive numbers.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics labels this group of people as those not in the labor force because they stopped looking for work over a month ago but still would like to have a job. This number has increased by 1.66 million since the start of the recession. The unemployment rate would hit 9.2 percent should those 1.66 million people re-enter the job force.

To compare the new numbers with old numbers, unemployment hit its peak in October of 2009 at 10 percent. A larger measure of unemployment, including workers only marginally attached to the job market fell to 15.1 percent, the lowest it has been since February of 2009.

January saw the private sector add 257,000 jobs as the government sector cut 14,000 jobs. Manufacturing added 50,000 jobs and leisure and hospitality added 44,000 jobs.

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After learning of her pregnancy at 16, Jamie Lynn Spears tucked out of the limelight to raise her daughter. Now she is finally ready to begin opening up about her teenage pregnancy. She plans to do so by jumping back into the spotlight and advancing her music career. However, despite her plans for her music career, Maddie, her 3-year-old daughter will remain her top priority.

“These days, the only thing I’m afraid of is not being a good mom. As long as Maddie is healthy and she loves me, the rest doesn’t matter.”

The life that comes along with being pregnant at 16 is no doubt a road of difficulties. Spears plans to speak out on this subject through her music.

“That’s been the coolest thing – realizing that it’s okay to just be myself and really tell my story. I expect the scrutiny. The last time anyone heard anything of me, I was 16 and pregnant. All I can do is be my best – there will always be people who will never like me.”

Regarding her teenage pregnancy, Spears told Glamour that she was far too embarrassed to go to the doctor to seek out proper birth control to guard against it.

“I was 16. I’d had one boyfriend. It doesn’t make it perfect or all right. But I was judged for something that probably most everyone does. I was young. I was in love. I was like every other teenager, except I had this last name. And I made a decision that is forever my decision.”

In an effort to make sure her fans heard the news from her instead of another source, she tried to get ahead of it. She turned to OK! Magazine upon first leaning of the pregnancy. In that, tabloids ran with it saying that she was trying to glamorize teen pregnancy to other teenage fans.

“I hated when the tabloids said that. Everybody is dealt a hand of cards. It was my choices to play them the way I played them. But the hateful comments hurt.”

Spears has big plans for her music career, and is very excited for the opportunity to show people the matured, adult version of the girl they once knew.

“I was a kid who did a kid show. The I went away and raised by child, and the world has never met me as an adult. This is the first time anybody is really meeting me as a grown woman and a grown mother making a decision about what to do with my life. Do people have an idea of who they think I am? Yes, and that’s fine with me. My music will speak for itself.”

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Messianic minister, Rabbi Ralph Messer, instructed the congregation at New Birth Missionary Baptist church in Lithonia, Georgia, to wrap Eddie Long in a tallis, which is a ritual Jewish shawl. Messer speaks to the congregation, saying, “He’s a king. God’s blessed him. He’s a humble man. But in him is kingship. In him is royalty. In him was a land of Israel. He now is raised up from a commoner to a kingship.”

Long is raised onto a throne in the sanctuary to demonstrate his kingship. Ecstatic applause of his parishioners fills the room as he is elevated to such a position.

However, others leaders throughout the religious world do not find this ceremony nearly as applause worthy. A video circulating through the web shows the ceremony in its entirety. Religious leaders have stated that the entire ceremony is completely inappropriate and repulsive.

Director of Media Relations at the National Baptist Convention, the Rev. Morris Tipton, reached out to The Grio concerning his feelings about the video. He was not impressed. Tipton expresses his concern of elevating Long by saying, “God has called us to be serving leaders and not celebrities.” Tipton represents the largest convention of African American Baptists within the United States.

Rabbi David Shiff, member of the Messianic Jewish synagogue in Roswell, Congregation Beth Hallel, did not at all support Messer’s claim to being a Messianic Jew.

“Ralph Messer in no way represents Messianic Judaism. He is not affiliated with any legitimate branch of Messianic Judaism. His actions in no way reflect the position of Messianic Judaism. I found the presentation to be repulsive and inappropriate.”

The way that Long used the scrolls of the Torah, a divine book in Judaism, offended Jews throughout the nation that have seen the video. Messer, during the video, mentions that the Torah used in the ceremony was “a Holocaust scroll.” He mention the Poland concentration camps during the Holocaust, at which time six million Jews were brutally murdered by Hitler’s Nazis.

Even a scholar of the Holocaust did not slightly understand his point with bringing up such a subject during a ceremony. Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, David P. Gushee, reached out to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding the use of the scrolls in Long’s ceremony. He stated, “The connection of the Torah scroll to the Holocaust and then to Eddie Long is incomprehensible to me. What was the point?”

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The bill, originally intended for public officials only, was expanded to include executive-branch employees after Republicans put pressure and said that high-level governmental appointees and bureaucrats should be held to the same standard.

This was the result of an amendment introduced by Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), because of which an expected 28,000 senior level government employees will also come under the proposed law. But Sen. Lieberman (I- Connecticut), who sponsored the bill, says that it could end up bringing up to 300,000 government employees under its purview, including “secretaries and drivers”.

The bill says that insider trading is criminal and requires public disclosure of any such trade within 30 days of it taking place. President Obama congratulated the Senate for passing the bill and urged the House of Representative to pass it too, so that he could sign it as soon as possible.

Several amendments and earmarks were proposed. One of the amendments, proposed by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), was that there would be no bonuses for executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The amendment was accepted.
Two of the several other amendments that were proposed and rejected were by Sen. Tom Coburn and Sen. Jim DeMint. Coburn wanted to eliminate government programs which did duplicate work and the one offered by DeMint proposed term limits for senators.

The three senators who voted against the bill are:

Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico)

Richard Burr (R-North Carolina)

Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma)

Senator Mark Kirk (R-Illinois) abstained from voting on the bill.

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“Retailers find themselves at a crossroads with the recent and unprecedented activity coming out of the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board,” said Katherine Lugar, executive vice president of public affairs. “This forum is a unique opportunity for retailers to join their peers to discuss these recent changes and other relevant issues affecting the industry, as well as discuss how retailers should prepare moving forward and what proactive steps they can take.”

 
The one-day event will also afford the opportunity for lawyers within the retail teams to earn valuable continuing legal education (CLE) credits.

 
Topics to be discussed include:
•    Congressional Outlook: With a divided Congress and election year politics, what lies in store for potential labor legislation in 2012? Hear from experts on what the future holds in 2012 and beyond.
•    The NLRB: Last year brought the Specialty Healthcare case decision, streamline election rulemaking and much more. With the legality of recent NLRB appointments in question our insiders will tell you what to expect from the Board this year and how retailers are adjusting to the current regulations.
•    Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: Learn what you should know about the guidance expected early this year and other decisions that significantly impact retailers.
•    Social Media Usage: What you need to know to protect your company.
•    California Wage & Hour: California’s wage and hour laws often present significant challenges to employers. Our moderated panel will discuss recent case decisions and potential upcoming litigation.

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Berndt, who taught at Miramonte Elementary, Los Angeles, reportedly had fondled a girl in 1994, but the district attorney’s office filed no charges, due to insufficient evidence; and former student Marlene Trujillo has recently reported that she had told her counselor that Berndt appeared to be masturbating behind his desk, but the counselor scolded her and her friends to stop making up stories. This time, authorities took exacting measures to make sure the charges stuck. Though the photographs of the students were found and reported back in October 2010, when a CVS photo clerk in Los Angeles told Redondo police of the disturbing photos, it took a year for police to prepare their investigation. After Redondo police confirmed the pictures looked criminal and that they appeared to have been taken in Berndt’s classroom, they passed the case to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department.

“Immediately, our detective assigned to the case contacted school officials about our investigation, but we learned that students were off track and would not be returning until January 3rd,” said Los Angeles Country Sherriff’s Sgt. Dan Scott.

On January 3, investigators separated the students from the teacher and asked delicate questions to get some ideas about Berndt. Berndt, meanwhile, exercised his right to silence.

Investigators were especially interested in finding a blue spoon, the prop from the photographs they suspected had been filled with Berndt’s Semen.

“Beneath a classroom trash bin, our detective found a blue spoon and container similar to the one depicted in the photos,” Scott said. “We suspect those items were probably deliberately placed at the bottom of the trash bin.”

It took seven months for criminal labs to identify the sample on the spoon as semen, and another seven months to match Berndt’s DNA to the semen on the spoon. Berndt was not charged until last Tuesday, long after his photos had raised suspicions, but Scott said “We always had our eye on him and there was never a chance he would get away form us.”

Of the 23 victimized children, 10 have not been identified or located. Those who have been located and questioned seemed to not realize they were victimized.

“They thought they were being blindfolded and gagged as a game,” said Scott. “And they were rewarded with cookies or spoons full of ‘sugar.’ They did not realize the spoon contained semen.”

Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy conducted his own internal investigation to answer the troubling question of how Berndt could escape any notice for such lewd conduct not only for years, but decades. “How do I make sense of the fact that this took place over a number of years and no one seemed to know about that?” Deasy said.

Berndt’s arraignment is set for February 21.

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On Wednesday, the state senate in Washington passed a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage. This sets the stage for Washington to become the seventh state in the nation to allow lesbian and gay couples to marry.

The bill now visits the House, which many believe will approve it. The state’s governor, Chris Gregoire, approves of the measure and has said that he will sign it into law. Opponents of the measure have vowed to challenge it at the ballot with a referendum.

The measure was passed by the Senate by a vote of 28-21 on Wednesday night, which came after an hour and a half of debate on the floor. There were four Republicans who crossed party lines to vote with majority Democrats. There were three Democrats who voted against the measure.

Ed Murray, a Democratic Senator and the sponsor of the bill, said that he knew same-sex marriage “is as contentious any issue that this body has considered in its history.”

He also described lawmakers who vote against same-sex marriage “are not, nor should they be accused of bigotry” he said.

“Those of us who support this legislation are not, and we should not be accused of, undermining family life or religious freedom,” said Murray. “Marriage is how society says you are a family.”

Dan Swecker, a Republican Senator from Rochester, argued that the proposed measure alters the definition of marriage and “will lead to the silencing of those who believe in traditional marriage.”

Opponents to the law have promised to fight the issue, but this cannot be done until it is passed by the full Legislature and then signed into law by Gregoire. The opponents must then provide 120,577 signatures by June 6. Should opponents not be able to collect enough signatures, same-sex couples will be able to start marrying in June. The opponents would then have to wait until elections in November to make a move against the bill.

An opponent of gay marriage, Jane Sterland, said that she was disappointed by the small turnout of opponents to the issue.

“It saddens me that there aren’t more Christians here tonight,” she said. “I’m just very grieved about this whole thing. I want to be here for prayer support against this issue.”

Alex Guenser drove to Olympia from Redmond to watch the Senate debate with his boyfriend.

“I feel like this is the hill, the crest of the marriage equality fight. And after this passes (in the Senate), it’s all going to be smoother sailing from now on,” Guenser said. “I’m really excited to have Washington pass this. I’m excited for my state.”

The other states that legalized same-sex marriage include New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Iowa, Connecticut, Vermont and the District of Columbia. Three other states are debating gay marriage this year including New Jersey and Maryland, while a proposal could be on the November ballot in Maine.

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New York mom and former prosecutor was reportedly so fed up with someone ringing her doorbell and running away that she took matters into her own hands; she fired a round from her pink 9mm pistol and held the teenager at gunpoint until police arrived on the scene.

On Sunday, just after 11pm, Bernadette Greenwald, of Rockville Centre, New York, told police someone twice rang her bell and disappeared before she could answer the door.

Greenwald, who was home with her two children, told police she felt she “had balls” for firing the gun after the prank caused her to snap at the teen, the New York Post reports.

Initially, she told them that a neighborhood teen rang the bell twice, and then threatened to rape her and kill her children. “The third time it rang, I observed a white male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt at my front door. I went back upstairs to my safe and retrieved my bag that had my 9mm revolver in it,” she told cops in a signed statement. Greenwald insists that she pulled the trigger only to scare the boy. “He thought it was a Barbie gun,” Greenwald told police, referring to Nolan LeBlanc, 17. “I wanted to show him that it was loaded.”

Shortly after the incident, Greenwald’s husband, Stuart arrived gome from work and wrestled LeBlanc to the floor, he told police.

Mitchell Barnett, Greenwald’s lawyer said, “”The kid admits to drinking five or six beers that night. He admits to being on their property. She didn’t do anything wrong here.”  Barnett also stated that the boy had given the family trouble before.

But police said the teen had nothing to do with the prank.  His mother told police he was walking home from a friend’s house after watching the Giants game and drinking beer. The teen was not charged.

Greenwald, who served as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx for several years before resigning, was later charged with second-degree menacing, reckless endangerment and unlawful use of a weapon after her statements to cops changed.  She was released without bail after her arraignment on Monday, the Post reports.

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On Wednesday, three law schools in Chicago were sued for allegedly deceiving students by inflating employment information for its students after graduation. The allegations were filed in three separate lawsuits by recent graduates of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, John Marshall Law School and DePaul University College of Law. Each complaint’s allegations are very similar.

The law schools have been accused of falsely advertising for the past couple of years, since 2000, that 90 percent or higher of its graduates were employed nine months after they graduated. The allegations include that the numbers issued by the law schools included students with any type of job, including ones that were not in the legal industry. Also alleged against the schools is that they inflated average salaries paid to their graduates because the numbers were based on a deliberate sample of high-earning graduates.

The graduates who filed the lawsuits claim that they relied on the information when it came down to deciding which school to attend. Despite the rosy numbers from the law schools, the graduates found limited job opportunities and growing debt upon graduation.

“These deceptions are perpetuated so as to prevent prospective students from realizing the obvious — that attending John Marshall and forking over approximately $120,000 in tuition payments is a terrible investment which makes little economic sense and, most likely, will never pay off,” one of the filed complaints said.

All of the law schools named in the complaints declined comment and said that they had yet to see the complaints made against them.

The lawsuits were filed in Cook County Circuit Court and all of them seek class-action status. There are eight plaintiffs against DePaul, four plaintiffs against Kent and three plaintiffs against John Marshall. The plaintiffs in all of the complaints are seeking tuition refunds and other monetary rewards. The plaintiffs in the complaints are also asking that the law schools hire independent auditors to verify the salary and employment data.

Some of the more elite law schools, such as the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, have not seen much criticism about their job data because their alumni are more likely to find jobs in the legal field in almost any economy. Some of the more lower-ranked law schools are struggling to find jobs for their alumni and are facing the possibility of embarrassing lawsuits now.

“It’s obviously not good for legal education,” said William Henderson, who is a law professor at Indiana University. “I continue to be quite worried about it.”

The president of the American Bar Association, William Robinson, said in January, “It’s inconceivable to me that someone with a college education, or a graduate-level education, would not know before deciding to go to law school that the economy has declined over the last several years and that the job market out there is not as opportune as it might have been five, six, seven, eight years ago.”

The lawsuits filed against the law schools in Chicago were part of a coordinated effort against legal education that was mounted by plaintiffs attorneys David Anziska, Jesse Strauss and Frank Raimond. Nine more lawsuits were filed against law schools in Florida, New York, California and Delaware. The Clinton Law firm in Chicago filed the lawsuits against the Chicago-area schools.

Jorie Johnson, one of the plaintiffs in the Chicago suits, graduated in 2008 from John Marshall.

“It’s not that I asked to be set up with a job, but I believe it’s wrong that the employment data was so inflated,” Johnson said. “If nobody speaks up then nothing will change.”

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