Noteworthy News

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DOJ files letter with 5th Circuit affirming judicial authority

legalinsurrection.com

by William A. Jacobson

April 5, 2012

The DOJ just filed its letter to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the authority of federal courts to rule on the constitutionality of congressional laws.

Texas exoneree wants accountability, not revenge

CNS News

by Will Weissert

March 29, 2012

A Texas father who spent nearly 25 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit is pressing for tougher penalties targeting prosecutors who withhold evidence.

"This isn't about me because my case is finished," Michael Morton said during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. "But there's no reason it can't happen to you or to anyone." Morton was convicted in the fatal 1986 beating of his wife by a prosecutor who Morton and his attorneys believe knowingly withheld critical evidence.

Texas judge faces inquiry on wrongful conviction

CNS News

by Will Weissert

February 16, 2012

A special investigation will determine if a former prosecutor who is now a judge hid evidence in a trial that sent a man wrongly convicted of his wife's murder to prison for nearly 25 years, Texas' chief justice ordered Thursday.

A proceeding known as a "court of inquiry" will determine whether Judge Ken Anderson, when he was a district attorney, failed to turn over all documents that would have supported the defendant's claims of innocence and whether he tampered with evidence and court records, according to the order signed by Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson.

Texas board to vote on Confederate license plates

CNS News

by Will Weissert

November 10, 2011

A Texas board was set to decide Thursday whether the state will issue specialty license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, a plan Gov. Rick Perry has said he opposes but will not block.

All nine members of the Department of Motor Vehicles board were appointed by the Republican governor, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination and has previously defended the historical value of Confederacy symbols. But when asked about the proposed plates last month, Perry said "we don't need to be opening old wounds."

Google "Penguin" Update Punishes Quality Web Sites

tech-faq.com

by Will Spencer

April 27, 2012

Google has rolled out yet another update to their troubled search engine algorithms.

This update, belatedly dubbed "Penguin", was supposedly targeted towards sites which engaged in spammy SEO tactics, but instead it appears to have penalized a wide range of legitimate and high quality web sites. Some of the biggest losers are sites many Tech-FAQ readers know well, including...

Marijuana farms impacting fragile ecosystems

scienceagogo.com

by Will Parker

July 16, 2012

Poisons used on illegal marijuana farms appear to be sickening and killing the fisher, a rare forest carnivore that makes its home in some of the most remote areas of California.

Fishers are currently a candidate species for listing under the United States Endangered Species Act. The researchers, led by veterinary scientists from the University of California, Davis, say they detected commercial rodenticide in dead fishers in Humboldt County near Redwood National Park and in the southern Sierra Nevada in and around Yosemite National Park.

Tom Tomorrow Spin cartoon from 1994 predicted Patriot Act, NSA surveillance.

slate.com

by Will Oremus

December 26, 2013

Dan Perkins, aka Tom Tomorrow, penned the cartoon in 1994 for Spin magazine.

At the time, the cartoon might have seemed a little hysterical. Remember, this was pre-warrantless-wiretapping, pre-Guantanamo, pre-Snowden, and pre-Obama-assassinating-American-citizens-with-drones, sans trial. Rather, the context for the cartoon was a new NSA gadget called the "Clipper chip" that would have made it easier for government officials to listen in on phone conversations, provided they had the legal authority to do so. (The technology was never widely adopted, and the NSA soon abandoned it.) Now? Not so hysterical. But hey, at least the third panel isn't strictly accurate, yet.

Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts

Times Online (UK)

by Will Iredale

December 18, 2005

SCIENTISTS have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf. The researchers were startled to find bears having to swim up to 60 miles across open sea to find food.

They are being forced into the long voyages because the ice floes from which they feed are melting, becoming smaller and drifting farther apart. Although polar bears are strong swimmers, they are adapted for swimming close to the shore. Their sea journeys leave them vulnerable to exhaustion, hypothermia or being swamped by waves. According to the new research, four bear carcases were found floating in one month in a single patch of sea off the north coast of Alaska, where average summer temperatures have increased by 2-3C degrees since 1950s.

Food, biotech companies battle 'genetically modified' labeling measure

nctimes.com

by Will Evans

November 2, 2012

The companies that make those candy bars leftover from Halloween don't want Californians to be spooked by scary tales of "Frankenfoods." The Hershey Co., - makers of Butterfinger, Kit Kat and Sand Snickers bars - gave a combined $367,000 last month.

They are just a few of the major food and biotechnology companies that have poured more than $44 million into the fight against Prop. 37. Proponents of the measure, who have raised $7.3 million from donors - including a controversial alternative health website and organic food companies - argue that consumers have a right to know what's in their food and point out that some countries already require such labels.

Breast-fed children found smarter

Reuters

by Will Dunham

May 5, 2008

A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that breast-feeding can make children smarter, an international team of researchers said on Monday.

Children whose mothers breast-fed them longer and did not mix in baby formula scored higher on intelligence tests, the researchers in Canada and Belarus reported.

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