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May 2016

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 24, 2016 42 Comments
In a remarkable deviation from his usual practice, Trial Judge Barry Williams has elected to release in written form his not guilty verdict in the "Freddie Gray" trial of Baltimore Police Officer Edward Nero. The entire verdict is embedded below, but I'll highlight a few particularly interesting sections.

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on May 24, 2016 141 Comments
Donald Trump may have won the Republican nomination in every way except the official coronation in Cleveland in July, but some prominent Republican voices refuse to cheer for him. One of these voices belongs to the communications chair for the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF), the nationwide organization that oversees all Young Republican (YR) clubs around the country. Monday afternoon, Katrina Jørgensen posted a resignation letter on her Facebook page, stating that she was "regretfully" resigning her position because her "principles will no longer allow" her to carry out her duties. The conflict, explains Jørgensen, is that she believes it will be impossible to promote pro-Republican messages along with promoting Trump (emphasis in original):

https://www.facebook.com/notes/katrina-elaine-j%C3%B8rgensen/resigning-as-communications-chair-from-yrnf/10155923659836515

As the head of our national communications my voice is part of our message, and I am intrinsically tied to it. Therefore I must step down. I cannot live with being seen as supporting a candidate I truly feels tramples on all of our values. Even if we, as an organization, focused exclusively on congressional candidates, we would still be seen as complicit. It would be impossible to resist the pressure to push for a straight-R ticket when we campaign.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 23, 2016 11 Comments
So ... I just noticed that Stanley Cohen, the pro-Hamas tax convict who, after release from prison, was held out as representing some anti-Israel teenager even though his law license was suspended, has blocked me on Twitter. I think this tweet of mine is what did it: https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/727460788022169600 https://twitter.com/StanleyCohenLaw Here are some others. It's not a complete list, for sure. This is just from memory.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 23, 2016 14 Comments
Virginia's Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe is in a bit of hot water. Monday, CNN was the first to report McAuliffe was under the FBI and Justice Department microscope. At the center of the investigation -- whether certain donations to his election campaign were extra-legal. McAuliffe served as a board member for former President Clinton's Clinton Global Initiative. His time there is also part of the federal investigation.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 23, 2016 7 Comments
Surely the progressive ideological utopia across the pond is more lenient when it comes to the convenient disposal of unborn human life, right? RIGHT?! Not quite. Though they constantly bemoan laws that make abortion-on-demand more difficult, the progressive abortion paradise is actually in the United States, where laws are significantly less stringent than those of most Western European countries. Elisha Kraus reports for Prager University:

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 23, 2016 13 Comments
Vietnam veteran Roberto Gonzales does not have much time left, but he wanted to spend a few moments with his horses Ringo and Sugar. His wife Rosario described the reunion:
“When the horses came up to him, he actually opened his eyes,” Rosario Gonzales said. “They came up to him and I think they were actually kissing him.”
The final meeting took place on May 21, exactly 46 years after he was injured in Vietnam.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 23, 2016 14 Comments
President Barack Obama has lifted a five decade old arms ban against Vietnam as China Sea tensions continue to rise. At a press conference with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang, Obama said that he did not consider China's aggression in the region as a motivating factor. He chose to remove the ban as "part of a deeper defense cooperation with the country" and "normalizing relations" between the one time enemies:
“Over time what we’ve seen is a progressive deepening and broadening of the [bilateral] relationship,” Obama said. “And what became apparent to me and my administration at this point was … that it was appropriate for us not to have a blanket, across-the-board ban.”
The U.S. implemented the ban during the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975 after the army withdrew forces from Saigon. North Vietnam ambushed the city, reunited the two Vietnams, and renamed the capital Ho Chi Minh City after the revolutionary leader.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 23, 2016 5 Comments
Independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, backed by the Green Party, has become Austria's new head of state. He barely beat Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer. The Interior Ministry counted over 700,000 ballots, almost 12% of the country's registered voters, to determine the winner. Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka announced the results:
Van der Bellen reached 50.3 percent, 49.7 Hofer . In absolute terms, the scarcity of the result is visible: 2,254.484 votes could gather Van der Bellen, Hofer 2,223.458. The difference amounts to just 31,026 votes. The turnout was 72.7 percent, significantly higher than the first ballot reached 68.5 percent.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 23, 2016 116 Comments
[UPDATES THROUGHOUT POST] Today Judge Barry Williams returned a verdict of not guilty in the "Freddie Gray" trial of Baltimore police officer Edward Nero, reports Justin Felton of the Baltimore Sun. Nero had been charged with second degree assault, reckless endangerment, and two counts of misconduct in office for his participation in the arrest and transport of Freddie Gray. Gray had been arrested as part of a crackdown on a high-crime are of the City of Baltimore.  He would suffer a severe spinal injury while being transported in a police van, and would die of his injuries a week later.  After Gray's death Baltimore was wracked with riots, looting, and arson.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 23, 2016 2 Comments
What's the key to viral video-making? An appreciation for the small things in life, a talking Chewbacca mask, and an infectious belly laugh. Or it was in Candace Payne's case. After buying a talking Star Wars mask at Kohl's as a belated birthday present to herself Thursday, Candace Payne sat in her car, flipped on her phone, and recorded what would be the single most watched Facebook Live video in the history of Facebook Live videos. More than 130 million people watched Payne's video which was posted with the caption, "it's the simple joys in life." The previous Facebook Live record holder was Buzzfeed's watermelon smashing video, which had about 10 million views. If you haven't seen her video, it's four minutes of your time well spent:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 23, 2016 26 Comments
Although very few states still—or ever did—mandate ethanol in gasoline, ethanol-blended gas is widely available; indeed, it can be difficult to find an ethanol-free gas station (if you want to find one near you, try this resource). The blend wall—the percentage of ethanol to gas considered safe for car engines—is 10% or E-10, and past efforts to create and push E-15 have failed.  The little-known practice of automakers quietly voiding warranties on cars whose owners use E-15 gasoline illustrates the industry's understanding of the harm that levels of ethanol passing the blend wall (E-10) causes to car engines.  Triple A also warned against the use of E-15 gas in pre-2012 cars.  Not only are engines—cars, boats, lawn mowers, chain saws, etc.— harmed, but ethanol blended into gasoline, not just the higher E-15 blend but even that at the blend wall, also contributes to a loss of mileage. The percentage of ethanol to gas has been increasing relatively steadily over the past decade as indicated by this graph from Bloomberg:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 22, 2016 12 Comments
It was the selfie heard round the world. Zakia Belkhari, a young Belgian Muslim woman of Morrocan descent, took a series of selfies in front of a group of anti-immigration protesters last week. The images went viral on social media and across the progressive media. Vox.com termee it a "brilliant" symbol of peace and defiance in the face of "Islamophobia" and "hate." http://www.vox.com/2016/5/17/11692306/muslim-selfies-islamophobia-protest-antwerp-belgium

Posted by David Gerstman on May 22, 2016 5 Comments
In his testimony last week before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, concerning the grand Iran deal deception described in a recent New York Times article that was carried out by Obama and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, Michael Doran, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, laid out five areas where the White House deceived the American people. First, Doran in his testimony established that even before he became president, Obama had expressed an interest in rapprochement with Iran. He cited former CIA chief and Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta, from The New York Times expose on the echo chamber saying that the administration knew that "They’d have gotten “the [expletive] kicked out of them,” if they had been upfront about their intention to engage Iran. Doran summed it up:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on May 22, 2016 15 Comments
While Americans squabble over which bathroom stall to use, a block of fifty-one Muslim countries blocked eleven gay and transgendered groups from attending an upcoming AIDS meeting at the United Nations, scheduled for June. Western countries are not happy.

Posted by Mary Chastain on May 22, 2016 3 Comments
The Afghanistan government confirmed a U.S. drone killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansoor in Pakistan. The U.S. Department of Defense said the government targeted the leader "while travelling in convoy near the town of Ahmad Wal." From The Guardian:
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, speaking in Myanmar on Sunday, said Mansoor “posed a continuing imminent threat to US personnel in Afghanistan, Afghan civilians, Afghan security forces” and members of the US and Nato coalition. He said the air strike on Mansoor sent “a clear message to the world that we will continue to stand with our Afghan partners”. “Peace is what we want. Mansoor was a threat to that effort,” Kerry said. “He also was directly opposed to peace negotiations and to the reconciliation process. It is time for Afghans to stop fighting and to start building a real future together.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on May 22, 2016 24 Comments
In 2015, Obama announced that he was calling on all federal agencies to no longer check the criminal history of job applicants.  This "ban the box" move was part of a larger criminal justice reform agenda that is now being extended to the nation's colleges and universities. Judicial Watch reports:
The Obama administration has ordered the nation’s colleges and universities to stop asking applicants about criminal and school disciplinary history because it discriminates against minorities. Institutions are also being asked to offer those with criminal records special support services such as counseling, mentoring and legal aid once enrolled. The government’s official term for these perspective students is “justice-involved individuals” and the new directive aims to remove barriers to higher education for the overwhelmingly minority population that’s had encounters with the law or disciplinary issues through high school.
Part of the problem, the Obama administration and opponents of "the box" believe is that asking such questions about criminal or school disciplinary history "disproportionally affects blacks and Latinos."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 22, 2016 5 Comments
Legal Insurrection has been covering the lawsuit against the producers of a Star Trek fan film, and the amicus brief filed in the case by the Language Creation Society. There has been a development in this case that has been...fascinating.
In advance of the July release of Star Trek Beyond, it seems Paramount is going to try to get itself beyond a serious problem it’s having with the passionate fanbase of Trekkies, and clear up a PR black eye in the process. Tonight during a Trek fan event held on the Paramount lot, Star Trek Beyond executive producer JJ Abrams announced that the studio will be dropping a contentious lawsuit against a Star Trek fan film production. “This wasn’t an appropriate way to deal with the fans,” Abrams put it bluntly, signaling a major about face and many mended fences.
That is thrilling news indeed for many Trekkies. The Star Trek universe is certainly large enough for both the involvement of major studios and group-funded fan productions. It seems like Abrams and the director of the movie poised to be released this summer, Justin Lin, put a lot of pressure on the studio to back off the legal attack.
“A few months back there was a fan movie — Axanar — that was being made and there was a lawsuit that happened between the studio (Paramount and CBS) and the fans and Justin was sort of outraged as a longtime fan. We started talking about it and we realized that this was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be iceboating this thing, like you’re saying right now.” Abrams said when asked about the Axanar lawsuit.
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