Bloggers find themselves under more legal scrutiny

Brattleboro, Vt. - When Christopher Grotke answered a late-night knock on the door, he did not expect to find the deputy sheriff on his doorstep serving notice that he was being sued. Nor was he prepared for the charge: libel.

Someone had posted a comment on his citizen-journalism Web site, iBrattleboro.com, stating that a woman in Brattleboro, Vt., was having an extramarital affair. The accused woman then sued Grotke and his Web site co-founder for failing to edit or delete the comment.

The blogging community increasingly is subject to lawsuits and threats of legal action running the gamut from subpoenas to cease-and-desist notices.Since blogging became popular in about 2004, there have been 159 civil and criminal court actions involving bloggers, according to the nonprofit Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) in New York. Seven cases have resulted in verdicts against bloggers, with cumulative penalties totaling $18.5 million. Many more legal actions never result in trial.

For more on this article, go to The Christian Science Monitor

Wolverines look to slash elected officials' pay; Dems warn chief justice not to block proposal

LANSING, Mich. - Democrats are taking aim at the Michigan Supreme Court chief justice, calling on him not to block a proposal they're backing that would cut judges' pay.

The ad, which began running last weekend, urges Chief Justice Clifford Taylor not to block a proposed ballot initiative that would, among other things, cut judges' pay by 15 percent and reduce the salaries of legislators, the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and secretary of state by 25 percent.

For more on this story, go to Legal Newsline

Photo: Michigan Chief Justice Clifford Taylor is a target of state Democrats who want to cut the salaries of elected officials, including judges.

Colo. blogger provides "fair and balanced" satirical magazine cover

By now, everyone, including those living in the most remote holler of West Virginia, knows of the controversy surrounding the current edition of The New Yorker. The cover shows presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, dressed in traditional Muslim attire, with his wife, Michelle, dressed in camouflage pants and sporting an AK-47 assault rifle exchanging a pound in the Oval Office of the White House.

Upon its release, the magazine cover invoked outrage including a statement by Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton calling it "tasteless and offensive." In response to the hoopla, the New Yorker issued a statement saying the cover was satire (ostensibly to the laughable characterization FOX news "anchor" - and dumb blond of the year-nominee - E. D. Hill made following Obama's victory rally in St. Paul, Minnesota on June 3 referring to "the pound" as "a terrorist fist-jab" ).

Speaking of "fair and balanced," get a load of the satirical "New Yorker" cover a Colorado blogger did of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain as a POW in the Hanoi Hilton. Given the historical records that undergirds both "covers," one can only wonder if it's really satire.

What's wrong with selling your vote?

by Sheldon Richman

Poor Max Sanders. The 19-year-old University of Minnesota student faces five years in jail and a $10,000 fine; he is accused of putting his vote in the presidential election up for auction on eBay. He started the bidding at $10. The charge is bribery, treating, and soliciting.

I’m confused. Aren’t all our votes for sale? Each candidate tries to bribe us with future benefits of all sorts. Basically, a campaign is an effort to buy votes wholesale.

For more on this op/ed, go to The Future of Freedom Foundation

Fannie and Freddie bailout 101

by William L. Anderson

One way to make someone’s eyes glaze over is to explain the various relationships in financial matters. Discussions of swaps, equity, options, short-selling and the like quickly become technical and esoteric, and most people instantly tune out what is being said.

Unfortunately, this situation convinces people that finance is complicated and cannot be understood – and so it must be left to the "experts" who are assumed to know better. Thus, the average person – the taxpayer who will be left on the hook – does not really understand why entities like "Freddie Mac" and "Fannie Mae" are in trouble, and why their "bailouts" are a disaster. They only know that the people who are supposed to be "in charge" of these things are declaring success.

For more on this op/ed, go to LewRockwell.com

Calif. class action suit alleges bank duped students into taking loans for bogus degrees

OAKLAND, Calif. - A group of students in California say they were ripped off by a bank that teamed up with bogus vocational schools to leave students deep in debt, according a lawsuit filed against KeyBank USA.

KeyBank Education Resources and Great Lakes Educational Loan Services allegedly sought to defraud students at sham vocational schools by offering loans, and when the schools' Ponzi schemes collapse, the students are left in debt and have no new job skills, according to a class action lawsuit filed in Alameda County Court in May.

For more on this story, go to Legal Newsline

The IRS v. Robert Kahre

Las Vegas businessman Robert Kahre, along with his attorney, William A. Cohan, talk with Steve Murphy of "Insider Exclusive" about his battle with the IRS to pay his employees in gold and silver coin. This interview includes footage of FBI and IRS agents raiding Kahre's business in May 2003. According to Cohan and Kahre, agents attempted to destroy these videos and lied about it in court documents.