ABA Says Lawyers Can Track Jurors’ Social Media Activity

In-trial social media use among jurors could constitute a constitutional violation, but pre-trial social media use can be a boon in jury selection.

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

Two members of a Macomb County, Michigan, jury posted updates to Facebook while the trial was still being heard late last month. Before the jury had reached a verdict, the foreman had indicated online that he was considering a sentence and was already predisposed to a verdict. “Not cool a young man is dead another young man will be in prison for

Read Full Article

Drone Schools Suggest Inevitability Of Drones In Everyday Life

This week, the United States Navy launched its drone prototype, the X-47B, from the deck of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush off the coast of Maryland. The X-47B is the first drone that has proven successful in launching from and landing on an aircraft carrier, giving the military the capability of launching drone strikes without […]

Frederick Reese
By Frederick Reese

This week, the United States Navy launched its drone prototype, the X-47B, from the deck of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush off the coast of Maryland. The X-47B is the first drone that has proven successful in launching from and landing on an aircraft carrier, giving the military the capability of launching drone strikes without first setting up a

Read Full Article

Peace Activists Face Terrorism Charges For Trying To Turn Reactor Into Plowshares

Their intent to break into the facility was to follow the words of Isaiah 2:4: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares.”

Katie Rucke
By Katie Rucke

On June 28, 2012, three longtime peace activists -- Sister Megan Rice, 82, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57 and Michael Walli, 63 -- cut through a chain-link fence surrounding a nuclear weapons production facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., which had signs saying “No Trespassing.” Their goal was to symbolically disarm the nuclear weapons industry, using non-violent

Read Full Article

Organic Industry Clout Grows With Consumer Demand

Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate.

Associated Press
By Associated Press

The organic food industry is gaining clout on Capitol Hill, prompted by rising consumer demand and its entry into traditional farm states. But that isn't going over well with everyone in Congress. Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on a sweeping farm

Read Full Article

Charitable Donations Keep Arizona Buyback Program Alive Before Summer Ban

More than $200,000 in charitable donations are giving Arizona residents another opportunity to take part in a gun buyback program, just one month after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill into law that essentially will halt similar programs from taking place. The law goes into effect this summer. The new law will require police […]

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

More than $200,000 in charitable donations are giving Arizona residents another opportunity to take part in a gun buyback program, just one month after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed a bill into law that essentially will halt similar programs from taking place. The law goes into effect this summer. The new law will require police departments to

Read Full Article

New Illinois Fracking Regulations Heralded As ‘Compromise’; Locals Disagree

New statewide requirements for the industry come at the expense of localities’ ability to impose their own rules.

Trisha Marczak
By Trisha Marczak

While touted as a compromise by local media, proposed fracking regulations being considered by Illinois lawmakers aren’t being accepted by community members who long have called for a moratorium and science-based environmental study on the impacts of the industry. The law being considered in the House -- HB 265 -- does put some safeguards in

Read Full Article