Eideard

An eighth-grade student in North Carolina was suspended for 55 days for showing another boy a bag of oregano and claiming it was marijuana, his family said.

“It was just a joke,” the boy’s mother told FoxNews.com. “He’s embarrassed that it’s turned into such a big issue. He’s actually said he doesn’t know why he did it. But he didn’t have an illegal substance to begin with.”

The Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties group best known for defending the right to religious expression, has taken up the boy’s cause. John Whitehead, the institute’s president, said the suspension may violate the boy’s constitutional rights…

Under Union County Public Schools policy, students can be suspended for 10 days for possession of a real or counterfeit drug with an additional 45 days possible if the student’s behavior was egregious. Whitehead argues that oregano is clearly not an illegal drug, and the school district does not define counterfeit drugs.

Any schools left in this nation that [a] concentrate on education instead of being nannies – and [b] have a sense of humor?

After being notified of Arlington resident Travis Corcoran’s controversial blog post in which he implied members of Congress ought to be shot, the Arlington Police Department (APD) has placed a suspension on his license to carry firearms and seized all of his weapons.

Corcoran wrote and uploaded a post to his blog…following the Jan. 8 shooting of United States Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tuscan titled “1 down, 534 to go,” suggesting the other 534 members of Congress should be next. In an interview with the Advocate after the post gained wide attention on the Internet but before police became involved, Corcoran compared his post to a joke made among a group of friends in a casual setting.

APD Capt. Robert Bongiorno said the department took his statements made in the blog as a credible threat and took precautionary measures. The weapons were seized Jan. 13.

“Officers took a large amount of weapons and ammunition. Currently, we are working with federal law enforcement partners and the case remains an active and open investigation,” he said.

An “About TJIC” section of the blog suggested Corcoran may have owned around 10 guns. His license was issued out of Arlington.

Dipshit!

Now, he says, he was just joking – just like you would among close friends.

Britain’s financial regulator has fined and banned a former broker for manipulating oil prices by buying more than 7 million barrels while on a drinking binge.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it fined Steven Perkins, a former employee of PVM Oil Futures Ltd, $108,000 and banned him from working in financial services for at least five years for carrying out trades without the authority of clients or his employer.

The FSA said Perkins bought huge volumes of Brent crude oil

in the early hours of the morning on June 30, 2009 after drinking heavily for several days and then lied repeatedly to his employer to cover up his actions…

The trades landed PVM with a loss of $10 million last summer. The company is the world’s largest independent oil broker, executing trades on behalf of clients but not carrying out trading for its own account…

Perkins’ unauthorized trading pushed the price of Brent crude oil futures up to almost $73.50 a barrel — at that point the highest level prices had hit on the InterContinental Exchange in 2009.

In the days leading up to the trades, Perkins had been drinking heavily at a company golf weekend and had carried on drinking on the Monday afternoon, the FSA said…

The ruling marks only the second action by the FSA against market abuse in commodities in London…

“I suspect they’re trying to seem tough, to look like they’re doing something,” one broker said. “I remain unconvinced they truly understand commodity markets or can get to grips with them.”

What do you think the odds might be, say, of the SEC walking into the NYSE some Monday morning and having traders pee in a cup – to check for cocaine?

Har!

Three former Cabinet ministers, Stephen Byers, Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon, have been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party over allegations they tried to sway policy decisions by lobbying the Government.

The allegations came after the three MPs were caught in an undercover sting by Channel Four’s Dispatches programme boasting that they had changed government policy and secured preferential access to ministers for private companies.

Recordings showing MPs in a series of meetings with bogus lobbyists were broadcast by the programme. The MPs offered their services for up to £5,000 a day.

The decision to suspend the three was said to have been taken by Chief Whip Nick Brown and General Secretary Ray Collins following the screening of tonight’s Channel 4 Dispatches documentary.

The three were secretly filmed by an undercover reporter discussing the possibility of working for what they thought was an American lobby company.

Wow! This is a very big deal in the UK.

Looking out across the pond from the U.S., I guess I’m a little bit extra embarrassed because this is close to “ordinary” behavior here.

A student who set up a Facebook page to complain about her teacher – and was later suspended – had every right to do so under the First Amendment, a federal magistrate has ruled.

The ruling not only allows Katherine “Katie” Evans’ suit against the principal to move forward, it could set a precedent in cases involving speech and social networking on the Internet, experts say.

The courts are in the early stages of exploring the limits of free speech within social networking, said Howard Simon, the executive director of the Florida ACLU, which filed the suit on Evans’ behalf.

“It’s one of the main things that we wanted to establish in this case, that the First Amendment has a life in the social networking technology as it applies to the Internet and other forms of communication,” Simon said.

In 2007, Evans, then a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High School, created a Facebook page where she vented about “the worst teacher I’ve ever met.”

But instead of other students expressing their dislike of the teacher, most defended the teacher and attacked Evans. A couple days later, Evans took the page down.

But after Principal Peter Bayer found out about it, he bumped Evan from her Advanced Placement classes, putting her in classes with less prestige, and suspended her for three days.

In late 2008, Evans filed suit against the principal, asking that the suspension be ruled unconstitutional and reversed, that the documents be removed from her file at the school and that she receive reimbursement for attorney fees.

“Evans’ speech falls under the wide umbrella of protected speech,” Judge Garber wrote. “It was an opinion of a student about a teacher, that was published off-campus, did not cause any disruption on-campus, and was not lewd, vulgar, threatening, or advocating illegal or dangerous behavior.”

RTFA. Lots of useful detail supporting free speech within sane rules. The young lass didn’t break those rules, e.g., threatening harm, etc.; But, the school principal certainly did.

Canadian officials are investigating more than 300 people who claimed to have shared a home in Mississauga, Ontario, says the (Toronto) Globe and Mail.

Now, that’s high population density!

The newspaper said Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the alleged cases of citizenship fraud, a crime that Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently deemed a rising matter of concern in Canada…

A building manager at Palestine House, which resides in the same building as the address in the fraud investigation, told the Globe and Mail that individuals also received child benefit checks at the address despite the fact they did not live at the address.

Then, in a completely unrelated report…

At least four Toronto-area drivers who had their licenses suspended in court drove away when they left, a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. report said Tuesday.

The broadcaster aired a report it compiled last week in which news crews followed the first four men whose licenses were suspended and recorded them driving away.

The charges the men faced weren’t published, although the CBC said one of the men who drove away from the courthouse has 34 driving convictions and nine license suspensions.

Those of us who have survived absolutely identical standards of policing and jurisprudence – down here in New Mexico – actually are heartened to know we haven’t an exclusive patent on bureaucratic incompetence.

The Conservative government has shut down Parliament for two months, until after the Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper telephoned Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean on Wednesday to ask her permission to end the parliamentary session. Jean signed the proclamation later that day, granting his request.

The move triggered immediate condemnation from opposition MPs who labelled the Conservative government’s move an “almost despotic” attempt to muzzle parliamentarians amid controversy over the Afghan detainees affair…

A speech from the throne will be delivered March 3, followed by presentation of the budget the next day. The session had been scheduled to resume Jan. 25 after the holiday break…

“Three times in three years and twice within one year, the prime minister takes this extraordinary step to muzzle Parliament. This time it’s a coverup of what the Conservatives knew, and when they knew it, about torture in Afghanistan. So their solution is not to answer the questions but, rather, to padlock Parliament and shut down democracy…”

By the time Parliament resumes, Harper would have had time to ask Jean to name five new senators, which would give the Conservatives a majority on the newly formed Senate committees and greater control for passing their own legislation.

Even George W. couldn’t do a worse job of governing. Harper is running away and hiding – hoping the spectacle of the Winter Olympics will distract angry citizens and politicians alike. Before he has to face up to his incompetence.

Thanks, Cinaedh, for a better link

An English teacher from the Bronx is accused of overstepping his boundaries by sharing with his students a steamy composition about teenage masturbation.

Greg Van Voorhis, known as “Mr. V” by students at the Bronx School of Law and Finance, is accused of giving his 11th graders a graphic short story titled “Guts” written by “Fight Club” author Chuck Palahniuk. The explicit reading centers around a teenager’s masturbation habits involving things like carrots, among other items.

School officials say Van Voorhis went too far and as a result the Department of Education re-assigned Van Voorhis to an administrative office, pending the outcome of an investigation.

Students at the school are outraged the popular teacher has been removed from the classroom. Many of them say he knows how to relate to them best.

Some 300 students at the school have joined a Facebook group called, “Save Mr. V,” in which a majority of them posted supportive messages urging school officials to let him teach again.

Unsurprising, their parents say they’re glad he’s suspended. Their kids achieve grades in English better than two-thirds of the students in NYC. No matter.

He must be doing something wrong. Getting them to read and think is still forbidden in the All-American Rulebook.

A MARTA bus driver is on suspension following allegations that he forced passengers to pray before allowing them to exit the bus.

Christopher James was one of those passengers. James said, initially, he thought something was wrong when he rang the bell to get off the bus and the door didn’t open.

James said the bus driver asked him and three other passengers to join hands in prayer. James said the driver prayed with the group for about four minutes….

Cripes! One of those long-winded guys, too.

James’ cousin, who arrived at the bus stop to meet him, said she saw the men standing inside the bus, but didn’t realize they were praying.

“I was like, ‘Why were y’all praying on the bus? He said the man would not let them off the bus.”

And they wonder why nobody likes MARTA. Har!

Lawyers dance in celebration outside Karachi Bar Association
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Pakistan’s former military ruler Pervez Musharraf faces an extended exile, possibly in Britain, following a court ruling that has paved the way for a possible – although unlikely – treason prosecution.

Celebrating lawyers danced on the steps of the supreme court after a 14-judge bench ruled that Musharraf acted illegally when he suspended the constitution and imposed a six-week period of emergency rule on 3 November 2007. At the time, the rule was seen as a gambit by Musharraf to strengthen his grip on power. After a long struggle, he was forced from office a year ago.

The court ruling was delivered by chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, whose attempted removal by Musharraf in March 2007 sparked a protest movement that eventually led to the general’s downfall…

Neither Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup, nor his lawyers attended the court hearing. The retired general left Pakistan for Britain two months ago, reportedly at the urging of the army chief, General Ashfaq Kayani, who wanted to remove all political distractions as the army fought the Taliban along the Afghan border…

Talat Masood, a retired general and former Musharraf confidante, said it was unlikely he would return to Pakistan soon. “He will stay away and the army will advise him to stay away,” he said…”

According to the ruling, all judges who swore allegiance to Musharraf will now be sacked. Also, some 37 laws passed during the emergency period will be subject to review by parliament.

“It is open to the courts to condone all or any of them,” said Saeed-uz-Zaman, a former chief justice, speaking on Dawn television.

Does any of this sound like a potential scenario to be played out in the United States? Or the U.K.?

Any politicians and/or judges with the backbone to set precedents that include prosecution for suspending the constitution?