Legal Issues and Politics

So sad! 10 year old Jonathan James of Dallas, TX was pronounced dead at a local hospital after his parents refused him water for almost five days. Jonathan was being punished by his father and stepmother after he wet his bed. He collapsed in his home with temperatures reached 100F. He fainted in front of his brother, who told police he was too frightened to help his bro in fear of being punished himself.

The Department of Justice yesterday filed suit to block the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, saying that if the companies were to join, millions of consumers would suffer with higher prices and fewer choices. The merger isn’t officially dead until a federal judge rules and that could take forever. But in the meantime, thousands of workers at both companies will hang on to their jobs.

Maya Angelou is a little upset about the Martin Luther King Jr. monument in Washington DC. For the sake of space, the quote on the side was paraphrased to “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” Well... what he actually said was “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” Maya Angelou says the paraphrase makes MLK Jr. sound like an “arrogant twit.”

If you remember last March, the FDA recalled Del Monte’s cantaloupes because of a suspected Salmonella contamination. Now Del Monte is suing the FDA and the state of Oregon saying that there was no connection and they lost money. The CDC, however, is backing the FDA up saying that they found imported Del Monte cantaloupes were the source of an outbreak that affected 20 people in the US, two of which are suing Del Monte. It would be nice if a company would put safety in front of sales. I mean, the FDA was just doing its job.

First grader Gareth Shand has received In School Suspension by his principal for having long hair and for wearing an earing! The says they will not let him out unless he cuts his hair and gets rid of the earring. The boy’s mother says that he is growing his hair out to donate it to Lock of Love for cancer patients. She also wants to know what the hell is wrong with an earring. Another reason not to live in Texas, their school systems suck.

Did you know that it is still illegal to live together in Florida if you are not married? Well, Republican Ritch Workman proposed a bill in the state legislature to repeal the law and also the adultery law.