Sometimes, it takes years to see the impact of a Supreme Court decision on American life, and sometimes a ruling lands with an explosion. The Roberts Court's game-changing decisions on campaign finance reform have been both.
Almost from the moment Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joined the bench five years ago, the court's conservatives have acted systematically on their deep skepticism of campaign spending restrictions. They have repeatedly questioned the ability of Congress to regulate the role of wealth and special interest involvement in elections without offending the First Amendment guarantee of unfettered political speech.
Italian paramilitary police blocked a boulevard leading to the Vatican to prevent a march Sunday by some 100 survivors of clergy sex abuse from reaching St. Peter's Square, but later allowed two protesters to leave letters from the abused at the Holy See's doorstep.
Omar Khar was sentenced today to 40 years in prison for murder, terrorism and spying by a military panel unaware that the confessed Canadian war criminal had agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence capped at eight years and the chance to return to Canada after one more year in Guantanamo.
Although the study was conducted in Denmark, experts believe that it applies to other parts of the First World, including Europe and the United States. This earlier age of maturation is even more striking when compared with the 19th century, when girls reached puberty at an average age of 15, and boys reached it at 17. Since then, the age of puberty has moved back steadily, until age 14 for boys and age 12 for girls were formally declared "normal" in the 1960s. These numbers were based on the average age of first period for girls and of voices breaking for boys.
William Lynch's life spiraled out of control in the 35 years since he alleges he and his brother were molested by a Jesuit priest: He struggled with depression, had nightmares and tried to kill himself twice.
Actually, with sophisticated programming, it would not be possible for any official to know if there were a program imbedded in a computer to slightly alter the votes--and it can be done without any detection unless a parallel paper trail is produced that is independent of any computer. Many states, including Nevada have electronic voting machines that have a paper printout that you review before you finish, but only guarantees that the computer correctly inputted what you desired. It is no guarantee that the numbers processed later on will not be altered. Officials always take the word of the company who provides the machines, that there are no backdoor scripts to change the results. Can the companies be trusted? That is doubtful given that every major voting machine company like Diebold has connections with high government officials.
The League of Women Voters has filed complaints with police in Evanston, IL and the FBI saying that one of their officials has been targeted by death threats relating to a candidatess debate she moderated last week.
Senior Airman Michael Kearns had been back from Iraq for only two months when he was pulled over on a Florida highway for going more than 120 miles per hour on his new Suzuki. He knew his motorcycle riding was reckless, but after living through daily mortar attacks on his base in Iraq, he said he needed the adrenaline rush.
When a King Country dairy farmer came down with a serious case of swine flu, intensive care specialists said there was no hope. They were set to pull him off of life support, but his family refused to give up.
