Second Spears Successfully Speared

This is why I am unprofessional.

Jamie Lynn Spears pregnancy raises legal questions

* Story Highlights
* Experts say there is a disparity in how statutory rape laws are applied
* Jamie Lynn Spears is 16, and her boyfriend -- the father of her child -- is 18
* There has been no talk of criminal prosecution involving the couple
* Experts: Attorneys choose when to prosecute, leading to unfairness

(CNN) -- The announced pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears -- the 16-year-old children's television star and younger sister of beleaguered pop star Britney Spears -- is casting new light on how states deal with the thorny issue of consensual sex among teens.

Spears, the star of Nickelodeon's "Zoey 101," told OK! Magazine that she's pregnant and that the father is her 18-year-old boyfriend.

There has been no public talk of criminal prosecution in the case. Consensual sex between the two may well have been legal, depending on where and when it took place.

But critics of the nation's statutory rape laws say that laws that are ignored in some cases can be used to put other teens in prison and land them on sex-offender registries.

"You have a disturbing disparity in how these laws are enforced," said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. "I have no problem at all with nailing adults who sleep with children, but I have a problem with the prosecution of teenagers in consensual relationships.

"What this case should focus the nation on is having a more evenhanded approach to these cases."

He has no problem nailing adults who sleep with children? Dude...standards, man.

Nail the child-rapist, not the child, I guess.

I swear I'm, like, twelve.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World, Yo

An Old Friend.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/26/a_life_reclaimed/

A life reclaimed
Woman's struggles lead her to new hope

By Javier C. Hernandez, Globe Correspondent | June 26, 2007

Kimberly Woo lay on her East Boston kitchen floor weeping. It was 2003, and her boyfriend had just walked out, leaving her with their 18-month-old daughter. Then 19 years old, Woo had dropped out of an elite prep school and was trying to recover from addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Woo could barely afford one month's rent and worried that she once again would be homeless, as she and her boyfriend had been for four months when they first moved to Boston nearly three years before.

"It was hell," she said in an interview yesterday during a break from her job at the downtown Vitamin Shoppe. "I knew single moms had made it, but it just seemed impossible to me."

In the last four years, Woo has turned her life around. Now 23, she is on her way to earning a bachelor's degree on a prestigious scholarship for community college students. She graduated from Bunker Hill Community College with a 4.0 grade-point average this month, with daughter Amarrah watching from the audience.

Boston University, the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and Simmons College have all offered her admission, and she is on the waiting list at Harvard. She will find out by Saturday whether she will be admitted to Harvard, her first choice. BU is her second choice.

To professors and fellow students, Woo is a model of persistence and proof that tough circumstances don't necessarily lead to a terrible future.

At Bunker Hill Community College, Woo's stories of hardship have inspired other students, said Lloyd Sheldon Johnson, Woo's former professor and mentor at the school.

"She transforms lives by sharing personal experiences to help students understand their common humanity," said Johnson, a behavioral sciences professor.

Since she was a child in a poor neighborhood of Manchester, N.H., Woo has had high aspirations. She dreamed of attending Harvard and, at 13, won a scholarship to Phillips Exeter Academy.

"We were very driven as children, and definitely encouraged to focus on academics," she said.

At Exeter, Woo grew more distant from her parents. She still does not talk to her Chinese- American father, but has reconnected with her mother, a kindergarten teacher.

While she enjoyed the academic rigor of Exeter, she felt excluded from mainstream social life, finding friends instead through drugs and alcohol. From that point, her life "went down a spiraling path of destruction," she said.

"I think I got very confused as to how to find a sense of self- motivation," she said.

During her junior year at the prep school, Woo dropped out and moved in with her boyfriend, beginning a nearly five-year hiatus from academics. The couple moved to Boston, living out of a vacant dorm room at one point, after homeless shelters and hostels turned them down because they were too young.

In 2002, then pregnant, Woo's relationship with her boyfriend began to deteriorate. Left on her own, Woo contacted social service agencies for help with rent while she looked for work. She found a job at a children's literacy organization through AmeriCorps. She eventually won a scholarship to attend a community college from OneFamily Inc., a nonprofit that tries to reduce family homelessness in Massachusetts.

Over the past two years at Bunker Hill, Woo has balanced her studies in sociology with three jobs and raising her child, now 4.

"It's a mix of hugs and cuddles, peanut butter on my suits, tantrums, and other good stuff," she said of motherhood.

This month, Woo became one of 51 recipients of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship, which awards community college students up to $30,000 each year to attend a four-year university.

She is preparing for a life in public service, hoping to one day pursue her dream of finding ways to eliminate family homelessness and domestic violence.

At a recent OneFamily event, an audience of 150 broke into a standing ovation as Woo ended a speech about childcare and welfare, recalled Toni Wiley, executive director of OneFamily.

"Kimmy can take a very complicated subject and break it down in such a way that it's not only clear and easy to understand but also very personal," she said.

Woo said she hopes to empower others facing the obstacles she once had.

"I want to change the world so badly sometimes I have to slow down and remind myself to do the laundry," she said.

Hernandez can be reached at jhernandez@globe.com.

I Win For A Change

The Foothill-South Toll Road has been indefinitely delayed.

INDEFINITELY. In the words of Congressman Ken Calvert, "thanks to Reps. Susan Davis and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), a toll road project that has been years in the making has been set back indefinitely."

I win. Trestles wins. The Juaneno win. The OC Weekly wins. Surfers win. The Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy wins. San Onofre State Beach wins. The San Mateo Campground wins. Campers win.

We all win.

From Representative Ken Calvert and his website of dreams:

WASHINGTON, DC. December 7, 2007 – Congressman Ken Calvert (R-Corona) was disappointed that the FY2008 National Defense Authorization Act included language inserted by Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) to repeal federal law that allowed the Department of the Navy to grant an easement at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California. The amendment was added during a late night mark up of the bill, H.R. 1585. The language represents a serious blow to two decades of work to develop a locally-preferred and environmentally sensitive route for the Foothill-South toll road. The conference report for H.R. 1585 was filed today.

Hee hee - serious BLOW. That's FUNNY, because I wrote an article about Ken Calvert allegedly getting a blowjob from a junkie prostitute. It had my favorite headline and subhead also - "OF PORK AND KEN: Local Congressman Likes Toll Roads, Money, Blowjobs. You can read it HERE on the wonderful world of www.OCWEEKLY.com, or on the Congressman's wikipedia site, and I'd provide a juicy, turgid excerpt except the Weekly's site seems to be down.

Maybe everyone's busily reading my stories now that the toll road's dead.

Calvert also had this to say:

"This language would not have seen the light of day if Rep. Sanchez, the leading Orange County Democrat, had not lent her support," said Rep. Calvert. "She understood the ramifications of the amendment and falsely claimed the project had been granted special environmental exemptions. While Rep. Davis had no right to interfere in Orange County transportation plans, the blame for this disastrous setback lays at Rep. Sanchez’s door."

And we would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids...

My Day

MORNING: Wake up to find Luis tying his shoes on my couch. Poor boy felt the bar was dangerous last night and needed to get somewhere 'safe', leaving me to talk with four beautiful ladies. Luis is a good friend.
We go to Reverie on Carl and Cole for the first decent breakfast I've had in days. At first Luis keeps saying he doesn't really care, he's not really hungry, but as he keeps mentioning breakfast I begin to realize that actually he's just incredibly polite and isn't about to either tell me to leave or ditch me and head off on his own.

AFTERNOON: Spend an hour on the phone with a reporter. Except this time I wasn't the one conducting the interview. I was the subject. It was eerie. More on this later if anything develops, and probably if nothing develops also

EVENING: Stop by Law School to man the library desk for a few hours. Hear many rumors as to the state of the school, some cheerful and some disturbing, all probably false.
I also learn that Manuel, one of the staff who generally locks up after me on my library work nights, has received a summons from his landlord. The poor guy isn't getting his paycheck from the New College and hasn't been able to pay his rent, and somehow the landlord is arguing that his last month's rent was late and thus a notice sent in regards to the previous month's rent serves as the requisite 30-day notice for eviction. Prick.
Manuel's wife isn't working right now. He's going to the Oakland office of Bay Area Legal Aid tomorrow, as he lives out there. The man works about TEN STEPS from the San Francisco Bay Area Legal Aid office, and sits almost directly underneath the Law School's Housing Advocacy Clinic.
Hopefully I can help Manuel with his housing problem. Things at school have been so bad for so long that to give up now seems like the easy way out.

Giving up is always the easy way out. Never give up! Never surrender!

Local Idiot Horrified By Barack Obama Mall Shooting

Kurt Strickland, described by neighbors and co-workers as "kind of a douchebag" and someone who "doesn't follow the news", was horrified this week when scraps of news and skimmed headlines led him to believe that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama senselessly gunned down eight Christmas shoppers in a Nebraska mall.

Strickland believes that Barack Obama, 46, shot and killed five women and three men, seriously injuring two other people, on Wednesday at the Westroads Mall before turning the weapon on himself, in what news outlets are calling a "staggering act of cowardice" and a "shooting horror." "Six of Obama's victims were store staff, which is sad," says Strickland. He is unsure whether the spree was motivated by campaign stress or by certain allegations the Clinton camp claims to be withholding.

"I mean, I heard the dude was progressive and, like, liberal," said Strickland, "but I had no idea he was capable of that kind of psychotic-ass behavior." Strickland, 32, is employed as a car salesman at his father's dealership, a neighborhood staple since 1984. He was reportedly "horrified" upon incorrectly learning that Obama, who at the time was considered by many to be a front-runner for the Democratic nomination, had fired an AK-47 into crowds. Obama had, uptil then, "been my second-choice besides the Law & Order dude," said Strickland.

According to Strickland, who has been passing on his knowledge to his friends and bar associates, Obama entered the Van Maul store in the Nebraska mall on Wednesday morning. Shortly thereafter he began to fire an AK-47 at customers and staff in a manner described as "indiscriminate." Strickland was unsurprised by this. "Remember his speech way back at the Democratic convention? Remember all that United Colors of Bennetton crap? The guy's totally not about discrimination."

"I heard the victims were mothers, brothers, sisters and fathers," Strickland told the press. "That's, like, extra tragic. I think society should totally work to make sure that no victims of crimes are family members."

At the end of it all, Strickland finds himself just as many of the families and friends of those whom he perceives as Obama's victims feel: confused and sad. "I mean, first I hear he shot himself in the back of the head," says Strickland, "And now I hear he might take New Hampshire? How screwed are we if we can't even stop one nutbag with an AK from capturing an entire state?"

Leave Brad Alone (apparently)

Um, Leave Brad Alone. There, I said it; a friend's duty is done. Now back to legal studies.

So, yeah. Rachel watches The Bachelor. Rachel KNOWS The Bachelor. And now Rachel has decided to DEFEND The Bachelor.

I have never watched The Bachelor. I'm sure he's quite fetching

Legislation Against 241 Toll Road Moves Forward

Video From a bunch of Trestles Surfers, News today from the San Diego Union Tribune, with my comments at the end:

San Onofre toll road foes get key Congressional assist

By Greg Gross
UNION-TRIBUNE BREAKING NEWS TEAM

10:05 a.m. December 7, 2007

SAN DIEGO – A previously stalled effort to put the brakes on the controversial toll road through San Onofre State Beach, which opponents say would damage environmentally sensitive park land and diminish a world-renowned surfing spot, got back on track Friday.

Rep. Susan Davis, D-San Diego, had inserted language into the House defense authorization bill requiring the Foothill/South Toll Road project to adhere to state environmental laws.

The project can't be built unless the state Coastal Commission grants a permit for its construction, and a commission staff report issued in September already has recommended that the permit be denied.

The Davis “rider” has now passed all procedural challenges and will be part of the full defense authorization bill when that measure goes before the full House of Representatives, probably sometime next week, Davis' press secretary, Aaron Hunter, said Friday morning.

It would effectively undo a move in 2000 by three Republican Congressmen – Duncan Hunter, Darrell Issa and Ken Calvert – who used the same mechanism to specifically exempt the toll road project from state and federal environmental laws, Hunter said.

The proposed toll road would extend the state Route 241 toll road from Oso Parkway in Rancho Santa Margarita to Interstate 5 at Basilone Road, south of San Clemente and north of Camp Pendleton.

The 16-mile alignment would pass through the Donna O'Neill habitat preserve and cross the San Mateo campground and San Mateo Creek in the park land on the eastern side of San Onofre State Beach.

The issue has been especially passionate among surfers, who said the toll road would harm Trestles, a venerable and surfing spot.

Greg Gross: (619) 293-1889; greg.gross@uniontrib.com

My comment (lucky number 32 in the list):

By Beezling on 12/07/2007 at 9:05 p.m.

The toll road is illegal according to California state law. No one disputes that. The Transportation Corridor Agencies used their political connections (all roads lead to The Irvine Company) to sidestep California law as the road travels through federal land.

Problem is, that federal land is San Onofre State Park (and before that the road would bisect the Donna O'Neill Land Conservancy). Both are mitigation for previous development - favors offered by developers willing to pave California at any cost, even if it means promising to protect little pieces of land. Until they want to run a toll road through them, that is.

A quick glance at the Response to Comments section of the projects's Environmental Impact Report, available at www.thetollroads.com, makes it clear that, if forced to abide by California State Law (which also says it is illegal to disturb a Native American sacred site on public land - like Panhe), this toll road extension (not completion) will require a complete rethink. Either that or it's just doomed.

Doom on you, Foothill-South. Doom on you.

By Beezling on 12/08/2007 at 9:12 p.m.

These road-builders ignore the law (like California state law) whenever they can, then hide behind it whenever it purports to validate their often fallacious claims.

The OC Weekly has been reporting on the incompetence and ineptitude of the Transportation Corridor Agencies, the agencies' complete financial disarray, and the devastating environmental and socioeconomical consequences of their toll roads for years.
http://www.ocweekly.com/investigations

I have personally read the EIR for this project and I can tell you it's a joke. Once the Democrats took over, the whole thing was doomed, as the whole thing relied on riders put in place by Republicans that would allow the road to IGNORE (BY WHICH I MEAN BREAK) CALIFORNIA STATE LAW. I live in California. I may have broken a law or two in my time but I believe public agencies ought to abide by the law. Call me crazy.

Now that the Republicans no longer have the influence to do whatever they want, not to mention most of the toll road supporters (Ken Calvert, Gary Miller to name a pair) are caught up in their own corruption scandals at the moment, the TCA's congressional connection might go totally limp.

Here's to the flaccidity of the TCA's political connections!

With respect,
Alex Brant-Zawadzki

Our fearless decider covers r.e.m.'s End of the World

Sweetest Taboo, You Are In Rare Form

So I'm studying the law. You know. Intentional torts. Assault and battery. The kissing battery.

Imagine learning that you can be held liable for an unwanted kiss or even minor physical contact? I shake girls' hands now. Firmly, but not too.

When I talk to girls. Which isn't often. I'm too busy reading about them being assaulted in parking structures or murdered by crazed ex-boyfriends due to the landlord's negligence.

Negligence per se. Statutory negligence. Was the harm the type the statute was meant to prevent? Was the plaintiff in the class of individuals the statute was designed to protect?

See? I know shit.

I also know that defense of self can waive liability for battery, provided the force used is reasonable and .. um .. force is reasonable and neither retaliatory nor preventative. Let's watch this little video while I check my notes and see how close I was.

He didn't even need to wait for the punch, it turns out; consent is also a defense against battery. In fact, Tom's the one with the valid battery claim, although A Pimp Named Slickback could always counterclaim that the punch was in the scope of his consultancy and thus implicitly consented to by Tom through Tom's payment for A Pimp Named Slickback's services. Tom might counterclaim that he never in fact paid A Pimp Named Slickback, that the Freemans used his credit card unbeknownst to him (trespass to chattels), but I fear this argument would be defeated by the mutual performance of the contract. Tom traveled with A Pimp Named Slickback to aforementioned pimp's mansion; Tom availed himself of the advice of said pimp; Tom even goes so far as to demand A Pimp Named Slickback's company when he eventually confronts his wife and Usher. That's when his consent to ... the pimp's consultancy goes from implied to express (as in, he expressed his intent through some kind of manifestation, in this case a verbalization.

Phew. Maybe having a keyboard in front of me isn't the best idea for the exam. My hand might cramp, but there's no danger of losing a good grades amidst the whitewater of a patented Alex B-Z stream of consciousness. But anyway - we were talking about self-defense, no?

According to the notes I pretty much nailed self-defense as a defense against a battery claim, except I neglected to mention that the defendant must reasonably believe that force is necessary for protection from an immediate harm.

If a biological female identifies as a man, and someone calls her a bitch ... is that a hate crime?