Legal Commentary

Friday Night Open Thread

By Jeralyn

Only half of my house has power restored after 20 hours. Xcel Energy needs some serious improvement. First it's a generator, then it's a transformer, now it's who knows what and customer service isn't too helpful. Too bad there's no alternative. Who gave power companies a monopoly in the first place?

Update: 7:20 pm: Xcel gets a reprieve. They just sent a truck to my house and a very nice man tinkered with some switches in the box outside and my power is back. Only one casualty: The coffeemaker. The blow-out last night permanently killed it. I wonder if they'll buy me a new one? Probably not, but if something had to blow, better a coffee pot than one of the computers

On the TV side of things (at least one set is working) we can finally say goodbye to the New York version of Law and Order. It's moving to LA. If it's as bad as Southland was, maybe it will finally be the death knell for the prosecution oriented program.

In crime news, Tennessee wants to ban felons from owning certain kinds of dogs: [More...]

Tennessee legislators, at the urging of law enforcement officials and even animal-welfare advocates, have passed new measures aimed at curbing the use of mean dogs by criminals.

A bill awaiting Gov. Phil Bredesen’s signature would bar felons convicted of violent or drug-related crimes from keeping “potentially vicious” dogs for 10 years after being released from prison or probation. Based on studies showing that unsterilized dogs are most apt to be aggressive, it would also require that any dog owned by felons be spayed or neutered and implanted with a microchip for identification.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome (except Gloria Allred's latest attention ploy focused on Roman Polanski.) If no one paid attention to her, maybe she'd stop holding these ridiculous news conferences.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on May 14, 2010 (boomark / email).