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01 Dec 2010 22:01

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U.S.: Illinois set to allow same-sex civil unions! Hoo-ray!

  • This will be the entry to a slippery slope. The next thing we’ll see will be consideration of gay marriage.
  • Illinois Republican state representative Ron Stephens • Stating the obvious about the state’s move to allow civil unions, as if that’s going to stop it from getting signed into law. We’d like to congratulate Illinois for making the move to be the second state to allow civil unions and the seventh to allow gay marriage or civil unions – eighth if you count Washington D.C. Another seven states allow domestic partnerships that give varying degrees of rights. (On an unrelated side note, our source link is using this awesome new highlighting feature that the New York Times introduced today. Check it out. It’s futuristic.) source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Oct 2010 13:27

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Politics, U.S.: The most unfortunate (yet hilarious) typo in politics

  • the green party candidate for Governor of Illinois is named “Rich Whitney.” However, due to a big mistake (or intentional shenanigans) on someone’s part, his name will be misspelled as “Rich Whitey” on some electronic voting machines – about half of them in predominantly African-American areas. What’s worse, election officials say it’s too late to correct the error. Whitney is contemplating legal action (rightfully so, if you ask us). source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 1 Comment • Permalink

19 Aug 2010 09:09

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U.S.: Blago trial: Blame the absurdly complex charges for the decision

  • It was kind of a bittersweet thing … relief that the trial is over, but frustration that we didn’t accomplish what we set out to do.
  • Jury foreman James Matsumoto • Regarding the end of the Blago trial, which only found him guilty on one of 24 counts. Some of the issue was the overarching complexity of the charges – the instructions were over 100 pages and the charges were highly technical and interconnected. “It was like, ‘Here’s a manual, go fly the space shuttle,” said fellow juror Steve Wlodek. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

17 Aug 2010 20:52

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U.S.: The key facts from the Rod Blagojevich (kinda) guilty verdict

  • one the number of charges that Blago is guilty of (lying to federal invesigators)
  • 23 the number of charges that the jury can’t agree he’s guilty of (yay deadlocks!)
  • five the number of years Blago could go to prison for that one charge alone source
  • » What does this mean? Two things. First, Blago isn’t off the hook just yet. Stuart Slotnick, a criminal defense attorney specializing in white collar crimes, suggests that the verdict is simply a safeguard to ensure more consideration for the other, more complex charges he’s facing.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Aug 2010 19:46

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U.S.: Oh, Blago: Jury deadlocked on what to do about the dude

  • question The jury asked the judge what they could do if they could not reach agreement on all counts in the Rod Blagojevich case.
  • response The judge said it was OK for them to rule on some of the charges, and continue deliberating on what to do about the guy’s hair. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

16 Jun 2010 21:24

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Politics: Trial of the century: Could Rod Blagojevich become Rod Gagojevich?

  • yes Rod Blagojevich has been talking way too much during his corruption trial. It’s annoying.
  • no The judge hasn’t put a gag order on the former governor, but he could. We can’t wait. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

11 Jun 2010 11:24

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Music: Thank the Lord. Sufjan Stevens is finally working on his next album

  • We’ve played on some of the tracks and been listening to some of the stuff as he’s been working on it. … It’s going to be incredible. It’s going to probably blow people’s minds.
  • The National’s Bryce Dessner • Revealing that Sufjan Stevens finally got off his butt and decided to start recording that new album, a whole five years after “Illinois” (and a whole year after we scolded him for keeping fans waiting). It’s not like he’s been quiet, though. He still runs his Asthmatic Kitty label, he’s done Christmas music, he released his “The BQE” art project last year, and he’s been a little too frank in interviews. No word on whether this will be another “state” album. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

08 Jun 2010 19:57

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Culture: Trial of the century: Is Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer making fun of him?

  • You have to be comatose not to figure out how to get a dollar out of $52 billion. But who didn’t? Him!
  • Rod Blagojevich’s lawyer, Sam Adam Jr. • Making a comment that seems to suggest that Blago was too stupid to figure out how to defraud the state. The ex-Illinois governor’s former confidante, however, Antoin “Tony” Rezko, did, Adam argues. Adam’s opening statement lasted an hour and 45 minutes and opened up a trial destined to rank with the OJ Simpson trial for its sheer goofiness. Or at least we hope it does. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

22 Apr 2010 20:43

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U.S.: Protip: Using black bar redactions on PDFs doesn’t really work

  • Mediaite broke it. DocumentCloud totally owned it. The Blago corruption court case hit a new high today after it was suggested that Obama might be implicated in the case. But this fact didn’t come out directly. It was actually redacted in this subpoena released today. However, a glitch in the PDF software they used to make the document made the redacted statement very easy to read. Which gave the boys at DocumentCloud a chance to show off their mad skillz. Check ’em out. They’re pretty awesome. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

14 Apr 2010 20:23

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U.S.: Blago beat: The dude apparently liked kickbacks or something

  • The prosecution in his corruption trial says so. What’s their case? Well, according to a court document released today, they argue that Rod Blagojevich and his staff had been involved in extortion and kickbacks since Blago first got elected Illinois governor in 2002. The Obama seat thang (Roland Burris has sure been quiet lately, eh?) was just the most blatant example. Blago (of course) denies the claims, calling them “the same old false allegations and lies.” His lawyers had been fighting the document’s release. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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