Iran executes two teenagers in secret, informs them only the day before

According to the Amnesty International article below, Iran just executed two teenage boys for rape after what they say was an unfair trial as well as flogging during detention. The report also adds that the pair didn’t know they were to be executed at most one day before it happened (click on screenshot): Part of […]

Should the college-admissions scam participants get jail time?

On the news tonight, and now via CNN, I learned that thirteen parents and college staff who participated in the college-admissions scam, falsifying college applications to improve kids’ chances, have pleaded guilty. These include the best-known participant, actor Felicity Huffman. I suspect that others like Lori Laughlin will follow shortly with similar pleas, for there’s […]

Supreme court approves execution with a substantial likelihood of causing agony (vote, naturally, was 5-4)

This is what we’re in for the foreseeable future: a Supreme Court whose conservative majority, while concerned with preserving the life of every fetus, sends criminals to their deaths with impunity, even when those deaths are horribly painful. As the article below in The Atlantic relates (click on the screenshot), Justice Neil Gorsuch, who heretofore […]

A mystery: Why were all charges against Jussie Smollet dropped?

I just learned this from CNN (click on screenshot): As you probably know, Smollett was charged with 16 felony counts for faking a racist and homophobic attack on himself, and according to the Chicago Police, they had him dead to rights, including the cooperation of the fake “attackers” and a copy of the check Smollett […]

Jack the Ripper identified?

UPDATE: Go here to see a post from later on this day, detailing Adam Rutherford’s objection to this paper, which he calls a “joke” because of the possibility of contamination, the lack of provenance of the shawl, the sloppy calculations, and the weak genetic evidence. _____________   The paper below is getting a lot of […]

Actors and other rich folks charged in scheme to defraud colleges by faking test scores and school accomplishments

Bedridden as I am, and unable to brain, all I can do is pass the news onto you (see CNN here and here and the New York Times for the details).   But I do know the two most well known people among those just charged and arrested, since I used to watch television in the […]

When wokeness overwhelms reason: Harvard students demand punishment of a law professor for his legal defense of Harvey Weinstein; university administration waffles

A few years ago I would not have thought this possible. After all, it’s Harvard (for which I retain some vestigial affection), and the protestors, who are demanding the scalp of a black law professor who is defending Harvey Weinstein, are so terribly ignorant of the basis of criminal defense that they seem almost stupid. […]

The affair of Jussie Smollett

UPDATE: Reuters reports that Smollett staged the attack because he was dissatisfied with his salary on Empire. (It must have been substantial, though!). This motive apparently comes not from Smollett, of course, but probably from the two “assailants” he hired. And it gets even weirder. Smollett wrote a CHECK to pay off his assailants, or so this […]

Armed robbers apprehended at the U of C after a chase and a crash; school paper publishes photo of one suspect; students use the incident to criticize our armed cops

We had a bit of excitement here on Monday when, sitting at my desk, I got three successive email alerts from the campus authorities that there were criminal suspects loose on campus. The final one was that they were apprehended. But the first ones, like this, were a bit scary: Shelter in place! That sounds […]

El Chapo convicted

And he’ll undoubtedly get life in prison (he’s 61), as he was found guilty of all ten counts of the indictment, including conspiracy to murder, money laundering, and, of course, running a criminal enterprise. In this case life in prison is the mandatory sentence Kudos to the prosecution for amassing and presenting a mountain of […]