Abounding Luxe: News-a-Palooza Wednesday.

12 May 2010

News-a-Palooza Wednesday.

Goood Morning! Coffee is brewing and the sun is up. Today is going to be filled with packing and cleaning, but I'm totally okay with that. But before we get to all that, let's peruse some of the news (and that little phrase will now be used on 'abounding luxe') floating around the interwebs.

First up: Not so much a news piece, but a great, great video that Heather posted on her facebook wall the other day. It comes to us from Afghanistan, from the 1st Batallion 6th Marines. I too often forget that, regardless of anyone's political aversion to war, there is indeed, a war being fought. I need to be reminded that far too many soldiers are being taken from their families for long stretches of time, and that some soldiers have been taken forever. So here is this incredible video showing our phenomenal soldiers who are too far from home

Second up: The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that S.F. cops' pasts could jeopardize convictions. The Article claims that more than 80 city police officers have "criminal histories" that were withheld and not disclosed by the city Prosecutor's office in cases where these officers testified against defendants. I woke up to this story on CNN this morning. They were interviewing both a spokesperson from the DA's office and Jeff Adachi, San Francisco's Public Defender. Things got heated. The DA spokesperson bashed Adachi (and his office) for making a big deal out of nothing and said that this was just a drop in the bucket of motions that are filed day in/day out that clog up prosecution and hinders their office. (AL opinion: see now, this whole filing of motions is not to hinder prosecution, but to make sure everyone gets a fair trial.) Adachi was adamant that this evidence should be turned over to defense teams under the auspices of Brady v. Maryland and because of previous crime lab tampering on some of those in the SF Police Dept. (AL opinion: I understand where Adachi is coming from in some cases, and I'm certain that there are some "dirty" cops, BUT- is a widespread look into every officer's past ok? Is it really relevant? Material? Exculpatory? I don't know.) Read the whole story here: Photo from Suzuki Lea/The Chronicle.

Last Up: The nomination of Elena Kagan to replace Stevens Supreme Court seat. Everyone knew she was on the short list. Apparently she's a brilliant legal mind (Obama says one of the best in the Country) but, has never served as a judge. She's the first in nearly four decades who would join the bench without prior judicial experience. Admittedly, I don't know much about her. I was kind of pulling for Diane Wood based on her record as a phenomenal (in my opinion) judge on the 7th Circuit bench. In order for us all to learn a bit more about Kagan, let's read this list of news outlets' early opinions on the Nomination: