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On Wednesday, June 3, the National Rifle Association filed a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of NRA v. Chicago. The NRA strongly disagrees with yesterday's decision issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, holding that the Second Amendment does not apply to state and local governments

Robert Ord says he stays away from the District of Columbia because he fears he will be arrested on a gun charge. The private security officer unsuccessfully sought a declaration in federal court that he is immune from prosecution on D.C. gun laws. His suit was tossed for a lack of standing. Ord is challenging the dismissal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where the Second Amendment Foundation and the ACLU National Capital Area are participating as amicus curiae in support of Ord, saying his case against the city should move forward. At issue on appeal...

While a recent study concluded that men prefer dating beautiful bimbos, new research has confirmed what many males and advertisers long believed: driving a flashy car really does make a person more attractive to women. Psychologists at the University of Wales presented women with separate images of the same man sitting in a silver Bentley Continental, then a red Ford Fiesta. The study involved 120 participants, reports The Scotsman. After seeing the male, the volunteers viewed him as 'more attractive' in the prestige car. However, when men were shown images of a woman of comparable attractiveness sitting in the same...

HARARE, Zimbabwe – President Robert Mugabe and a longtime opposition leader-turned-finance minister made an unusual joint appeal Thursday for $5 billion (euro3.66 billion) in international aid to revive Zimbabwe's shattered economy. The two men presented an economic recovery program that scraps the stringent price controls which have fueled a black market and spiraling inflation. It also sets up "safety nets and social protection for vulnerable groups exposed to market forces," Finance Minister Tendai Biti said, without offering details. The longtime opponents disagreed, however, over the causes of the country's economic meltdown. Biti said Zimbabwe had to do its part by...

LONDON: The golden rule of advertising - thin models lure more people towards the product - is actually a misconception, claims a new research. The study revealed that skinny models are a ‘turn off’ to consumers in TV commercials and other advertising. According to scientists, images of super-thin models carry no edge in encouraging young women to buy and for the majority of adult women ads showing skinny girls actually discouraged sales whereas plus size models encouraged them to buy, the study found. To reach the conclusion, the study psychologist Phillippa Diedrichs, of the University of Queensland, Australia, created a...

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline)-The former deputy Pennsylvania attorney general who challenged Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's qualifications to be president has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Lafayette Hill, Pa.-based attorney Philip Berg, a self-described "moderate to liberal" Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, alleged that the Illinois senator is not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the presidency. He had his lawsuit rejected Friday by U.S. District Judge Richard Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

EL PASO, Texas — Two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and trying to cover it up have been denied a request for a new hearing. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans denied the request by Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean on Wednesday. The same court upheld the men's convictions in July. No reason was given for the Wednesday's denial. Ramos and Compean are each serving sentences of more than 10 years for shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks while he was fleeing from an abandoned marijuana load in 2005....

People started queuing before 7am for a front row spot at John McCain's campaign rally in Lebanon, Ohio, this week. By the time the senator appeared with Sarah Palin, his running mate, three hours later, more than 5,000 people had crammed into the town centre, with hundreds more locked outside the security cordon. Similar scenes have greeted the Republican presidential ticket at events across the country this week, marking the first time that Mr McCain has rivalled Barack Obama for pulling power. Scanning the crowd in Lebanon, a commuter town of 17,000 people outside Cincinnati, the catalyst for surging Republican...

A federal appeals court yesterday refused to reconsider the decision denying a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal in the 1981 murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. In a two-page decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Abu-Jamal's request for a rehearing of his appeal in the controversial case, which has helped fuel an international debate about the death penalty. Abu-Jamal's lawyer, Robert R. Bryan of San Francisco, said he planned to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case. In March, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit left intact Abu-Jamal's conviction but said...

Obama advisers say bin Laden can appeal to U.S. civilian courts Barack Obama has expressed support for the Supreme Court’s decision in favor of civilian prosecution of terrorism suspects, and his advisers said Tuesday that if Osama bin Laden were captured, he too should face civilian prosecution. – AP Bill Sammon, The Examiner 2008-06-18 07:00:00.0 Current rank: # 13 of 6,452 WASHINGTON - Barack Obama’s foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts, a privilege opposed by John McCain. Responding to questions from The Examiner, Sen....

I have been a member since 1999. I have been suspended at least twice and kicked off "for good" once. I deserved to be suspended once. I believe that FR is a force for good in the world. Debate between people who consider themselves conservative, right or wrong, is a good thing. I believe that FR would prosper more, that more would donate, if they really believed that they had a stake in the site. The risk, that I now expose myself to, that you can be booted forever for speaking your honestly conservative mind in accordance with the rules,...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday left in place a lower court's ruling that allowed Washington state pharmacists to refuse to sell emergency contraceptive "morning after" pills on religious grounds. A federal judge in Seattle suspended state rules that required pharmacies to dispense "Plan B" and other emergency contraceptives that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting, which some people believe is the same as abortion.The case was brought by Stormans Inc, doing business as Ralph's Thriftway, and pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen.

In the community of Shady Grove Woods, trees are becoming more and more scarce. Residents and other anti-Intercounty Connector activists marched through the neighborhood on Saturday, pointing out the trees that were cut down to make way for the six-lane highway. ‘‘It’s just that we didn’t have a say in it in so many ways and we’re not talking about a two-lane road, we’re talking about a major highway running through here,” resident Sam Chim said of the ICC. ‘‘We have a lot of nice, private woods back here and now we’re going to have a highway running through instead....

The Supreme Court denied an appeal today from a conservative group that wants to run ads promoting an unflattering documentary about Hillary Rodham Clinton. Citizens United's appeal was rejected for jurisdictional reasons. Now, the group must either wait for district court action or run ads that comply with current campaign finance laws by disclosing who paid for the ads. Citizens United's lawyer said that he will be waiting for the Federal District Court to make its decision before taking any other action. "Hillary: The Movie," has had one-night shows in a handful of movie theaters and is available on DVD....

NASHUA, N.H. – At a rally with some 1,500 people here on Sunday afternoon, Hillary Rodham Clinton had separate comments about the current president and his predecessor. Referring to the personal appeal that Senator Barack Obama enjoys among many Democrats, Mrs. Clinton said: “I think it’s good to have a likable president. But if I remember right, many people said they wanted to have a beer with George W. Bush. Maybe they should’ve left it at that – have a beer, don’t vote him in as our president.” Minutes later, an audience member asked what Bill Clinton would be called...

Why Do People Support Underdogs And Find Them So Appealing? ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2007) — In a series of studies, researchers from the University of South Florida tested the scope of people's support for those who are expected to lose, seeking to understand why people are drawn to the Rocky Balboas and the Davids (versus Goliaths) of the world. Using both sports and political examples, the researchers* asked study participants to react to various scenarios presenting different competitors with an advantage or disadvantage. For instance, in one study using the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, the participants were given the same...

MINNEAPOLIS - Embattled Sen. Larry Craig asked the Minnesota Court of Appeals on Monday to overrule a county judge who refused to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea in connection with an arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting. Craig's appeal was filed at the court in St. Paul less than two weeks after Hennepin County District Court Judge Charles Porter refused to overturn the guilty plea, saying it "was accurate, voluntary and intelligent, and ... supported by the evidence." Craig, a Republican from Idaho, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in August after he was accused of soliciting sex...

Under pressure from a newspaper investigation, Sen. Larry Craig "panicked" and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport men's room, according to court papers filed Monday. The plea constitutes a "manifest injustice" and should be set aside, his lawyers say. The 50-page filing in Hennepin County District Court said Craig feared his arrest in the airport sting would prompt the Idaho Statesman to publish a story examining his sexual orientation. The Republican, who has represented Idaho in the U.S. Senate for 17 years, "felt compelled to grasp the lifeline offered to him by the police officer,...

11th Circuit rules school was in its power to suspend teen in light of other incidents of school violence across nation. CITING SCHOOL SCHOOTINGS from Columbine to Virginia Tech, a federal appeals court has ruled against a local student suspended in 2003 after a teacher saw a story the student had written in which the narrator dreams of shooting her math teacher. Rachel Boim, who was a ninth-grader at Roswell High School when the incident occurred, sued the Fulton County School District and school officials, asking the courts to force school officials to remove the suspension from her disciplinary record....