Happy Monday and welcome back!

• Was a man shot in Mount Vernon the victim of a hate crime? HT: Baltimore Crime.
• Who would buy meat from a van, anyway?
• Letting 300 people out of pre-trial lockup every month would save $10 million a year? Page Croyder is skeptical.
• Under 10 percent of drug offenders have access to drug courts.
• A legal secretary says she was fired two hours after telling the firm she had cancer.

We know Facebook has helped police solve all sorts of crimes, from burglary to vandalism.

But did you know it’s also being used to fight a far more pernicious crime? No, not child sex abuse.

Underage drinking.

Apparently, a college student in Wisconsin accepted a Facebook friend request from a cute girl he didn’t know. Shortly thereafter, he got ticketed for underage drinking on the basis of a picture he’d posted of himself holding a beer–in his own home, no less.

True, it’s not smart to post pictures of yourself doing something illegal, even if it’s something pretty tame. (Some of the other kids caught in the same Facebook sting were ticketed based on photos someone else posted, though.) And if you do post those pictures, you shouldn’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know, even if they’re cute.

But for Pete’s sake–there has got to be something else these cops could be doing with their time.

Here are some pre-Thanksgiving treats to pass the time until the Dixon jury comes back with a verdict:

• The New York Times magazine examines the fallout – legal and otherwise – of taking a paternity test. (HT: Baltimore Crime.)

• The Washington Post reports on the technological challenges of monitoring convicted sex offenders.

• No, it’s not a Seinfeld episode, but it could have been: The “Heidi Klum” of foot-and-hand models is suing her New York apartment building, alleging she was treated poorly after marrying the doorman. (HT: Above the Law)

• A British man was given a “six-week curfew” after stealing a cardboard cut-out of a policeman in Essex, where eight such “officers” are stationed around the city to deter criminals. (HT: Lowering the Bar)

• Finally, a great Speed Bump comic from the always-clever Dave Coverly.

As Caryn Tamber reported today, we can no longer tweet from within the courtroom at the Dixon trial. That doesn’t mean the tweets have been silenced, though; they’ve just moved down the hall. You can still watch for updates on www.twitter.com  by “following” @mddailyrecord, or just search for #DixonTrial.

This morning, for example, we learned that “things [were] getting a little out of order” in the jury room last night, and the jurors continue to correspond with the judge seeking clarifications on points of law or, at least, a legal dictionary. (Don’t worry, the judge nixed THAT idea.) What do you think — does this bode well for the prosecution or the defense?

The folks who bring you Super Lawyers came out this week with a ranking of the top law schools in the country. And it’s dopey.

There. I said it.

The list ranks schools by the number of graduates included on lists of Super Lawyers. Let’s put aside for a second Above the Law’s astute comment that “It’s a little like US Weekly handing out Oscar nominations based on how many times a star has appeared on its cover.”

Many bloggers have pointed out that this gives bigger law schools an advantage because they have more graduates. That’s a major, major flaw in the rankings. (Super Lawyers acknowledges this but downplays its impact.)

Here’s a “for instance”: The University of Maryland is ranked 43 on U.S. News’ list. It’s got 897 law students, according to TaxProf Blog. It ranks 50 in the Super Lawyers list. UC Hastings ranks 39 on U.S. News. It has 1,251 law students. It’s 11 on the Super Lawyers list. I’m not saying size made all the difference in this list, but it had to have had some impact.

Another big problem: Maryland has only two law schools. I’m willing to bet that a huge majority of the lawyers in the state come from one of those two schools and that a somewhat smaller majority of graduates from the two law schools stay in Maryland. When Super Lawyers compiles its list of top Maryland lawyers, a very, very large share of them will be grads of UM or UB–because, well, that’s who’s here. This will not be the case for states with many law schools or states where lots of the lawyers are coming from law schools elsewhere (like New York). Those states will spread the wealth a little more. Perhaps, then, UM is getting an unfair boost in the rankings because it’s one of only two games in town.

All in all, I’ll say it again. The rankings are kind of dopey and not all that useful.

But hey, as the Business Insider Law Review puts it, “lists are fun.”

We don’t typically give birthday shout-outs in this space, but I think one is deserved for a man who has done more to expose Americans to the legal system than perhaps anyone else alive.

I am, of course, referring to Judge Joseph A. Wapner – aka Judge Wapner of “The People’s Court” – who turned 90 on Sunday (although you couldn’t tell it from the photos). To celebrate, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and returned to television to preside over one more case in “The People’s Court.”

You can watch Wapner’s cameo here and here. Yes, the music remains the same, and yes, Judge Wapner nails it, as always.

Somewhere, Raymond Babbitt is smiling.

I received a lovely Edible Arrangements fruit basket at my desk this morning.

Since I can find a law angle to almost anything, I’ll tell you that there was a funny warning label attached to my fruit. It told me, first off, that the arrangement was made with skewers. No kidding! So that’s what those pointy things sticking out of the fruit were.

Then the label told me to “[c]arefully remove fruit with utensil and dispose of fruit skewers immediately.” As opposed to just chomping away with the skewers still attached? But that eliminates all the extra fiber!

Also, “adult supervision [is] required” when children are around the container the arrangement came in. I can’t think of what horrible, deadly thing kids could do with an empty basket, but maybe that’s a failure of imagination on my part.

Finally, the arrangement can only be safely transported in the trunk of the car. “Never allow a passenger to hold arrangement while vehicle is in motion,” I was cautioned. Of course, that’s exactly what most people are going to do, since if it goes in the trunk it might roll around — and horrors, maybe even dislodge one of those lethal skewers!

I cringe to think of the Edible Arrangements-related injuries that must have prompted these over-the-top legal warnings.

Happy Monday!

• Gregory Kane weighs in on alleged child-killer Dante Parrish, whom the Maryland Innocence Project helped free last year in an unrelated case. In other Parrish news, Peter Hermann’s a got a letter from the teacher of Parrish’s alleged victim. (HT on the letter: Baltimore Crime.)
• John Allen Muhammad’s stand-by lawyer, Baltimore’s J. Wyndal Gordon will write a book about the case.
• Is the Obama administration taking its time on judicial nominees?
• The Lakota Sioux are suing to get authorities to prosecute the guy whose sweat lodge self-help ceremony allegedly killed three people.
• I don’t know, I sorta like this law firm ad.

Joan Biskupic has firmly established herself as the Doris Kearns Goodwin of judicial biography with her stirring and well-researched examination of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, arguably the nation’s most polarizing jurist.

In American Original, Biskupic explains how Scalia’s constitutional jurisprudence — his focus on original intent and presidential power — has parallels in his strong Catholic faith and roots in his pre-judicial career as an attorney in the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Biskupic, who has reported on the Supreme Court for 20 years, deftly examines how Scalia’s sarcastic and caustic attacks in dissenting opinions have at times alienated his colleagues. In a chapter titled “Showman on the Bench” Biskupic discusses how Scalia’s hyperactive participation in oral arguments has been entertaining but often galling for the attorneys presenting their cases and for his fellow justices trying to ask their own questions.

Throughout the 364 pages, Biskupic, like Goodwin, a Pulitzer Prize winning presidential historian, includes revealing personal and professional anecdotes about her subject. These include the time students protested Scalia’s appearance at a college — to attend the graduation of one of his nine children — and his disappointment at being passed over in 1981 for solicitor general under President Reagan (five years later, he landed a more prestigious position, with greater job security).

The book — subtitled The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and released this month — is the second biography by Biskupic, USA Today’s Supreme Court reporter. She also wrote the critically acclaimed Sandra Day O’Connor: How the First Woman on the Supreme Court Became Its Most Influential Justice, published in 2005.

If you’re in Towson right now and thinking about lunch, you finally have another restaurant to consider.

Yes, our long local nightmare has ended: The Perring Place Express Deli is officially open!

I’ll try to provide a restaurant review soon; in the meantime, anyone who has eaten there already can provide feedback below for your fellow Towson lunchgoers.