Another beautiful day in Maryland! Let’s remember this come July, when it becomes unbearable. For now, here are a few law links to start your day if you’re unfortunate enough to be inside:

• Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Susan Souder, she of the 2007 fingerprint evidence-disallowing opinion, finally speaks publicly about the decision.
• A former Hopkins applied systems engineer convicted of traveling to engage in unlawful sex (with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl) can’t be totally banned from computers for 30 years, D.C. Circuit says.
• The New York Times makes a trend piece out of the University of Maryland-Perdue flap. (Get it? Chickens? Flap? Oh, never mind.)
• Here’s how prosecutors should not use Facebook/MySpace content in court.
• Don’t give your employer too much information on why you’re out of the office, the anonymous Hiring Partner writes.
• A woman is embroiled in a legal dispute with her former landlord, which she says evicted her for refusing to remove Peeps from her door last Easter. The landlord says she was evicted for not paying rent. I can’t believe I missed this when the suit was first filed.

In an article in today’s print edition, Jim Astrachan shares his memories of the life and work of Frederick DeKuyper, the retired associate general counsel at the Johns Hopkins University who died last week at the age of 70. But DeKuyper shared his own memories of the GC’s office with the JHU Gazette more than 13 years ago. Here’s a sample:

“There was a man in California who believed we had a brain-wave modification machine staffed 24 hours a day,” said DeKuyper, a Hopkins associate general counsel. “This machine allegedly was sending electronic emissions to the West Coast. These emissions, he said, were entering his left ear and doing harm to him.”

Eventually, the case was dismissed.

“I realized later I should have said, ‘You’re right, there is such a machine — but it’s at Harvard,’” he added, laughing.

What were your favorite DeKuyper quips?

BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law

In its ongoing effort to rank just about everything, U.S. News & World Report has released its list of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals. Hold your breath (but not for too long), folks.

Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins placed third, just behind Children’s Hospital Boston. D.C.’s Children’s National Medical Center was a lowly 11th place.

The top 15 appear below.

1. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
2. Children’s Hospital Boston
3. Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore
4. Children’s Hospital, Denver
5. Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, Cleveland
6. Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston
7. Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
8. New York-Presbyterian University Hospital of Columbia and Cornell
9. Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle
10. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Palo Alto, Calif.
11. Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
12. Columbus Children’s Hospital
13. Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
14. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
15. St. Louis Children’s Hospital

Thanks to our sister blog in Long Island for pointing us to this story.

-JACKIE SAUTER, Daily Record Multimedia Editor