Obama administration seeks to renew terror surveillance program
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration maintains it is unable to say how many times one of the government’s most politically sensitive anti-terrorism surveillance programs — which is up for renewal this week on Capitol Hill — has inadvertently gathered intelligence about U.S. citizens. The administration is seeking renewal of the program and defends its value, […]
Helping the homeless with a bill of rights
Rhode Island lawmakers are considering whether to enact a first-in-the-nation bill of rights for the homeless. The bill would prohibit certain groups of people (mainly police officers, landlords, employers and medical workers) from discriminating against the homeless. Just about every year there are bills proposed in the Maryland General Assembly to help protect the homeless. […]
Top court gets tough on pit bulls
Citing reports that pit bulls are more vicious, aggressive and accounted for one-third of the human fatalities from dog bites in a 12-year period, the state’s high court on Thursday imposed strict liability on owners of the breed and landlords who allow tenants to have them. Instead of requiring injured plaintiffs to show the owner […]
Suspect in East Coast rapes could stand trial in Virginia
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Connecticut prosecutors will try to send a man suspected in rape cases along the East Coast to face trial first in Virginia, where a prosecutor asked for him to be extradited to answer for “heinous crimes.” Aaron Thomas was arrested in March in his hometown of New Haven, and authorities say […]
Heroes and bad guys
On Sept. 11, 2001, I was a law clerk for Judge M. Brooke Murdock in Baltimore City Circuit Court, assisting her with her violation of probation docket in the Mitchell Courthouse. I had recently graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law and taken the bar exam a little over a month earlier. In […]
9/11 legacy: Will fear triumph over freedom?
In the heart-wrenching days after the terrorist attacks on 9/11, President George W. Bush acted boldly to prevent a backlash against Muslims and Islam in America and abroad. Speaking to a shaken nation before a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20, 2001, the president described the terrorists as “traitors to their own faith, trying, […]
Hiking, in mourning, at sea, they missed September 11
Brian Robinson was hiking the backcountry of the Colorado Rockies. Fred Goldsmith was at a dear friend’s funeral in North Carolina. Amy Evans was joyously beginning her Semester at Sea on the Pacific, miles from her first port in Japan. They didn’t know for hours, or a full day, that terrorists had destroyed the World […]
Most 9/11 responders settle lawsuits over WTC dust
NEW YORK — More than 10,000 workers exposed to the tons of toxic dust that blanketed ground zero after the World Trade Center fell have ended their bruising legal fight with New York City and joined a settlement worth at least $625 million, officials said Friday. The deal will resolve an overwhelming majority of the […]