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Tech blogger won't be charged in Apple iPhone case
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2011/08/11 09:29
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Prosecutors said Wednesday that they will not bring charges against a tech blogger who bought an Apple iPhone prototype after it was found at a bar in March 2010 in a case that ignited an unusual First Amendment debate.
San Mateo County Assistant District Attorney Morley Pitt said charges were not filed against Gizmodo.com's Jason Chen or other employees, citing California's shield law that protects the confidentiality of journalists' sources.
The difficulty we faced is that Mr. Chen and Gizmodo were primarily, in their view, engaged in a journalistic endeavor to conduct an investigation into the phone and type of phone it was and they were protected by the shield law, said Pitt.
We concluded it is a very gray area, they do have a potential claim and this was not the case with which we were going to push the envelope.
Chen's house was raided and his computer seized after Gizmodo posted images of the prototype. The website and other media organizations objected, saying the raid was illegal because state law prohibits the seizure of unpublished notes from journalists.
We feel there was not a crime to begin with and still believe that, and are pleased the DA's office has an appropriate respect for the First Amendment, said Thomas J. Nolan Jr., a lawyer for Chen. |
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Court upholds Chinese journalist's jail sentence
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2011/08/01 01:03
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The lawyer for a Chinese journalist behind bars after writing about suspected corruption says a court has rejected an appeal against a new sentence ordered just before the reporter was to be released.
Beijing attorney Wang Quanzhang says he received on Monday the decision on the case of reporter Qi Chonghuai by a court in Shandong province.
Wang says the case sets a dangerous precedent because Qi was being tried a second time in June on similar charges to those which he faced in 2008. Qi was near the end of a four-year jail term when the second trial resulted in another eight years' imprisonment.
Rights groups say Qi was arrested in 2007 after he wrote about a local official who had beaten a woman for coming late to work. |
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Kansas court system works to improve efficiency
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2011/06/21 10:33
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Judges and court workers have completed the data-collection part of a study aimed at making Kansas' court system more efficient.
The Wichita Eagle reported that the data will be analyzed by the National Center for State Courts. That national nonprofit group works to improve the justice system and lobbies on behalf of courts at the federal level.
The results of the $200,000 consultant study of how judges and other court workers spend their time will go to a panel that will recommend changes if they are needed.
Kansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Lawton Nuss said the panel also is gathering public input on ways to improve the courts. The two initiatives are called Project Pegasus, after the winged horse in Greek mythology.
The goal is to prevent situations like last year when courts were closed four days.
When our budget is cut or when we don't have enough money, it is our people who suffer, they're the ones who have to get sent home, Nuss told members of the Wichita Pachyderm Club, a Republican group, this past week. Unfortunately that also comes at the expense of Kansas citizens, because when we have no money and we have to close the courts, the citizens no longer have access to justice.
Nuss said most of the consultant study is being paid for mostly from salary and benefit savings accrued after appellate Judge Jerry Elliott died in April of last year and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Robert Davis died last August. |
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Speaker Boehner: Tax hikes are 'off the table'
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2011/05/09 09:20
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div id=bg_contentdiv class=padding10div class=entrydiv class=articlepHouse Speaker John Boehner is insisting tax increases are off the table in negotiations with the Obama administration and congressional Democrats on extending the federal debt limit./ppThe Ohio Republican tells NBC's Today show everything else is on the table. Boehnernbsp; appeared a day after telling the Economic Club of New York he wants trillions of dollars in spending cuts as part of legislation allowing the government to continue borrowing beyond the current $14.3 trillion cap./ppBoehner says he doesn't think Congress can take money from some who would invest in our economy and hand it over to the government. He said, You can't raise taxes./ppBoehner said mandatory spending programs like Medicare and Social Security must be addressed because now they're unaffordable for our kids and our grandkids./p/div
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