Among the many things shared by Harvey Weinstein and Al Franken, Kevin Spacey and Roy Moore, is that none of them have been convicted of a crime. Weinstein might, but he hasn’t yet. Another thing shared is that they have seen their jobs, careers, ambitions and positions lost or put at risk of being lost.

But since these are all bold-faced names, and their actions are parsed by media so that everyone knows they’re guilty regardless of evidence or argument, we don’t lose sleep over this minor detail that they’ve not been convicted of anything. Charles Blow reminds us that the shit is about to flow downhill.

It is impossible to say too often or loudly how important a moment this is, when many women feel brave and empowered enough to speak up about being sexually assaulted or harassed by powerful men.

It feels like a watershed, like something is fundamentally shifting.

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There’s money to be made on the streets. You won’t be making it. You’ll be paying it. It’s been there for decades, but to the extent municipalities didn’t make the roads go cha-ching, it was merely self-restraint. That’s gone. It started with the drug dealers. Move on to the drunk drivers. Now, it’s anyone with the misfortune of being in the crosshairs.

Denver cab driver Semere Fremichael got caught up in an undercover prostitution sting. He was innocent—he thought she wanted a ride, not sex for pay—and was acquitted by a judge.

His taxi, however, got taken for a rough ride. Denver’s Fox affiliate has an excellent two-part investigation showing how the city attorney’s office is using civil asset forfeiture to cash in by snatching vehicles like Fremichael’s for even low-level crimes, and even when their owners aren’t convicted.

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Florida changed its driver’s license? Well, that’s special.

Banks, businesses and agencies that require people to present picture identification should be aware that the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles has changed the look of its state-issued licenses and ID cards.

The change occurred in Alachua County last week, and the Alachua County Tax Collector’s Office, which handles the issuance of state-issued licenses and ID cards in the county, wants people to know the different-looking cards are here.

“Last week, one of our employees who had the new driver’s license went to a bank to do a transaction, and the teller was suspicious of the new look of the driver’s license,” said John Power, Alachua County tax collector.

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A confession: Not only do I read the New York Times, but I read Axios. Who?

Less than a year after Politico co-founder Jim VandeHei launched the media startup Axios with plans to upend the way news organizations deliver stories and advertising, the company is plotting a major expansion of its newsroom.

Its “bio” on twitter is more Axios-like: “Smart brevity worthy of people’s time, attention and trust.” Short blurbs of news with a sentence, maybe a paragraph, following about why it matters. It’s the Vox ‘splainer model with 1/100th the number of words murdered.

So what makes it special? Continue reading →

If Ian Millhiser didn’t exist, we would have to invent him. He’s the obviously smart guy who nonetheless has no problem twisting facts, arguing fallacies, rationalizing reality to reach the goal. He is the ultimate “end justifies the means” kind of guy. For me, he’s a bellwether of just how irrational one has to get to reach progressive Nirvana.

In his speech to the Federalist Society, a group so despised by progressives for its brutal politics and slavish adherence to reason, the last and, according to progressives, least legitimate Supreme Court Justice, Neil Gorsuch, cracked a joke.

The premise of Gorsuch’s joke is that he was unfairly attacked during his confirmation hearing because he reached a result that was required by the law. A judge may be presented with a law, Gorsuch began his joke, and “immediately know three things.”

One, the law is telling me to do something really, really stupid. Two, the law is constitutional and I have no choice but to do that really stupid thing the law demands. And three, when it’s done, everyone who is not a lawyer is going to think I just hate truckers.

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If you suffer the burden of thinking like a lawyer, it makes perfect sense.

When Cesar Garcia pulled the letter out of his mailbox, he immediately recognized the name of the law firm on the envelope – Silver & Wright. Eighteen months ago, they had dragged him to court, called him a criminal, cost him thousands of dollars and made his life hell. What did they want now?

Garcia opened the letter, prepared for the worst, but was still shocked by what he found inside.

The law firm had sent him a bill for $26,000.

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When the cop claims that the reason he had to plug the black guy in the forehead was his fear that the newly deceased was trying to grab his weapon and murder him, some of us might tend to question the characterization and expect, if not demand, that the cop’s claim be characterized as an allegation. There’s a reason for this. Just because the cop said so doesn’t make it true.

And I would venture to guess that 98.7% of deeply passionate woke lawyers would adamantly agree that the word “alleged” was required. But that’s because it involves a cop and a black guy. What’s different here?

Some women’s rights advocates chafe at the media’s delicate approach, which has been pretty consistent across a range of editorial perspectives.

“I’m a lawyer, and I understand why lawyers advise this sort of qualification, to try to avoid libel claims,” said Camille Hébert, a professor at Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law who specializes in sexual harassment.

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She denied it. She lied about it when she denied it, and when she accused Mike Masnick of being a liar about it, because she is without shame or intellectual honesty. But this?

But for all it has given us, Section 230 of the CDA has also protected some of the worst parts of the internet. If a small-town factory pollutes the water supply, the company can be held legally responsible for the negative consequences of the factory. But on the internet, armed with the protection granted by the CDA, “you can reap all the rewards for whatever it is you’re producing, and you basically will be accountable for none of the negative things that you might also be producing,” says Franks. “So unlike a factory, people can’t sue you for the negative side effects your online product.”

Tim Cushing believes Mary Anne knows better, realizes that her factory analogy is utterly absurd. But then, if she is smart enough to realize that her analogy was ridiculously inapt, then Hanlon’s Razor would dictate that her words were born of malice rather than stupidity. Continue reading →

Female Cook County public defenders sued over the hostile work environment created by the men they are charged to defend.

Marshall Project: Hold my beer.

But the worst abuse came from inmates, who would make sexual remarks and masturbate at her as she did rounds in their housing areas. [Paula] Purdy says she reported the behavior to her bosses, but there were few consequences. “I would get emotional at work several times a day,” she said.

Over the years, the harassment by male prisoners grew more intense, and Purdy says she became reluctant to do everyday things like grocery shop, afraid she’d encounter one of the men on the outside. As a single mother, she felt trapped in her job. “It’s not like you can up and quit,” she said. Eventually, she decided she’d had enough. In 2015, she retired early at age 55, even though it meant taking a reduced pension.

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Not that I have a clue who he is, as rap music isn’t my preferred genre, but Meek Mill was doing pretty well for himself as a rapper.

Born in South Philadelphia, Mill grew up around North Philly; his father was murdered when he was 5. He’s infused his music with his experiences growing up in a poor, single-parent home. His career took off after his 2009 release from prison.

His third album, Wins and Losses, climbed quickly to No. 3 on Billboard’s albums chart after its release this summer.  Its 2015 predecessor, Dreams Worth More Than Money, entered the charts at No. 1. Almost as much attention has been given to his two-year romance with the singer-songwriter Nicki Minaj, which ended this year.

An impressive climb out of a troubled childhood to commercial success. But then there was his 2008 drug and gun conviction which, if news accounts are remotely accurate, resulted in a split sentence, during which he spent 8 months in jail with some unnoted period of probation to follow. And in 2017, some bad stuff happened. Continue reading →