Bicycle...

The image of a woman on a bicycle has caused a lot of buzz recently. Specifically, the woman who was photographed giving the middle finger to Trump’s motorcade while pedaling beside it. 

A BBC article came stating that the woman had been fired from her job because she made this gesture and subsequently posted it on her social media. 

The woman told the Huffington Post that her employers, fired her because they believed the gesture to be “obscene” or “lewd.” 

By posting this photograph she had violated their social media policy.

The First Amendment does not protect certain speech, such as fighting words, or words which “incite an immediate breach of the peace”. That being said, the middle finger does not  “appeal to prurient interest,) nor does it incite direct violence. 

However, the claims of the company which said it violated their social media policy are  within their rights as a private organization. 

There is also a slight conflict of interest, though, when you take into account that Akima LLC is a government contract company. 

Briskman was in charge of Akima’s social media presence. Her job was to promote the company in a good manner. For her own social media to have “obscene” gestures does not exactly set the best example for the company.

However, the problem here is that she voluntarily posted this image and now that it has gone viral she is technically not a private citizen anymore. She signed away some of her rights when she agreed to popularize her name in connection with the photograph.

Finger...

Image is not related.

It's your right as an American to give people the finger, even if the recipient of your flipped bird is a police officer, a federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled this week.

The case centered around a Michigan woman who displayed her middle finger to a police officer who had stopped her for speeding and written her a ticket for a lesser violation in 2017.

The officer then stopped the woman again less than 100 yards away and amended the ticket to a speeding violation.

Cruise-Gulyas later sued, alleging that the officer violated her constitutional rights by pulling her over the second time.

A panel of judges ruled that stopping Cruise-Gulyas because of the gesture was a violation of her First Amendment rights.

"Fits of rudeness or lack of gratitude may violate the Golden Rule," Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton wrote. "But that doesn't make them illegal or for that matter punishable or for that matter grounds for a seizure."

Cruise-Gulyas hadn't done anything illegal to prompt the second stop, the judges ruled.

Detained ..

The Supreme Court handed the administration a victory in its battle to clamp down on illegal immigration.

 A group of mostly green card holders argued that unless immigrants were picked up immediately after finishing their prison sentence, they should get a hearing to argue for their release.

But in the 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that federal immigration officials can detain noncitizens at any time after their release from local or state custody.

The court also ruled the government maintains broad discretion to decide who would represent a danger to the community and who to release or detain.

The administration argued that given the limited money and manpower available, it was nearly impossible for the federal government to immediately detain every immigrant upon their release from custody.

Alford...

To be more precise, an Alford plea is a guilty plea by a defendant who claims to be innocent. A no-contest (or “nolo contendere”) plea is a plea by a defendant who accepts punishment but doesn't admit guilt. 

An Alford plea is similar to a no-contest plea, but there can be important distinctions between those two.

Despite claiming innocence, a typical Alford defendant considers the evidence too strong to go to trial. To that kind of defendant, the chance of a jury conviction and a tougher sentence is enough to plead guilty.

Courts treat Alford pleas differently than standard guilty pleas. An Alford plea is similar to a no-contest plea, but there can be important distinctions between those two.

Round-up...

A U.S. jury found Bayer AG's glyphosate-based weed killer to be a "substantial factor" in causing a man's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

During the second phase, the lawyers can present evidence allegedly showing the company's efforts to influence scientists, regulators and the public about the safety of its products.

Bayer denies allegations that Roundup, or glyphosate, cause cancer. It says decades of studies and regulatory evaluations, primarily of real-world human exposure data, have shown the weed killer to be safe for human use.

To...

The swim community is mourning the loss of former youth Olympian Kenneth To, who passed away in Florida after falling ill during training.  

According to the Miami Herald, To was stationed in Gainesville for three months training with the Gator Swim Club at the University of Florida.

In a statement, the Hong Kong Sports Institute mourned the loss of the rising star, and spoke highly of his character.

To was born in Hong Kong, however his family moved to Australia. In 2016, To transferred his nationality to represent Hong Kong as he trained for the 2020 Olympic games. His accomplishments swimming for Australia were remarkable.

To earned six medals for Australia during the 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, winning gold in the 400-meter medley. During the 2013 worlds in Barcelona, To was part of Australia's silver medal-winning 400 medley relay team.

Pardon...

Gov. Andrew Cuomo pardoned 18 illegal immigrants in an effort to free them from the threat of deportation or other immigration-related issues.

The pardons targeted those who had committed low-level offenses and had demonstrated significant rehabilitation since their convictions, 

And most of these individuals made mistakes decades ago, and have been contributing members to our society. said the Gov.

Mr. Cuomo nearly tripled the number he had issued explicitly to stave off deportations. Before, the governor had pardoned seven people for that purpose.

*Would the Gov. pardon US citizens who have the same issues, and paid taxes all through?
Just a thought.

Hatred...

Alan...

Alan B. Krueger, advised two presidents and helped lead economics toward a more scientific approach to research and policymaking, was found dead at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 58.   He taught at Princeton University for more than three decades.   

Mr. Krueger was an assistant secretary of the Treasury from 2009 to 2010, as President Barack Obama’s administration tried to lead the United States out of its worst recession since the Great Depression. Mr. Obama later named him chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, a post he held from 2011 to 2013.

He was the Labor Department’s chief economist under President Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1995.

Mr. Krueger was part of a new wave of economists who pushed the field toward a more empirical mind-set, with an emphasis on data rather than theory. He applied that approach broadly: to education, health care, labor markets and terrorism, and even to more lighthearted subjects like the rising price of concert tickets. His latest book, due out in June, is on the economics of the music industry.

Guess...