Think you have what it takes?  Comment us your email, and we’ll get in touch, so you can have you article posted with text-link credit.

Chicago Immigration Lawyers

Chicago immigration lawyers can help you obtain an H-1B (work) visa, extend your stay, get a “Green Card” and immigrate to United States based on family relations.

If the panel decides to grant Atkins parole — called a “tentative suitability finding” — the decision is subject to a 120-day review process by the California Board of Parole Hearings, Thornton said. If it still stands, the matter then goes to the governor’s office. The governor’s options include allowing the decision to stand, actively approving it, modifying it or reversing it, according to the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Web site.

However, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has previously opposed Atkins’ request for compassionate release — a request made by terminally ill patients wishing to be released before death. The Board of Parole Hearings unanimously denied that request in July 2008. It was also opposed by Debra Tate, Sharon Tate’s sister.

If parole is not granted, another hearing will be set in three, five, seven, 10 or 15 years, at the discretion of the panel, Thornton said.

Atkins has been described as a model prisoner who has accepted responsibility for her role in the slayings and now shuns Manson.

But Debra Tate told CNN in an e-mail in March she does not believe any Manson family member convicted of murder should ever be set free, saying the slayings were “so vicious, so inhumane, so depraved, that there is no turning back.”

“The ‘Manson Family’ murderers are sociopaths, and from that, they can never be rehabilitated,” Debra Tate said. “They should all stay right where they are — in prison — until they die. There will never be true justice for my sister Sharon and the other victims of the ‘Manson Family.’ Keeping the murderers in prison is the least we, as a society who values justice, can do.”

In a manuscript posted on her Web site, Atkins, who was known within the Manson family as Sadie Mae Glutz, wrote that “this is the past I have to live with, and I have to live with it every day.”

“Unlike the reader, or the people who seem to think Charles Manson was cool, I can’t think about it for an hour or so and then go on with my life. Just like the families and friends of the victims, this is with me every day. I have to wake up every day with this and no matter what I do for the rest of my life and no matter how much I give back to the community I will never be able to replace what my crime took away. And that’s not ‘neat,’ and that’s not ‘cool.’”

Atkins’ brain cancer was diagnosed in March 2008, Whitehouse wrote on his Web site. On May 15, doctors predicted she would live less than six months. But she passed that deadline, he wrote, and celebrated her 21st wedding anniversary on December 7

By JULIET WILLIAMS and SAMANTHA YOUNG
Associated Press Writers

A girl snatched on her way to school was hidden for nearly two decades behind a series of fences, sheds and tents, even giving birth to her suspected abductor’s children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from her childhood home.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991, was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those girls, now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home.

“None of the children have ever been to school, they’ve never been to a doctor,” El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. “They were kept in complete isolation in this compound.”

Even a parole agent who visited 58-year-old Phillip Garrido’s home didn’t have an inkling about the hidden compound, Kollar said. Garrido is a registered sex offender on federal parole for rape and kidnapping convictions.

“The way the house is set up, the way the backyard is set up, you could walk through the backyard, walk through the house, and never know,” Kollar said.

“He’s had her for 18 years. Now, it’s our turn. I have no compassion for this guy,” he said Friday morning on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

But neighbors said there were clues even before a parole agent on Wednesday noticed Dugard, now 29, who accompanied Garrido, his wife and the children to a parole office.

Neighbor Diane Doty said she could see the tents and often heard children playing in the backyard, the corner of which abuts her own backyard. She said she even suspected the children lived in the tents, but her husband said she should leave the family alone.

“I asked my husband, ‘Why is he living in tents?’” she said. “And he said, ‘Maybe that is how they like to live.’”

Dugard’s stepfather, who witnessed her abduction and was a longtime suspect in the case, said he was overwhelmed by the news after doing everything he could to help find her.

“It broke my marriage up. I’ve gone through hell, I mean I’m a suspect up until yesterday,” a tearful Carl Probyn, 60, told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, Calif.

Carl Probyn told CBS’ “Early Show” Friday morning that he spoke to his wife late Thursday after she reunited with Dugard and everyone was “doing great.”

“I think they’re pretty happy,” he said, noting six people were together at the reunion – Jaycee Dugard, her two daughters, her sister, mother and another relative.

In interviews on NBC, ABC and CBS Friday morning, Probyn said the most surprising thing to his wife was that Jaycee looks very young, almost like she did when she taken.

Probyn also said Dugard felt terribly guilty for bonding with her captor, and her family felt troubled by learning the facts of how she was forced to live for 18 years.

Garrido, 58, is being held for investigation of various kidnapping and sex charges. Authorities said his 54-year-old wife, Nancy Garrido, was with him during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe and she also has been arrested.

The case broke after Garrido was spotted Tuesday with two children as he tried to enter the University of California, Berkeley, campus to hand out religious literature. Officers said he was acting suspiciously toward the children. They questioned him and did a background check, determined that he was a parolee and informed his parole officer.

Garrido was ordered to appear for a parole meeting and arrived Wednesday with Dugard, who identified herself as “Allissa,” his wife, and two children. During questioning, corrections officials said he admitted to kidnapping Dugard.

Investigators said he did not yet have an attorney.

Dugard was reunited Thursday with her mother as her family learned that their blue-eyed, blonde ponytailed little girl had spent most of her life in captivity. Police said they had no evidence that she had ever reached out to anyone beyond the compound walls.

“She was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll,” Kollar said.

The backyard compound had electricity from extension cords and a rudimentary outhouse and shower, “as if you were camping,” Kollar said.

Authorities said they do not know if Garrido also abused his daughters, but they are investigating.

Garrido’s compound was located in Antioch, a city of 100,000 about 170 miles from the Dugard family home in South Lake Tahoe.

People who knew Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box.

“In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him,” said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburg, Calif., who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido’s printing business for the last decade.

Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen’s showroom with two “cute little blond girls” in tow, he said.

In April 2008, Garrido registered a corporation called Gods Desire at his home address, according to the California Secretary of State. During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said.

“He rambled. It made no sense,” he said.

In a blog that appears to have been maintained by Garrido, he wrote that he had hired a private investigator to verify his ability to speak to people using only his mind. In an “affadavit” posted there, he said he had the ability to “control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena.”

Garrido gave a rambling, sometimes incoherent phone interview to KCRA-TV from the El Dorado County jail Thursday in which he said he had not admitted to a kidnapping and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

“I tell you here’s the story of what took place at this house, and you’re going to be absolutely impressed. It’s a disgusting thing that took place from the end to the beginning. But I turned my life completely around,” he said.

In addition to kidnapping allegations, court records showed both Garridos were being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and kidnapping someone under 14 with intent to rape. Phillip Garrido also faces allegations of sexual penetration.

The AP, as a matter of policy, avoids identifying victims of alleged sexual abuse by name in its news reports. However, Dugard’s disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity now.

Garrido has a long rap sheet dating back to the 1970s.

He was convicted of kidnapping a 25-year-old woman whom he snatched from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot, handcuffed, tied down and held in a mini-warehouse in Reno, according to a November 1976 story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

He also has a conviction for rape by force or fear stemming from the same incident, and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1988, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In 1991, police believe he was trolling for victims in South Lake Tahoe in a Ford Granada when he snatched Dugard from a bus stop outside her home. The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV’s “America’s Most Wanted,” which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.

Her stepfather said he saw someone reach out and grab her before the car sped away.

“As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver’s door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy,” Probyn recalled. “I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!”

Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home.

Jaycee Lee Dugard has retained custody of her children and was staying at a Bay area motel, authorities said.

The presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals went to trial on Monday, as misconduct allegaltions surface over the refusal to delay the execution of a current death row inmate.

Protesters could be seen outside of the courthouse Monday, holding signs criticizing the judge for what they believe was unjust.  Judge Sharon Keller of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has been accused of not following the rules of conduct set forth by the Texas Courts.  Her detractors say that she unlawfully refused to hear the plea for a stay of execution because her work day was over at 5:00, causing the defendant in question, Michael Wayne Richard, to be executed that night.

Actions taken on behalf of the courts could range anywhere from dismissing charges to Judge Sharon Keller’s complete removal from court.

The public generally does not understand Michigan’s drinking and driving laws. Mother’s Against Drunk Driving and our own government have flooded us with messages and PSAs. Every few years, the messages change in an attempt to alter our perception of drinking and driving. The message began in the early 1980s as “Don’t Drive Drunk.” Eventually, this message turned into “Don’t Drink and Drive.” Lately, the message has been “Buzzed Driving is Drunk Driving.” What began as an uncontroversial message has transformed itself. “Drunk” became affiliated with merely drinking, ultimately ending with the idea that feeling the slightest affect of alcohol is wrong.

Jurors are frequently surprised when the judge explains that it is perfectly legal to drink and drive.

Although the human body hasn’t changed during last 70 years, politics have overwhelmed biology and rational discussion. In 1938, the American Medical Association created a “Committee to Study Problems of Motor Vehicle Accidents,” and through that committee, the AMA recommended that a 0.15 blood alcohol level should be the level at which drivers are legally presumed to be intoxicated. During the 1960s, Michigan adopted chemical testing laws regarding drunk driving. The law stated that a person was presumed to be sober with a blood alcohol limit under 0.05 and presumed to be intoxicated if they were over 0.15. If a person’s blood alcohol was greater than .05 but less than .15, no presumption could be made by jurors.

By 1975, Michigan had lowered the legal presumption of intoxication from 0.15 to 0.10 blood alcohol content. Under this law, a driver was presumed to be intoxicated if the breath or blood measured over 0.10, but the driver could introduce evidence in his or her defense to establish that the driver was not intoxicated.

In 2003, Michigan lowered the drunk driving legal limit to 0.08 and removed legal presumptions regarding whether the driver was or was not intoxicated. For the first time since breath and blood testing had been employed in the state, the Legislature made it a crime to have a certain bodily alcohol concentration irrespective of evidence regarding sobriety. And now, the message is “Over the Limit; Under Arrest.”

For the same reasons why lower limits have been enacted into law, police officers are trained to aggressively pursue all drinking drivers. The days when police officers would drive a drunk home are long dead. Police officers are rewarded for large numbers of DUI arrests with federally funded overtime pay and attend special dinners sponsored by MADD where they receive achievement awards. Officers who would rather focus on other crimes are subject to quotas described as “performance standard reviews.”

Aggressive enforcement sacrifices our rights and taxes our liberties. The City of Westland, for example, allows police officers to sit outside bar parking lots, stopping vehicles at random. Although this is completely unconstitutional, if the officer claims to have seen weaving, the local judge will declare that the stop was lawful. This is true even if the officer’s video contradicts the claims. Jurors, meanwhile, are told that the legality of the traffic stop is an issue to be decided solely by the judge. NOTE: Jurors have the ability to say “Not Guilty” for any reason that they deem fit, but as a defense attorney I am not allowed to suggest this in court.

Meanwhile, Michigan police officers employ field sobriety tests that are scientifically useless, but the courts have been slow to respond to challenges. Judge Oakley in the 34th District Court recently ruled that an officer’s opinion that a driver was intoxicated ended further analysis, despite uncontroverted testimony from the officer that the motorist had passed all field sobriety tests. Judge Nykiel in the 33rd District Court similarly ruled that a motorist who acted oddly could be placed under arrest for driving under the influence of drugs. (Obviously, since the PBT reading was 0.00, odd behavior must be caused by drugs, right?)

And lastly, the dirty little secrets that our government doesn’t want you to know: Breath testing doesn’t work, and our blood testing labs are sloppy.

Breath testing was never meant to be used as evidence in court. The original breath testing machines were designed to determine whether a person ought to be given a blood test. Unfortunately, one day a police officer failed to get a blood test. Appearing in court, he explained how he was busy and couldn’t get the blood test done. He described why he felt that the motorist was drunk and suggested that the breath test confirmed his observations. Overnight, breath testing replaced blood testing!

The problem with breath testing is that it doesn’t actually measure blood alcohol. Instead, it uses a conversion formula and gives a general idea of what the blood alcohol might be. But the formula only works for four out of five people! Twenty percent of people subjected to breath testing blow higher than their true blood alcohol level when the machine is working flawlessly. Worse still, the range of error is incredible. Every time a forensic study is done comparing breath and blood testing, at least a few people reflect a conversion formula that is incredibly out of the normal expected range. Based upon that conversion factor, these people would provide a breath sample of .15 even though their true blood alcohol level is .04.

The only accurate way to truly test blood alcohol is to . . . test the blood for alcohol. Unfortunately, our state labs are guided by special rules that are far more relaxed than private laboratories. Incredibly, state toxicologists testify to these special rules claiming these as credentials, describing these protocols as rigorous. If they were rigorous, the Detroit lab wouldn’t have taken decades to close its door.

Blood is not refrigerated until it reaches the lab. It frequently sits around the police station for days, and it is then shipped by regular US mail. Often times, our state lab uses dirty equipment. The handling procedures for ensuring that blood samples are not confused for others are poor. The lab never tests to ensure that required chemical components are contained in the blood sample. And once a sample is received through the mail, it typically takes weeks for a blood sample to be analyzed, while the glucose levels are permitted to spoil and convert into alcohol.

If you have the opportunity to sit on a drunk driving jury trial, keep these facts in mind. Set yourself apart from the prevailing advertised messages to view the case rationally, and ask yourself this single simple question in light of the information you’ve reviewed: Has the prosecutor proven the case beyond and to the exclusion of a reasonable doubt?

U.S. District Court Judge Leonard Davis has confirmed what the court decision earlier in May which alleges that Microsoft was infringing the copyright of a Canadian tech company.  The decision forces damage compensation, as well as the cessation of the sale of certain versions of Microsoft Word within a couple of months.

Microsoft will of course appeal this decision, but for now they are going to have to work around the problem by removing certain portions of the Word software package to allow it to continue to be sold in retail stores.

The London office of international law firm, Orrick just recently came out with news that it has transformed itself into a limited liability partnership – Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Europe) LLP.

This new LLP will help conjoin the many operations of Orrick’s London, Paris and Italian offices under one solitary limited liability structure.   In Germany and Moscow, the European operations are already operating as limited liability entities.

“This change in status reflects the increased size and importance of the European business of Orrick and will further help to integrate the European business in a modern and efficient legal and management structure” said London Managing Partner, Martin Bartlam.

Since it’s original opening in London in 1998, Orrick had successfully grown its operations to somewhere in the numbers of 350 lawyers in Europe, and has opened and greatly extended offices in Paris, Milan, Rome, Moscow, Berlin, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, in addition to its significant growth in London.

About Orrick

Orrick is an international legal practice, comprising Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (Europe) LLP and its affiliated undertakings. Orrick has more than 1,100 lawyers in North America, Europe and Asia. The firm focuses on litigation, complex and novel finance and innovative corporate transactions. Orrick clients include FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 companies, major industrial and financial corporations, commercial and investment banks, high-growth companies, governmental entities, start-ups and individuals. Orrick’s 21 offices are located in Beijing, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Moscow, New York, Orange County, Pacific Northwest, Paris, Rome, Sacramento, San Francisco, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Taipei, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

An article released by the Associated Press recently tells us that the number of DUI cases seen in the courts around the nation is increasing.  What do they attribute this statistic to?

Increasing numbers of women are being arrested for DUI and alcohol related charges, while the numbers for men are decreasing.  They attribute the perceived increased freedoms associated with the modern liberation of being a woman.  The article also cites the decrease in leniancy towards woman by police officers: yet another sign of the new age of gender neutrality.

“There’s the impression out there that drunk driving is strictly a male issue, and it is certainly not the case,” said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “There are a number of parts of the country where, in fact, the majority of impaired drivers involved in fatal crashes are female.”

Read the AP article here

The supreme court has just confirmed Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court.  Sotomayor is the first hispanic to be graced with the honor of Supreme Court Justice.

They ended the vote 68-31 in favor of Sotomayor.  Sotomayor’s past has come under fire recently, specifically for her own personal views.  The democratic senate majority approved Sotomayor into the supreme court despite heavy republican opposition to her confirmation.

Republicans fear that as a Justice, Sotomayor will bring a liberal bias, clouding her judgement with her own personal views.  Democrats counter saying that her record speaks for itself, and shows no evidence of bias towards her personal opinions.

Many senate republicans bring up her views on the second amendment, among other key republican issues, while others have come out openly in support of Sotomayor’s confirmation.

“”Judge Sotomayor’s decisions, while not always the decision I would render, are not outside the legal mainstream and do not indicate an obvious desire to legislate from the bench,” remarks Senator George Voinovich of Ohio.

Continue to AP story.