ATLANTA (Reuters) ? Rapper Slim Dunkin has been shot to death in Atlanta, police said on Saturday.
Dunkin, 24, whose real name was Mario Hamilton, was killed on Friday at a studio where a music video was being filmed, Atlanta police said in a statement.
"Moments after his arrival, an argument began and the victim was shot," the statement said.
Dunkin was taken to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital where he died a short time later. He belonged to a group called 1017 Brick Squad, which includes rappers Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka Flame, according to the Atlanta group's Facebook page.
Police said there have been no arrests in the case.
(Reporting by David Beasley; Editing by Jerry Norton and Eric Walsh)
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? SEC files to appeal Judge Rakoff's rejection of Citi settlement | Hans Bader on the student loan disaster ?
According to his recent article, David Segal of the New York Times would seemingly advocate for broad sweeping reform of law school curriculum. The centerpiece of the suggested overhaul would be to replace the emphasis on theoretical-driven coursework with courses emphasizing practical training or "lawyering."
David brings up an example of new associates at a law firm who couldn't answer the question "...when you close a merger, how does the deal get done?" The answer to that question was to draft a certificate of merger which then must be filed with the secretary of state. The author attributes this "deficiency" partially to the experience and focus of law school professors citing a 2010 study which found that the median amount of practical legal experience among law school faculty was only one year, and nearly half of those faculty members never even practiced law.
The NYT article explained:
Law schools know all about the tough conditions that await graduates, and many have added or expanded programs that provide practical training through legal clinics. But almost all the cachet in legal academia goes to professors who produce law review articles, which gobbles up huge amounts of time and tuition money. The essential how-tos of daily practice are a subject that many in the faculty know nothing about -- by design. One 2010 study of hiring at top-tier law schools since 2000 found that the median amount of practical experience was one year, and that nearly half of faculty members had never practiced law for a single day. If medical schools took the same approach, they'd be filled with professors who had never set foot in a hospital.
In both a commentary piece and podcast (approx. 41:00 minute mark) on ricochet.com, Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at NYU School of Law and visiting scholar with the Manhattan Institute, defended traditional theoretical teaching, arguing that in many practice areas and work environments "the only way to be successful as a lawyer is to know [a] large amount of material that the Times would think irrelevant."
Professor Epstein also disagreed with UC Berkley School of Law Professor John Yoo's assessment in his own commentary (which also mostly disagreed with the NYT piece) on the subject, that:
First year law students mainly focus on classic common law cases-in contract, torts, property, and criminal law, among others-in subjects that have not changed in decades. These are cases where judges have the power to "make the law" and the main method is using human reason to arrive at a correct result. The world, however, is increasingly dominated by statutes and regulations, where careful reading of texts passed by legislatures and administrative agencies is just as important as reasoning one's way to the "right" answer. Lectures on bargaining theory and negotiation could help in classes on contracts and on criminal law. Moreover, economics should become a more important feature in many classes, as it already has become in legal scholarship.
Epstein in his rebuttal stated:
These courses have evolved enormously over the 43 years that I have taught. The types of cases we teach have migrated from traffic accidents to mass torts, from simple contracts of sales to large cooperative arrangements and the like. The tools from law and economics, legal history and comparative law have reshaped the discourse. The constant need to show how statutes influence the formation and enforcement of contracts also takes a larger amount of time. These courses have been cut back, and that may be strictly necessary with the larger statutory courses. But it is also deceptive. One cannot teach environmental law without knowing the common law of nuisance well, and one cannot teach securities law without knowing about common law rules of misrepresentation and fiduciary duty.Some put more emphasis and blame on student behavior. Commentary featured on Above the Law bluntly concluded:
Maybe law is the red-headed stepchild of American professional schools because law attracts the weakest applicants. Medical schools attract people committed to years of rigorous training, long hours, and low pay. Even business schools at least attract "bros" who are not afraid of "math."Posted by Isaac Gorodetski at 8:15 AMWho does law school attract? Everybody else.
categories: Miscellaneous |
Source: http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2011/12/to-reform-or-not-to-reform-legal-education.php
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By James Fowler?/?Business News Americas
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Government pressure to invest in social projects such as housing and healthcare are a burden on Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA, according to Gianna Bern, president of Chicago-based consultancy Brookshire Advisory and Research.
"For many years there has always been competing uses for funds within PDVSA. Social needs [such as] housing and healthcare are almost the albatross that they have to continuously contend with," Bern told BNamericas.
PDVSA has taken on an increasingly important role as cash cow for the Ch?vez regime in recent years. According to the firm's 2Q11 financials, PDVSA's contributions to its non-core business projects reached US$13.2bn in2011 compared to only US$3bn over the same period in 2010.
Expenses included a US$2.3bn contribution to the Gran Vivienda social housing project launched by Venezuela's government, and a US$4.6bn donation to the government administrated fund Fonden, which is used by authorities to finance infrastructure projects.
An additional US$6.2bn is listed simply as social development contributions.
"Rather than invest in production and infrastructure and growing initiatives, social causes, housing and healthcare and social need have always been competing for those same funds. As a result PDVSA has not kept up, not been able to maintain production growth initiatives, and improvements to their refining infrastructure, the way other global oil producers do," Bern said.
Over the last decade the country's oil production has fallen from an average of 3.5Mb/d to present levels of 2.7Mb/d. Experts insist that the government's goal of achieving output in excess of 4Mb/d by 2015 is unlikely unless investment is ramped up considerably.
According to PDVSA's financial statement, income hit US$35bn and US$64.1bn for the 2Q11 and 2H11 periods, up 38.7% and 36.7% respectively compared to the year-ago periods, largely thanks to the increase in international oil prices.
Net income in 2Q11 reached US$1.47bn and US$4.18bn for 1H11, up 17.5% and 33.2% year-on-year.
OPEC
In related news, international oil cartel OPEC decided on Wednesday to up its global production ceiling to 30Mb/d.
The move comes despite protests from Venezuelan energy minister Rafael Ram?rez, who spoke out publicly before the meeting against any increase in production targets.
Why settle for this one story when you can access all our news? Sign up here for your free 15-day trial.
Source: http://www.bnamericas.com/news/oilandgas/social-investments-burden-on-pdvsa-performance-analyst
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By Matthew Craft, The Associated Press
NEW YORK ? Stocks and the euro fell Wednesday as worries about Europe hang over financial markets. Energy companies fell hard as the price of crude oil plunged 4 percent. The dollar and Treasury prices rose as traders shifted money into lower-risk investments.
Italy's borrowing rates ratcheted higher and the euro slid below $1.30 for the first time since January, two signs that the debt crisis continues to pressure Europe's governments. The euro has lost more than 3 percent in three days.
Italy had to pay higher borrowing rates in its last bond auction of the year Wednesday. The euro zone's third-largest economy paid 6.47 percent interest to borrow euro3 billion ($3.95 billion) for five years, up from 6.30 percent just a month ago. The higher rates make it more expensive for Italy to borrow money and reflect weakening confidence by investors in the country's ability to repay its debts.
According to preliminary calculations, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 131.46 points, or 1.1 percent, to 11,823.48
The market appears to be in "sell now and ask questions later mode," said John Canally, investment strategist at LPL Financial. The fear that another bank failure will lead to a wider financial crisis like Lehman Brothers did in 2008 overshadows everything else, he said.
In traders' minds, a slight drop in the euro or a small rise in Italian government bond yields is seen as a step toward a banking collapse. "Just the hint of bad news becomes 'Oh my gosh. The world is going to end,' " Canally said.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.91, or 1.13 percent, to 1,211.82. The Nasdaq fell 39.96 points, or 1.55 percent to 2,539.31.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.92 percent from 1.96 percent late Tuesday as demand increased for ultrasafe assets. The dollar also rose against other currencies. The euro lost about out penny against the dollar to $1.29.
European markets fell broadly, and the losses accelerated in the last hour of trading. Germany's DAX dropped 1.7 percent; France's main stock index fell 3.3 percent.
Energy stocks led the market lower after the price of crude oil plunged $4 to $96 a barrel. Schlumberger Ltd. lost 3.8 percent; Apache Corp. fell 4.3 percent and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. fell 5.4 percent.
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FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Protesters Sergio Juarez, right, and Rafael Guerrero, both of Phoenix, wait to get into a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011, in Phoenix. Roughly 100 opponents of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio turned out at the meeting to urge the officials to call for Arpaio's resignation amid reports of botched sex-crime investigations and other problems in his department.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, protesters hold up signs calling for the removal or resignation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, in Phoenix. Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Department of Justice Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez announces the department's findings following an investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, lead by controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a news conference Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in Phoenix. The Justice department says it has reasonable cause to believe Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violates federal and Constitutional law. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
Department of Justice Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Thomas E. Perez, left, gestures as he announces the department's findings following an investigation into the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, lead by controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a news conference, as Deputy Attorney General of the Civil Rights Division Roy Austin, right, looks on Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in Phoenix. The Justice department says it has reasonable cause to believe Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has engaged in a pattern of misconduct that violates federal and Constitutional law. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)
PHOENIX (AP) ? A scathing U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday found that Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office carried out a blatant pattern of discrimination against Latinos and held a "systematic disregard" for the Constitution amid a series of immigration crackdowns that have turned the lawman into a prominent national political figure.
Arpaio struck a defiant tone in response to the report, calling it a politically motivated attack by the Obama administration that will make Arizona unsafe by keeping illegal immigrants on the street. "Don't come here and use me as the whipping boy for a national and international problem," he said at a news conference.
The government found that Arpaio's office committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including unjust immigration patrols and jail policies that deprive prisoners of basic Constitutional rights.
The Justice Department's expert on measuring racial profiling found the sheriff's office to be the most egregious case of profiling in the nation that he has seen or reviewed in professional literature, said Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division.
"We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department, a culture that breeds a systematic disregard for basic constitutional protections," Perez said.
The report will be used by the Justice Department to seek major changes at Arpaio's office, such as new policies against discrimination and improvements of staff and officers. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement to make the changes. If not, the federal government will sue him, possibly putting in jeopardy millions of dollars in federal funding for Maricopa County.
The fallout from the report was swift. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it is severing its ties with Arpaio, stripping his jail officers of their federal power to check whether inmates in county jails are in the county illegally, a move that was meant to speed up deportation.
Homeland security officials also are restricting Arpaio's office from using a program that uses fingerprints collected in local jails to identify illegal immigrants.
Arpaio has long denied the racial profiling allegations, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants. He called the report "a sad day for America as a whole."
"We are going to cooperate the best we can. And if they are not happy, I guess they can carry out their threat and go to federal court," Arpaio said.
Arpaio said the decision by Homeland Security to sever ties will result in illegal immigrants being released from jail and large numbers. They will go undetected and be "dumped on a street near you. For that, you can thank the federal government," the sheriff said.
The Justice Department's conclusions in the civil probe mark the federal government's harshest rebuke of a national political fixture who has risen to prominence for his immigration crackdowns and became coveted endorsement among candidates in the GOP presidential field. Arpaio ultimately decided to endorse Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who denounced the findings Thursday as politically motivated.
Arpaio has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration. He began aggressive sweeps in immigrant neighborhoods long before the state Legislature passed a 2010 law that cracks down on illegal immigrants and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
While widely popular among conservatives nationwide, Arpaio faces numerous problems at home that have him facing almost-daily calls to step down.
Apart from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and is specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad. The squad launched investigations of officials, lawyers and judges who ran afoul of Arpaio, and the cases all collapsed.
Arpaio has also been under pressure from his opponents to resign in the last week after an Associated Press article brought new attention to his office's bungling of sex crime and molestation cases in a predominantly Hispanic Phoenix suburb. His office said more than 400 sex-crimes investigations had to be reopened after the department learned of cases that hadn't been investigated adequately or weren't examined at all.
Officials discovered at least 32 reported child molestations ? with victims as young as 2 years old ? where the sheriff's office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases. The cases were originally reported by The Arizona Republic and other local media and received national attention in the last week.
Thursday's report said federal authorities will continue to investigate whether the sex crimes are being properly looked at; complaints of deputies using excessive force against Latinos; and whether the sheriff's office failed to provide adequate police services in Hispanic communities.
The report took the sheriff's office to task for launching immigration patrols, known as "sweeps," based on complaints that Latinos were merely gathering near a business without committing crimes.
Federal authorities single out Arpaio himself and said his office has no clear policies to guard against the violations, even after he changed some of his top aides earlier this year.
The report also said he and some top staffers tried to silence people who have spoken out against the sheriff's office by arresting people without cause, filing meritless lawsuits against opponents and starting investigations of critics.
One example cited by the Justice Department is former top Arpaio aide David Hendershott, who filed bar complaints against attorneys critical of the agency along with bringing judicial complaints against judges who were at odds with the sheriff. All complaints were dismissed.
The anti-corruption squad's cases against two county officials and a judge collapsed in court before going to trial and have been criticized by politicians at odds with the sheriff as trumped-up. Arpaio has defended the investigations as a valid attempt at rooting out corruption in county government.
The civil rights report said Latinos are four to nine times more likely to be stopped in traffic stops in Maricopa County than non-Latinos and that the agency's immigration policies treat Latinos as if they are all in the country illegally. Deputies on the immigrant-smuggling squad stop and arrest Latino drivers without good cause, the investigation found.
A review done as part of the investigation found that 20 percent of traffic reports handled by Arpaio's immigrant-smuggling squad from March 2006 to March 2009 were stops ? almost all involving Latino drivers ? that were done without reasonable suspicion. The squad's stops rarely led to smuggling arrests.
Deputies are encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in targeted locations. Latinos who were in the U.S. legally were arrested or detained without cause during the sweeps, according to the report.
During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city ? in some cases, heavily Latino areas ? over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008, according to figures provided by Arpaio's office.
Police supervisors, including at least one smuggling-squad supervisor, often used county accounts to send emails that demeaned Latinos to fellow sheriff's managers, deputies and volunteers in his posse. One such email had a photo of a mock driver's license for a fictional state called "Mexifornia."
The report said that the sheriff's office launched an immigration operation two weeks after the sheriff received a letter in August 2009 about a person's dismay over employees of a McDonald's in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City who didn't speak English. The tip laid out no criminal allegations. The sheriff wrote back to thank the writer "for the info," said he would look into it and forwarded it to a top aide with a note of "for our operation."
Federal investigators focused heavily on the language barriers in Arpaio's jails.
Latino inmates with limited English skills were punished for failing to understand commands in English by being put in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day or keeping prisoners locked down in their jail pods for as long as 72 hours without a trip to the canteen area or making nonlegal phone calls.
The report said some jail officers used racial slurs for Latinos when talking among themselves and speaking to inmates.
Detention officers refused to accept forms requesting basic daily services and reporting mistreatment when the documents were completed in Spanish and pressured Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms that implicate their legal rights without language assistance.
The Justice Department said it hadn't yet established a pattern of alleged wrongdoing by the sheriff's office in the three areas where they will continue to investigation: complaints of excessive force against Latinos, botched sex-crimes cases and immigration efforts that have hurt the agency's trust with the Hispanic community.
___
Associated Press Writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
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Nokia Lumia 710 official on T-Mobile: HSPA+ 14.4, 3.7-inch ClearBlack display, available January 11th for $49 on contract originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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