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Guilt That Lingers
In February, an Arizona appeals court ruled someone could be found guilty of driving under the influence of marijuana even after its psychoactive ingredient has long left the person’s system. Tests of marijuana measure both active and inactive ingredients — and while the active substance vanishes quickly, the inactive one remains in the body for weeks — so a marijuana consumer might test “positive” even though not the least bit impaired. In fact, since neighboring Colorado recently legalized some marijuana possession, a Colorado driver motoring through Arizona weeks later could be guilty of DUI for a completely legal, harmless act, as could the 35,000 medical-marijuana users in Arizona. The appeals court majority reasoned that because the legislature didn’t distinguish the inactive ingredient from active, neither would the court.
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Richard Blake took the witness stand in Ottawa, Ontario, in January to deny he’d invaded a home and stabbed two people several times. Straight260-9770. RUN DATE: 030613 faced, he had an answer for all incriminating evidence. He had the perp’s car because “a stranger” had ss just gave him the keys; he didn’t Produced by ed Checked by Sales Rep recall what the stranger looked like (but guessed he probably resembled Blake, because Blake got picked out of the lineup); he donned the stranger’s bloody knit cap (abandoning his own © 2011 cap); he handled the stranger’s knife and bloody glove, and that’s why his DNA was on them; he fled at the first sight of police, ramming a cruiser to escape (even though he’d “done nothing wrong”); he fled on foot after the crash and hid in a tree (but only to get away from a swarm of black flies). After deliberating politely for a day, the jury found him guilty.
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A Tolerance for Stupidity
March 17, 2013 8 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Join other volunteers to collect litter and debris from multiple sites around the city. There will be site staff on hand to register volunteers and provide trash bags, gloves and tickets. Advanced registration is not required. Volunteers 18 and younger must be accompanied by an adult.
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After the cleanup, volunteers will gather at Riverside Arts Market from noon to 2 p.m. where tickets can be redeemed for refreshments and T-shirts (while supplies last). To learn more, visit www.coj.net, keywords “St. Johns River Celebration” or call Keep Jacksonville Beautiful at 630-3420 Keep Jacksonville Beautiful... ...it belongs to you!
46 | FOLIOWEEKLY.com | MARCH 6-12, 2013
A 61-year-old man in southern Sweden beat a DUI charge in February even though his bloodalcohol was five times the legal limit. The man told the judge he’s a hearty daily drinker, usually starting even before work, with “no effect” on performance. According to the Skanskan newspaper, that must have impressed the judge, who was so awed, he tossed out the charge.
Kids Make Me Sick
A longtime high school teacher of French and Spanish is suing the Mariemont, Ohio, school district for having pressured her to resign in the 2013 face of what she calls her phobia, a “fear of kids” disorder, which she says should be protected by disability-discrimination law. Maria WaltherrWillard, 61, had been reassigned to teach junior high students, but doctors said she suffered hypertension, nightmares, chest pains and vomiting when around younger children.
FolioWeekly
Dirty Rotten Lawyer
Lisa Biron’s recent biography shows her to be a licensed lawyer in two states, practicing in Manchester, N.H., and affiliated with a group of volunteer lawyers advocating “religious liberty, the sanctity of life and marriage and family,” and issues warnings about the “homosexual agenda.” She recently represented a church in Concord, N.H., and served on a Manchester Christian school’s board of directors. In January, Biron was convicted in federal court in Concord on nine counts involving taking her teenage daughter to Canada and creating child pornography.
Forever Finding Fault
In September 2010, a speeding, intoxicated driver ran a stop sign near Dade City, Fla., careened off a highway, and rammed two trees along a private road, instantly killing himself and his passenger. In January, the passenger’s estate filed a lawsuit for wrongful death, charging residents along the private road with letting trees grow in a dangerous location where they could be easily hit, especially since residents failed to light the area adequately. “How it’s our fault, I have no idea,” said one surprised resident, who noted the whole neighborhood mourned the strangers at the time of the sad, traumatic collision.
Alcohol Ruined Their Lives
Keith Brown and four other inmates at Idaho’s Kuna prison filed a December lawsuit against eight major beer and liquor manufacturers for having sold them alcohol at an early age without warning of its addictiveness — thus responsible for the men’s subsequent lives of crime. Brown, 52, said he’s been locked up a total of 30 years and is now serving time for manslaughter. The Oglala Sioux tribe sued beer distributors and the state of Nebraska for enabling access to beer even though it’s banned on the reservation. The lawsuit was dismissed on jurisdictional issues, but the tribe may refile.
Whipper Snapper
Jason Starn, formerly a law student at the Laurence Drivon School of Law in Stockton, Calif., filed a lawsuit recently against three Stockton-Modesto-area “head shops” that sold him Whip-It nitrous oxide, which led him to overindulge and eventually suffer spinal-cord degeneration. Starn’s attorney told the Sacramento Bee, “At first, he felt a little embarrassed about” filing the lawsuit (but managed to overcome the shame in order to warn all the other nitrous-oxide abusers).
Not Snail Mail
A 53-year-old Rosenheim, Germany, postal worker was relieved of criminal charges in January when a judge ruled him innocent of discarding mail (as jealous whistle-blowers charged) after concluding the carrier finished routes early simply because he worked faster. Though the charge was dropped, he was reprimanded for taking unauthorized (i.e., simpler) routes.
A Heavy Story
After a 400-pound woman broke both arms accidentally falling through a sidewalk in New York City in January, doctors told her that a thinner woman might have died from the same fall. “Thank God, they said that my size was the only thing that saved me.”
Misplaced Faith
Faith healer Ariel Ben Sherman, 78, died in November in a South Carolina hospital after suffering respiratory arrest while being treated for small-cell cancer. He’d been found guilty in May 2012 of neglect in the cancer death of a 15-year-old girl (of whom he had accepted the title of “spiritual father”) for his insistence that the girl’s mother reject medical care and treat the girl only with prayer. Chuck Shepherd weirdnews@earthlink.net