Law

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Gangs study killed

Lawmaker Apology
On February 9 the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, which had already informally decided against LD 1707, the bill that would have created severe penalties for people associated with criminal street gangs, killed a substitute proposal for a study to be done on how to define gangs and how to have police share information on them.
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 15, 2012

Gang-buster bill gets dissed

Tattoos As A Criminal Act
A controversial legislative proposal developed by a secretive police group would send an individual to prison for up to 40 years if he or she is convicted of asking someone to join a criminal street gang.
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 25, 2012

Court looms; camp signs missing

Occupy Watch
OccupyMaine has filed its comments on the city's reality-detached answer to Occupy's lawsuit, and a hearing on the Occupiers' request for court protection from city eviction is scheduled for next week.
By JEFF INGLIS | January 18, 2012

White House pans SOPA

Online Freedom
Maine's congressional delegation appears to be in a holding pattern while attempting to form positions on two bills that address widespread copyright and trademark violations via the Internet.
By JEFF INGLIS | January 18, 2012

Medical marijuana 2.0

In a tough political environment, the movement weighs a tricky reinvention
The medical marijuana movement has always had to be nimble.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | January 11, 2012

Food sovereignty goes to court

Removing local control
The state is pursuing a lawsuit against a Blue Hill farmer that could have "a chilling effect on Maine's growing local food movement and the promise of real economic development in our rural communities," according to the Downeast activist organization Food for Maine's Future.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | January 11, 2012

'Major' free-speech flap at Suffolk Law

Humbug or holiday cheer for US troops?
On Veterans Day, Suffolk Law School gave us a lesson in the glories — and pitfalls — that come with living with a legal and moral tradition of free speech. Unfortunately, US Army Reserves Major Bob Roughsedge failed to learn it.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND DANIEL SCHWARTZ | December 02, 2011

Stop SOPA

Old-media corporate giants seek censorship through a web-based blacklist. Plus, #occupy brutality, and D.C. deadlock.
The dinosaurs of the entertainment world ( i.e. , Hollywood movie studios and national music companies) have joined with the Business Software Alliance (which represents tech giants such as Apple, Microsoft, and Intel) to sponsor an insidious piece of legislation called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
By EDITORIAL | November 22, 2011

Man with a load of mischief

Casinos: money and morals
According to the Maine Sunday Telegram, gambling is OK in Biddeford or Washington County, but if it happens in Lewiston, it's pure evil.
By AL DIAMON | November 02, 2011

Review: Puncture

Facing down fat cats
Though drawn from a true story, Adam and Mark Kassen's drama falls into the pattern of films like The Verdict in which a crapulous barrister gets a second chance by taking on a case of David-versus-Goliath injustice.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 18, 2011

'Bath salts' hysteria grips lawmakers

This is your Legislature on drugs
Like hopeless, strung-out junkies, one legislator after another babbled contradictions.
By LANCE TAPLEY | October 05, 2011

How To Grow Pot In Your Dorm Room

Time to make the nuggets
First things first: If you follow the instructions below, you are an idiot who is risking fines, imprisonment, getting kicked out of school, and worse.
By ROY BLUNT JR. | September 26, 2011

Young activists explore police department

Portland 101
There are three streets in Portland that police lieutenant Janine Roberts won't walk down alone, learned a group of interested citizens organized by the League of Young Voters on a visit to the Portland Police Department last Wednesday.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 21, 2011

The Big Hurt: Alex James's cheese, the Chili Peppers' video, Noel and Liam's suit, Nicole Scherzinger's Killer Love, Sammy Hagar's Chickenfoot III

Music news in brief
James is on the vanguard of a truly extraordinary future: now that cheese has been infused with the flavor of ketchup, it's only a matter of time before entire cheeseburgers — with beef, onions, lettuce, tomato, bacon, and all — are compressed into pre-sliced cheese singles so you can carry them around in your wallet.
By DAVID THORPE | August 31, 2011

A libertarian's view of the Barstool/Brady child-porn fiasco

Freedom Watch
Sophisticated First Amendment scholars, lawyers, and media commentators, all of whom are strongly free-speech/free-press supporters, were critical of Coakley for allegedly engaging in a legal bluff — the veiled threat of possible prosecution under the state's child-porn statute — to convince Portnoy to remove the offending and exploitative image from his site.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 25, 2011

How the Arroyo jury got it right

Law-abiding citizens
Rarely has a Boston jury had to suffer as much ridicule as the 12 citizens who acquitted former Boston firefighter Albert Arroyo of pension fraud.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 25, 2011

Cruelty, compassion, and a capuchin, a decade later

The baby in the box
I had tried not to look at the monkey's tits — the result, Janet told me later, of a glandular disorder. They bounced whenever the monkey moved. If you shaved them, they would have been a pretty nice set.
By S.I. ROSENBAUM | August 04, 2011

Curbing corruption with a catch-all

Vague Justice?
Sal DiMasi is no saint, but that doesn't mean he's a criminal. His behavior makes us grimace, but it simply doesn't amount to a state or federal felony.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | June 24, 2011

Corporate prison bill 'carried over'

Inmate Exile Dept.
Although LD 690, A BILL TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR "EXILED" PRISONERS TO RETURN TO MAINE , was killed May 6 by the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, political activist Ron Huber, who had pushed it, declared "victory in Augusta" on his Facebook page.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 12, 2011

GOP lawmakers want to do DeCoster 'a favor'

How Soon We Forget Dept.
Jack DeCoster is possibly the most infamous Maine businessman of all time.
By COLIN WOODARD | April 27, 2011

At a turning point

LePage's nominee to head Corrections has the skills to fix Maine's broken prison system. Will the governor and lawmakers give Joseph Ponte the tools?
When Joseph Ponte was told that Maine's longtime corrections commissioner Martin Magnusson had once informed the Legislature's Criminal Justice Committee, after a dramatic hostage-taking, that there were "probably 300 inmates right now with a weapon in their hand" — and that nobody at the committee meeting seemed disturbed by this information — Ponte's reaction was "I would be extremely perturbed by that."
By LANCE TAPLEY | February 09, 2011

Review: The Murder Trial of John Gordon at the Park Theatre

Trial from another era
Who knew? Everybody knows about that frisky, independent start by Roger Williams, and the first bloodshed of the American Revolution with the burning of the Gaspee , but who knows about the dispute between the lowly immigrant Gordon family and the prestigious Spragues, which resulted in the last state execution in Rhode Island, back in 1845?
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | January 18, 2011

LePage interested in corporate prisons

The $25,000 contribution question
In the gubernatorial campaign the controversial Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation's largest for-profit prison operator, spent $25,000 on behalf of Republican candidate Paul LePage, now the governor-elect.
By LANCE TAPLEY | May 26, 2011

Bristol’s crusading lawyer goes Hollywood

Exoneration
If you haven’t heard of Betty Anne Waters, the Bristol pub owner and single mother of two who put herself through college and law school in a nearly three-decade crusade to overturn her brother’s murder conviction, you will soon.
By ELIZABETH RAU | July 14, 2010

Review: The Law

What a goofy choice for a film restoration
Was it that everyone got to hang out on the Mezzogiorno coast, enjoying good pasta and swimming, during the shoot?
By GERALD PEARY | July 14, 2010

With plans for a downtown mural, Shepard Fairey returns to Providence

Obey
It is a rather unremarkable collection of bricks at the moment: an exterior wall at the back of Trinity Repertory Company’s Pell Chafee Performance Center in downtown Providence.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 16, 2010

The powerless rise

The danger of the unfocused anger of the Tea Party
I’m an even-tempered guy. I don’t lose my cool more than, maybe, once or twice a day.
By AL DIAMON | May 19, 2010

‘There are no rules’

The 11th-hour change
On April 19, the Globe first reported that arbitrators had awarded the Boston firefighters union a 19-percent raise. By the next morning, both the Globe and the Herald were citing Menino administration figures of a $74 million cost.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 12, 2010

Your words are not your own

Less Otten. More Originality.
Plagiarism is a serious charge.
By AL DIAMON | May 12, 2010

Elena Kagan’s shaky record

What a Kagan appointment to the Supreme Court could mean for civil liberties
As a potential Obama nominee for Supreme Court justice, Elena Kagan has liberal bona fides and the likely support of the right. But if her record is any indication, she’s more likely to side with the conservative bloc on matters of executive power and war-time presidential authority.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | April 16, 2010