Tuesday Telegraph Room
... We seem to be on pace for a record summer of tourism, and Don Welsh, chief executive of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, tells the P-I: "My personal belief of what started (the rebound) is the opening (in 2004) of the public library that Rem Koolhaas designed. It received incredible worldwide attention, and portrayed the maturity of the city." Of course, 198 cruise-ship sailings can't be hurting. ...
... The state Court of Appeals rules on cases involving the rich and the semi-famous, telling Bruce McCaw that his daughter's giant playhouse indeed violates Medina zoning and must be removed (Daddy might appeal to the state Supreme Court) and affirming the denial of a portion of Jimi Hendrix's estate to Hendrix's brother, Leon. ... Zillow.com, the Seattle-based real-estate-valuation site that says our modest house is now worth a gazillion dollars, has raised another $25 million for expansion—of the Web site, not my house. ...
... A Times reporter thumbs rides with truck drivers to show how insecure are the ports of Seattle and Long Beach, Calif. ... The P-I reports on a police informant, heroin addict, child-pornography collector, and abuser of teenage girls who was—can you guess?—a state-licensed foster-care provider. The two girls are now adults and are telling their story. ...
... Robert Jamieson says it's lame for Conner Schierman to blame alcohol for the stabbing deaths of a Kirkland family, but there are indications from King County Persecutor Norm Maleng that the crime was premeditated, and the death penalty is under consideration. ...
... Steve Largent's son, Kramer, 20, of Tulsa, Okla., has been charged with soliciting a 15-year-old girl for sex over the Internet. He pleaded not guilty in Delaware. ...
... Four intersections in town have cameras for catching runners of red lights, and the testing phase during which 1,800 warnings were issued is over. From now on actual tickets will be issued. ... In Alaska, 5,000 Japanese cars are headed for Davy Jones' locker. ...
2 comment(s)
Ann Chynoweth says:
The article �Humane Society Sues Amazon� (July 24, 2006) contains several inaccuracies, starting with the headline. The Humane Society of the United States has not yet sued Amazon. It has asked Amazon to stop promoting and selling the cockfighting magazines because the advertisement and sale of those magazines violates the Federal Animal Welfare Act, which prohibits any use of the mail service that �promot[es] or in any other manner further[s]� unlawful animal fighting. Each violation is punishable by up to a $15,000 and a year in federal prison.
Anyone who had actually seen the magazines would agree that their advertisement and sale �promotes� or �furthers� unlawful animal fighting. The magazines are predominantly advertisements, including ads for upcoming animal fights which list directions to the fights, fight entry fees, telephone numbers for the fighting �pits,� and the weapons classifications (such as the �long knife�). The magazines also advertise animals marketed for their fighting aptitude, as well as the knives affixed to their legs, and injectable drugs designed to thicken the birds� blood and prolong the effects of shock so that critically wounded birds can fight longer.
In passing the Animal Welfare Act, Congress decried cockfighting as �dehumanizing, abhorrent, and utterly without redeeming social value.� Even a rudimentary understanding of First Amendment law reveals that printed material such as the magazines, which is not only illegal in and of itself, but which also advertises criminal transactions, has never enjoyed any First Amendment protection. Indeed, the publisher of a similar animal fighting magazine was recently convicted of animal cruelty in New York, and also charged in Pennsylvania based on his publication and distribution of the magazine, and is currently in prison.
Amazon sells many books that portray the historical aspects of cockfighting, but The Humane Society of the United States\' narrowly tailored, reasonable request is only that Amazon remove the listings for the two magazines, because the magazines serve as the real-time informational infrastructure without which illegal cockfighting enterprises would not function.
Ann Chynoweth
Director
Animal Cruelty and Fighting Campaign
The Humane Society of the United States
Washington, DC
Posted On: Friday, Jul. 28 2006 @ 2:06PM
Chemist says:
Health protection of the tourist the main task which the committee on health in relation to the countries of the third world should solve WBR LeoP
Posted On: Sunday, Jan. 21 2007 @ 6:41PM