February 2010 Archives

Concealed weapons will no longer be permitted on Colorado State University's two campuses. The CSU System Board of Governors unanimously approved the ban Tuesday at a meeting in Pueblo.

The surgical room nurse who infected at least 18 patients at Rose Medical Center in 2008 and 2009, was sentenced to thirty years in prison yesterday. The judge, in imposing a much stiffer sentence than federal prosecutors had initially agreed to, called the crime "as incomprehensible as it is unconscionable." He said the hospital worker, Kristen D. Parker, had shown "a terrible selfishness."

Key provisions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 take effect today including those that prevent issuers from arbitrarily slapping consumers with higher interest rates , changing how consumer credit will be provided and used, and who will ultimately get it.

If you have a Colorado driver's license or ID, you can now provide emergency contact information to be accessed by authorities. By supplying your driver's license/ID number, date of birth, and the last 4 digits of your Social Security number, you can provide the contact information for two people to be contacted in the event that you are the victim of an accident or crime. It is a simple online form at: https://www.colorado.gov/apps/dor/emergency/contact/start.jsf. Complete the form and you may avoid becoming a "John or Jane Doe."

In a new survey of divorce lawyers, 81 percent say they have seen an increase in the use of social networking evidence during the past five years. The survey, conducted by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, pinpoints Facebook as the "unrivaled leader for online divorce evidence" with 66 percent citing it as a primary source, according to a news release about the survey.

Many divorce lawyers already tell clients to terminate social networking pages immediately. While Facebook has proven to be the evidence leader, the survey notes that 15 percent of lawyers say they've found evidence on MySpace and five percent from Twitter.

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter announced yesterday plans to take a dispute over campaign finance laws directly to the state supreme court. The governor is asking the court to determine if state campaign finance laws are unconstitutional in light of the recent 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United. See Mutual Destruction in Judicial Elections Predicted.

Can schools discipline students for Internet speech posted offsite? Federal appellate judges wrestling reached different rulings this week in two Pennsylvania cases which posed this question.

The First Amendment right to freedom of speech doesn't necessarily apply to bumper stickers, ruled a split panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week in Denver - at least when the bumper sticker in question is on private property and the U.S. president is involved.

U.S Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced last week a federal guidance to expressly prohibit texting by drivers of commercial vehicles such as large trucks and buses. The prohibition is effective immediately and is the latest in a series of actions taken by the Department to combat distracted driving since the Secretary convened a national summit on the issue last September.