Property rights case in front of Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding government's use of their eminent domain power to condemn land to be used later in a redevelopment, presumably to make more money. Some states don't allow it for private use, only for government use. I think there are some cases where this priviledge can be used, but other cases where it makes sense. If, for example, one guy is holding up a $10 million development that will bring jobs and property tax dollars because he won't sell (some people just like being a pain in the ass you know), should the whole project die and perhaps millions of dollars of benefits to the community go down the drain?

Its a pretty touchy subject. You can read about it here:
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/politics/10965336.htm

Remember when Krispy Kreme was flying high?

Remember when everyone raved about the runaway success of Krispy Kreme donuts and everyone wanted to buy stock in it (as well as buying their donuts?). And now Krispy Kreme is under investigation by the feds, possibly for accounting issues although the feds have not given a reason as of yet. Krispy Kreme has really struggled as of late, at least partially due to the low carb craze. Its hard to believe that shares in Krispy Kreme, as high as almost $50 in the fall of 2003, are trading under $6 now. That kind of fall from grace reminds me of another food company that went from darling to has been, Boston Market (or Boston Chicken as it was known back then). Stock price info also courtesy of Yahoo.com.

Read the article here:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050224/ap_on_bi_ge/krispy_kreme_investigation

Should cops use stun guns?

You can check out this article about whether or not stun guns are safe. There have been some deaths reported recently from people shot by stun guns. I still think they are a safer alternative than getting hit with a nightstick or even shot with a sidearm, but I suppose the concerns are worth looking into at this point to see if these stun guns can perhaps be made even safer.

You can read it here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=716&e=21&u=/usatoday/20050216/ts_usatoday/deathspromptconcernsreviewsonuseofstunguns

Just a quick hint, if someone wants to borrow your gun.....

This is another genius. A relative borrows his gun, then kills his ex-wife, her boyfriend and her two kids. The guy that loaned him the gun apparently "had no idea what he was going to do with the gun". I am not saying that guy that loaned him the gun should be charged, but why else would be borrow a gun? To go target shooting? To put on the dining room table as a center piece?

It looks like this guy is the favorite for committing an action that is totally PFD! Email me if you don't know what PFD means.

Read the story here:
http://www.indystar.com/articles/1/223955-8311-093.html

Check this one out

Check out the link to read the story and see the video clip. The clip shows a guy in line to get a pizza and is talking on his cell. A woman cuts in line in front of him and the guy makes light of that on his phone to the person he is talking to. The woman is pissed of course, how dare he talk bad about her, she has the right to be first! She cusses him out then gets her fat ass boyfriend. This guy goes about 300, probably twice the size of the guy on the phone and basically beats the hell out of the guy. The worst part is all the people that just stand there and don't do anything to help. Fat ass is going to prison and the guy that got beat up is suing, but only for 25k, that is a surprise, I would some welfare queen for whatever she has got. She is getting charged for something, the story doesn't say what. Maybe Jesse Jackson or the Reverend Al will come to her defenese.

You can check it out here:

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/4215201/detail.html

Lexmark loses, good news for printer owners

Lexmark lost a bid to have a court injunction reinstated that would prevent a third party company for making cartridges that work in its printers. Lexmark has small chips in their ink cartridges that are there basically to make sure that you have to use Lexmark's own ink. Another company made cartridges with a chip that will work in Lexmark printers and so, in true American fashion, Lexmark sued, apparently thinking that Americans are going to get screwed if they can buy an ink cartridge for their inkjet printer for less than $20. What a tragedy! Lexmark was making the argument that this is covered under the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act). Another article on the same sight (this is from the RegisterUK, a British source) says that printer ink is actually by volume more expensive than Dom Perignon. Yikes!

The court fight is not over yet, you can read this article (which also has links to several related articles about this) at the link below:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/22/lexmark_dmca_update/

This will get the Puritans in a lather

This story is pretty good, not sure if I like it more because the guy was obviously thinking to outsmart the religious right, or the fact that it will surely get the puritans in an uproar and get conservatives "Ban, Censor, and Prohibit but still let me carry a gun" glands working overtime.

Undoubtedly the puritans will try to come up with some kind of crap to try and close the place, such as passing a law just for that one establishment, or messing with zoning, or something similar.

You can read about here:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=7673854&src=eDialog/GetContent&section=news

Quest still trying to buy MCI

Even though MCI seems to be going with Verizon's offer for now, Quest has upped the ante and is still trying to get a deal done buying or merging with MCI. You can click the link to read the article about it from BusinessWeek's web site. One of the sticking points with Quest is that part of it is based on their stock, which is not worth that much, and also Quest is not in the best of shape financially. But some major MCI shareholders are against the Verizon bid, which at least on paper, is for less than Quest's bid.

It will be interesting to see what happens as merger mania sweeps the telco's.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D88F5B2G0.htm

Winn Dixie declares bankruptcy

Winn Dixie, hammered for the past few years by tough competition especially from Walmart Supercenters, declared bankruptcy earlier this week. I knew Winn Dixie was having a rough time of things but didn't know it was quite that bad. They have made quite a few changes, but nothing seemed to stem the tide. Hopefully they come out of it okay, if they can't turn this around after bankruptcy, they could go all the way out of business. Its almost commonplace now for former heavyweights of the retail industry (Kmart, Wards, now Winn Dixie) to face hard times or in Ward's case, go out altogether.

You can read about it here:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7011121/

Walmart loses lawsuit, not sure I agree

Check out this story about Walmart losing a lawsuit brought by a man with cerebal palsy who says he was discriminated against. I don't necessarily disagree with the man winning, but let me get this straight, he gets $2.5 million becuase they hired him for the pharmacy and then after 1 day had him getting carts and cleaning the parking lot? I am not trying to justify what Walmart allgedly did, but for that this guy gets $2.5 million (of a total award of $7.5 million).
I am all for protecting those with disabilities but sometimes things go too far.

You can read the story about this certain to be appealed verdict here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=509&ncid=749&e=10&u=/ap/20050224/ap_on_bi_ge/wal_mart_bias