Hopefully, Human Services just earned themselves a huge cut in the soon-to-be-announced budget. And I say this as someone who usually loves big, regulatory government.

Quoted: IRVING TOWNSHIP (AP) — A southwest Michigan woman has been told that she's in danger of being arrested if she continues to watch her neighbors' children each morning before they get on the school bus.

Quoted: State law says no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks a year unless they're licensed.

I am a contest winner! Editors and evidence afficionados, feel free to improve on my version.

For some reason the Bar Journal pdf version wouldn't publish, so here's the ugly html.

Quoted: Last month, I invited you to revise current Rule 606(a).

Quoted: The winner is Drew Slager, an associate with Mancini, Schreuder, Kline & Conrad.

Yet more evidence that Texas is run by lunatics.

Also something for parents to think about before posting photos on facebook, etc.

I'm not a fan of breastfeeding in public. But this is crazy.

The search that turned up the breastfeeding photo happened because the local pharmacy turned in the mom for developing photos of her kids playing in the tub. Prosecutors apparently believe they could have proceeded on child porn charges based on those photos. Also crazy. They went with the "sexual performance" charge instead.

Quoted: After searching their home, police and child welfare officials found a picture of Jacqueline breast feeding one the children. That was it: Texas prosecutors secured a grand jury indictment against the parents for “sexual performance of a child,” a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The charge was based on the breastfeeding picture, even though defense attorneys produced paintings in leading museums that show the same maternal act.

Unbelievable. Don't mess with power in Texas.

Quoted: Two nurses who lodged a complaint with the Texas Medical Board about a physician's standard of practice at a West Texas hospital face up to 10 years in prison after being indicted on charges of misuse of official information.

Quoted: When Richard Posner writes (which he does a bit more often than most federal appellate judges), people tend to sit up and listen. Which is why a recent post he did on the Becker-Posner Blog sent shudders down the Law Blog's spine.

Quoted: Expanding copyright law to bar online access to copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, or to bar linking to or paraphrasing copyrighted materials without the copyright holder’s consent, might be necessary to keep free riding on content financed by online newspapers from so impairing the incentive to create costly news-gathering operations that news services like Reuters and the Associated Press would become the only professional, nongovernmental sources of news and opinion.

Deadliest Catch + wealthy mystery woman + maritime tragedy + a very wide variety of lawyers and laws = interesting read.

That equation worked for me. If you like any of those things, you may enjoy this article.

Quoted: A shipwreck, a mysterious owner and a 158-year-old maritime law. There are a thousand ways to die on the Bering Sea, and it seemed like all 1,000 hurtled toward the Alaska Ranger at 2 a.m. that Easter morning. Massive waves—skyscraper-size and Bible black—smashed the Ranger. Snow squalls blasted the deck. A storm gripped the 203-foot mackerel boat 120 miles off the Alaskan coast. Waves flooded the rudder room, rushing past watertight compartment doors. “Catastrophic hull failure!” an officer shouted. The electricity cut off. Suddenly, the engine locked into reverse. As the crew scrambled into neoprene survival suits, they peered into the wheelhouse where Capt. Peter Jacobsen called maydays into the radio. The fishmaster­—a mysterious officer from Japan who directed them toward fertile fishing grounds—sat in the wheelhouse smoking a cigarette, staring straight ahead. His survival suit hung unzipped off his shoulders.…

Put Al Gore on the Supreme Court says Hendrik Hertzberg. As he admits, it isn't going to happen. But after reading this I have to think that Jennifer Granholm is a strong candidate. She's lacking in some departments, but she's barely 50 and she's not a judge.

Quoted: The heart of a Justice’s job is interpreting and applying the Constitution, and for that things like a knowledge of history (including Constitutional history), a feel for the workings of government, a strong moral sense, an ability to think and write clearly, and a temperamental affinity for the long view—all of which Gore has in spades—are much more important than a professional familiarity with the details of contract or case law.

Incredible. The most influential minds in America at work... BTW, the quote directly below is not from some Joe Sixpack asked to comment, it's from Justice Breyer. You know, one of the GOOD justices.

Quoted: "In my experience when I was 8 or 10 or 12 years old, you know, we did take our clothes off once a day, we changed for gym, OK? And in my experience, too, people did sometimes stick things in my underwear."

Quoted: That the school in question was looking for a prescription pill with the mind-altering force of a pair of Advil—and couldn't be bothered to call the child's mother first—hardly matters.

Looks pretty well done; tell your teacher friends.

Quoted: Our Courts is a free, interactive, web-based program designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in our democracy. Our Courts was spearheaded by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Quoted: Civics education is being marginalized in our country, and available curricula are lacking in teacher-friendly solutions to excite and engage students. Only a little more than one-third of Americans can name the three branches of government, and yet civics education continues to be pushed out of the classroom.