Lead Story
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In July in Ogden, Utah, a judge allowed Richard Quinton Gunn to act as his own attorney in his aggravated-murder appeal: he’d decided to withdraw his guilty plea after the jury at his sentencing hearing gave him life without parole after deliberating just two hours. Following his arrest Gunn had confessed to killing his elderly tenant using a crowbar, a butcher knife, a handsaw, a fireplace poker, a 12-inch bolt, a straight razor, an ax, walking canes, a pool cue, and a large salad fork.
Compelling Explanations
The New York Times reported in October that Nabors Industries, a large operator of oil-well drilling rigs that in 2001 moved its legal headquarters from the U.S. to Barbados (corporate income tax: 1 percent) and its tax headquarters to a mail drop in Bermuda (no corporate income tax), is now attempting to claim special privileges reserved by law for American businesses. (The U.S. corporate tax rate, for comparison, is generally 35 percent.) Nabors wants to be treated as an American company in order to secure a competitive advantage under the Jones Act of 1916, which bars non-U.S. firms from working on ships involved solely in domestic trade.
