Lead Stories
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Last month Great Britain’s home office, deciding on the proper compensation for an innocent man who’d served 11 years in prison, ruled that he was entitled to about $1.1 million but ordered him to reimburse the prison about $63,000 for his room and board. The exonerated man, Michael O’Brien, was outraged: “They don’t charge guilty people for bed and board. They only charge innocent people.”
Last month Germany’s lower house of parliament revised the constitution’s guarantee to protect the dignity of humans, adding the words and animals….But that same month the director of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., turned the tables on animal-rights advocates by forbidding the Washington Post to inspect its animals’ medical records, citing the animals’ right to privacy.
Last month the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch reported that 42-year-old James O. Riccardi III had been charged with five misdemeanor counts by police in Higginsville, Missouri, in connection with bizarre phone calls to high school athletes. The caller, posing as a coach at the University of Missouri, offered scholarships but then turned the conversation to the students spanking their bare buttocks to show their dedication to college sports. The university said it’s received 86 complaints about similar calls to student athletes throughout Kansas and Missouri.
In the Last Month
