More interesting stuff

The Roanoke paper published this remembrance of Roanoke lawyer F. Rodney Fitzpatrick. Somehow, I don't think it is a coincidence that so many obituaries of lawyers say that they were Southern gentlemen; many of them were and are.

Peggy Quince, the first African-American justice of the Florida Supreme Court, was born in Norfolk.

The Norfolk paper has another story on Jens Soering, who has now spend more than half his life in prison at age 40 and there he has written four books. The article says Elizabeth Haysom will qualify for mandatory release in 2032, when she is 68.

The West Virginia Gazette has another report on the big natural gas royalty class action case in West Virginia. Some say it is further evidence that West Virginia is an anti-business jurisdiction, but others say this is a big business v. big business case (and it is, to a degree).

The AP reports here and the Roanoke paper reports here that the Virginia Supreme Court is taking an appeal of the Highland County wind farm decision by the State Corporation Commission to grant the permit. Also, this press release describes a so-far unpublished ruling by the Virginia Supreme Court reversing an injunction order from Tazewell County. (Unpublished is a dirty word.) This story from the Hook says the parents in that beer case are appealing to the United States Supreme Court the decision by the Virginia Supreme Court to affirm their convictions for serving alcohol to minors.

This somewhat lame article describes an interesting lawsuit now pending in the W.D. Va. under the Federal Housing Act. The landowner having lost his zoning case has filed suit claiming that the County has a policy of exclusionary zoning, which is to oppose zoning requests without provision for adequate public facilities. One point the article makes is that the Western District is, well, not the Eastern District. The lame part is where the reporter declares, "Virginia's Circuit Court is the Fourth District."

It says here that a Virginia woman has been charged with maliciously throwing a missile into a vehicle, which missile was a cup of ice.

Here the Roanoke paper cites the Caro verdict as evidence that the death penalty in America is erratic. The jury recommended death after convicting Caro of murdering another inmate at the federal prison in Lee County. U.S. Attorney John Brownlee is quoted, saying in effect that looking for consistency is unreasonable when jurors only act on one case at a time. This article from the Hook describes a Charlottesville murder case where the jury decided on life without parole.

This post says a district court in Texas relied on the Fourth Circuit opinion applying Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in Zeran v. AOL in dismissing a claim against MySpace for negligence and gross negligence where a 14 year-old was assaulted by someone who got information about her from MySpace.