legislator with the body of a porn star not happy

Ok, he really only has the body of a porn star because his head was “shopped” onto an actual porn star.  And he’s not happy about it.  So unhappy, in fact, he figures that the First Amendment doesn’t stand in the way of criminalizing funny “shopped” pix.

WASHINGTON –  A Georgia state lawmaker with an unconventional grasp of the First Amendment is backing a bill that would make lewd photoshopping a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine.

Source: Georgia pol wants to make lewd photoshopping a crime after being mocked in porn star pic | Fox News

How about we start requiring legislators to pass a basic civics exam before they take office?

Scalia did not rub elbows with ted nugent last night

Could have been an interesting meeting, but Scalia once again skipped the State of the Union Address.

WASHINGTON -- Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia criticized the annual State of the Union ritual Tuesday night, calling the presidential speech something worth skipping because it is a "rather silly affair."

. . . .

Scalia, the Supreme Court's senior member and a Ronald Reagan appointee, noted that it's not uncommon for justices to skip the event. William Rehnquist often did not attend toward the end of his tenure as chief justice, he said, and former associate justice John Paul Stevens never showed up. Scalia confirmed he has not attended since 1997.

Source: Scalia: State of the Union 'a childish spectacle'

Read the link to find out what kind of gun Scalia fondly remembers carrying on the New York Subway.

republicans and democrats live differently and die differently, too

Correlation is not causation, but this is certainly interesting:

The nation’s red and blue states often are miles apart in social attitudes and, of course, political outlook.

It turns out that they also divide into distinct camps when it comes to a grimmer measure — fatal traffic accidents.

To an extent that mystifies safety experts and other observers, federal statistics show that people in red states are more likely to die in road crashes. The least deadly states – those with the fewest crash deaths per 100,000 people – overwhelmingly are blue.

Source: Traffic Deaths: A Surprising Dimension of the Red State-Blue State Divide | FairWarning

class action lawsuit alleges that hospital abuses medical liens to rip off patients

Medical liens are one of the biggest nightmares for personal injury attorneys.  They add cost and complexity to a case as well as delay settlement payments.  That’s an undisputed fact.  Now, it’s alleged that a hospital is abusing the liens, too:

Silver Cross Hospital for a decade has exploited accident settlements to get higher fees from patients, a class-action lawsuit alleges.

By placing medical liens on personal-injury settlements, the New Lenox-based hospital seeks to force patients to pay higher, out-of-network fees even when Silver Cross has network agreements with the patients' health insurers, the complaint says. Settlement proceeds can’t be distributed until a lien is released by the hospital or declared invalid by a judge.

Silver Cross has placed a lien for $18,000 on an $85,000 settlement won by Brian Falls even though it accepted payment of under $6,000 at the discounted, in-network rate from a subsidiary of Minnetonka, Minn.-based UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Falls alleges.

Source: Suit against Silver Cross alleges misuse of medical liens - Health Care News - Crain's Chicago Business

new york contractors pushing for repeal of unique scaffold law

New York has an old and somewhat unique law that holds a variety of parties responsible whenever anyone is injured on a scaffold.  Not surprisingly, contractors want it repealed:

Mike Elmendorf, president of the state Association of General Contractors, says more than 150 people from across New York will be at the state Capitol Tuesday to advocate for reforming the 19th-century law that holds property owners, employers and contractors responsible for all damages in elevation-related injuries that occur at job sites, even if the worker is found to be at fault.

Source: WRGB-TV Channel 6 News :: News - Top Stories - Groups pushing for reform of NY's `Scaffold Law'