Free Talk Live

Paying drivers not to speed could be the next step in the war against the road toll, a US study has concluded. The study, undertaken by research company Udini and partly funded by the US Government’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, found that speeding was virtually eliminated among a group of drivers who were offered US$25 ($25) a week not to exceed the speed limit. The report concluded there were "dramatic reductions in speeding" with even modest financial incentives.

The Supreme Court on Monday limited the use of life terms in prison for murderers under 18, ruling that judges must consider the defendant’s youth and the nature of the crime before putting him behind bars with no hope for parole. In a 5-4 decision, the high court struck down as cruel and unusual punishment the laws in about 28 states that mandated a life term for murderers, including those under age 18. The justices ruled in the cases of two 14-year-olds who were given life terms for their role in a homicide, but their decision goes further. It applies to all those under 18.

A German judge has shot to popularity after letting 42 speeding drivers off without charges in the last week because he thinks speed controls merely serve to fill the state's coffers rather than prevent accidents.
A spokesman for Herford court in northwestern Germany, said the judge, Helmut Knoener, believed speed controls were not conducted to ensure greater road safety, but rather to provide the cash-strapped state with an additional source of income.

The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals has ruled that recording an in-person conversation without the knowledge of all parties is only a violation of federal wiretapping law if the person making the recording intends to use the recording for illegal purposes. At least in the states that do not have explicit laws against recording cops, this should nullify the abuses of wiretapping laws against people recording in public.

This fall a Supreme Court decision could force the police in Florida to require warrants before secretly installing GPS trackers. As of now, they do need a warrant saying it does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

"The police can't be trusted to police themselves," public Defender Howard Finklestein said. "There must be a check on police behavior or it will become an abuse of power. And the check has always been the Fourth Amendment."

“I have told the CSU police chief I will not support this in any way,” Sheriff Alderden told The Gazette. “If anyone with one of my permits gets arrested for concealed carry at CSU, I will refuse to book that person into my jail. Furthermore, I will show up at court and testify on that person’s behalf, and I will do whatever I can to discourage a conviction. I will not be a party to this very poor decision.”

Police officers responded to a family's complaint that their diabetic son may have been in danger from driving without taking his medicine by running him off the road into an interstate highway median and shooting him to death, the family says.

I’ve always found government mandated public holidays creepy, because it’s the government telling people on certain days that they shouldn’t be doing certain things & we all know that the government already intrudes into our personal liberty far more then is healthy for individual liberty & if you think otherwise then you’re a fucking moron.

Massachusetts department of transportation handed out about 900 speeding tickets on a newly created stretch of road. The issue is that they did not follow their own laws around setting speed limits and enforcing them.

They have publicly admitted to the tickets being illegal and unenforceable, but when asked about possible refunds, they basically told the media that you would have to take them to court if you want your money back.

the illegality is due to the the state not performing an engineering study to determine the maximum safe speed for the stretch of road.