The top story of the week is the controversy surrounding the new ban on electronic sweepstakes. I posted about it yesterday, and after my initial post, the Attorney General issued an opinion letter regarding the situation, and announced his intention to appeal a superior court judge's ruling that held part of the law unconstitutional. But there was plenty of other news as well: 1. The News and Observer ran an AP story about efforts by the Federal government to ban synthetic cannabinoids, commonly sold under brand names such as Spice and K-2. Apparently, the DEA is seeking to add such drugs to the controlled substance schedules on an emergency basis. The General Assembly may also be considering action on that front. 2. The Scripps Howard news service recently conducted an analysis of FBI crime data, supplemented with data available under open records laws, that revealed the likely presence of as many as seven formerly unknown serial killers. The analysis showed clusters of unsolved homicides of women -- four of them apparently in Las Vegas. In at least two cases, the police had not previously considered the possibility of a serial killer. (Hat tip: Crime and Consequences.) 3. The New York Times recently ran a story about a case in which a critical witness lied about his service as a military veteran. The defendant was convicted of soliciting the witness to kill three federal officials. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit ruled that the witness's misrepresentations were unlikely to have influenced the outcome [...]
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