Several stories appeared this week that may be of interest: 1. The News and Observer ran this article, headlined "Lawyers Take on Net Predator Law," about defense attorneys' efforts to challenge G.S. 14-202.5. The statute makes it a felony for a sex offender to "access a commercial social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages." The article indicates that at least 75 defendants were charged under the law last year, but that it is now being challenged on First Amendment grounds in Durham County, with a ruling expected sometime this month. Stay tuned. 2. In these tight budgetary times, suggestions abound for addressing crime in a cost-effective manner. A new set of ideas is delineated in this Wilson Quarterly article, entitled "The Economist's Guide to Crime Busting." It isn't a primer on how economists can don capes, masks, and utility belts and fight bad guys, but some of the suggestions, such as taxing alcohol more in order to reduce consumption, are interesting. One of the authors, Philip Cook, is a Duke professor, so there's a bit of a North Carolina angle to the story. 3. Speaking of alcohol, I was floored when I stumbled across this story, which reports on a Nebraska man who was arrested for the ninth time for DWI as he drove away from a court hearing on his eighth DWI charge. He was sipping a beer as he drove [...]
Faculty Coordinators
