Subject: U.S. Courts

• High Court Agrees: Parkus Is Too Dim to Die

  April 19, 2007

• Kobach Cashes In

  August 1, 2007

• Federal Heat Melts Ice Cream Man

  September 11, 2007

• Supreme Court turns down Kris Kobach

  July 1, 2008

• Send Pix Plz

  April 2, 2009

• Judicial Short Circuit

  January 11, 2001

• 401(k) suit against NovaStar gets go-ahead

  Sarah TroverA federal judge ruled last week that lawyers for a former employee can proceed with a class-action suit against NovaStar Financial.On December 31, 2006, workers who participated in NovaStar's 401(k) plan held $6.4 million in company stock. A year later, as home prices fell and NovaStar and other subprime mortgage lenders were stuck with a lot of worthless paper, the investment could practically fit in a coin dispenser.Jennifer Jones, a former employee of the Kansas City-based company

  February 16, 2009

• Daily Briefs: Does the red carpet match the velvet curtains?

  Because, who cares? The Pitch's Carolyn Szczepanski writes a great blog feature called "The Give a Shit List." This was kind of adapted and evolved from my original idea, the "I Could Give A Shit List," demonstrating the power of one or two words to completely change the semantics of a phrase. My list included things like internet "bacon" jokes and the Academy Awards. One time, I enjoyed a sit-down pee inside a pink-colored porta-john at the Lillith Fair. But even that doesn't make me girly en

  February 23, 2009

• Judging Tippers

  August 4, 2005

• Murder Case Is Killed Again

  KCPD says its officer bungled a murder case, but a disappearing witness sunk the trial.

  February 7, 2008

• Tax Relief

  August 2, 2007

• Too Dim to Die?

  Nadia Pflaum

  November 10, 2005

• Funny Math

  Kansas politicos keep practicing their unique brand of addition.

  April 14, 2005

• Show Me Schiavo!

  Missouri distinguishes itself on the national stage.

  March 31, 2005

• You Got Schooled

  Kansas lawmakers get the smack-down from a judge fed up with the state's places of learning.

  February 19, 2004

• A Boy's Life

  The Supreme Court effectively threw out the Kansas Sodomy Law, but Attorney General Phill Kline won't let Matthew Limon out of jail.

  January 22, 2004

• Children Left Behind

  Once again, adults try to end Kansas City's desegregation case.

  May 22, 2003

• Born Again

  When Bryan J. Brown gave up his picket sign for a law degree, that just made him a stronger activist- and perfect candidate for a job in Kansas state government.

  May 15, 2003

• Head Cases

  A man who had sex at Shawnee Mission Park and patrons at a St. Louis porn house carry the baton for gays and lesbians in Kansas and Missouri.

  January 2, 2003

• Tobacco Twist

  Two lawyers say smoking costs an arm and a leg.

  September 5, 2002

• So Long, Joe

  While Joe Armine waits to die, Missouri courts won't admit they could have been wrong.

  July 4, 2002

• Past Due

  A federal judge forces the boys of Rent-a-Center to clean up their bad behavior.

  May 9, 2002

• The Long Walk Home

  Twenty-five years ago this week, the Kansas City school district started making a $2 billion mistake-and blacks are still paying.

  May 23, 2002

• The Heinous and the Cruel

  Kansas courts try to decide exactly when killings are 'atrocious.'

  February 21, 2002

• Cough It Up

  The man who created Josie and the Pussycats can't understand why his girls don't belong to him.

  February 15, 2001

• Dennis Skillicorn could be Missouri's first execution since 2005

  Capital attorneys with the Public Interest Litigation Clinic say they expect the Missouri Supreme Court to announce an execution date for Dennis Skillicorn, a 49-year-old inmate at the Potosi Correctional Center, of May 20, 2009. Skillicorn's previous execution date, August 27, 2008, was stayed after Skillicorn asserted that Potosi's warden was interfering with his council's attempts to interview prison staff in order to present a thorough request for clemency to the governor.Skillicorn and Alle

  April 20, 2009

• Missouri is about to execute Dennis Skillicorn. The state’s death penalty may not outlive him very long.

  May 14, 2009

• Hard Line

  May 28, 2009

• Law Changers

  May 28, 2009

• Pat Roberts just says 'no' to Sotomayor

  Pat RobertsPat Roberts called "first!" today. Roberts is the first senator to pledge a "no" vote to Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Earlier today, Roberts told KCMO Talk Radio 710's Chris Stigall that no way, no how would he vote for her:"I voted no in 1998. I did not feel she was appropriate on the appeals court. Since that time, she has made statements on the role of the appeals court I think is improper and incorrect."I think that we should be judging people not on race and 

  May 28, 2009

• Surprise, surprise: Brownback still sour on Judge Sotomayor

  Breaking non-news in a statement from Sen. Sam Brownback, who met with Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor yesterday:I asked for and appreciated my meeting with Judge Sotormayor today. I wanted to hear more from her as I have serious concerns about her philosophy as it relates to an activist judiciary. Unfortunately I did not hear anything in our meeting that allayed those concerns. As Chief Justice Roberts said, a justice should be an impartial umpire, not a player in the game. I am afraid Ju

  June 11, 2009

• Reginald Clemons gets to live a little longer

  Reginald ClemonsMissouri just pushed the "pause" button on executing any more prisoners, which is all too late for Dennis Skillicorn. The Missouri Supreme Court isn't booking any more executions since the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals slapped a federal stay on Reginald Clemons' date with the needle (Clemons' attorneys challenged Missouri's legal injection procedures to be sure executions are pain-free)."We're back on hold," incoming Chief Justice William Price Jr. told the Associated Press.

  June 24, 2009

• Dennis Skillicorn's widow reacts to the halting of Missouri executions

  Just a little over a month after the state ended the life of Dennis Skillicorn by lethal injection, executions are again on hold in Missouri. Incoming Missouri Supreme Court Chief Justice William Ray Price Jr. told the The Associated Press yesterday that he didn't expect the Court to schedule any executions while the 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals weighs an appeal on behalf of death row inmate Reginald Clemons that questions the constitutionality of Missouri's lethal injection protocol.The st

  June 25, 2009

• For those who comment, we salute you ...

  Petite jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg elicited this week's "Comment of the Week" on the Plog. On Tuesday, Peter Rugg reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had declined to take a case about the constitutionality of Missouri laws directed at the troglodytes who preach a hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism at funerals."Shepcat," whom we know to be Brent Shepherd, a proofreader who helps minimize the atrocities of The Pitch's writing staff, considered the photo that appeared with Rugg's entry and w

  July 3, 2009

• What? Sotomayor not really Latina?

  July 23, 2009

• Kansas school funding fight resumes

  Alan Rupe​The fight over school funding isn't over in Kansas, The Dodge City Globe reported this morning. Schools for Fair Funding will meet with attorneys Alan Rupe and John Robb in Dodge City on September 22, and they'll be considering whether to sue the state again. Sounds like they're going to do it:Rupe said that the gains made by the Montoy decision have been overturned by recent legislative slashes to education funding, which he and numerous Kansas educators have termed a violation of b

  September 16, 2009

• Freed after 24 years of false imprisonment, Darryl Burton forgives you

  September 24, 2009

• Supreme Court to hear appeal of man convicted of killing homeless lobbyist

  Charles Hollingsworth III​Next week, the Kansas Supreme Court is scheduled to hear an appeal from Charles Hollingsworth III, the man serving a life sentence for hanging self-appointed homeless lobbyist David Owen in 2006.A press release from the state's highest court says Hollingsworth is appealing on these grounds: "Whether defendant's statements to police were voluntarily and intelligently made and whether the court erred in permitting the state to introduce evidence of defendant's outstand

  October 22, 2009