The news this week contained quite a few little oddities. I’m stretched for time so I will set them out briefly. (For a lawyer.)
First, Barry Saunders at the News and Observer wrote here about the teenager charged with misuse of the 911 system after she called to report that her parents had taken away her iPhone.
Second, the General Assembly has repealed a little-known, 80-year old local act that created a gun registry in Durham County. Here’s the repeal bill, and here’s a story about the issue.
Third, the House has voted to make theft of Venus flytraps a felony. The measure now moves to the Senate. WRAL has the story here.
Fourth, motorcyclists have gone crazy. This story explains that “a motorcyclist who recorded video of himself speeding away from a police car while wearing a court-ordered GPS anklet for an unrelated offense—and who then proceeded to post the video footage to YouTube—has been apprehended, tried, and sentenced to a four-year prison term.” One lesson is that riding a crotch rocket does not make one a rocket scientist. Further proof comes from this story, about a biker who attempted to elude the police by speeding up to 150 m.p.h. He subsequently explained that “at that moment the motorcycle took control of me and I just kept going faster and faster.” I have written about the automatism defense previously on the blog, but somehow I don’t think it is going to work for this guy.
Fifth and finally, the FBI is trying to help its agents understand the lingo the kids are using these days, by producing a guide to abbreviations used on Twitter. A humorous guide to the guide is here. “BTDTGTTSAWIO” apparently means “been there, done that, got the T-shirt and wore it out.” Pop quiz: without looking at the guide, anyone know what “WYLABOCTGWTR” stands for? Didn’t think so.