Dennis Caron, the man I spoke about a few days ago who is pushing for changes in Ohio’s child support laws that would stop forcing a man to pay when a paternity test proves he is not the father, was jailed yesterday for failing to pay support. (He has been placing the money into an account each month, and has also taken a bond out against his home, in an effort to prove that he can pay but doesn’t feel he should.)

Another New York City livery cab driver was killed last night; this has become an epidemic in the city, and the police are scrambling to figure out who’s responsible and what to do about it.

Dan explains why Mississippi (and their flag) isn’t a target of the NCAA.

There are a lot of neat Flash cartoons at Joe Cartoon. (Most of them have a bit of (cartoon) gore, and probably won’t appeal to the animal activist in you…) Similarly, there’s a hurt-free Flash fishtank at T-Bone’s Stress Relief Aquarium.

Anthony Lewis has a damn good op-ed piece in today’s New York Times refuting most of the arguments that have been made regarding the legal status of the INS and DOJ in grabbing Elian out of the Miami home.

I wish people would do some friggin’ research before just buying what an article on the ‘net says. I have received a few links to this article, quoting a former New Jersey judge as saying that once the INS grants asylum to an alien, they lose all power to change guardians until the asylum claim is completed, and that Jeb Bush should file an indictment against Reno for kidnapping. The big problem: most of the claims are crap. My refutation:

• Lazaro Gonzalez was never appointed guardian in the first place. In December, Elian was paroled to Lazaro, in “temporary custody,” but no guardianship was established. And as a point of fact, after the INS revoked the custody in January, Lazaro petitioned to be awarded custody again (not even guardianship), and was told that state courts don’t have that authority in INS cases; when he went to Federal court in March, the suit was dismissed (it’s this appeal that’s still pending, and that hasn’t yet addressed the custody issue at all).


• There is no pending asylum claim, as of right now. Lazaro petitioned for asylum on December 10th, but the INS denied the claim in January. The current Eleventh Circuit case is determining whether or not Elian can apply for asylum on his own; if so, then he can reinstate the claim, but by no means does the INS have to grant it.

And now, I can only assume that Time Magazine is in on the conspiracy of doctoring photos to show Elian and his father together.

How can Miami mayor Joe Carollo say that the departure of the city manager and chief of police had nothing to do with Elian’s removal? Regarding Carollo’s reaction to the raid, now-former police chief William O’Brien specifically said “I refuse to be the chief of police in a city that has someone as divisive and destructive as Joe Carollo as mayor.”