WHAT'S NEXT? BOBBLEHEAD LAWYER JOKES
"The Birmingham law office of Tommy Spina started receiving an unusually high number calls in October requesting not the lawyer's legal services, but his resemblance on a bobblehead doll."
(TUSCALOOSA NEWS, unearthed by Joel Sogol)

BEYOND THE BLING
"Income inequality in the U.S. began climbing 30 years ago, reversing a nearly 50-year trend. And the prison population has soared. Hardest hit have been African Americans, whose folk culture has made cash registers ring. America is now No. 1 in the percentage of its population in prison and No. 1 in income inequality among industrialized nations. Read this story for some real statistics"
(VILLAGE VOICE)

MOORE PUBLISHES BOOK
In a new book, 'So Help Me God,' Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore describes the night of July 31, 2001, as he sat alone in his state courthouse office awaiting delivery of a Ten Commandments monument he wanted to install in the rotunda as the completion of a lifelong mission to use his position as the state's highest judge to publicly display a symbol of his religion."
(AP, unearthed by Bill Messick)

MEMO SHOWS GONZALES REJECTED RECONSIDERATION OF BUSH'S TORTURE POSITION
"Gonzales reconsidered, at the request of Secretary of State Colin Powell, Bush's decision "that al Qaeda and Taliban detainees are not prisoners of war under the [Geneva Convention]." After detailing arguments for and against prisoner of war status, the White House Counsel concluded that "[o]n balance, I believe that the arguments for reconsideration and reversal are unpersuasive." (January 25, 2002)
(FINDLAW)

PROVE IT
"Attorneys defending Jose Padilla, an American accused of participating in an al-Qaida plot to set off a 'dirty bomb' have issued a challenge to federal prosecutors: prove it or free him."
(FINDLAW)

STATE OF EMERGENCY EXTENDED IN IRAQ
"Iraq extended a state of emergency for another 30 days on Thursday because of continued insurgent attacks in the country. The state of emergency, originally announced two months ago, will continue throughout Iraq except for the Kurdish run areas north of the country, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office said in a statement."
(FINDLAW)