NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) - Kaylee Reynolds had a problem when she recently received a summons to serve on a Taunton District Court jury.

She wasn't old enough to read it. The two-year-old has quite a few years to go before she reaches the minimum age of 18 to serve on a state jury. Lucky for Kaylee, Massachusetts Jury Commissioner Patricia Wood seemed willing to let it slide for a while.

"We'll give her a 16-year grace period," Wood told the Standard-Times of New Bedford.

Wood guessed the mixup could be traced to a local census form. If the form has a blank or mistaken birth date, July 4, 1776 is filled in.

"With that date we'll know it is wrong," Wood said.

Besides her questionable understanding of the concepts of guilt or innocence, there are other reasons why it's best to wait for Kaylee to serve. Her mother, Patricia, says Kaylee gets really cranky if she doesn't get her noontime nap.

STATESBORO, Ga. (AP) - A couple surrendered Tuesday after holding a lawyer hostage in his office for more than 24 hours and telling authorities they were armed with an explosive device

The suspects, Robert Eugene Brower, 43, a former client of the lawyer, and Connie Brower, have been charged with kidnapping, police said, adding that more charges could be filed.

Police Chief Stan York said police found an explosive device of a "pyrotechnic type." He did not elaborate.

At a news conference Monday night, York said Brower was angry about having been convicted in a criminal case in which Hostilo was his court-appointed lawyer. York would not elaborate on the couple's demands, saying only they wanted to call attention to the case. Schnall said he did not know what type of case Hostilo handled for Brower.

Uwe Max Jensen, a painter known for decorating house walls, claimed it was an artistic stunt that was not meant to be indecent.

He told the court in Herning, 270 kilometres west of Copenhagen, that he pretended to urinate by concealing a plastic bag containing water in his trousers and squeezing water on a wall.
The court said it wasn't necessary to establish whether he urinated or sprinkled water. It deemed his conduct "obscene" and unlawful, and fined him $165 US.

Jensen, 33, was reported to police following the July 11 incident at a house in Brande on the outskirts of Herning.

Police initially fined him $330, but he refused to pay. The court on Monday reduced the fine by half.

A shrimp a hibachi chef tossed at a man eating at a Japanese steakhouse ultimately led to the diner's death, his family claims in a $10 million US wrongful death lawsuit against the restaurant chain Benihana

Jerry Colaitis, 43, wrenched his neck when he ducked to avoid the shrimp in the chain's Munsey Park restaurant, lawyer Andre Ferenzo said in opening statements Wednesday.

Shrimp Fights Back
Benihana lawyer Charles Connick said it was unlikely a chef who works for tips would toss food at customers after being asked not to, as Ferenzo claimed. Even if that happened, Connick added, the cause of Colaitis' death was an infection or neck injury unrelated to the shrimp

CSPI Wants Court to Order Labels on Frito Lay “Light” Chips to Warn of Diarrhea, Stomach Cramps. Frito-Lay has been notified that it will be sued by a Massachusetts consumer for deceptively marketing its line of “Light” potato chips. Those chips are made with olestra—the controversial fat substitute that causes diarrhea, stomach cramps, and other unappetizing symptoms.

Not Everyone is Smiling

“I remember learning about the effects of olestra, so never in a million years would I have knowingly purchased potato chips that contain it,” said Lori Perlow, the plaintiff. “I was driving my car when my symptoms hit. Frankly I feel lucky to have reached my destination in one piece.”

A Justice Department report that faulted the FBI for sloppy work may strengthen a lawsuit filed against the agency by a Portland man who was arrested after his fingerprints were mistakenly identified during the investigation into the 2004 Madrid train bombings.

Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine faulted the FBI for mistakenly matching a fingerprint found on a bag of detonators near the Madrid bombing site to those of Mayfield.

Mayfield was jailed for two weeks in May 2004 — even though Spanish investigators disagreed with the FBI’s fingerprint analysis. The FBI acknowledged the mistake on May 24 and apologized to Mayfield.

He sued the Justice Department and the FBI in October 2004, claiming he was singled out because of his Muslim faith and that searches of his home and other locations were in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.

Precht, who recently left the University of Michigan to return to private practice in New York, said the pressure on investigators and prosecutors is enormous once they believe they have the right suspect.

“This is a textbook example of people having assumed a person’s guilt, and then they look for evidence to confirm it,’’ Precht said

*An ordinance in Rosette, Utah, prohibits a man from looking at a full-figured woman "in that way" while she's walking down a public street? (Caught a second time, the violator has to "wear horse blinders" for a twenty-four-hour period when out in public.)

*In Hickory Plains, Arkansas, says that no large woman wearing lingerie can be rescued by a fireman. Such a woman must always get fully dressed before she can legally be assisted by a fireman during a fire.

Fireman's Nightmare : Fat Ladies
*Longview, Texas, has a strange piece of antiquated legislation. The law says that no heavy woman who wears "any device or thing attached to her head, hair, headgear or hat, which device or thing is capable of lacerating the flesh of any other person with whom it may come in contact and which is not sufficiently guarded against the possibility of so doing, shall be adjudged a disorderly woman."

*In Rock Springs, Wyoming, once passed this law regarding well-rounded females: No such female "between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one years shall appear in a bathing suit within this community unless she be escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club."

An appeals court reinstated a lawsuit that claims office supply chain Staples Inc. cheated customers by charging them for insurance when shipping some products.

The 2nd District Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, ruled Wednesday that Staples was acting as an unlicensed insurance agent when it doubled the shipping insurance costs on some packages and took half of the premium.
Staples Charges
Staples offered the insurance through United Parcel Service. UPS charged Staples 35 cents per additional $100 of declared value. The lawsuit claimed Staples charged consumers 70 cents and pocketed the difference

Staples argued it was simply making a profit on a product.

A Superior Court judge agreed with Staples but the appellate court reversed the decision and said the extra charge was a "commission" for Staples.

If you purchased or acquired in the United States for your own use or the use of your organization/company a new Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 notebook computer, a proposed nationwide class action settlement (“Settlement”) could affect your legal rights. You may be entitled to file a claim for monetary recovery.

Toshiba Notebook Troubles
The Settlement resolves several class action lawsuits related to certain alleged power-supply, display, and hard drive failures of Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100 notebook computers and has been preliminarily approved in Kan, et al. v. Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Case No. BC327273, and LandDesign, et al., v. Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Case No. BC327684, by the Superior Court of California in and for the County of Los Angeles.

June 6, 2006 Deadline to Submit a Claim Form