"Miami black market aquarium supplier gets jail term"

From the Miami Herald:

A Miami man will forfeit his boat and spend 10 months in jail for illegally harvesting brilliantly colorful corallimorphs, prized for saltwater aquariums, from the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Alexandre Alvarenga, 40, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan, who accepted his guilty plea for illegally taking 900 living specimens of Ricordea florida so that he could sell them.

For more on corallimorphs, read here.

Governor Crist appoints John Thornton

John Thornton was appointed to the state circuit bench today. Congrats to John -- a wonderful appointment from our Governor.

Motions for JOA denied

I'm on the road today, but a reliable source emails me that the motions for judgment of acquittal as to all defendants in the Padilla case were denied.

Defense case to begin Thursday.

For an interesting discussion comparing the government action in Padilla to KPMG, check out www.discourse.net, Professor Froomkin's blog. I will post the exact link when I get back to town.

UPDATE -- here's the link to the interesting post.

Julie Kay interviews Chief Judge Moreno

Here.

Lots of good stuff in the article that will make lawyers and non-lawyers happy, like being more permissive with cell phones and laptops. The Chief also plans on making sure that secret dockets are a thing of the past and that all documents are made available to the public:

“I’m a very open person,” Moreno said. “My personal feeling is that if something is said in open court, it should be an open record.”

As for plea deals: "Moreno said the court will continue to study another issue that recently has generated controversy — whether plea agreements should be posted online."

Interesting article and worth a read.

"Dubai leaders ask judge to dismiss camel racing jockey lawsuit"

That's the headline from this AP article.

From the article, it looks like it was a very animated hearing:

U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga did not indicate when she would rule but did ask a number of pointed questions, including whether she has authority over an issue involving people and events in several foreign countries but few ties to the United States.

"All of these claims should be entertained here?" she asked at one point. "None of the parties, none of the interests, none of the defendants are here."

The lawsuit filed last September asks for an unspecified amount of damages for young boys - primarily from Pakistan, Sudan, Mauritania and Bangladesh - who were forced to ride racing camels over a 30-year period in various Persian Gulf countries. The case was brought under a 218-year-old U.S. law known as the Alien Tort Statute, which provides federal courts with jurisdiction over certain civil cases involving foreigners.

But it wasn't easy for the Defendants either:

The Emirates have ended use of children as camel racing jockeys and set up a program with UNICEF to reunite them with their families and provide a range of social and educational services. Agreements between the Emirates and the four jockey source countries also envision creation of a compensation system funded by the Emirates.

Coles told Altonaga that the program is a better way than a lawsuit to address the problem. But the judge questioned whether that was adequate as a legal matter because the case targets the two sheikhs as individuals, rather than as heads of government.

"It doesn't make these individuals accountable in any way," Altonaga said of the jockey program.