News Roundup: Week Ending April 22, 2007
Here’s a brief round up of odd news items from the week ending April 22, 2007Â
R UÂ GOOD AT TXTING?
Over the weekend, 250 people competed to be U.S. Texting Champion, with txt tests ranging from “what we do in life echoes in eternity” to “OMG, nd 2 talk asap.” Eventually, 13-year-old Morgan Pozgar won the competition, after she typed “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in 15 seconds. “It’s all about the thumbwork,” she said. “It’s about balance.”
DNA Exonorates Man After Serving 25 Years
A man who spent 25 years in prison for rape was exonerated Monday as a judge threw out his convictions because DNA evidence showed he couldn’t have committed the attack. An advocacy group said it was the 200th such case.
Jerry Miller smiled and the courtroom erupted into cheers after Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane G. Cannon read the ruling that cleared him of all charges.
Miller, 48, had been found guilty of rape, robbery, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery even though he testified he was at home watching television at the time of the 1981 attack.
Mark Ertler, deputy supervisor of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office DNA review unit, told the Chicago Tribune that the case was ”a good example of what the DNA unit was intended to do.” Wanna bet that the State Attorney’s office opposed this review…now they’re taking credit for it.
Go to Not Vote
Voters in Florida may now be going to the polls…to not vote. State Sen. Mike Bennett (R) has introduced a bill to “require ballots to have the additional option of ‘I choose not to vote.'” Bennett notes that some races are so nasty that voters don’t want to choose any candidate, and his bill would “enable uninformed or disgusted voters to opt out.”
