Facebook Flap Ensnares Judge: A 17-year judge in Georgia has stepped down stemming from his communication on Facebook with a woman who was a defendant in a matter pending before his court, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. Mountain Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Ernest H. "Bucky" Woods III is resigning effective Jan. 15. "I call it a retirement," Woods said. "I just got tired of living under a microscope."
Sharp Contrasts in Bomb Case: The Washington Post explores the sharp contrasts in the life of a suburban Maryland man, Collin McKenzie-Gude, who is scheduled to be sentenced today on charges that include the storage of bomb-making materials. Prosecutors say McKenzie-Gude's collection of bomb material was motivated by a plot to kill Barack Obama.
Antitrust Fines Jump: The Justice Department's Antitrust Division collected $1 billion in criminal fines in fiscal year 2009, an increase of 48 percent over the prior year, The National Law Journal reports. The Obama administration can't take all of the credit. The bulk of the fines came in the first half of the fiscal year, before antitrust chief Christine Varney was confirmed in April 2009.
Moving On: Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon announced her resignation plans Wednesday as part of a plea deal that ends a corruption investigation and the career of the city's first female mayor, The Sun reports. Dixon will step down Feb. 4 on the day she is sentenced for perjury and embezzlement. Dixon is keeping her $83,000 pension.
Alleged Holocaust Shooter Dies: James W. von Brunn, the elderly white supremacist charged in the murder of a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, died Wednesday, The Washington Post reports. Von Brunn, injured in the shooting in June, had been undergoing mental health evaluations at a federal prison in North Carolina.
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