President Obama has named Joe Biden to lead a new task force on gun violence.

Obama said Wednesday that he supports the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms, and highlighted the nation’s strong tradition of gun ownership. Yet, he said, the country’s leaders need to find ways to keep “weapons of war” out of the hands of the irresponsible few.

“There is a big chunk of space between what the Second Amendment means and having no rules at all, and that space is what Joe’s going to be working on to try to identify where we’ll find some common ground,” Obama said.

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Who will win The Voice? I hope it's Terry McDermott. I voted several times.

More people who once upon a time knew Adam Lanza are speaking out. They don't seem to know anything more than anyone else. I'm always sorry after I click on one of these articles, only to realize it's pure speculation. And most of them have annoying automatically playing videos you have to search for to shut off.

The Washington Post documents the media errors. I have a similar post I wrote over the weekend and haven't gotten around to publishing yet. And another one on Nancy Lanza and her family. And another on the lack of any connection between Asperger's, Autism and violence. (The New York Times on that here and here.) I will finish them soon, they are just very detailed and need a lot of proofreading.

Gun control is still the talk of the nation.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The Supreme Court ruled warrantless GPS monitoring of Antoin Jones violated his Fourth Amendment rights and could not be used at his trial. (Opinion here, background here.) Basically,

The case concerned Antoine Jones, who was the owner of a Washington nightclub when the police came to suspect him of being part of a cocaine-selling operation. They placed a tracking device on his Jeep Grand Cherokee without a valid warrant, tracked his travels for a month and used the evidence they gathered to convict him of conspiring to sell cocaine. He was sentenced to life in prison.

The Government then sought to introduce cell site locator data obtained by a court order (but not a search warrant establishing probable cause.) The judge has now ruled the cell site data can come in at trial. She said she didn't have to rule on the issue of whether a search warrant is required because the good faith exception to the warrant requirement saves the search. Wired's report is here.

The opinion is here. EFF filed this amicus brief. The Government's argument is here.(In non-legalese, here.) [More...]

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a serious blow to the civil lawsuit of the falsely accused Duke La Crosse players. The players had sued various governmental entities and two police detectives, Officers Mark Gottlieb and Benjamin Himan.

The three-judge panel rejected their claims for damages filed under federal law against the City of Durham and its police department.

The panel allowed the former players to continue with their claims under North Carolina law that Durham officials violated their state constitutional rights. The panel also allowed the three wrongfully accused players to proceed with their state claims that two police investigators – Mark Gottlieb and Benjamin Himan – engaged in malicious prosecution.

The opinion is here.

The players previously settled a lawsuit against Duke University for an undisclosed sum. Where is Crystal Gail Mangum? In jail, awaiting trial on a murder charge. In October, she received permission to represent herself at trial.

Open thread.

This is how the Voice opened tonight. Very moving, and nicely done. Click on the full screen option.

Cameron Douglas, the son of actor Michael Douglas, was badly beaten in prison, after a mobster put out a bounty on him for being a snitch. He suffered a broken femur, among other injuries, and to make matters worse, according to an unnamed source, prison doctors misdiagnosed his the break as a sprain. He then developed a blood clot, and is still on crutches, two months later.

Douglas is incarcerated at the FCi in Loretto, Pennsylvania, a low level security facility. [More...]

Bob Geldorf's inspiration for the Boomtown Rats 1979 hit song "I Don't Like Mondays" was Brenda Spencer, who that year fired 30 rounds from a window inside her San Diego home at the Grover Cleveland elementary school across the street, killing a principal and custodian and wounding 8 students. Spencer was 16. She had received the rifle from her father as a Christmas gift

When asked why she committed the shooting Spencer replied, "I just did it for the fun of it. I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day. I have to go now. ....She also said, "I had no reason for it, and it was just a lot of fun," "It was just like shooting ducks in a pond,"' and, "[The children] looked like a herd of cows standing around; it was really easy pickings."

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It's a jail day for me, open thread for you. All topics welcome.

The finale of Homeland is tonight.

Update: Once you've seen the finale, here's a two minute video with the show's writer explaining it.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome, including your thoughts on solutions to the problem of mentally disturbed mass killers.

is live now, speaking at the memorial services for the victims of the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings. He also met with the families today.

Here is the transcript of Obama's remarks.

I'm sure there's news besides the CT shootings and tonight's Rolling Stones Pay Per View concert (see below for posts on both), but I haven't been following anything else today.

Here's an open thread, all topics welcome.