Lots of hits, not many misses on the red carpet today for the Oscars.

Some of my favorites:

• Jennifer Lawrence
• Sandra Bullock
• Jennifer Hudson
• Gwynneth Paltrow
  

I'm not sure what I think of Nicole Kidman's dress. Helen Mirren always looks nice. Halle Berry looks ethereal. Here's a photo of Natalie's dress. [More...]

83rd Academy Awards - Odds to Win Best Picture

The King's Speech (-450)
The Social Network (+350)
Field (+900)

83rd Academy Awards - Odds to Win Best Director

Darren Aronofsky - Black Swan (+1600)
David Fincher - The Social Network (-170)
David O. Russell - The Fighter (+6600)
Joel and Ethan Coen - True Grit (+4000)
Tom Hooper - The Kings Speech (+140)

More on the flip.

Is anyone online tonight? If so, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

Safe Horizons is the largest domestic violence victims assistance organization. In the past, it has advised domestic violence victims to report crimes, even if they are undocumented residents.

No more. Homeland Security's Secured Communities program, under which their immigration status will be shared, can cause them to be deported, even though they are crime victims. Safe Horizons has now changed its recommendation.

Designed to identify and deport dangerous, undocumented immigrants with a criminal history, Secure Communities has removed about 58,300 convicts from the United States since its pilot launch in late 2008, according to ICE.

But 28 percent of the people transferred to ICE custody under Secure Communities from October 2008 through June 2010 were non-criminals, according to ICE figures. Some of the detained people--an unknown number--are victims of domestic and sexual violence.

This program will drive the undocumented back into the shadows. It's also contrary to established federal law: [More...]

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have now called on Gadhafi to leave Libya. From Hillary's statement:

We have always said that the Qadhafi government's future is a matter for the Libyan people to decide, and they have made themselves clear. When a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now. Moammar Gadhafi has lost the confidence of his people and he should go without further bloodshed and violence. The Libyan people deserve a government that is responsive to their aspirations and that protects their universally recognized human rights.

The U.S. has issued sanctions against Libya, including revoking visas of its leaders and family members and freezing assets. The U.N. Security Council is also considering sanctions.

In the Smugglers Blues department: Two crew members of the Royal Caribbean cruise ship were busted after more than 50 kilos of cocaine were found in their cabins and on one of their persons. The ship had been in Cartegena, and was docked at Montego Bay when the drugs were discovered. According to this news video (no commercials), the first crew member had exited the ship wearing "rather roomy clothing" drawing police suspicion. He was searched, and after the coke was found on his body, was taken back to the ship where more was found in his cabin. Then they got a second crew member.

Is it a new trend? Two weeks ago, a Jamaican waiter on the cruise ship Explorer of the Seas was sentenced to 15 years for bringing four kilos of coke into Bermuda. [More...]

Jay Ackroyd writes:

I think some people need to be reminded that many tactics in support of the public workers unions in Wisconsin are illegal under the Taft-Hartley Act:

The Taft–Hartley Act prohibited jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, solidarity or political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary or "common situs" picketing, closed shops, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns.

In Citizens United, the Supreme Court implicitly struck down the Taft-Hartley Act's prohibitions against certain political expenditures. Would the logic of Citizens United extend to Taft-Hartley's prohibition against political solidarity strikes? The Citizens United court wrote:

Orlando Sentinel:

The high-speed train between Orlando and Tampa got an unexpected one-week reprieve Friday, just hours after Gov. Rick Scott again rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for the project. The sudden shift may have been triggered by a possible lawsuit against Scott contending he has overstepped his authority by killing the train. The suit, which could be filed as soon as Monday, is expected to argue that a law passed by the Legislature during a special session in 2009 compels Scott to pursue the train. Two sources close to the situation said the suit likely would be filed with the state Supreme Court in Tallahassee. It was unclear who would sign on to it.

(Emphasis supplied.) Can the Florida Supreme Court compel Rick Scott to greenlight Florida's HSR project? Let's explore this issue on the flip.

Prison officials won't let Phil Spector attend his civil trial against attorney Robert Shapiro. Spector wants a refund from the million dollar fee he paid Shapiro who represented him at the beginning of his criminal case and for the first year. Shapiro did manage to get him bond, but at issue is whether the fee was excessive.

He has battled Shapiro for years, contending the lawyer took advantage of him after he was arrested in 2003. Shapiro represented Spector for a year, securing his release on bail.

Shapiro's attorneys deny any wrongdoing and say the producer knew he was paying to have exclusive rights to the lawyer who also helped defend O.J. Simpson at his murder trial.

Shapiro says he turned down interview requests by Robert Blake and Scott Peterson to represent them in their murder trials because of his representation of Spector. He also says that Spector fully understood the fee agreement. The trial begins March 7.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

A Denver physician accused of rape by his former nanny was acquitted today. It was a he-said-she-said case. Defense attorney Pam Mackey (who represented Kobe Bryant in his alleged sexual assault case) and Saskia Jordan represented the doctor. More case details here.

What convinced the jury? The doctor, who is divorced, had two nannies, and the head nanny fired the complaining nanny after learning of the encounter. The fired nanny then filed a civil lawsuit against the doctor. Translation: motive to lie.

Both nannys and the doctor testified at trial. The jurors were allowed to ask questions. They deliberated four hours before reaching their verdict.

As a result of the charge, the doctor had his medical license suspended and lost his hospital privileges. I assume those will be restored. But, how does he get his reputation back?

Via the Center for Constitutional Rights: The full panel of Judges of the Audencia Nacional (Spain’s High Court) rejected a Spanish prosecutor’s effort to stop an investigation into the role of US officials for torture on Guantanamo.

This is a monumental decision that will enable a Spanish judge to continue a case on the “authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill treatment” by U.S. officials at Guantanamo. Geoffrey Miller, the former commanding officer at Guantánamo, has already been implicated, and the case will surely move up the chain of command. Since the U.S. government has not only failed to investigate the illegal actions of its own officials and, according to diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, also sought to interfere in the Spanish judicial process and stop the case from proceeding, this will be the first real investigation of the U.S. torture program. This is a victory for accountability and a blow against impunity. The Center for Constitutional Rights applauds the Spanish courts for not bowing to political pressure and for undertaking what may be the most important investigation in decades.

CCR's page on the Spanish lawsuits is here.

The LA Times reports on the status of the Winklevoss twins' latest lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. They are suing to undo the settlement they reached in 2008, reportedly worth $160 million to the twins, in money and Facebook stock. The case is pending in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Winklevosses won't say exactly how much they would seek in their high-stakes grudge fest with the billionaire Facebook founder, but by their own calculations they argue they should have received four times the number of Facebook shares. That would make any new settlement worth more than $600 million based on a recent valuation of Facebook at more than $50 billion.

The Winkelvoss brothers also sued their lawyers who represented them in the original lawsuit. The case was resolved by arbitration, and they were ordered to pay their lawyers the 20% contingency the fee agreement called for. [More...]