Comments on the last Duke thread are about to hit 500. Here's a new one to keep the conversation going.

Don't forget to bookmark TalkLeft's separate Duke page, where all the posts and comments since the beginning are on one page.

Enron's Ken Lay has died of a heart attack at his home in Aspen.

Pitkin County sheriff's deputies and an ambulance were dispatched to the Lay vacation home in Old Snowmass, Colorado, early Wednesday morning and transported him to Aspen Valley Hospital. He was pronounced dead there shortly after 3 a.m. Mountain time (0900 GMT).

"A coroner's autopsy is pending. There will be no further information or press release from this office until autopsy results are available later this week," the county said in a statement.

More details here. The family issued a short statement.

The Dukesters haven't had an open thread all week and they are busting the comments at the seams, so here's one for them.

Duke lacrosse player Colin Finerty's parents are abandoning their silence. His father says he has passed a polygraph administered by a former FBI polygrapher and that he has "eyewitness testimony, phone records and receipts showing it was "impossible" for him to have committed the crimes."

The polygrapher came out of the interview room after administering the recent test and said, "'This boy is innocent. He's telling the truth,'" Kevin Finnerty said. "He passed with flying colors."

Finnerty's mother, Maryellen, said the accuser's photo identification of her son "was sort of a pin the tail on the donkey."

Finnerty's parents are speaking out against the advice of Colin's counsel. An interview with them by Dan Abrams was aired on the Today show Friday. [link here.]

Wow. Who would have thought? Great work by New York defense lawyer Joe Bondy, building on work done by the trial lawyers, Ed Hayes and Bruce Cutler. U.S. District Court Jack Weinstein has tossed almost all of the "mafia cops" convictions because the charges were brought after the statute of limitations perios had expired.

In a shell-shocking written order, a federal judge ruled today that, despite overwhelming evidence of "heinous and violent crimes," the two retired detectives at the center of what has been termed the Mafia Cops corruption case should be acquitted of all federal racketeering charges -- including eight murders -- because the statute of limitations in their case had run out.

....Louis J. Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa.... were found guilty in April of some of the most spectacular corruption charges in the city's history. Although a jury found that Mr. Eppolito and Mr. Caracappa had participated, as paid assassins, in killings for the mob, the judge's order vacated the racketeering convictions on legal -- if not evidentiary -- grounds.

As to the 102 page ruling:

Ryan McFaddan, the Duke lacrosse player who sent an offensive e-mail after the party at which the accuser says she was raped, has been reinstated. Details about the e-mail are here.

Also, the county commissioner pondering a run against DA Nifong has gathered the necessary signatures to make it onto the ballot.

New details on Rush and ViagraGate:

The Florida Sun-Sentinel reports:

Florida civil rules governing doctors and pharmacists require that the true patient's name and address are on the label, according to two attorneys and a Florida Medical Association spokeswoman.

Doing otherwise "is technically a violation of dispensing and prescribing by the doctor," said Allen R. Grossman, a Tallahassee attorney who defends physicians in disciplinary cases. Grossman formerly was general counsel to the Florida Board of Medicine, which licenses and oversees doctors.

Other Florida experts, including those involved with professional and medical boards weigh in:

The Dukester commenters on TalkLeft cannot stop from discussing every detail and nuance of the case. For every post I write, even on days when there's no news, they post 200 to 500 comments.

TalkLeft's webmaster Mike Ditto has made them a gift -- a TL duke blog just for them.

So now when you want news and opinion on duke, just go here. It has every entry since April 2 and all of your comments, with links to each. New Duke posts will also show up on Talkleft's main page, but now those who come here just for Duke can bypass the more important issues of the day and duke it out to their heart's content.

For the rest of you that could care less about the Duke case, I'm still going to make a new entry every time the Duke comments on the latest entry top 250 or so, so just scroll on by when you see the graphic.

A huge thanks to Mike. And yes, this is another Duke open thread.

New motions were filed by the defense in the Duke lacrosse players' alleged rape case. You can read them here and here.

The accuser's name does not appear to be blacked out in the motions, but please don't use it in the comments.

Yesterday's Duke thread is filled to the brim. Lots of talk about the police report in which the accuser said she was raped by five men at the party and that there were four dancers, not two. More details here.

And how about this? The accuser's cousin claims the accuser turned down $2 million to walk away from the case. (hat tip La Shawn Barber.)

Also: Sports Illustrated: The Damage Done

There was a hearing in the Duke lacrosse players' alleged rape case today. Reade Seligman's bond was reduced.

DA Mike Nifong confirmed he had not turned over a toxicology report to the defense -- but he refused to say whether toxicology tests had been performed. Update: Fox News is reporting Nifong said no toxicology tests were conducted. So why did Nifong put out the date rape drug theory?

Among the items Nifong has yet to turn over is an analysis of the accuser's computer, which he said was still pending, and records from the mental health facility where authorities took the woman before she told police she had been raped. The only record from the facility, Nifong said, is a single page from a log book he is still working to obtain.

Also, the judge ordered Nifong to turn over reports from the accuser's 1993 gang rape allegation.

The Dukesters need a new thread, comments are overflowing at the last one. In today's Duke lacrosse player news:

• Coach breaks silence--Basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski discusses the scandal caused by the rape allegations

• USA Today editorial saying the facts are growing shorter for Nifong, i.e., the case keeps unraveling

• Michael Gaynor in the Post Chronicle tells the accuser to pray and apologize and calls her by her real name in a very nasty opinion piece. I'd still like for commenters not to do that just yet.