Published: April 15, 2008 10:05 pm            

Charles Oliver: It couldn't happen here?

If Saman Kareem Ahmad can’t get a green card, who can? When he applied for permanent U.S. residence, Ahmad had served as a translator for the American military in Iraq for four years. His application files contained letters and commendations from American military officers, including Gen. David Petraeus. Those who worked with him say he placed his life at risk for Americans countless times. In fact, he left Iraq only after the Marines he was working with saw posters calling for his death. But the State Department rejected his application because he was once a member of the Kurdish Democratic Party. That party is now part of the ruling coalition in the Kurdish region of the country and holds seats in the Iraqi parliament. But before the U.S. invasion, the KDP fought to overthrow Saddam Hussein, and that has caused the State Department to label the group an “undesignated terrorist organization.”

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Kathleen Seidel is the mother of a teenager with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition related to autism. Because of that she started a Web site devoted to autism disorders called Neurodiversity.com. The Nashua Telegraph has called her site “an example of quality advocacy journalism.” Seidel is critical of the idea that vaccines cause autism. She’s not alone. Groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control say the science shows no link between vaccines and autism. But some parents of autistic children don’t accept that. Seidel recently authored and posted a lengthy article called “The Commerce in Causation” which details 22 suits against vaccine makers and notes that Virginia attorney Clifford Shoemaker has collected almost $600,000 in fees from the cases. Just hours after posting the article, Seidel was served with a subpoena from Shoemaker demanding her bank records, tax information and records of contact with a long, long list of people, including other Web site operators, government officials, scientists and “any religious group.” Some observers have described the subpoena as a fishing expedition or an attempt to intimidate Seidel. But whoever heard of a lawyer doing anything like that?

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Noble, Okla., police officers Robert Shawn Richardson and Paul Bradley Rogers responded to a complaint about a snake in a birdhouse. They tried to remove it with a garden tool but failed. So Rogers knelt on the ground and fired two shots at the rat snake, killing it. One of his bullets also struck and killed 5-year-old Austin Haley, who was fishing with his grandfather at a nearby pond. The two officers recently pleaded no contest to second-degree manslaughter. Haley’s family’s plea that the two serve at least some jail time fell on deaf ears. Richardson, the senior officer on the scene, received a five-year suspended sentence and Rogers a two-and-a-half year suspended sentence.

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In New York City, Jonathan and Jenny Selbin filed a lawsuit against their neighbor Galila Huff, demanding she stop smoking in her apartment. The Selbins, who are both lawyers, accused Huff of “willfully, intentionally, recklessly and/or negligently endangering the health of plaintiffs and their 4-year-old son.” After news of the suit spread, the Selbins complained that all of the publicity was hard on them. They now say the maker of an air-filtration system has donated equipment to Huff and they have agreed to settle the suit.

        

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