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Monthly Archives: August 2012

First Amendment and Social Media in Federal Lawsuit Against City of Honolulu, Local Police

There’s a case in Hawaii, in federal court, that may limit a city’s restrictions on municipal webpages and social media.

If municipal agencies establish Facebook or other social media pages, can they censor critical comments from among all other comments? That’s the question before the court in Hawaii, about the comments policy of the Honolulu Police Department’s Facebook page. Admittedly, a municipal agency could have a social media page with no comments allowed, but that wouldn’t be much of a social media page.

The plaintiffs’ contention, obviously, is that a local comments policy cannot trump First Amendment rights, should they apply:

Attorneys Richard Holcomb, Alan Beck, and Brian Brazier argue in their filing that Honolulu Police “unlawfully administer their Facebook Fan page in violation of American citizens right to free speech.”

The complaint claims “Honolulu police arbitrarily moderate the page by deleting comments and banning users who post or make comments unfavorable to the department” and that “online speech is just as important as a citizen airing their grievance in a public park – just because the speech is virtual, doesn’t mean it is not protected.”

Capt. Lum said the HPD cannot comment on details regarding the pending lawsuit. But added guidelines for posting are on the HPD Facebook site.

But Christopher Baker, spokesperson for The Hawaii Defense Foundation, said: “The First Amendment protects the right to free speech. Without question, social media has become a cornerstone for communication in the days of iPads, smart phones, and computers. In fact, online speech within sites like Facebook is utilized every day by citizens, businesses, and government agencies to communicate with the public at large.”

See, First Amendment, Facebook, Cited in Federal Lawsuit Against City, Local Police | Hawaii Reporter.

Posted originally on 8.22.12 @ Daily Adams.

September 22 @ Cravath Lakefront: Food and Craft Vendors for Pig in the Park BBQ

Downtown Whitewater is looking for Food and Craft Vendors on September 22nd for its Pig in the Park BBQ:

Downtown Whitewater. Inc. is looking for Food and Craft Vendors for our BBQ Pig in the Park State Championship Cook-off Sanctioned by Kansas City Barbeque Society

Downtown Whitewater, Inc. will host the area’s first BBQ Pig in the Park Cook-off. The event will be held September 21-22, 2012 in Downtown Whitewater, on the beautiful award-winning Cravath Lakefront

This is an important chance for BBQ fans to show their stuff as the winner of the event may have an opportunity to compete at the national level. Around the competition there will be a festival atmosphere to include live music, eating contests, and activities for the kids.

Whitewater based restaurants, licensed caterers and civic organizations are eligible to apply for booth space inside the PigPen located in the parking lot at Cravath Lakefront Park. Each booth is allowed to sell up to four food items related to barbeque, awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

Arts and Craft vendors interested in selling goods at the festival on September 22nd are also eligible to apply for booth space inside the PigAsso area. Vendors of arts and crafts should have original artwork and handmade crafts only. Homegrown pre-packaged food such as spices, sauces, jellies, etc. are also welcome. Commercial or “re-sale” items will be strictly prohibited for sale at the festival.

Pricing, additional details, and vendor applications, are available for printing or download from the festival website at www.piginthepark.net. Applications will be accepted through September 14th.

For more information about the KCBS you can visit www.kcbs.us and for more information about entering our Pig in the Park BBQ Cook-Off Contest please visit www.piginthepark.net or contact Tami at (262) 473-2200 or director@downtownwhitewater.com.

Downtown Whitewater was formed in 2006 and is a non-profit, community-based organization devoted to preserving, improving and promoting Whitewater’s quality of life, by strengthening our historic downtown as the heartbeat of our community.

The Triangle
Eat * Shop * Enjoy

Daily Bread for 8.22.12

Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high temperature of eighty-three.

On this day in 1902, “President Theodore Roosevelt became the first United States chief executive to ride in an automobile in public” while visiting New England.

Scientists at Harvard may have found a substitute for plastic, and their inspiration?  Bug parts:

Google’s daily puzzle ask about a bit of chemistry: “You just used a flame test to identify the second least dense metal on Earth. What color did it give off?” more >>

Attack of the Prissy Administrators

People spend vast sums on public education, and some of that money’s wasted every time a principal or superintendent denies a valedictorian his or her diploma for saying the word hell in a commencement speech.

Has that ever happened? Yes, at least once, and that’s once too often:

Prague High School is withholding Kaitlin Nootbaar’s diploma until she apologizes for saying the word “hell” in her commencement speech, The Associated Press reported….

The Prague High School superintendent told the AP in a statement Monday that Nootbaar “used language that was inappropriate for a graduation exercise.”

The teen and her family disagree and have refused to apologize.

She’s now received her transcript, but not her diploma. It’s a petty punishment, weak and squeamish. Nootbaar’s original draft read heck and not hell, but that’s a difference too trivial for the punishment (and the bad publicity the district is receiving).

They’ve never heard the word hell before? That’d be surprising, and really a helluva thing, wouldn’t it?

Via WISN.

Posted originally on 8.21.12 at Daily Adams.

Daily Bread for 8.21.12

Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a high of eighty, and calm winds.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state:

 

Google’s daily puzzle asks about the length of a stay in France: “How many years did the author who wrote “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” live under an assumed name in France?”

Daily Bread for 8.20.12

Good morning.

Monday’s forecast calls for a mostly sunny day, with a slight chance of occasional, isolated showers, and a high of seventy-seven.

On this day in 1968, the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact satellites invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress political liberalization in that country.

In Wisconsin history, the Wisconsin Historical Society records that on this day in 1794, American forces fought in the Battle of Fallen Timbers:

On this date American troops under General “Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated a confederation of Indian forces led by Little Turtle of the Miamis and Blue Jacket of the Shawnees. Wayne’s soldiers, who included future Western explorer William Clark and future President William Henry Harrison, won the battle in less than an hour with the loss of some 30 men killed. (The number of Indian casualties is uncertain.)

The battle had several far-reaching consequences for the United States and what would later become the state of Wisconsin. The crushing defeat of the British-allied Indians convinced the British to finally evacuate their posts in the American west (an accession explicitly given in the Jay Treaty signed some three months later), eliminating forever the English presence in the early American northwest and clearing the way for American expansion.

The battle also resulted in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which the defeated Indians ceded to Wayne the right of Americans to settle in the Ohio Valley (although the northwestern area of that country was given to the Indians). Wayne’s victory opened the gates of widespread settlement of the Old Northwest, Wisconsin included. [Source: American History Illustrated, Feb. 1969]

Google’s daily puzzle asks about the search for a wallet: “You’ve lost your dinner jacket in a palace with 1,514 doors, and it could be anywhere. How many rooms must you potentially look through to find it?”

Daily Bread for 8.19.12

Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater brings a likelihood of afternoon showers, with a high of seventy-seven.

From LiveScience.com, a simple question: What makes Paris look like Paris? Using Google Street view, it’s possible to look for distinctive and frequent design elements with the city:

Google’s daily puzzle asks about a different puzzle: “What clue did the artist of a cryptographic sculpture at CIA headquarters offer in hopes that code breakers would crack the last unsolved passage?” more >>

Daily Bread for 8.18.12

Good morning.

Whitewater’s Saturday forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of seventy-four.

On this day in 1991, diehard Soviet leaders launched a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. But it was Boris Yeltsin, not Gorbachev, who defeated the plotters:

Yeltsin and his backers from the Russian parliament then stepped in, calling on the Russian people to strike and protest the coup. When soldiers tried to arrest Yeltsin, they found the way to the parliamentary building blocked by armed and unarmed civilians. Yeltsin himself climbed aboard a tank and spoke through a megaphone, urging the troops not to turn against the people and condemning the coup as a “new reign of terror.” The soldiers backed off, some of them choosing to join the resistance. After thousands took the streets to demonstrate, the coup collapsed after only three days.

Here’s a Euronews video from 2011 with scenes from the coup:

 

Google’s daily puzzle asks about the other unopposed presidential candidate: “Other than George Washington, I was the only candidate ever to run for U.S. president unopposed. What was the era of my presidency called?”