You have to wonder what he's got in those emails to be fighting so hard to keep people from seeing the supposedly mundane details of research.

Prince William FOIA case on global warming headed for Virginia Supreme Court

The fight by a conservative legal group and Del. Robert Marshall (R-Prince William) to obtain the e-mails written by leading climate change scientist Michael E. Mann while he was at the University of Virginia was shot down by a judge in Prince William County last year. But Marshall and the legal group appealed, and the Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to take the case and rule on whether the state's Freedom of Information Act exempts unpublished academic research from being disclosed to the public, even after it's been concluded or has been released elsewhere.

...

Richard C. Kast and Madelyn F. Wessel, U.Va.'s lawyers, argued that Judge Sheridan got it right when he ruled that the university had properly interpreted FOIA. They acknowledged that there was no judicial precedent on the FOIA exemption, but that "the policy of open government under the act is not 'absolute,'" citing more than 100 exemptions in Virginia's FOIA law. They noted that the Institute and Marshall challenge the judge's interpretation of "proprietary," but that the conservatives "offer no alternative definition or explanation as to why the plain meaning of the term should not apply." Plain meaning, in U.Va.'s view, being "a thing or property owned or in the possession of one who manages and controls them."

Mann said in an e-mail to me [the WaPo writer] that "I believe Judge Sheridan's ruling protecting faculty research correspondence is correct and is precisely what Sen. Thomas Michie intended when he proposed his legislation to amend Virginia's FOIA law and the legislature enacted in 1984 to enhance the ability of Virginia's public colleges and university's to protect the scholarly research endeavor."

If a murderer pointed a handgun directly at you, you'd notice, right? A recent incident in San Francisco proves that you might not - if you're staring at a cellphone.

Nikhom Thephakaysone boarded a crowded Muni train near San Francisco State University in September, and a security video now reveals that he repeatedly took out a .45-caliber gun and pointed it directly at passengers. But even after brandishing the loaded weapon several times, not one passenger noticed him, distracted as they were by their cellphones and tablets.

Only after Thephakaysone allegedly shot and killed Justin Valdez, a 20-year-old college student who was on the train, did the oblivious passengers take notice.

"These people are in very close proximity with him, and nobody sees this," District Attorney George Gascón told the San Francisco Chronicle.

"They're just so engrossed, texting and reading and whatnot. They're completely oblivious of their surroundings."

The fatal shooting that occurred in San Francisco - and the way the alleged killer was repeatedly ignored by dozens of people - highlights the degree to which people are increasingly absorbed in cellphones and other devices, to the extent that they're endangering their own lives and the lives of others.

A pipeline explosion in a rural northwestern Oklahoma town sent a fireball hundreds of feet into the air, and emergency responders on Wednesday were still at the scene, trying to extinguish the flames.

Deputy Cliff Brinson with the Harper County Sheriff's Department said the blast and fire sounded like the roar of jet engines and that the flames have reached two football field lengths into the sky, CBS reported.

Nobody's been injured, but residents living two miles away from the scene have been evacuated.

Northern Natural Pipeline engineers are still trying to cut the flow of natural gas. The explosion occurred Tuesday evening, but a day later, the fire was still raging.

One commenter at the local KSN television news site said in an early Wednesday morning Internet post: "We are seeing a glow from Lewis, Kansas."

Court case launched in New York over thousands of deaths blamed on sewage discharge from United Nations barracks

Victims of the 2010 cholera outbreak in Haiti are filing a compensation claim against the United Nations in a New York court, demanding that billions of dollars in damages be paid to survivors and the relatives of those killed.

The outbreak has killed more than 8,000 people and made 650,000 ill, according to officials, and scientific studies have shown the cholera strain was likely introduced to the country by UN troops from Nepal, where the disease is endemic, when contaminated sewage was discharged from their barracks into a watercourse. Before that cholera cases had been rare in Haiti.

UPDATE: The groups "Truckers to Shut Down America" and "Truckers Ride for the Constitution" claim they are the "founders" of the trucker movement but other groups are "out there spreading false information."

Ben Pam, an organizer for the latter group, told the Examiner that truckers are not planning on arresting any congressmen.

"We do not intend to obstruct traffic or close down any roads," he said. "We are not coming to arrest anyone."

He said the truckers only want to "awaken the American people to the complete disregard for the Constitution and bring a message to Congress that We The People demand to be heard."

Baton Rouge - The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say a rare amoeba that caused the August death of a child in south Louisiana has been found in five locations in a north Louisiana water system.

The state Department of Health and Hospitals said Tuesday the CDC confirmed the presence of the Naegleria fowleri amoeba in five places in DeSoto Parish Waterworks District No. 1, which is one of 14 water systems in the parish.

State health officials say there are no known current cases of illness related to the discovery in DeSoto or elsewhere in Louisiana.

DHH began testing the DeSoto system as a precaution after St. Bernard Parish's water system tested positive. DeSotor was the site of one of two 2011 amoeba-related deaths in Louisiana.

Source: Associated Press

A New York middle school has banned footballs for fear that children might get hurt. There's more to the story than that, of course, but that's the basic gist: Weber Middle School in Long Island, New York, has banned hard footballs, baseballs, lacrosse balls and other recreational equipment, as well as some kinds of play, in an effort to help protect students from injury.

Overprotective nannying designed to reduce liability at the expense of kids' enjoyment? A responsible measure designed to protect developing bodies from concussions? There are arguments for both sides, but either way, Weber Middle's policy will start arguments.

The ban includes "hard" balls such as footballs, soccer balls and baseballs. Soft footballs are permitted. Also banned: "hard" forms of tag and other tackling games, as well as cartwheels without an adult present.

School officials cited injury rates as a reason for the policy shift.

A gas-like odor reported by dozens of people in northwest Richmond Tuesday afternoon has dissipated, and no source has been found, fire and hazardous materials officials said.

"As far as we know, the odor was just here for a brief period of time, but eventually it dissipated into the atmosphere," Richmond fire Chief Michael Banks said. "Unfortunately, we couldn't find the source."

Fire crews responded to an influx of calls around 2 p.m. about a strong gas odor throughout northwest Richmond Tuesday afternoon, fire officials said.

Banks said some callers complained of headaches and breathing issues after smelling the odor, and a couple of people went to the hospital to be evaluated as a precaution.

Police in New York investigating the cold case of an unidentified dead child dubbed "Baby Hope" have said that they have identified the girl's mother through an anonymous tip and DNA testing.

The mother is not a suspect in the child's death and police are looking for the little girl's father, police said.

The body of the girl was found inside a cooler in a wooded area near the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood in 1991. Police said that the girl, who was between 3 and 5 years old, had been malnourished and was sexually abused.

"We have been able to identify the mother of Baby Hope," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said today. "A DNA match was made with the mother and the mother is cooperating."

The NYPD began a new push this summer after they reopened the case that has haunted detectives for over two decades. After canvassing Manhattan's Washington Heights neighborhood and distributing fliers, detectives were able to identify the girl's mother.

Police say a 17-year-old girl died Saturday after leaping from a minivan being driven by her stepfather. Her mother was also a passenger in the vehicle. Laikyn Field, a sophomore at Jennings County High School, reportedly hit the pavement so hard that she later died from head injuries.

It's been reported that the teen jumped from the van's rear passenger side after becoming upset, although Police are trying to verify what was going on inside the vehicle that may have contributed to her decision.