KOBI ALEXANDER SENTENCING

L-R US District Judge Nicholas Garaufis, Defense Attorney Benjamin Brafman, Defendant 

Kobi Alexander

The former chief executive officer of Comverse Technology, who returned to the United States last year after spending a decade in Namibia to avoid prosecution, was sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison on Thursday for engaging in securities fraud.  Artist: Aggie Kenny

Kobi Alexander apologizes to the court

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/23/ex-comverse-technology-ceo-who-fled-to-namibia-sentenced-to-prison.html

Reuters: Robert Durst of 'The Jinx' faces pre-trial testimony in murder case

Robert Durst of 'The Jinx' faces pre-trial testimony in murder case

Artwork by Bill Robles 

By Steve Gorman | LOS ANGELES

 

Robert Durst seated with his attorney in Los Angeles Superior Court, artwork by Bill Robles

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-durst-idUSKBN15U0E4

Wealthy real estate scion Robert Durst faced the first prosecution testimony of the murder case against him in Los Angeles on Tuesday, from a retired dean of the New York medical school his wife attended before she vanished three decades ago.
The testimony of Dr Albert Kuperman focused on a telephone call he recounted receiving from a woman identifying herself as Kathleen Durst in 1982, a day after she was last seen alive, saying she would have to miss an appointment due to illness.
Prosecutors have raised the possibility that the call in question was actually placed by another woman posing as Durst's wife, and that the fourth-year medical student may have already been dead by then.
Durst has been questioned about his wife's disappearance and presumed slaying but has never been prosecuted in that probe.

Kuperman, 85, was permitted because of his advanced age to take the witness stand months ahead of the actual trial to give videotaped testimony that could be preserved should he die or be otherwise unable to appear in person during a prolonged trial.
Under questioning from prosecutors and defense lawyers, Kuperman, former dean of education at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said he had long assumed the woman who telephoned his office 35 years ago to call in sick was Kathleen Durst, as she had identified herself.

National Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, dies

National : Washington Post

Norma McCorvey, Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, dies at 69

Norma McCorvey, who was 22, unwed, mired in addiction and poverty, and desperate for a way out of an unwanted pregnancy when she became Jane Roe, the pseudonymous plaintiff of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that established a constitutional right to an abortion, died Feb. 18 at an assisted-living facility in Katy, Tex. She was 69.

On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its historic 7-to-2 ruling, written by Justice Harry A. Blackmun, articulating a constitutional right to privacy that included the choice to terminate a pregnancy.

The ruling established the trimester framework, designed to balance a woman’s right to control her body and a state’s compelling interest in protecting unborn life. Although later modified, it was a landmark of American jurisprudence and made Jane Roe a figure­head — championed or reviled — in the battle over reproductive rights that continued into the 21st century.

Roe v Wade Affirmation argument by Aggie Whelan Kenny