A B.C. man convicted on child pornography charges has been allowed to serve his sentence in the community, in part because of the “relatively modest” size of his collection, a judge has ruled.

“Although there is no strict mathematical relationship between the size of the collection and the length (or indeed type) of sentence, the size of a collection has often been held to be an aggravating factor,” Tam wrote.

Despite pleading guilty to the charges, Keenan maintained that he is not sexually attracted to children, and had only stumbled upon the child pornography in 2017 while “searching for other images such as sunsets and beaches,” according to the decision.

Keenan said was appalled by what he found, and decided to start a Tumblr blog to lure out paedophiles so he could report them to the site’s moderators in a kind of “undercover sting.”

The judge was not convinced.

While practicing lawyers embrace generative AI as a quicker and more efficient avenue to sanctions (Opens in a new window), law professors have mostly avoided AI headlines. This isn’t necessarily surprising. Lawyers only get into trouble with AI when they’re lazy. It becomes a problem when someone along the assembly line inserts AI-generated slop without taking the time to properly cite check. Legal scholarship, on the other hand, is all about cite checking — usually to a comically absurd degree. [...] The Texas A&M Journal of Property Law, decided to take the bull by the horns — horns down, as the case may be — and begin grappling with AI-assisted scholarship with a full volume of AI-assisted scholarship.

cross-posted from: https://lazysoci.al/post/27973170

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30917902

A Russian official said the American billionaire Elon Musk could be offered political asylum in Russia over his fierce dispute with Donald Trump

Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, made the comments to Russian state news outlet TASS.

"I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it," Novikov said, in remarks translated from Russian.

Musk and Trump, ostensibly political allies over cuts to federal spending, publicly clashed on June 5 in a series of exchanges across social media and in comments to reporters.

I saw a post on an asylum offer which is related but this peace broker offer cracked me up, figured I'd share. Sorry if it's too similar to the other one!

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/65976593

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30703278

Those seeking a job in the federal government will now have to write an essay in support of Donald Trump's executive orders, according to a memo from the Office of Personnel Management.

Vince Haley, the White House's head of domestic policy, wrote in the May 29 memorandum that all civil service applicants must answer a series of essays as part of the job recruitment process, including one about how they would "help advance" Trump's policy priorities.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/30580457

The President of the United States everyone... Deserves to be checked into the loony bin.

According to prosecutors, Harris killed Whitley in retaliation for a fight the men had two months earlier. At the time, Harris was working as an activist and life coach at a community center in Hunters Point.

That case was already working its way through the legal system, with delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, court records show. Now, Harris has been charged with three additional counts of murder.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued Extreme Heat Warnings for portions of California, Nevada and Arizona on Friday and Saturday, with temperatures forecast to soar into the triple digits.

Heat advisories have also been issued in Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

A pair of hikers in New York called emergency services to report that a third member of their group had died, but when a park ranger responded to rescue them it turned out they were just high on hallucinogenic mushrooms, officials say.

The third hiker was uninjured - and not dead - and the hikers were "in an altered mental state", according to a report issued by parks officials.

The incident took place on 24 May on Cascade Mountain in the Adirondacks High Peaks of upstate New York.

The third person also called 911 during the hike, "and was not injured", the report states. They were allowed to continue their camping trip, while the pair were taken to police.