:: 14 year-old murder suspect Brendan McInerney can replace the Public Defender's Office lawyer who has represented him since he was arrested in February, a Ventura County judge ruled yesterday. Judge Kevin McGee ruled that McInerney wasn't coerced and understood what he is doing when he asked last month to switch lawyers. The Oxnard teen is being prosecuted as an adult for the shooting death of classmate Larry King, 15, at E.O. Green School in Oxnard. Prosecutor Maeve Fox wasn't at the hearing, but insisted in a Tuesday interview that McInerney's case belongs in adult court. She said he could serve a little as "three years and eight months" if convicted in juvenile court.
:: A poll released this week found that 57 percent of Asian-Americans likely to vote in the Nov. 4 election oppose Proposition 8. The National Asian-American Survey also showed that Asian-Americans support Democrat Barack Obama over Republican candidate John McCain by a substantial margin. Nationally, Obama was backed by 41 percent of Asian-American voters and McCain was supported by 24 percent, with 34 percent undecided. In California, the figures were almost identical: 42 percent for Obama, 24 percent for McCain and 33 percent undecided.
:: A Dutch court heard testimony this week against three HIV-positive men, aged 39, 49, and 50, who are charged with drugging gay men at sex orgies with a combination of ecstasy and the date rape drug GHB and then raping them or injecting them with blood contaminated with HIV. "I feel fear, anger, sadness and anxiety," one of the alleged victims testified today before the district court in Groningen on the third day of the week-long trial. The trio were arrested in May last year after 14 alleged victims -- 12 of whom are HIV-positive or sick with AIDS -- lay charges. It is not known whether they had contracted the virus before the orgies.
:: "Yuk! Neither!" tied with Prince Harry in an unscientific poll conducted by a gay dating site which asked whether voters would prefer to "date" Prince William or Prince Harry. A third of respondents in the Prince Charming poll conducted by dating site gay-PARSHIP said they'd avoid either of the royals, but the same percentage picked the red-haired playboy Harry while only 23 percent admitted to dreams of William. William's girlfriend Kate Middleton was named as the most lusted after royal date among the nation's lesbians, but over half of the lesbians responding said they'd rather not date either Middleton or Harry's gal-pal, Chelsy Davy.
Last modified: 15 Oct 08 11:11
area_europe, proposition 8