THE HEAT IS ON (the downslide)

UPDATE: This just in: Hurricane season is over! A quiet season that spared South Florida is just another reason we are thankful this holiday season.

Best of Luck to Miami Candidates Judge Andrew Hague and Attorney Jeffrey Swartz as they interview for the job of Statewide Prosecutor. 5 lawyers applied.

And lets send a little luck to the 99's- those are the people who have been looking for jobs for the last 99 weeks whose unemployment benefits are set to run out today. The Herald reports here.

And if you're a Republican make sure you proudly trumpet your desire to deny 2 million of our felllow citizens continued benefits while you furiously work to make sure to add 700 Billion dollars to the deficit by permanently extending the Bush era tax cuts to everyone making over $250,000.00 a year. Trust us, we know how hard it is to afford that NetJet card on income less than a million. The tax cuts will surely help keep us out of the airport security line.

The Feds interviewed the candidates to fill Judge Huck's seat on Tuesday. Speed is an asset that is a must for the job.

The poor Heat continue to stumble along just barely above the .500 mark, and now rumors are circulating that the coach is in hot water, especially since the NY Times is reporting he and James got physical with each other in the last game. Rumpole says there is no W(ade) in TEAM, nor is there a J(ames) and it is time to pull the plug on this fiasco, trade away the aging, over paid stars, and start anew with a TEAM of committed and hungry players.

Need something done in Judge Ward's division? Stop by and see one of your favourite retired Judges who will be manning the gavel until the New Year when Newly minted circuit judge Beth Bloom blossoms in the division.

FUN WITH 924(C)

Carry a gun during a crime, and in Federal Court it's an additional 60 months consecutive. However, courtesy of the SCOTUS Blog, there's this "kinda-sorta" exception announced in Abbott v. US.

A federal sentencing enhancement provision requires an additional five year sentence for anyone convicted of possessing a gun during a crime of violence or drug trafficking, "except" to the extent a greater mandatory minimum sentence is required by "any other provision of law." The Court held that this exception applies only to statutes covering the same kind of conduct as the enhancement provision and not to cases in which the defendant is also convicted of a different kind of crime that has its own minimum sentence of more than five years.

THOUGHT:

Law as a business will survive this recession. Law as a profession probably won’t, not at the prices these law schools are charging.

Brian Tannebaum, the man, the myth, the legend, getting a hat tip for his "my law license" blog at ATL.