Jamie Spencer, and Austin DWI attorney. offers these words of wisdom to anyone thinking about driving while in intoxicated in Travis County, Texas:

1. In Austin, a traffic violation and the odor of an alcoholic beverage on your breath earns you a trip to Travis County Jail. It’s an arrest everybody and charge them with DWI now, and sort it out later kind of world. 
2. It’s cheaper to rent a helicopter to fly you home than it is to get arrested for DWI in Texas, and that can be true even if your lawyer gets the charge dismissed before trial.

John Phillips has an update on the widely reported raid on a meatpacking company in Iowa in May of this year.  Not only was the CEO forced to resign, he now faces charges of harboring illegal immigrants, abetting identity theft and bank fraud. The company involved has filed for bankruptcy.

This is a cautionary tale for employers who think they can play fast and loose with immigration laws in order to get cheap labor.  Read more about this story at The Word on Employment Law . . .

Robert Guest has uncovered a "top secret" database of field sobriety tests.  The National Sobriety Testing Resource Center states that their purpose it "to provide a comprehensive source of information regarding standardized field sobriety testing, training and certification for authorized and active law enforcement practitioners and instructors."  But it turns out this data is only going to be made available to law enforcement officials.  Attorney Guest, a Dallas criminal defense lawyer, wants to know why this information is so sensitive that it can't be made available to others as well.  In pursuit of this information, Attorney Guest sent an email to the Program Director asking for access to the database, and for their public information officer. He  also sent an email to Texas DPS asking for any records they have on this project. What is there to hide?  This is one to watch . . .

Patrick Parkinson, a professor of law at the University of Sydney highlighted the absurdity of a proposed bill in the Australian legislature that would equate "living together" with marriage in the eyes of the law.  In the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr. Parkinson pointed out that the proposed bill would "impose on people all the financial obligations of marriage whether they have chosen them or not."

The point behind the reform is to allow gay partners to seek alimony and divvy up common property fairly.  No matter where you stand on gay marriage or gay civil unions. this bill would apply to straight, cohabiting couples as well as possibly even platonic roommates.  The bill talks of "de facto relationships" but who is going to define that? This gives whole new meaning to "Can I have a drawer for when I sleep over?"  I agree with Mr. Parkinson in that "people's right to choose NOT (emphasis my own) to marry should be respected."

Bad news for Fido and Fluffy in the Middle East.

Saudi Arabian religious officials have outlawed the sale of dogs and cats to men, on the grounds that pets can be used to pick up women. Othman al-Othman, head of the kingdom's commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, said the ban was necessitated by the "rising phenomenon of men using cats and dogs to make passes at women." Men caught with pets will have their animals confiscated on the spot, said al-Othman, "and the man will be forced to sign a document pledging not to repeat the act."