cyber bullying.

 A federal judge on Thursday overturned guilty verdicts against Lori Drew, issuing a directed acquittal on three misdemeanor charges.

Drew, 50, was accused of participating in a cyberbullying scheme against 13-year-old Megan Meier who later committed suicide. The case against Drew hinged on the government’s novel argument that violating MySpace’s terms of service was the legal equivalent of computer hacking. But U.S. District Judge George Wu found the premise troubling.

“It basically leaves it up to a website owner to determine what is a crime,” said Wu on Thursday, echoing what critics of the case have been saying for months. “And therefore it criminalizes what would be a breach of contract.”

Tina Meier, the mother of Megan Meier, walked out of the courtroom while Wu was still delivering his ruling. She later told reporters that she was “extremely upset with the decision” and that she left because she “was done listening to” the judge. She indicated that the family is still considering whether to bring a civil case against Drew.

barack obama

Mr. Obama's first major initiative was a gigantic stimulus package to pump money into an economy in something close to free fall. He introduced the outlines of a plan before taking office, and spent much of his first weeks engaged in negotiations with Congress that led to the passage of a $787 billion bill. Republicans derided the bill as unaffordable and wasteful. Not a single Republican in the House voted for the package, and only three Republican senators did -- just enough for Mr. Obama to avert a filibuster.

The vote seemed to presage the reception of the health care reform efforts Mr. Obama put at the top of his agenda. As bills made their way through Congress over the summer and fall, only one Republican senator, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, seemed at all inclined to cast a vote for the Democratic plans. Conservative anger boiled over during Congress's August recess, and it took a televised address to a joint session of the House and Senate by Mr. Obama in September to stop the slide of his own popularity and that of the health plans.

Barack Obama

Students Protest 8 Years of War in Afghanistan

October 7, dozens of protests across the country against the Afghanistan war on the 8th anniversary of the U.S. invasion. Students marched, conducted die-ins and skits, and some were arrested as they demanded money be spent at home on education and healthcare, instead of two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Hundreds of students marched in Washington, DC in a “Funk the War” event organized by DC Students for a Democratic Society. The war in Afghanistan is becoming more and more deadly as it continues. 311 coalition troops were killed in the war in 2009 alone, bringing the total of dead soldiers to 869. U.S. and NATO occupation forces do not keep track of civilian casualties, but many estimate that U.S. air strikes and gunfire have killed tens of thousands of Afghans. Just last month, U.S. air strikes killed over 90 Afghan civilians in the northern Afghan village of Omar Kheil. A similar strike in Farah province on May 4 this year killed 147 civilians. Troop levels have increased from 5,200 in 2002 to 68,000 in 2009, with no talk of de-escalation or ending the war. The war is costing American taxpayers millions of dollars everyday - $228 billion overall, $60.2 billion of which was spent in 2009 alone.