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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The last frontier on Earth is out-of-this-world, desolate, foreboding, and moon-like, James Cameron said after diving to the deepest part of the ocean....

Cert. granted today in Florida v. Harris, 11-817.

Issue: Whether an alert by a well-trained narcotics detection dog certified to detect illegal contraband is insufficient to establish probable cause for the search of a vehicle.

Opinion below: Harris v. State, 71 So. 3d 756 (Fla. 2011) posted here.

Briefs: Cert petition; brief in opposition.

This case will be argued next Term. Read the Florida Supreme Court's decision, the petition, and the BIO before you pass judgment on the oversimplistic issue the state chose to present. The case isn't that easy, unless, of course, the conservative wing has no problem with just saying "this is Place and Caballes and we're done." If it really was, they should have GVR'd it and been done with it.

SAN FRANCISCO — A 35-year-old man was booked on five counts of murder after the bodies of three women and two men were found at a gruesome crime scene in a San Francisco home.

The aftermath of the killings was so tangled that police couldn't initially determine whether they were dealing with ...

SEATAC, Wash. (AP) -- The wife of a U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians says her husband showed no signs of PTSD before he deployed, and she doesn't feel like she'll ever believe he was involved in the killings....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is front and center at the Supreme Court for three days of hearings to determine the fate of a law aimed at extending health insurance to more than 30 million Americans....

A face-to-face meeting better the affiant for a search warrant and the issuing magistrate is not required. Here, they recognized each other’s voices, the affiant swore over the phone and faxed the affidavit to the magistrate who faxed back the signed search warrant. Clay v. State, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 2298 (Tex. App. – Waco March 21, 2012):

The second statement relied upon by Clay is a comment by the Court that, while recognizing innovations such as telephonic search warrants should not be foreclosed by the requirement of a signed affidavit, "[w]e leave those potential future changes to the Texas Legislature...." Smith v. State, 207 S.W.3d 787, 793 (Tex. Crim. App. 2006). This statement, Clay believes, is an acknowledgment that a procedure to obtain warrants by telephone and facsimile has not been authorized by statute, does not exist under Texas law, and therefore cannot be a valid practice in Texas at the present time. We believe it is not such an acknowledgement and certainly is not such a prohibition. As the Court stated, it is important for the law to retain some flexibility in the face of technological advances. Id. at 792. Had there been no flexibility in the statute, the Smith Court would have been compelled to hold that a signed affidavit was required. It did not. And thus, the statute is also flexible so as to allow for the taking of an oath over the telephone or by some other electronic means of communication under certain circumstances. That is the nature of the development of the common law. We must decide only the issue presented—in this case, is the affidavit invalid because it was not made on an oath administered face-to-face.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Defense lawyers plan to attack the credibility of the troubled adult accusers when two Roman Catholic priests go on trial Monday in a landmark child sex abuse case involving the Archdiocese of Philadelphia....

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- President Barack Obama warned North Korea and Iran on Monday that their options are few, and their friends fewer, as those nations refuse to back down from actions the world sees as menacing....

MIAMI (AP) -- A man identified as a friend of the Florida neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot an unarmed black teenager said Monday the man would tell the teen's parents he's "very, very sorry" if he could....

TIOGA, N.D. (AP) -- Along the wide-open expanses and rolling prairie of western North Dakota surrounding the state's booming oil patch, all sorts of bizarre litter can be found clogging the once picturesque roadside: Derelict hardhats, single boots, buckets, pallets, pieces of machinery, shredded semi tires, oily clothing, cigarette butts....

SEATAC, Wash. (AP) -- The wife of a U.S. soldier accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians says her husband showed no signs of PTSD before he deployed, and adds that she doesn't feel like she'll ever believe he was involved in the killings....

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- President Barack Obama warned North Korea and Iran on Monday that their options are few and their friends fewer as those nations refuse to back down from actions the world sees as menacing....

SEATAC, Wash. (AP) -- Karilyn Bales says she finds the charges that her husband killed 17 Afghan villagers "unbelievable."...

NEW YORK (AP) -- On a recent busy afternoon at Kennedy Airport, a beagle with plaintive-looking eyes was lying on the floor of Terminal 4, oblivious to the chaos of rolling luggage and human activity teeming all around her....

NEW YORK (AP) -- On a recent busy afternoon at Kennedy Airport, a beagle with plaintive-looking eyes was lying on the floor of Terminal 4, oblivious to the chaos of rolling luggage and human activity teeming all around her....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is using privileged access to one of America's greatest landmarks to reward his most generous financial supporters in ways that Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum can't match: More than 60 of Obama's biggest campaign donors have visited the White House more than once for meetings with top advisers, holiday parties or state dinners, a review by The Associated Press has found....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is using privileged access to one of America's greatest landmarks to reward his most generous financial supporters in ways that Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum can't match: More than 60 of Obama's biggest campaign donors have visited the White House more than once for meetings with top advisers, holiday parties or state dinners, a review by The Associated Press has found....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is front and center at the Supreme Court for three days of hearings to determine the fate of a law aimed at extending health insurance to more than 30 million Americans....

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) -- Organizers of an annual Easter egg hunt attended by hundreds of children have canceled this year's event, citing the behavior of aggressive parents who swarmed into the tiny park last year, determined that their kids get an egg....

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A 35-year-old man was booked on five counts of murder after the bodies of three women and two men were found at a gruesome crime scene in a San Francisco home....