Legal news, some illegal. All of it interesting
1. Lawyers Want $6B for Voiding Musk’s $56B Pay
Nice work if you can get it – $300K/hour. That’s the fee the lawyers who successfully argued that Elon Musk’s $56B compensation was excessive, want for their efforts. Three law firms asked a Delaware judge for a record $6B, claiming it’s justified given how much value they delivered to Tesla shareholders. And just to show they’re prepared to “eat our cooking” they want to be paid in Tesla stock — 29.4M shares or about 11% of those that would have gone to Musk. The firms say their request is conservative, compared to the 33% to which they’re entitled, Musk, who’s appealing, quickly blasted the request as “criminal” on his X platform.
2. Air Force Employee Spies for Dating App GF
A civilian employee in the Air Force loved that the “Ukrainian” woman he met on a foreign dating app took such an interest in his work. When she asked, “Beloved, do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us?” or “Dear, what is shown on the screens in the special room??” he answered. Loving is sharing. The 63-year-old, retired Army lieutenant colonel with Top Secret security clearance gave her his whole heart, and authorities say, loads of highly classified information. Department of Justice prosecutors say the secret agent of love now faces up to 30 years in prison. Maybe, but you can’t cage his wild heart.
3. Colossal Comeback: Company Wants to Unextinct Mammoth
A Dallas company, Colossal Biosciences, is trying to bring back extinct animals. Stop us when this starts to sound like Jurassic Park. Colossal says it has produced Asian elephant stem cells that can be engineered into other types of cells needed to reconstruct a mammoth, or at least a mammothish elephant. Proponents say it’s a chance to mitigate an ongoing extinction crisis. But can potential tiny T-rex arms juggle all the circling ethical questions? Like, who decides which animals to resurrect? And where do they go? How are they cared for? And a possible trunk card — is it really a woolly mammoth or a furry elephant that tolerates cold weather?
4. Ring! Ring! Thieves Blocked Your Cameras
You know those cheap surveillance cameras available on Amazon like Ring and Eufy? Well, they sell really well. So do the WiFi jammers thieves use to circumvent them. Police say burglars are using WiFi jammers to disarm connected cameras and alarms. Technically it’s illegal to use a phone jammer, GPS blocker, or other signal jamming device designed to interfere with authorized radio communications. But if you’re breaking into houses, you probably don’t care. Anyhoo, experts recommend hardwiring alarm systems instead of relying on WiFi, lighting up your property at night, and not humble bragging on social media about your upcoming month long vaycay in another country.
5. Smelly Pond’s Nose-y Neighbors Come Unplugged
Something stinks in Glendale, Arizona — bad enough residents are raising one. Neighbors of a country club golf course say the pond at the sixth hole has smells like a — let’s say a different kind of hole and has for years. Normally the odor ebbs in colder months, but this year eau de toilet permeated every outdoor gathering, making the holidays more stool-tide than yuletide. Fed-up residents filed six separate odor petitions with the city. And the golf course superintendent’s been arraigned on charges of violating municipal “odor” codes. But that’s done nothing to clear the air. Experts blame algae-loaded sludge in the bottom of the pond since the lakes use reclaimed water.
