Bill Cosby’s Honorary Degrees Rescinded & Sexual Assault Charges Filed

bill-cosby-mugshot-640x400In May 2013, comedian Bill Cosby received an honorary doctorate of letters from Marquette University. In his address to the students, he told them “to go into the world remembering the values they learned from the school’s Jesuits—respect, integrity and a responsibility to serve others.” In retrospect, it’s ironic advice coming from him.

In the past year, a large number of women have come forward to say that Cosby sexually assaulted them, with incidents going back to the mid-1960s. To date, that number has swelled to more than 50. The stories of the alleged assaults have some general similarities: Cosby offered to mentor the women or coach them with acting; he offered them drinks; the women then felt dizzy or woozy and some may have passed out; some of them describe waking up in various states of undress.

Yesterday, Cosby was charged with aggravated indecent assault, a felony, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, stemming from an encounter in 2004 with Andrea Constand, then operations director for Temple University women’s basketball team, who believed Cosby was a mentor and a friend. The allegations in the complaint parallel the numerous other allegations. The complaint alleges Cosby gave Constand some pills and told her to sip some wine; Constand felt dizzy and felt she had no sense of time; Cosby then sexually assaulted her. The case was re-opened this summer, prosecutors said, after new evidence emerged. That new evidence was Cosby’s deposition testimony in the civil suit Constand filed against him. In his deposition, Cosby admitted giving women Quaaludes in an effort to have sex with them.

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Water Policy For Megacities

This week, over 30,000 diplomats and delegates are converging on Paris for what has been called one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in history.  The Paris climate summit has captivated the attention of the world, including both supporters and critics of a potential climate pact.  Megacity CoverAnother, much less publicized conference is getting underway in Paris today, December 2: the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (“UNESCO”) “Eaumega 2015” conference.  The name is taken from the beginning of the French phrase for “Water, Megacities, and Global Climate Change.”

It’s no coincidence that the two conferences are being held simultaneously and in the same city.  Most scientists predict that the impacts of a changing climate on water will be severe, and may include increasingly unstable and extreme weather patterns: heavier rainfall and increased flood risk in some areas, and increased periods of drought in other areas, coupled with changes in water availability due to quantity and quality restrictions.

In light of these risks, forward-looking water policy is particularly important for megacities – generally defined as cities with a population over ten million – due to their sheer size, often complex governance models, and social heterogeneity.  Many are located in coastal areas that may experience rising sea levels.  As I have discussed in previous blog posts, water impacts will also be felt in related industries such as energy and agriculture.  The UNESCO conference is an opportunity for megacity representatives to initiate dialogue on adapting to or mitigating the effects of climate change on water resources in megacities.

Chicago – a megacity in which Marquette Law School has taken an increasing role and interest (see, for example, here, here, here, and here) – is among ten megacities that are both represented and being studied at the Paris “Eaumega” conference.  Chicago’s policymakers are presenting five new water policy initiatives. 

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Possible Solutions to America’s Gun Problem

Glock_19_Gen_4_frontThe first step in solving any problem is admitting that a problem exists. America has a gun problem. Guns are all too easy for those with ill intent to obtain. So why worry about gun control and not knife control? Guns allow murderers to exponentially increase fatalities. Compare, if you will, the knife attack in China in which six terrorists killed 29 people and wounded 130 others with the Virginia Tech shooting, in which a single shooter killed 32 people and wounded 20 others. Anecdote aside, one only need to intuit that guns possess extraordinary risks uncommon to other weapons. We need to acknowledge the risks that guns possess.

America averages one mass shooting a day. Clearly something needs to be done, and we must do it without delay. Several observers have suggested ways in which gun violence could be reduced, both from within and outside of the legal system.

Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn has repeatedly called for illegal gun possession to be a felony under Wisconsin law . It is currently a misdemeanor, no matter how often an individual has perpetrated the crime. This means that when police catch someone with a gun who should not have it, all they can do is take it away, slap that person with a fine, and let them go. This is not a sufficient deterrence for people who should not have guns and does not do enough to keep them from possessing guns.

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