Michigan: Anti-swearing law ruled unconstitutional

A state appeals court Monday struck down Michigan’s 105-year-old law against using vulgar language in front of women and children, throwing out the conviction of a canoeist who let loose a stream of curses after falling into the water.

The three-judge panel in Traverse City unanimously overturned the 1999 conviction of Timothy Joseph Boomer. A jury had found him guilty of violating the law by swearing repeatedly after tumbling into the Rifle River.

He was fined $75 and ordered to work four days in a child-care program, but the sentence was put on hold while the case was under appeal.

Enacted in 1897 and slightly reworded in 1931, the law says that anyone using “indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language in the presence or hearing of any woman or child shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

The appeals court declared the law unconstitutional, saying it would be “difficult to conceive of a statute that would be more vague.”

New Hampshire: Guitar was weapon in assault on judge

The son of a New Hampshire Supreme Court justice was accused Monday of pounding his father in the face with a guitar after hours of drinking.

John Christian Broderick, 30, Manchester, was arraigned on a charge of assault and ordered held on $100,000 bail.

Justice John Broderick, 54, was attacked in his sleep early Saturday and beaten so severely that a top state official could not recognize him. He was in serious condition with broken facial bones Monday after six hours of surgery the day before.

Assistant Atty. Gen. William Delker said the son left the condominium and threw the guitar away after the attack; he would not say whether police had found it.

New Mexico: American Indian law included on bar exams

New Mexico, home to 173,000 American Indians, has become the first state to add federal Indian law as a subject on its state bar exam.

Broader issues of Indian law, rather than specific laws of each of the state’s 22 tribes, will be among 23 subjects that could pop up in the essay portion of the exam taken by law school graduates or lawyers moving to the state.

Lawyers in New Mexico run into questions of Indian law in such areas as gambling, child welfare, zoning, water, jurisdiction in criminal cases and taxation of gasoline and cigarettes.

Denver: Pedometers deployed in child obesity fight

Pedometers in the form of matchbook-size belt clips will hopefully make walking more fun for 200 Denver youngsters as part of a pilot program aimed at battling childhood obesity.

The goal is to motivate the young people to walk at least 10,000 steps a day in line with the U.S. Surgeon General’s recommendation of 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week.

More than half the adult population in Colorado is obese and 20 percent of the state’s children should lose weight, health officials said. Childhood obesity has gone up 11 percent nationwide since 1994.

Pedometers are instruments that record the distance a person covers on foot by responding to the body’s motion at each step.