26. September, 2003 - fire wrapup, spam

Families say goodbye to fire victims.
Deadly fire’s cause might never be known, official says, but they’ve said that there wasn’t any negligence on the part of the owners and that the fire could have been arson, since it started on the porch.
Students anxious over house inspections. Yeah, but I’m betting the landlords are a lot more anxious.
Duplex’s owner voices relief that it wasn’t maintenance problems with the house that caused the fire.

Judge who sided with telemarketers is flooded with calls as people express their displeasure. [strib]
Congress approves “do-not-call” legislation, but second judge blocks list. Two issues here: the first is that the FTC doesn’t have the authority (says judge 1) to handle the list, the second is that the list is a First Amendment violation because it only restricts commercial speech and not charities too (judge 2). Heck, if restricting charities from calling me would get this going, I’d be happy with that. Some of the more obnoxious telemarketing I receive is from non-profits. [strib]
Nettle vs ACLU isn’t a lawsuit, just a commentary on the practice of the ACLU (and other non-profits) of selling or sharing their membership information to all and sundry. I don’t know that some non-profits make more from selling their membership lists than they do from donations, but it wouldn’t surprise me. [doc]
jr’s got a way of dealing with telemarketers: ask Why are you calling me? and never let them control the conversation. [jr]