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Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Nov. 3, 2005 / 1 Mar-Cheshvan, 5766

Caught red-handed, now mayor is suing

By Dan Abrams

Abrams
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | What is a poor mayor to do if he is busted trolling gay websites on city time? Even accused of promising a city hall job to an ambitious young man he met while surfing the net? Do you resign? Do you try to lay low?

Not if you're Spokane, Washington Mayor Jim West. No. Mayor West is adding to the litigation glut by announcing a lawsuit against the paper that caught him red-handed, so to speak.

Back in May, the Spokesman Review newspaper reported that West offered a man he believed to be an 18-year-old gifts, favors, and even a city hall internship. It turned out that sweet young thing was actually a computer forensics expert retained by the newspaper, hired after its own reporting revealed that West had a relationship with another 18-year-old man he met through a gay website.

West eventually acknowledged publicly that he had relationships with several adult men he met through gay websites. OK. But now local authorities are investigating whether he violated state laws by viewing sexually explicit sites on a state-owned computer. The FBI is investigating whether he used his office to coerce young men and violated federal law.

West has refused to step down, pronouncing that the people of Spokane elected him to finish his term. He's now facing a recall election in December.

As he prepares for the December race, a new report says while traveling in his official capacity as mayor, he used his city hall laptop to search internet profiles of gay men in cities across the United States.

Uh Oh. But don't feel sorry for the embattled mayor. No, in the time-honored political tradition of passing the buck, the mayor announced he's suing the Spokane paper for invasion of privacy.

The legal standard in the state of Washington? "The interference with a plaintiff's seclusion must be a substantial one resulting from conduct of a kind that would be offensive and objectionable to the ordinary person."

That's right. Mayor West needs to prove that what the paper did to him was "offensive and objectionable." You want to talk about offensive and objectionable? How about that while being investigated by both his own state and the feds, he is threatening a frivolous lawsuit that will almost certainly get thrown out of court?

But the voters of Spokane can rest easy. West has said he won't file the case until after the recall election because he doesn't want the lawsuit — and the entire episode for that matter — to become a "campaign issue." A campaign issue? Why does he think he is being forced to campaign again in the middle of his term?

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Dan Abrams anchors “The Abrams Report,” Monday through Friday from 6-7 p.m. ET on MSNBC TV. He also covers legal stories for “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” “Today” and “Dateline NBC.” To visit his website, click here. Comment by clicking here.

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