National Roundup

New Jersey
Woman accused of making threats seeks probation
ELIZABETH, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey woman charged with making fake threats against fellow black students at Kean University is seeking probation.

An attorney for Kayla-Simone McKelvey, of Union Township, asked a judge Thursday to admit her into a pretrial intervention program that would allow her to avoid jail time.

McKelvey is charged with creating a false public alarm, which carries a maximum prison term of five years. If she’s admitted into the program, the charge could eventually be expunged from her record.

Prosecutors contend the 24-year-old McKelvey participated in a Nov. 17 rally on racial issues at Kean and then went to a campus library computer and tweeted anonymous threats against black students.

They say she returned to the rally and tried to raise awareness about the threats.

South Carolina
Tour guide tests trigger free-speech lawsuit
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — In a dispute that’s being played out in several historic cities, some would-be Charleston tour guides say their right to free speech is being violated by an ordinance requiring guides to pass written and oral exams.

The First Amendment lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court on behalf of three plaintiffs who want to give tours in a city that draws upward to 5 million visitors a year.

The licensing ordinance requires guides to pass a 200-question written exam and then an oral exam. The lawsuit seeks to have it declared unconstitutional.

City spokesman Jack O’Toole said Charleston officials have not seen the lawsuit and cannot comment. But he said city officials believe the existing licensing rules serve the public interest.

The courts have split on whether requiring tour guides to have licenses violates free speech. A federal appeals court upheld a New Orleans ordinance while another appeals panel overturned one in the District of Columbia.
Following a 2014 lawsuit challenging a similar ordinance in Savannah, Georgia, the city council voted last October to repeal its ordinance requiring a written exam.

The Charleston exam questions can deal with everything from famous people buried in local cemeteries to architecture and the city’s almost 350-year history. They are taken from a 490-page study guide that costs $45.
The guide says the city’s goal is to “provide accurate, factual and updated information to its visitors and residents.”

“You shouldn’t have to pass a test, let alone two, to tell a story,” Arif Panju, an attorney for the Institute for Justice which is representing the plaintiffs, said during a news conference Thursday outside the courthouse.

“Any law that requires people to pass a 200-question written exam and an oral exam to tell stories as a tour guide flunks every test under the First Amendment,” he added.

One of the plaintiffs, Kimberly Billups, wants to open her own tour company.

“This city has a thousand stories to tell. I’d love to teach these stories and tell these stories,” said. She can’t without a license and said she studied for the exam for five or six hours a day for two months but didn’t pass.
Michael Warfield said he took the exam twice and didn’t pass. The complaint says there were no questions about ghost stories of Charleston on the exam and that’s what he wants to discuss on tours.

Panju said the plaintiffs will seek a preliminary injunction to block the ordinance and allow his clients to work while the case makes its way through the courts.

The third plaintiff, Michael Nolan, said the government should not be licensing people in an attempt to ensure accuracy.

“Would you like your newspaper or television station or radio station to have to get a license from the city to make sure what you say is true?” he asked reporters. “The market will figure it out.”


Pennsylvania
Florida man gets probation in spamming case
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A Florida man who helped send millions of spam messages to people to help computer marketers collect email addresses and phone numbers has been sentenced to two years’ probation.

Naveed Ahmed, of Tampa, pleaded guilty in August. A federal judge in Pittsburgh sentenced him Thursday.

The light sentence came as a surprise, as federal guidelines call for at least two years in prison.

Prosecutors say Ahmed and two others earned $2,000 to $3,000 weekly by violating a law designed to protect people from receiving unsolicited email or text messages.

Ahmed is one of 12 people federally prosecuted for marketing their skills on Darkcode.com, a cybercriminal marketplace disabled by the FBI last summer. Seventy people in the U.S. and 19 other countries were targeted in that takedown.