"Fearless: The Richard A. Sprague Story" coming to bookstores soon!

(Note: This will be the most carefully-written blog post in American history.) While it isn't labeled as such, what appears to be the official/authorized biography of Richard A. Sprague is on its way to bookstores, courtesy of our friends at the American Bar Association.

"Richard A. Sprague's philosophy holds that the law is sacred in this land, and as a lawyer he has always had the solemn obligation to fight as hard as he could to make the law serve his client, whether the client be the people of the United States, the people of Pennsylvania, or an individual caught up in the system," the blurb on the ABA site says. "Read this compelling story of a man who wasn't afraid to risk everything to fight for his fellow man and made a difference in the legal profession."

In short: The perfect Secret Santa gift for John Murphy!

Forbes columnist writes about Times-Tribune libel case

A flack for the National Association of Manufacturers writes at forbes.com about The Times-Tribune and the libel case involving John Murphy, Jennifer Henn, Joe Corcoran, and Randy Castellani. The piece, headlined "Too much freedom of the press," is about how a federal shield law is a bad idea. Right.

Cop who leaked to Scranton Times-Tribune sent to prison

The state AG's investigator who gave information to the newspaper -- information that got the newspaper into an ongoing defamation suit -- will do two weeks at the Dauphin County Prison. Only The Times-Tribune's Mike Race was at James Kolojejchick's sentencing on Monday in Harrisburg.

Times-Tribune source in prison case held in contempt

A month (!) after a judge ruled that a Scranton Times-Tribune source illegally leaked grand jury testimony to the newspaper, the Times Leader (Friday) and The Times-Tribune (Saturday) are on the story, kind of. The source, state narcotics agent James Kolojejchick, was fired in the summer of 2004 and is to be sentenced for contempt of court in March. Ron Lieback of the TL names reporter Jennifer Henn and editor John Murphy as the newspaper staffers involved in the case, while Michael Race's terse nine-paragraph story does not. Neither piece really does the story justice, given the stakes (the shield law for reporters, as well as a lot of professional reputations) involved.

Click the headline for the TL story, click here for the T-T story

Read the January 2004 Scranton Times story that started it all