Government

Karl Rove to be Questioned in Probe of US Attorney Firings

A special prosecutor who is investigating accusations related to the claimed political firings of at least nine U.S. Attorneys during the Bush administration is scheduled to question former senior White House aide Karl Rove tomorrow. The Connecticut prosecutor, Nora Dannehy, was appointed in September 2008 by then-U.S. Attorney General Michael…

May 14, 2009 7:59 PM CDT

FDA Warns General Mills over Cheerios Cholesterol Claims

The Food and Drug Administration has sent a letter to General Mills warning that cholesterol claims on the Cheerios box make the food a drug under federal law. The letter, posted on the FDA website, says Cheerios should file a new-drug application if it wants to continue claiming a cholesterol-lowering…

May 13, 2009 2:29 PM CDT

Prosecutors Taken Off Fla. Murder Case for Listening to Defendant’s Phone Calls

Upholding a Florida judge’s disqualification of the entire Broward State Attorney’s Office from trying a murder case after two prosecutors listened to the defendant’s jailhouse phone calls to his lawyer, a state appeals court earlier this year dismissed a challenge by the Florida attorney general. Now new prosecutors are being…

May 12, 2009 9:31 PM CDT

W. Va. Lawyer Loses License; Gov’t Post Proved Too Tempting

A West Virginia lawyer has been disbarred by the state supreme court after his conviction for embezzling about $100,000 from a county building commission for which he served as chairman. Christopher Davis, 38, was previously sentenced to what amounted to a 60-day jail term in a Hampshire Circuit Court criminal…

May 12, 2009 8:20 PM CDT

Top NY Court Nixes GPS Tracking Unless a Search Warrant is Obtained

An apparent New York State Police practice of using GPS tracking devices on suspects’ vehicles for extended periods is a violation of their constitutional privacy rights unless a search warrant is obtained, according to a divided New York Court of Appeals ruling. In its 4-3 ruling today, the state’s highest…

May 12, 2009 6:19 PM CDT

Derivatives Regulation Becomes a Popular Law School Offering

The financial meltdown has spurred interest in derivatives classes among law students interested in learning about the origins of the crisis and hoping to tap into an expanding job market for lawyers well-versed in financial regulations. New York Law School has seen so much interest in its derivatives course that…

May 8, 2009 3:18 PM CDT

New SEC Focus: Painting the Barn, Not the Sistine Chapel

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may soon be using more discretion in civil investigations, focusing on the big fish rather than the small fry. Speaking today at a program on corporate investigations sponsored by the American Bar Association, an SEC official and the general counsel of the FBI said…

May 7, 2009 8:48 PM CDT

Taking Kids to Work Sparks Lawsuit, as Fla. Jail Guards Reportedly Stun Several

Updated: At least one parent of a Florida schoolchild has sued over “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” after guards at three separate state prisons zapped visiting children with electronic stun guns on April 24 to demonstrate how they worked. The Florida Department of Corrections has acknowledged the…

May 7, 2009 8:15 PM CDT

4th Circuit Nixes Attorney Fee Award to Defendant in Terrorism Tort Case

In an unusual award of attorney fees to a prevailing defendant in a civil rights case, a federal court said a Muslim family whose Virginia home was lawfully searched had to pay about $41,000 to an individual they accused of conspiring with federal agents to fabricate evidence supporting the search.…

May 7, 2009 5:43 PM CDT

Ex-DOJ Lawyer Rips ‘Double Standard’ in Ethics Probe of Bradbury, Bybee & Yoo

A former senior lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice read with interest news that three Office of Legal Counsel attorneys in a high-profile ethical investigation were offered a routine opportunity to review allegations made against them in a draft report. That so-called routine opportunity was provided to Steven Bradbury,…

May 7, 2009 12:09 AM CDT

Former Bush Officials Seek Changes in DOJ Report Critical of Bybee and Yoo

As the U.S. Department of Justice gets ready to release a legal ethics report on two government attorneys involved in the drafting of what some term “torture” memos authorizing the use of harsh interrogation methods after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, former Bush administration officials reportedly are lobbying for…

May 5, 2009 8:53 PM CDT

New Accusations Against Craiglist Suspect Fuel AG Attack on Website

Announcing new accusations today against the so-called Craiglist suspect involving a third claimed assault victim, the Rhode Island state attorney general also fired a verbal salvo at the website accused of posting advertisements to which Philip Markoff allegedly responded. The Boston medical student already was being prosecuted in Suffolk County,…

May 5, 2009 12:21 AM CDT

Highest-Paid NYC Parking Judge is Married to Administrative Agency Official

Despite discrepancies between Allan Patricof’s sign-in book and other time records, the New York City parking judge was properly paid the $110,472 he earned in 2006. Patricof, who racked up 2,315 hours that year—an average of 8.9 hours every weekday of that year, including holidays—put in time at home and…

May 4, 2009 7:34 PM CDT

Judicial Clerkships Becoming More Scarce and More Difficult to Attain

New law grads who think they can find refuge in a government job in a tight employment market may be in for disappointment, according to a career services official at the University of Kansas School of Law. Todd Rogers, assistant dean of career services, told the Kansas City Star that…

May 4, 2009 6:14 PM CDT

To Solve More Rape Cases, Government Needs to Test Backlog of DNA Evidence

When a 43-year-old legal secretary was raped in her home in Los Angeles a decade ago, a Los Angeles police detective had a gut feeling that a repeat offender was the perpetrator. To reduce an expected one-year delay in getting DNA evidence from the crime analyzed, Detective Tim Marcia personally…

May 1, 2009 7:48 PM CDT