Government

$307 K Fee Is Price of Foot-Dragging

California has been burned by a “scorched-earth” approach to litigation over pay policies for inmates who work for private employers on prison grounds. A California appeals court affirmed an award of $307,000 in attorney fees, in addition to nearly $1.5 million already awarded, for litigation over the state’s failure to…

Aug 31, 2007 12:10 PM CDT

Same-Sex Iowa Couples Can Marry

The judge’s ruling was so recent that one man was listed as the groom and the other was listed as the bride on their Polk County, Iowa, marriage license application. But what was important to Gary Allen Seronko, 51, and David Curtis Rethmeier, 29, was that the license application was…

Aug 30, 2007 11:52 PM CDT

Gov’t Report Pans Law School Affirmative Action

In a controversial report, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights may not call for an outright ban on law school affirmative action. But by putting its weight behind a 2004 study that says racial preferences may help propel disadvantaged minorities into academic programs for which they are not qualified, the…

Aug 30, 2007 5:06 PM CDT

Client Balks at Bare-Bones Bill

The school board for the Bethlehem, Pa., area wasn’t sure about paying a $60,670 charge by the board’s legal counsel until they actually saw the bill. But they were even less sure when they did see the bill from White & Williams for its 306 hours of work, reports the…

Aug 28, 2007 11:34 PM CDT

Fence-Building Crime Time: 6 Months

A California man with no prior record has been sentenced to six months in jail. His crime? Building a fence at his home on what the city of Torrance apparently told him was his own property, after he called to ask the city to fix a dilapidated fence that was…

Aug 28, 2007 6:55 PM CDT

U.S. to Investigate Aid Workers

Ratcheting up U.S. scrutiny of foreign aid workers, the Bush administration is about to require charitable and nonprofit organizations that receive money from a government agency to provide detailed personal information on thousands of key employees. The controversial program, which is to take effect in four days, would require the…

Aug 23, 2007 4:23 PM CDT

Aging Nazi Victims Seek Home-Care Funds from Germany

Although World War II ended more 60 years ago, the horrors of the Nazi era are still alive in the minds of many Jewish survivors and others who were targets of Third Reich. As they aged, traumatic experiences they successfully suppressed for decades have come back to haunt them. Some…

Aug 23, 2007 3:41 PM CDT

Rove Comments Led to Firing, Lawyer Says

A Texas lawyer contends in a lawsuit that she was fired from the state secretary of state’s office in violation of her First Amendment rights for comments she made in an article about Karl Rove. Elizabeth Reyes claims she was fired in 2005 because her remarks to a Washington Post…

Aug 23, 2007 12:15 PM CDT

Suit Could Expand False Claims Scope

A fraud lawsuit against the University of Phoenix could expand the scope of the False Claims Act. The law, which permits private individuals to sue over fraud committed against the federal government, was once largely used in suits against defense contractors and the medical services industry, the Recorder reports. The…

Aug 22, 2007 11:47 AM CDT

Web Site Lists Product Recalls

A new Web site created by Missouri’s attorney general offers consumers a comprehensive list of product recalls announced by federal government agencies. The Web site lists recalls and safety alerts from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the U.S. Department of…

Aug 21, 2007 6:25 PM CDT

80 Law Firms Ask IRS for New Deadline

A coalition of more than 80 law firms is petitioning the Internal Revenue Service to extend by one year a deadline for imposing new regulations on nonqualified deferred compensation under section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code. The effort, led by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and involving a…

Aug 20, 2007 8:47 PM CDT

Stutter Study Settlement is $925,000

Six plaintiffs who say they were badgered and belittled as children in a now-infamous stuttering study in the 1930s, leading to lifelong emotional problems, have agreed to settle their lawsuit. They had originally sought $13.5 million, but have now agreed to accept $925,000 from the state of Iowa, according to…

Aug 17, 2007 10:19 PM CDT

Florida Mermaids in Lease Battle

Things are hardly going swimmingly right now for a group of Florida mermaids. Their historic tourist attraction, Weeki Wachee Springs, is in a lawsuit battle with a state agency known as Swiftmud. At issue: the validity of the one-mile-square city’s 30-year lease of the land on which it is built,…

Aug 17, 2007 3:39 PM CDT

FBI Director’s Notes Enhance Testimony

Notes turned over to the House Judiciary Committee by FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III reportedly describe former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft as “barely articulate,” “feeble” and “clearly stressed” during a now-infamous March 2004 encounter with top White House aides. Nonetheless, the aides, including then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales…

Aug 16, 2007 11:49 PM CDT

FBI Big-Case Interviews Soon on Web

The National Law Enforcement Museum isn’t scheduled to open for another four years. But it doesn’t need a bricks-and-mortar building to provide access to interviews of FBI agents about big cases on which they’ve worked. Surprisingly candid interview transcripts will be posted by the end of 2008 on the museum’s…

Aug 16, 2007 11:22 PM CDT