Government

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

NY Gun Suit Survives

A federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the city of New York that claims 15 out-of-state gun sellers engage in retail practices that lead to illegal gun use. U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein of Brooklyn rejected defendants’ argument that the court did not have personal jurisdiction…

Aug 16, 2007 11:35 AM CDT

Gov’t Atty to Put ‘White Hat’ on Targets

A soon-to-be-former New York government regulator plans to switch sides and serve as a consultant helping those targeted by such probes to don a “white hat” and work cooperatively with the federal, state and/or local agency involved. David M. Grandeau, a lawyer known as an aggressive state lobbying regulator, will…

Aug 15, 2007 10:28 PM CDT

Secret-Case Strategy: Guess US Argument

In 27 years of practice, Jon Eisenberg has never had a more difficult case than Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation v. George W. Bush. One reason why is the extraordinary secrecy imposed on the litigation process because of terrorism-related national security concerns. When it came time to file one brief in his…

Aug 15, 2007 3:12 PM CDT

First Legal Action in Bridge Collapse

The first litigation has reportedly been filed in the Minneapolis bridge collapse case, by a law firm seeking access in order to investigate before the site is cleaned up. It was filed Monday in federal court because the firm, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben of Minneapolis, has been told that federal…

Aug 14, 2007 7:41 PM CDT

Reporters Ordered to Reveal Sources

A federal judge has ordered five reporters to reveal their law enforcement sources in a lawsuit filed by a bioterrorism expert once identified as a person of interest in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Steven J. Hatfill claims the government violated the Privacy Act by leaking information about him. He has…

Aug 14, 2007 12:04 PM CDT

Chicago Parking Ticket a Tough Case

Chicago has a reputation for being overly aggressive about ticketing unwary motorists for dubious parking infractions, especially downtown. Plus, for the relative few who contest parking tickets, either by mail or in person, there is “a widespread perception that the system is tilted to maximize the haul,” writes the Chicago…

Aug 13, 2007 3:28 PM CDT

Home-Demolition Derby in New Orleans

Chanel Debose has spent $90,000 to fix up her New Orleans home since Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. But it is now reportedly on the list of homes to be demolished as the city rushes to meet a deadline for qualifying for federal aid to do so. At least she knows about…

Aug 9, 2007 8:19 PM CDT

Agent’s CIA Years Top Secret

It’s well known that Valerie Wilson worked for the CIA; the information was published in a newspaper column and led to a high-level prosecution. And her length of service was published in the Congressional Record. But Wilson’s length of service is classified information, as is a court filing explaining why…

Aug 3, 2007 1:06 PM CDT

Chaos in Zimbabwe Over Price Controls

Chaos has resulted in Zimbabwe from draconian price controls imposed a month ago by the government of Robert Mugabe under threat of criminal sanctions. So far, some 6,500 workers including executives of major retailers have been arrested as a result of widespread resistance to the price controls, and executives are…

Aug 2, 2007 9:34 AM CDT

When Honesty Is Not Best Politics

Courts struggle with honest-services charges in bribery cases

Aug 1, 2007 8:12 AM CDT