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Horizon Lines to plead guilty to fixing prices
Court Watch News |
2011/02/24 09:27
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pU.S. authorities say the shipping company Horizon Lines LLC has agreed to plead guilty to fixing prices and to pay a $45 million fine./ppA Justice Department statement Thursday says the company was accused of conspiring to fix rates and surcharges for freight transportation between the United States and Puerto Rico from May 2002 until April 2008./ppFive former executives have been sentenced after pleading guilty in 2008 to charges related to the shipping conspiracy./ppThe Charlotte, North Carolina-based company has a fleet of 20 U.S.-flagged cargo ships that carry items including heavy equipment, medicines and consumer goods./ppIn June 2009, the company agreed to pay $20 million to settle a class action price-fixing lawsuit.
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Iowa bill on same-sex marriage licenses in trouble
Headline Court News |
2011/02/24 09:26
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pA measure that would bar Iowa county officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples faces a bleak future as it sits in a House committee. /ppTop Republicans on Thursday said they have no plans to debate the issue, viewing it a nod to the party's social conservative wing. Top Democrats argue the measure is unconstitutional and violates a 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision striking down a state law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman. /ppBackers say introducing the measure is one more opportunity to voice their displeasure with how the marriage issue has been handled. /ppRepublican Rep. Betty De Boef (dee-BUFF') says the issue has been handled badly and that some lawmakers want to take every opportunity to make that point. /p
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Wis. justices to argue over expenses
Court Watch News |
2011/02/01 10:22
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| pThe state Supreme Court's conservative and liberal factions are set to clash over travel reimbursements and court finances./ppThe court's seven justices are set to meet on Monday morning. On the agenda is Justice Pat Roggensack's request for state reimbursement for traveling around the state for a personal project and questions about why Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson hired two executive assistants when the court's budget calls for one./ppRoggensack says her project on racial disparities in sentencing falls is both personal and court related. Abrahamson contends the two assistants split their time./ppTensions have run high on the court since conservative-leaning justices gained a majority in 2008, leaving liberal-leaning Abrahamson and another justice in the minority./p |
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Appeals court rejects sanctuary policy lawsuit
Headline Court News |
2011/02/01 10:22
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pA state appeals court says San Francisco cannot be held responsible for the deaths of a father and two sons allegedly killed by a man who had been protected by the city's sanctuary policy.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the court ruled Monday that the city isn't liable for crimes committed by the alleged gunman, Edwin Ramos, who is a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador. The decision upholds a February 2010 court decision. /ppPolice believe Ramos mistook Tony Bologna and his sons, Michael and Matthew, for gang members and then fatally shot them near their San Francisco home in June 2008. /ppRelatives say the victims might be alive if Ramos had been turned over to immigration authorities after earlier arrests when he was a juvenile. /p |
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91,000 Gulf oil spill claims, just 1 final payment
Headline Topics |
2011/02/01 10:21
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pBP's compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has issued a final settlement payment to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, records show, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf./ppBP won't identify the business, citing confidentiality, but acknowledges it lobbied for the settlement. The amount far exceeds smaller stopgap payments that some individuals and businesses have received while they wait for their own final settlements./ppThe Gulf Coast Claims Facility was set up in August to independently administer BP's $20 billion compensation fund in the aftermath of its April 20 oil well blowout off Louisiana./ppAs of this weekend, roughly 91,000 people and businesses had filed for final settlements, but the fund's administrator, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, has said those checks won't start rolling out until February at the earliest. Thousands of people have received some money to tide them over until a final settlement amount is offered, but only one business listed as paid on the facility's website has so far received a check./ppA BP spokeswoman called it a unique situation in which an existing BP business partner and BP submitted a view on a specific claim to the facility.
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Prosecutors want judge to question Roger Clemens
Legal Business |
2011/01/31 10:22
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pThe Justice Department asked a federal judge on Thursday to question star pitcher Roger Clemens about his knowledge of a potential conflict of interest his attorney may have involving former teammate-turned-prosecution-witness Andy Pettitte./ppProsecutors filed a memo suggesting questions U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton should pose to Clemens and his attorneys at a hearing on the matter next Wednesday in federal court in Washington./ppThey say the judge should ask the seven-time Cy Young Award winner if he understands that lawyer Rusty Hardin has a potential conflict because he briefly advised Pettitte shortly before the release of a report in December 2007 that said both players had used human growth hormone. Prosecutors also want to make sure that Clemens' attorneys have not revealed to him any information regarding their representation of his former teammate and asked the judge to ensure that Clemens still wants Hardin and his Houston-based firm to represent him./ppClemens denies that he used any performance-enhancing drugs. Pettitte has admitted that he did and said Clemens admitted privately to him that he did as well.
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Former Attorney Gen. Mike Cox will join Dykema Gossett
Lawyer News |
2011/01/12 09:02
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| pFormer Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox will join Detroit-based Dykema Gossett PLLC as a senior attorney in its litigation department, the law firm CEO confirmed today./ppCox, 49, who ended eight years as the state's chief law enforcement officer on Jan. 1, starts next Monday at Dykema's Detroit office. He will practice in health care fraud, white-collar criminal law and federal and state regulatory compliance, said Dykema Chairman and CEO Rex Schlaybaugh./ppSchlaybaugh said the firm leadership had talked with Cox for more than a month about his options upon leaving office. The attorney general seemed a good fit because of his involvement in health care transactions and the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, enacted last year./ppMike is someone with a great deal of experience with the complexities of implementing that law and a great interest in it, which will be very important to some of our strategic clients, Schlaybaugh said./ppMany federal and state government agencies are also involved in aspects of these laws, and navigating that will be a high-demand area. In that way, I think he dovetails with our firm's needs very nicely./p |
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