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Court shoots down Yakama tobacco company lawsuit
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2013/04/12 15:25
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A federal judge has ruled that a tobacco manufacturer owned by a Yakama Nation tribal member must pay into an escrow account established under a 1998 settlement with big tobacco companies.
The 1998 settlement required big tobacco companies to pay money to 46 states each year to offset public health costs from their products. Smaller companies are required to pay into an escrow account, but that money could be returned eventually if no health claims are made.
King Mountain Tobacco claims it should be exempt from paying into the escrow accounts under the Yakama Nation's 1855 treaty with the federal government. King Mountain is owned by Yakama tribal member Delbert Wheeler.
U.S District Judge Lonny Suko ruled against the company on Friday. |
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Court to mull Arizona's immigrant harboring ban
Headline Topics |
2013/04/02 10:31
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An appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer's bid to let police enforce a minor section of the state's 2010 immigration law that prohibits the harboring of illegal immigrants.
The harboring ban was in effect from late July 2010 until U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton ruled in September that it was trumped by federal law and barred police from enforcing it. Brewer has asked the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Bolton's ruling.
Brewer's lawyers argue the ban doesn't conflict with federal policies, is aimed at confronting crime and that the law's opponents haven't shown they have legal standing to challenge the prohibition. The governor's attorneys also say there's no evidence that the ban has been enforced against any people or organizations represented by a coalition of civil rights groups that have challenged the law in court.
The coalition has asked the appeals court to uphold Bolton's ruling, saying the state law is trumped by a federal harboring law that leaves no room for state regulation. The coalition also argues that Bolton has repeatedly confirmed that it has standing to challenge the harboring ban.
Another federal appeals court has barred authorities from enforcing similar harboring bans in Alabama and Georgia. |
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Lawyer seeks dismissal in Ohio HS player rape case
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2013/03/14 15:20
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On the eve of their trial, the attorney for one of two Ohio high school football players charged with raping a girl after an alcohol-fueled party said Tuesday that moving forward with the case is "patently unfair and un-American" because important witnesses haven't been compelled to testify.
The attorney for Ma'Lik Richmond filed a motion Monday saying that further prosecution of Richmond violates his due process and equal protection rights and asks the judge or state to dismiss the case.
"You have case where it's clear — clear — that basic, fundamental, constitutional guarantees are not available to this child, my client, to put on a defense," Walter Madison told The Associated Press. "As such, it is patently unfair and un-American to continue knowing that that is not available."
Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, are scheduled to go on trial Wednesday in Jefferson County juvenile court in Steubenville on charges they attacked a 16-year-old West Virginia girl last August. Their attorneys have denied the charges.
But the attorneys for both teens said their clients will be denied a fair trial because of the availability of crucial witnesses. A West Virginia judge's ruled last week that three juvenile witnesses there could not be compelled to testify in the Ohio case. |
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Pa. court directs tobacco money to health care
Headline Topics |
2013/03/11 23:47
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Pennsylvania state officials are trying to figure out the implications of a judge's ruling that a portion of the state's unspent tobacco settlement money go to the defunct adultBasic health insurance program for lower-income adults or a similar plan.
Commonwealth Court Judge Dan Pellegrini on Tuesday ruled unconstitutional two state laws that siphoned the money from adultBasic and Medicaid for disabled workers.
Pellegrini is throwing out laws passed in 2010 and 2011 that diverted tobacco settlement funds.
Pellegrini is denying a request by those who sued that adultBasic be reinstated and that $200 million be reimbursed to the funds from the two prior years.
The judge notes that Gov. Tom Corbett's administration says the required portion of the tobacco money is all going to Medicaid. The decision says it must also go to adultBasic or a similar program. |
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Kris Humphries' lawyer wants out of divorce case
Headline Topics |
2013/02/15 14:37
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A lawyer for Kim Kardashian's estranged husband wants to end his involvement in the former couple's divorce proceedings.
Marshall Waller says irreconcilable differences have arisen between him and Kris Humphries, and he should be allowed to leave the case.
He filed paperwork Thursday, one day before he and Kardashian's attorney are expected to appear in court for a scheduling hearing.
Kardashian is asking a judge to schedule a trial as soon as possible, while Waller has been advocating for more time to prepare.
If Waller is allowed to leave, it could delay a judge's decision on a trial date. |
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Court sides with Jewish group against Twitter
Headline Topics |
2013/01/29 22:58
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A French court has sided with a Jewish group seeking to identify authors of anti-Semitic messages that circulated the social network Twitter last autumn.
The Paris court ordered Twitter to turn over to the French Union of Jewish Students whatever data it has that could help identify the account holders who posted the tweets. The court also ordered Twitter to make it easier for users of its French website to report "illicit content" such as apology for crimes against humanity and incitation to racial hatred.
Twitter is free to comply or not with the court order as the U.S. company has no personnel or offices in France.
Last October, the company bowed to complaints and agreed to pull the anti-Semitic tweets, which included slurs and photos evoking the Holocaust.
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Indian court to rule on generic drug industry
Headline Topics |
2013/01/08 21:27
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From Africa's crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging in the balance ahead of a legal ruling that will determine whether India's drug companies can continue to provide cheap versions of many life-saving medicines.
The case — involving Swiss drug maker Novartis AG's cancer drug Glivec — pits aid groups that argue India plays a vital role as the pharmacy to the poor against drug companies that insist they need strong patents to make drug development profitable. A ruling by India's Supreme Court is expected in early 2013.
"The implications of this case reach far beyond India, and far beyond this particular cancer drug," said Leena Menghaney, from the aid group Doctors Without Borders. "Across the world, there is a heavy dependence on India to supply affordable versions of expensive patented medicines."
With no costs for developing new drugs or conducting expensive trials, India's $26 billion generics industry is able to sell medicine for as little as one-tenth the price of the companies that developed them, making India the second-largest source of medicines distributed by UNICEF in its global programs.
Indian pharmaceutical companies such as Cipla, Cadila Laboratories and Lupin have emerged over the past decade as major sources of generic cancer, malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS drugs for poor countries that can't afford to pay Western prices.
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