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Federal agency charged with enforcing consumer finance laws
Headline Topics |
2012/09/12 10:40
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The new federal agency charged with enforcing consumer finance laws is emerging as an ambitious sheriff, taking on companies for deceptive fees and marketing and unmoved by protests that its tactics go too far.
In the 14 months it has existed, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched dozens of enforcement probes and issued more than 100 subpoenas demanding data, testimony and marketing materials -- sometimes amounting to millions of pages -- from companies that include credit card lenders, for-profit colleges and mortgage servicers.
More than two dozen interviews with agency officials and industry executives offered sweeping insight into the new agency's behind-the-scenes efforts, which have taken the financial industry off guard and have been far more aggressive than previously known.
The number of subpoenas and probes was confirmed by agency, industry and trade group officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas bar both sides from discussing them.
The bureau's actions have many banks, payday lenders and credit card companies racing to adjust. They're tightening their record-keeping and budgeting for defense lawyers, according to attorneys and trade group executives who work with them. The companies themselves are reluctant to discuss the bureau because they don't want to be seen as criticizing a regulator that is still choosing its battles. |
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NY Court: Gay Marriage Caucus Didn’t Break Rules
Headline Topics |
2012/07/09 15:14
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A state appeals court rejected a challenge to New York’s year-old same-sex marriage law Friday, ruling closed-door negotiations among senators and gay marriage supporters, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, did not violate any laws.
The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in Rochester ruled against gay marriage opponents who argued that Republican state senators violated New York’s open meeting rules ahead of the law’s passage last year.
The marriage law was given final legislative approval by the state Senate after weeks of intensive lobbying and swiftly signed by Cuomo, making New York the largest state to legalize same-sex weddings. Same-sex couples began marrying by the hundreds on July 24, 2011, the day the law became official. |
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Rosen Law Firm Files First Federal Securities Class Action
Headline Topics |
2012/07/04 02:21
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The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. announces today that it has filed the first federal class action against Lone Pine Resources, Inc. (LPR) alleging that Lone Pine made false statements of material facts in its prospectus issued in connection with the Company's May 26, 2011 initial public offering. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than September 4, 2012. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
To join the Lone Pine class action, visit the firm's website at http://rosenlegal.com, or call Phillip Kim, Esq., toll-free, at 866-767-3653; you may also email pkim@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. The action filed by the Rosen Law Firm is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY CHOOSE TO DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT AND REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER.
The Complaint alleges that Defendants failed to disclose in its IPO documents that the Company was facing significantly increased costs and disruption in production volumes attributed to a major oil sales pipeline rupture in late April 2011 and a large forest fire in the same area in Mid-May. When the market learned of this adverse information, the price of Lone Pine dropped damaging investors.
www.rosenlegal.com.
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Supreme Court says tribes must be fully reimbursed
Headline Topics |
2012/06/18 12:32
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The Supreme Court says the government must fully reimburse Native American tribes for money they spent on federal programs.
The federal government had agreed to fully reimburse money tribes spent on programs like law enforcement, environmental protection and agricultural assistance, but Congress capped the amount of money earmarked for that reimbursement. The tribes sued, and the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said the money must be fully reimbursed.
The high court on Monday said the Ramah Navajo Chapter and other Native American tribes must get their money back.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the majority opinion for Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Elena Kagan. Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito dissented. |
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Court orders woman to stay away from Jeff Goldblum
Headline Topics |
2012/05/25 16:02
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A judge on Friday granted Jeff Goldblum a temporary restraining order against a woman who has been repeatedly ordered to stay away from the actor in recent years.
Goldblum's attorneys obtained the order against Linda Ransom, 49, after she repeatedly went to the actor's home three times this month. A previous stay-away order against Ransom from 2007 has expired and police claim she has told them that she will not stop trying to meet Goldblum unless a restraining order is in place.
The filings state Ransom has been arrested three times for violating previous restraining orders. Goldblum first alerted authorities to her in 2001 after she attended one of his acting classes and then started waiting outside his home.
"Over the past decade, I have experienced substantial emotional distress due to Ms. Ransom's continuous stalking, harassing, and threatening behavior," Goldblum wrote in a sworn court declaration.
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NFL union files suit against league over 2010 cap
Headline Topics |
2012/05/24 16:03
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The NFL Players Association has filed a complaint in federal court accusing the league of colluding to impose a secret salary cap during the uncapped 2010 season.
The claim was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Minnesota, which oversees the Reggie White settlement covering NFL labor matters.
The complaint claims a "conspiracy" to set a $123 million salary cap for the 2010 season, when owners did not have the legal authority to do so. The Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins have had their future salary caps lowered for going over the limit in 2010.
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Texas high court orders state to pay ex-inmate $2M
Headline Topics |
2012/05/19 22:28
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The Texas Supreme Court ordered the state Friday to pay about $2 million to an ex-inmate who spent 26 years in prison for murder before his conviction was overturned, a decision legal experts said could set a new standard for when ex-prisoners should be compensated.
Texas has paid nearly $50 million to former inmates who have been cleared. But state Comptroller Susan Combs had resisted paying Billy Frederick Allen, arguing that his conviction was overturned because he had ineffective lawyers, not because he had proven his innocence.
The state Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Dale Wainwright, disagreed, saying the state's criminal courts had shown Allen had a legitimate innocence claim and he should be paid.
Jeff Blackburn, chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas, which works to free wrongfully convicted inmates, said Friday's ruling could open the door for more compensation claims from ex-prisoners.
"The floodgates are not opening, but what this will do is give a fair shake to people who are innocent," Blackburn said. "This is a major step forward in terms of opening up and broadening the law of exoneration in general."
Texas' compensation law is the most generous in the U.S., according to the national Innocence Project. Freed inmates who are declared innocent by a judge, prosecutors or a governor's pardon can collect $80,000 for every year of imprisonment, along with an annuity.
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