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RI lawyer confirmed as US judge; GOP block fails
Legal Business |
2011/05/06 03:43
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A trial lawyer nominated by President Barack Obama to be a federal judge in Rhode Island was confirmed on a party-line vote Wednesday just hours after a Senate GOP filibuster attempt failed.
The Senate voted 50-44 to confirm lawyer John McConnell to the bench after a more significant 63-33 tally to advance the nomination past a filibuster orchestrated by GOP leaders.
Eleven Republicans joined with Democrats in the earlier vote to break the filibuster. GOP leaders opposed McConnell, citing his record as a trial lawyer in cases against businesses. Republicans also said McConnell was less than truthful in his testimony to the Senate.
Wednesday's vote comes six years after the Republicans then in control of the Senate considered a change in procedures to make it impossible to filibuster judicial nominations, citing numerous Democratic efforts to stall former President George W. Bush's nominees. Democrats said Republicans were being hypocritical in now trying to filibuster a Democratic nominee. |
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Court for Fla. woman charged in husband's NY death
Legal Business |
2011/05/05 03:44
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Federal prosecutors have been turning up the heat on a Florida woman accused of arranging the 2009 killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law.
Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale and her brother, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, N.Y., are due in court Friday morning for a status conference.
Novack and Veliz are accused of hiring others to kill Ben Novack in his New York hotel room and Bernice Novack in her Florida home.
Last month, the government added the mother-in-law's killing to the charges against Novack and Veliz. And a prosecutor said another charge — which carries the possibility of the death penalty — may be in store.
Defense attorneys suggested the prosecution was trying to force a guilty plea.
Ben Novack's father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla. |
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Former justice Streit joins Des Moines law firm
Legal Business |
2011/04/09 08:50
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div class=entrydiv class=articlepFormer Iowa Supreme Court Justice Michael Streit has joined a Des Moines law firm. /ppAhlers amp; Cooney, P.C., announced Monday that Streit will join the firm's litigation, dispute resolution and investigations practice area. /ppStreit was one of three Iowa Supreme Court justices ousted last fall over the court's 2009 decision legalizing same sex marriage in Iowa. /ppHe was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals in 1996 and to the Iowa Supreme Court in 2001. /ppA Sheldon native, Streit received his bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa in 1972. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1975. /ppHe worked in private practice in Chariton and served as an assistant Lucas County attorney and county attorney until he was appointed district court judge in 1983./p/div
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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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Court won't hear appeal from Adelphia founders
Legal Business |
2010/10/04 09:20
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pThe Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a father and son who built Adelphia Communications into a cable television powerhouse and were convicted of fraud after it collapsed into bankruptcy./ppThe high court refused on Monday to hear an appeal from John and Timothy Rigas./ppThe Rigases were sent to prison after Adelphia collapsed in 2002. At the time, it was the country's fifth-largest cable TV company./ppProsecutors said John Rigas used it like a personal piggy bank, paying for expenses as small as massages and withdrawing $100,000 from the company whenever he wished./ppThe Rigases say the government should have turned over to them notes taken during prosecutorial interviews with some witnesses. They also say their prison sentences were too long.
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Facebook sued in California over teen endorsements
Legal Business |
2010/08/30 07:23
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pTwo Los Angeles County teenagers are suing Facebook, claiming the social network effectively sold their names and images to advertisers without parental permission./ppThe lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles challenges a Facebook feature that allows members to note that they like an advertised service or product. Facebook broadcasts those endorsements to the user's friends./ppThe lawsuit also claims minors unwittingly endorse Facebook when people typing their names in a search engine are steered to a Facebook sign-up page./ppThe plaintiffs say Palo Alto-based Facebook is violating a California law that requires parental consent for children to make commercial endorsements. The teens seek unspecified damages./ppFacebook spokesman Andrew Noyes says the lawsuit is meritless. He notes Facebook doesn't allow users under 18 to let their profiles appear on public search engines.
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Shapiro Fishman accuses McCollum of grandstanding
Legal Business |
2010/08/23 08:54
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pLaw firm Shapiro amp; Fishman has accused Attorney General Bill McCollum of pre-election grandstanding and “abuse of power” in connection with McCollum’s recent announcement that his office is conducting a foreclosure fraud investigation into that firm and two others./ppThe allegations are in response to a coordinated investigation announced by McCollum during an Aug. 10 press conference. McCollum said his office is looking at whether the three South Florida firms engaged in unfair and deceptive actions in their handling of foreclosure cases./ppThe other firms were the Law Offices of Marshall C. Watson in Fort Lauderdale and the Law Offices of David J. Stern, P.A. in Plantation./ppThe firm’s response came Friday in a motion to quash a subpoena in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
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