Government

Cop Pleads in Katrina Shootings Probe; ‘Like a Script from Hollywood’

A retired New Orleans police officer pleaded guilty today to conspiring to obstruct justice concerning a cover-up of the shooting deaths of two unarmed civilians on the city’s Danziger Bridge in 2005, in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Lt. Michael Lohman’s plea is the first in an ongoing federal…

Feb 25, 2010 12:16 AM CST

Judge Orders Ga. to Pay for Inmates’ Appellate Lawyers, OKs Class Action

A Georgia judge has ordered the state to provide appellate lawyers within 30 days for all indigent prison inmates who need them. Fulton Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter also granted class action status to a lawsuit filed last year by inmates, some of whom have been waiting years for representation…

Feb 23, 2010 11:26 PM CST

Town Bans Sale of Most Puppies in Pet Stores

The first city in the country to ban the declawing of cats has enacted another groundbreaking animal rights ordinance. West Hollywood, Calif., this week prohibited “companion animal” stores from selling dogs and cats, unless they fall within a “humanely bred, reared or sheltered” exception. It is the second community in…

Feb 19, 2010 7:50 PM CST

Apparently Angry at IRS, Pilot May Have Intentionally Crashed Small Plane Into Office Building

A man identified as the pilot of a small plane that crashed into an office building in Austin, Texas, this morning apparently did so intentionally to get back at the Internal Revenue Service. The building houses nearly 200 IRS employees, and Joseph Andrew Stack, 53, who piloted the Piper Cherokee,…

Feb 18, 2010 7:41 PM CST

Global Hack Attack Hit 2,500 Corp and Gov’t Targets & May Be Ongoing, NetWitness Says

In a claimed international hack attack that apparently dwarfs the recent alleged China-based intrusion into the computer systems at more than 20 companies, including Google, a coordinated operation based in China and Europe reportedly broke into some 75,000 computers in 196 countries over the past 18 months. According to security…

Feb 18, 2010 7:00 PM CST

Salt Lake Airport Wins Trademark Battle with US Over ‘Simpli-Fly’ Motto

Two U.S. agencies have backed away from a battle over rights to the term “Simpli-Fly.” Salt Lake City International Airport uses the term, trademarked in 2005, to describe its traveler information service, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Salt Lake sued when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation…

Feb 18, 2010 4:19 PM CST

Texas AG Tries to Intervene—1 Day Too Late?—in Same-Sex Divorce Case

The attorney general of Texas is seeking to intervene in a divorce case involving a same-sex couple, arguing that the two women can’t be legally divorced in the state because it doesn’t recognize their Massachusetts marriage as valid. However, Attorney General Greg Abbott made his move a day too late,…

Feb 18, 2010 12:28 AM CST

EEOC Hit with $4.5M Legal Fee Award in Losing ‘Pattern & Practice’ Case, Plans Appeal

A federal judge has ordered the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pay an Iowa trucking company’s $4.56 million legal bill after dismissing what she characterized as a pattern and practice sexual harassment lawsuit brought by the federal agency in 2007 on behalf of female drivers. Although “not unprecedented,” a fee…

Feb 17, 2010 10:56 PM CST

A Growing Source of Clean Energy, Wind Farms Are Blowing Ill Will Among Some Neighbors

It is a bright mid-September day. Hal and Judy Graham are sitting in the living room of their restored 19th century farmhouse, which looks out over the still-green rolling hills near Cohocton, a rural community in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. The pastoral view is punctuated by…

Feb 15, 2010 2:11 PM CST

1 State Dominates National Education About Bill of Rights & Constitution

As lawyers argue about the intent of the drafters of the Constitution and judges mull the issue before deciding civil rights cases, a little-noticed phenomenon also has significant influence on the nation’s understanding of the fundamental principles underlying American law. That is the influence of the Texas State Board of…

Feb 11, 2010 8:49 PM CST

Appeals Court Tosses $2.1M Verdict in Judicial Appointment Dispute

A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday overturned a $2.1 million verdict that jurors had awarded a Northland lawyer who claimed she was unfairly bypassed for a judicial appointment. Lawyer Melissa Howard won the award in 2008 after a trial in which she argued the Kansas City Council acted improperly when…

Feb 9, 2010 7:43 PM CST

DA Launches Probe into Mayor’s Liberal Use of Mute Button During Meetings

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s Public Integrity Division is looking into complaints that the mayor of Carson is using a mute button to silence those he doesn’t agree with during city council meetings. Mayor Jim Dear ostensibly uses the mute button to police the allotted time each speaker has…

Feb 9, 2010 2:59 PM CST

3rd Cir. Creates ‘Chaos’ with Conflicting Rulings on Student MySpace Principal Parodies

Two panels in different districts of one federal appeals court made apparently conflicting rulings yesterday in cases over students in two separate Pennsylvania school districts who posted similar parodies of their principals on MySpace, using computers at their homes. One divided three-judge panel in the Middle District of Pennsylvania issued…

Feb 5, 2010 6:09 PM CST

Google Seeks Help from Spy Agency on Hack Attacks, Raising Privacy Concerns

As malicious cyber attacks apparently are occurring more frequently and with more sophistication than ever before, a search engine giant has turned to a U.S. spy agency for help in dealing with a major suspected China-based hacking effort in December. But the move by Google Inc. to work with the…

Feb 4, 2010 11:44 PM CST

SEC Employees Investigated for Surfing Porn Sites at Work

The Securities and Exchange Commission has investigated more than two dozen employees and contractors caught viewing pornography on their government computers, including one regional supervisor who admitted his viewing habits were a “kind of distraction per se.” The Washington Times wrote about the porn problem after getting information about the…

Feb 3, 2010 2:22 PM CST