Government

FTC to Create ‘Do Not Track’ List?

In a suggestion that should send a shiver down the spines of Web-based companies throughout the world, some are asking the Federal Trade Commission to develop an Internet version of its popular Do Not Call list. The fledgling idea apparently would involve a ban on companies using cookies and other…

Oct 31, 2007 11:27 PM CDT

Former Gonzales Chief of Staff Takes on Food & Drug Practice

The former chief of staff to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has landed in the private sector. D. Kyle Sampson, a Utah native who resigned amid growing controversy over the firing of at least eight U.S. attorneys, will join the food and drug practice at Hunton & Williams, the Salt…

Oct 31, 2007 6:45 PM CDT

Fire Fear for Illegal Residents: Deportation

As residents throughout many areas of Southern California worry about potential damage from the wildfires that have been burning for the past week, illegal immigrants have had a particular cause for concern. Although authorities say they are not using emergency shelters as an opportunity to check the residency status of…

Oct 29, 2007 3:50 PM CDT

Victims Seek 9/11-Style Fund in Bridge Case

Victims injured by a Minneapolis bridge collapse earlier this year are asking the government to establish a 9/11-style compensation fund to cover their medical expenses and pay a currently unspecified capped amount of damages. In exchange, they would agree not to sue over their injuries. The fund, which would be…

Oct 26, 2007 10:18 PM CDT

Panel: $680K Bill Inaccurate, Unreasonable

A legal bill of nearly $680,000 allegedly owed by Nassau County in New York to a Washington, D.C., law firm for work performed in 2002 doesn’t have to be paid, an arbitration panel says. That’s because the bill was “not accurate, not reasonable and not credible.” Zorc & Chase billed…

Oct 26, 2007 12:30 AM CDT

Whistle-blower ‘Blown Away’ by DOJ Reward Stance

Cell Therapeutics has agreed to settle a whistle-blower suit that contended the company marketed a cancer drug for unapproved uses, costing Medicare millions of dollars. But the whistle-blower could get nothing. The company has agreed to pay $10.5 million without admitting the charges by former sales representative James Marchese, who…

Oct 25, 2007 6:15 PM CDT

Mistrial in Muslim Charity-Funding Case

In a case that was widely viewed as a test of Bush administration anti-terrorism policy, a federal judge in Dallas declared a mistrial today on numerous charges against five individuals. They were accused of working for a charity that was allegedly a front for overseas terrorist activities, and the charity…

Oct 22, 2007 11:50 PM CDT

Senior Sleuths Right Civil Wrongs in Florida

A special project of the Florida attorney general has grown into a 35-office effort to protect the state’s senior citizens from large injustices and small that don’t constitute crimes. So-called senior sleuths at Seniors vs. Crime gather the facts and help the elderly make an effective complaint in the right…

Oct 22, 2007 7:06 PM CDT

Florida Amps Up Health Fraud Prosecution

Health-care fraud reportedly may rival drug-dealing as Florida’s biggest illegal industry, and prosecutors are starting to take notice. Last year, for instance, 80 percent of the medicine billed to Medicare throughout the U.S. for patients with the HIV virus or full-blown AIDS emanated from South Florida, reports Reuters—even though the…

Oct 22, 2007 4:11 PM CDT

Ave Maria Profs File Whistle-Blower Suit

Three suspended professors at Ave Maria School of Law have filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the Catholic institution, its president and dean, and the chairman of its board of governors, among other defendants. It alleges wrongful discharge, breach of contract and tortious interference with advantageous business relationships. Stephen Safranek, Edward…

Oct 19, 2007 3:35 AM CDT

NC Won’t Defend Nifong in Civil Suit Over Duke Rape Case

The state of North Carolina has refused a request by disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong that it pay his legal fees or provide a defense in a civil case over the pursuit of baseless rape charges against three former Duke University lacrosse team members. In a letter sent to Nifong…

Oct 18, 2007 5:49 PM CDT

Verizon to Feds: No Warrants, No Problem

One of the nation’s biggest cell phone service providers has been quietly providing another service, too, for the past several years. When asked by the federal government, Verizon Communications has handed over customer telephone records in hundreds of “emergency” cases since 2005, without requiring warrants or attempting to determine the…

Oct 16, 2007 11:43 PM CDT

Nifong Seeks Legal Fees in Civil Suit re Rape

Mike Nifong, the disgraced former prosecutor who is now being sued for pursuing rape charges against three former Duke lacrosse team players, has asked North Carolina to help him with his legal defense. Because the civil litigation by the exonerated defendants arose out of his work as Durham County prosecutor,…

Oct 15, 2007 11:49 PM CDT

CA v. Court in Sex Offender Residency Sweep

In a showdown between California’s governor and the state supreme court, parole officers yesterday began arresting hundreds of convicted sex offenders for violating a new state law. It prohibits sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park, as well as a number of other areas where…

Oct 12, 2007 10:31 PM CDT

Human Rights Lawyer: ‘Rendition’ is Reality

Some moviegoers might think Hollywood overstates the horrors of being kidnapped by the CIA and taken to a secret foreign prison to be tortured in Rendition, a new film to be released next week starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Omar Metwally, among others. But, if anything, it understates them,…

Oct 11, 2007 4:56 PM CDT