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Virtual Meetings

September 30, 2008

A legal opinion was issued by AZ AG okaying virtual meetings for local public bodies (though with obvious reservations). AZ Central has the story:

“Ariz. AG: ‘Virtual’ meetings are OK”

Associated Press

Attorney General Terry Goddard says Arizona school boards, city councils and other public bodies can meet online to discuss public business but that they need to accommodate the public.

Read Full Article AZ Central

Federal

Remember the fiasco with former AG, Alberto Gonzales, and his policies. Well a prosecutor has been appointed in the case. I think some of the firings actually affected the Arizona U.S. Attorney Offices, but I’m not 100%. Law.com has the article:

“Mukasey Appoints Special Prosecutor to Investigate U.S. Attorney Firings”

Joe Palazzolo, Legal Times
September 30, 2008

Attorney General Michael Mukasey has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of several U.S. Attorneys in 2006, as a report released Monday by Justice Department watchdogs found “significant evidence” that several of the attorneys fired in 2006 were let go for partisan or political reasons (pdf). The report recommended the appointment of a prosecutor with subpoena powers to continue the investigation.

Top department officials had said the firings were performance-related, but the report, by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine and Office of Professional Responsibility Director H. Marshall Jarrett, found otherwise. It also describes the department’s top two officials at the time, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, as “remarkably unengaged” in the firing process and cites both for making “inconsistent, misleading and inaccurate” public statements about the firings.

Read Full Article Law.com

Violations Reported at 94% of Nursing Homes

More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.

About 17 percent of nursing homes had deficiencies that caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to patients, said the report, by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Problems included infected bedsores, medication mix-ups, poor nutrition, and abuse and neglect of patients.

Inspectors received 37,150 complaints about conditions in nursing homes last year, and they substantiated 39 percent of them, the report said. About one-fifth of the complaints verified by federal and state authorities involved the abuse or neglect of patients.

Read Article New York Times

Shareholder Suits Face Uncertainty, Higher Hurdles

The bailouts and bankruptcies of some of Wall Street’s most prominent financial firms could hinder the claims of plaintiffs who have filed shareholder lawsuits against those companies.

Also, attorneys warn that shareholder actions face much greater difficulty than those filed against Enron Corp. and WorldCom Inc.

This month’s bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the $85 billion loan to American International Group Inc. (AIG) and the bailout of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (Freddie Mac) have, in some cases, put a temporary freeze on the dozens of shareholder lawsuits filed in recent months against those companies.

Read Article Law.com

Lawyer Indicted for Forging Will of Brother Killed in Plane Crash

September 29, 2008

A well-known Allentown, Pa., lawyer was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on charges of fabricating wills to add himself as a beneficiary after his brother, also a lawyer, and sister-in-law were killed in a February 2007 plane crash.

The indictment charges that attorney John Karoly Jr., 58, conspired with his son, John “J.P.” Karoly III, 28, and a doctor, John J. Shane, 72, to present fake wills in Northampton County Orphans’ Court that showed Shane as the sole witness.

Read full article Law.com

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