Dewey Takes Lead on Dodgers Bankruptcy
June 29, 2011
The Los Angeles Dodgers, one of Major League Baseball’s most historic franchises, filed for bankruptcy Monday in Delaware, listing assets of up to $1 billion against $500 million in liabilities.
The decision to enter Chapter 11 comes after an ongoing divorce battle between owners Frank and Jamie McCourt and a recent ruling by MLB commissioner Bud Selig rejecting a proposed $3 billion television contract for the team over the next 17 years.
“I simply cannot allow the commissioner to knowingly and intentionally be in a position to expose the Dodgers to financial risk any longer,” said Frank McCourt in a statement Monday. “The Chapter 11 process provides the path on which to position the [Dodgers] for long-term success.”
Article: The Am Law Daily
Supreme Court overturns ban on violent video games
The game seems to be over for those seeking to ban the sale or rental of violent video games to children after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that the government doesn’t have the authority to “restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”
Gamemakers celebrated the high court’s decision, as did Grapevine-based GameStop, the world’s largest video game retailer. One local parent decried violent games but said it’s her role as a parent to police what her children view.
The high court voted 7-2 to reject California’s 2005 law covering games sold or rented to those under 18, calling it an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said, “Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply.”
Article: Star-Telegram
DJ wins $1 million in lawsuit over “My Humps” song
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Cleveland disc jockey and early rap artist Orrin Lynn Tolliver, Jr. has just been awarded nearly $1.2 million by a New York jury. The award comes after a former friend and collaborator allowed without permission his 1983 song, “I Need A Freak,” to be sampled by the Black Eyed Peas for the group’s hit song, “My Humps.”
In the early 80s, Tolliver formed a concept band called Sexual Harassment and recorded “I Need A Freak” at his friend and collaborator James McCants’ studio at Heat Records.
Article: Reuters
Supreme Court: 2010-11 term in review
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has changed dramatically and, as the recent term proved, stayed decidedly the same. The court, which completed its annual session Monday, includes two recent appointees of President Obama and is the most diverse in history. Yet while the nine-member bench looks different, an enduring conservative majority has deepened its imprint on the law.
In the 2010-11 term, the majority exerted its power particularly on business cases, favoring big companies over the interests of consumers and employees. It closed off avenues to the courthouse for people suing corporations yet also for taxpayers who challenge government aid to religious schools. And it continued to roll back campaign-finance laws intended to diminish the influence of wealthy interests in elections.
Article: USA Today
Justices to decide police use of GPS devices on suspects’ cars
Washington (CNN) — Antoine Jones was being watched. Police used a global positioning system to track his movements around the nation’s capital. After a monthlong clandestine operation, Jones was arrested and charged with drug trafficking.
Now the Supreme Court will decide whether law enforcement should have obtained a warrant before placing the device on the drug suspect’s car so they could covertly trail him.
The justices Monday accepted an appeal from the Obama administration, and will hold arguments perhaps by year’s end.
A federal appeals court had overturned Jones’ criminal conviction, saying it was a “search” that deserved some Fourth Amendment protection.
Article: CNN
Climate Change Lawsuit Against Utilities Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court
June 23, 2011
States can’t invoke federal law to force utilities to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, shutting off one avenue for groups that advocate bolder steps against climate change.
The unanimous ruling is a victory for five companies — American Electric Power Co., Duke Energy Corp. (DUK), Xcel Energy Inc. (XEL), Southern Co. (SO) and the government-owned Tennessee Valley Authority — that had been sued by six U.S. states, including California, and the city of New York.
The states, which sought a cap on emissions, argued that carbon dioxide spewed by the utilities is a public nuisance because it causes climate change. The justices said the Environmental Protection Agency was better equipped than federal judges to assess the costs and benefits of reducing greenhouse gases.
Article: Bloomberg
Lawsuit: Baby died after being left alone at day care
A 3-month-old boy who died in a DeKalb County child care center in 2009 had been left alone while staff members went to lunch, according to a lawsuit filed this week in state court. But the center denies any wrongdoing in the boy’s death.
The boy, Darryl Love II, died on Sept. 15, 2009, the first day he attended Childfirst 24 Hour Childcare on Columbia Drive, an attorney for the baby’s parents told the AJC.
DeKalb County police and Bright from the Start, the state agency which regulates child care facilities, investigated the baby’s death, but no charges were ever filed. At a state hearing, the center was vindicated and has remained open.
According to the lawsuit filed in DeKalb County State Court on Monday — the same day a 2-year-old girl died after she was left inside a van outside a Clayton County day care — baby Darryl was left “unattended and unsupervised for an extended period of time.”
Article: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Man targeted by cop’s ethnic comment to file lawsuit
Lawyers for the man who was at the center of a videotaped incident that resulted in the discipline of a Seattle police officer are holding a news conference on Wednesday afternoon to announce the filing of a lawsuit.
According to a news release, Martin Monetti will make a “short public statement” and attorneys and members of the Monetti family will be available to answer questions. The news release doesn’t give the reason for the conference, but Monetti’s attorneys confirmed Wednesday morning it would cover the filing of a lawsuit.
Police Officer Shandy Cobane sparked a public outcry when video emerged of an April 17, 2010, incident in which he was seen telling the prone Latino man he was going to “beat the [expletive] Mexican piss out of you, homey. You feel me?”
Cobane, who was working as a gang detective, drew condemnation from civil-rights and minority organizations.
Last May, the Seattle chapter of the NAACP and other civil-rights groups urged county prosecutors to prosecute Cobane, and a coalition of minority organizations formed after the incident pressed for his firing.
The incident was one of several that prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to open a broad civil-rights investigation in March into whether Seattle police have engaged in a pattern of unnecessary force and biased policing.
Article: The Seattle Times
Court says judges can’t give extra time for rehab
June 18, 2011
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court says judges cannot give convicts extra time in prison in hope it will be used to get them into rehabilitation services.
The high court on Thursday unanimously ruled in favor of Alejandra Tapia, who was trying to reduce her 51 month sentence for alien smuggling, gun possession and bail jumping.
She wanted a three-year sentence, but the judge said that a longer sentence would increase her chances of getting into a 500-hour prison drug rehabilitation program. Tapia was never placed in the program.
Tapia says Congress has disapproved of judges using imprisonment as a method of rehabilitation. The lower courts disagreed.
The case is Tapia v. United States, 10-5400.
Article: Associated Press
California man guilty in fake court order
SAN DIEGO – A man who tried to stall the foreclosure of his San Diego County home by making up a court order and signing the name of a fictional judge has pleaded guilty to federal charges.
The San Diego Union-Tribune says 45-year-old Marc Uribe entered the plea Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Uribe created a phony order temporarily barring lenders from foreclosing on his Mission Valley home and signed it with the name of a non-existent federal judge named Ivan Gonzalez. Authorities learned about the order when a lender contacted them.
When he’s sentenced later this year, Uribe faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Article: Associated Press