Litigation
- HP-EDS deal price at issue in court hearing
AP ( 22, 2008)
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - A shareholder group is trying to pressure Electronic Data Systems Corp. into demanding more than the $13.2 billion that Hewlett-Packard Co. has offered for the technology services company.
- Court tosses FCC 'wardrobe malfunction' fine
AP ( 22, 2008)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Among the most notorious on-screen gaffes ever, Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction" on CBS during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show drew a $550,000 indecency fine from the Federal Communications Commission. Now a federal appeals court has thrown it out.
- NTSB's 8 proposals to bar medically unfit drivers
AP ( 21, 2008)
(AP) - Since 2003, the National Transportation Safety Board has put medical oversight of commercial truck and bus drivers on its "most wanted" list, calling the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's overall response "unacceptable."
- Court tosses FCC 'wardrobe malfunction' fine
AP ( 21, 2008)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - A federal appeals court on Monday threw out a $550,000 indecency fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction."
- Medically unfit truck drivers still on roads
AP ( 21, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hundreds of thousands of tractor-trailer and bus drivers in the United States carry commercial driver's licenses desp
- Ex-Guns N' Roses drummer arrested in Los Angeles
AP ( 18, 2008)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler has been arrested in Hollywood for alleged drug possession.
- Report: Danger from electrical work in Iraq severe
AP ( 18, 2008)
NEW YORK (AP) - Inferior electrical work by private contractors on U.S. military bases in Iraq is more widespread than the Pentagon has acknowledged, according to a published report.
- Web networking photos come back to bite defendants
AP ( 18, 2008)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."
- Former Tenn. state senator convicted in corruption
AP ( 18, 2008)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal jury has convicted a former Tennessee state senator for taking money from government contractors and lobbying for them while he served in the Senate.
- Former Bin Laden driver 1st test of Gitmo trials
AP ( 18, 2008)
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Salim Hamdan is a small player with a big role. A former driver for Osama bin Laden, he is about to become the first Guantanamo prisoner to be tried for war crimes in a major test of the U.S. system for prosecuting alleged terrorists.
- Many ills found at Chicago jail, nation's biggest
AP ( 18, 2008)
CHICAGO (AP) - A federal investigation of the nation's largest single-site county jail has uncovered serious sanitation and medical care problems, as well as violence against prisoners who clashed with guards or failed to follow commands, officials said.
- Merck to fund Vioxx settlement in August
AP ( 17, 2008)
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. will start cutting checks for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx next month, after announcing Thursday that it will fund a $4.85 billion settlement expected to resolve roughly 50,000 lawsuits alleging harm from Vioxx.
- Boy band promoter ordered to repay victims $300M
AP ( 16, 2008)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Lou Pearlman and federal authorities have finally agreed on how much the former boy band promoter swindled from banks and investors in a decades-long scam: a staggering $300 million.
- Court finds Mitsubishi executives guilty
AP ( 15, 2008)
TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese court found Mitsubishi Motors and its three former executives guilty Tuesday of falsifying a report to the government in a fatal accident suspected of being linked to a wheel defect.
- SC judge OKs James Brown auction
AP ( 15, 2008)
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina judge says an auction of James Brown's belongings in New York can go forward as planned this week.
- Court rejects Bush's signature air pollution rule
AP ( 11, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court unanimously struck down a signature component of President Bush's clean air policies Friday, dealing a blow to environmental groups and likely delaying further action until the next administration.
- EU court: Rehear Sony BMG case
AP ( 10, 2008)
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union's highest court ruled Thursday that a lower court made several mistakes when it overturned regulatory approval for Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG to combine their music units to form the world's second-largest record label.
- Delta dismissed from fatal 2006 Ky. crash lawsuits
AP ( 009, 2008)
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed Delta Air Lines Inc. from more than 19 pending lawsuits involving a plane crash that killed 49 people two years ago.
- Judge won't hear fen-phen settlement fraud retrial
AP ( 007, 2008)
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge who declared a mistrial in the case of two lawyers accused of conspiring to defraud clients in a diet-drug settlement won't handle the retrial.
- Continental ordered to trial in Concorde explosion
AP ( 003, 2008)
PARIS (AP) - A French judge ordered Continental Airlines and five people to stand trial for manslaughter in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people, a prosecutor said Thursday.
- Judge in Ky. gives panel 1 day in fen-phen trial
AP ( 003, 2008)
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Jurors in northern Kentucky are expected to continue deliberations Thursday in the federal case of two lawyers charged with defrauding their clients out of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement.
- Florida Supreme Court nixes Indian casino pact
AP ( 003, 2008)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court is overturning the agreement Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Tribe to expand gambling at its casinos.
- Anti-tobacco lawyer's son sentenced in bribe plan
AP ( 002, 2008)
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - The son of anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for knowing about a judicial bribery scandal and not reporting it to authorities.
- Astra shares up 6 pct on Seroquel court ruling
AP ( 002, 2008)
LONDON (AP) - Shares in AstraZeneca PLC jumped 6 percent Wednesday after the drug maker won a key patent battle in the United States over Seroquel, its anti-psychotic drug and second-best seller.
- Judge tells jury to deliberate in fen-phen trial
AP ( 002, 2008)
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge told deadlocked jurors to go back and deliberate again for the seventh day Wednesday as the possibility of a mistrial loomed in the case of two lawyers charged with defrauding their clients out of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement.
- Fed judge temporarily blocks new Cuban travel law
AP ( 001, 2008)
MIAMI (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a new Florida law that would have imposed a stiff bond and other restrictions on travel agencies and charter companies booking trips to Cuba.
- Minn. judge rules against Wal-Mart on work breaks
AP ( 001, 2008)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A judge has ruled against Wal-Mart in a class-action lawsuit, saying the discount retailer violated state labor laws 2 million times by cutting worker break time and forcing employees to work off the clock.
- Jury clears 1 of 3 lawyers in fen-phen trial
AP ( 001, 2008)
COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal jury acquitted one attorney Tuesday of defrauding clients in a diet-drug settlement, but was sent back to deliberate on two others.
- Group sues over crop subsidies on US forest land
AP ( 001, 2008)
GOLDEN POND, Ky. (AP) - Environmentalists are suing the U.S. Forest Service over what they say is an illegal dole: The agency's long-standing practice of subsidizing corn and soybean farming on a nature preserve in western Kentucky and Tennessee.
- Zach Scruggs to be sentenced Wednesday
AP ( 001, 2008)
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - There was a time when Zach Scruggs seemed to have it all, graduating cum laude in his law class before joining the successful firm started by his father, legendary attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.
- Judge OKs Sago mine settlement with 2 suppliers
AP ( 001, 2008)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A judge has approved a settlement between families of coal miners involved in the deadly Sago Mine explosion and companies that made and distributed concrete foam blocks used at the mine.
- Court tosses $785,000 award over cancer death
AP ( 001, 2008)
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A federal appeals court has thrown out a $785,000 award to a woman who blamed her mother's cancer death on contamination from a wood treatment plant in Mississippi, one of hundreds of such cases against the facility's owner.
- R.I. high court overturns lead paint verdict
AP ( 001, 2008)
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island's Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a first-in-the-nation jury verdict against three former lead paint producers, a closely watched case that has been seen as bellwether for potential suits across the country.
- Judge sentences Scruggs to 5 years in prison
AP ( 27, 2008)
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Famed anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs is headed to prison for five years for conspiring to bribe a judge.
- Appeals court upholds FCC on cable rules
AP ( 27, 2008)
CINCINNATI (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Communications Commission's authority to make rules intended to increase cable television competition.
- Justices agree to consider Alaskan mining case
AP ( 27, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to step into an environmental dispute over a gold mining operation near Juneau, Alaska.
- Court makes electric rate challenge difficult
AP ( 26, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Thursday made it difficult for utility companies to successfully challenge costly, long-term energy supply contracts negotiated during the West Coast energy crisis seven years ago.
- Airlines pay $504M to settle price-fixing scam
AP ( 26, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - Four international airlines have agreed to pay $504 million in fines to settle charges they conspired to fleece consumers by driving up cargo shipping prices.
- Oil spill ruling leaves Alaska victims stunned
AP ( 26, 2008)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Mike Lytle, a third-generation fisherman from the coastal village of Cordova, said many residents there were walking around stunned, shaking their heads.
- Mass. regulators file fraud charges against UBS
AP ( 26, 2008)
BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts regulators filed civil fraud charges Thursday against UBS Financial Services for allegedly selling investments it knew were extremely risky, but portrayed as safe.
- MasterCard to pay $1.8 billion to settle AmEx suit
AP ( 25, 2008)
NEW YORK (AP) - American Express said Wednesday MasterCard will pay it as much as $1.8 billion to settle an antitrust lawsuit, as it warned credit losses may increase as business conditions deteriorate.
- Calif. attorney general sues Countrywide Financial
AP ( 25, 2008)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Countrywide Financial Corp. is accused of using misleading advertising and other unfair business practices to trick borrowers into taking on risky home loans they didn't fully understand, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the California attorney general's office.
- NY's top court affirms dropping 4 claims against Grasso
AP ( 25, 2008)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's top court backed a lower court in throwing out four of the state's six claims against former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso's $187.5 million compensation package, saying the attorney general at the time had exceeded his authority.
- Illinois AG sues Countrywide over lending practices
AP ( 25, 2008)
CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois' attorney general is suing the nation's biggest mortgage lender.
- Court slashes judgment in Exxon Valdez disaster
AP ( 25, 2008)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday slashed the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.