Recent Updates
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Supreme court puts limits on mentally ill defendants
National News 06/19/2008The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that criminal defendants with a history of mental illness do not always have the right to represent themselves, even if they have been judged competent to stand trial.The justices, by a 7-2 vote, said states can give ...
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City Evicts Boy Scouts For Anti-Gay Bias
National News 06/16/2008The City of Philadelphia wants to evict the Boy Scouts of America from the rent-free property that has been its headquarters since 1928, for violating the city's anti-discrimination policy. The city says the Scouts' Cradle of Liberty openly discrimin...
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Supreme Court Re: US Citizens detained abroad by US
National News 06/13/2008The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday in the consolidated cases of Munaf v. Geren and Geren v. Omar that federal courts have jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitions filed by American citizens detained abroad by US military personnel, even if the mili...
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Indian trust mismanagement case goes to trial
National News 06/11/2008The US District Court for the District of Columbia began hearings Monday in Cobell v. Kempthorne, a class-action suit brought in 1996 alleging US government mismanagement of trust funds for a group of some 500,000 Native Americans and their heirs. Ju...
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Supreme Court Allows RICO Tax Lien Lawsuit
National News 06/10/2008A pair of Chicago-area companies have the right to sue their competitors under federal racketeering law for allegedly gaining more than their fair share of tax liens, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled. BCS Services Inc. and Phoenix Bond & Indemnity Co...
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Two Foreclosure Crooks Plead Guilty
National News 06/05/2008Two men pleaded guilty Tuesday to defrauding homeowners in a "foreclosure rescue" scam that netted the criminals titles to more than 80 houses, more than $20 million in fraudulently acquired home equity loans and $1.4 million in fees, federal prosecu...
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FTC Shuts Down Pretexters
National News 05/29/2008The Federal Trade Commission has obtained court orders shutting down a ring that used "pretexting" to get people's confidential telephone records and sell them to third parties. The FTC also fined the defendants $600,000, their profits from the opera...
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Chicago Isn't Liable For Club Tragedy, Court Says
National News 05/27/2008The city of Chicago is not liable for the deaths and injuries of E2 Nightclub patrons trampled in a stairwell trying to flee the club after security guards used pepper spray to quell a disturbance, an Illinois appellate court ruled. The estates of 20...
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Woman Profited From Disabled Children
National News 05/21/2008A Florida woman pleaded guilty Tuesday to bilking New York state and city of $1.7 million intended to support 11 adopted, disabled children. But Judith Leekin kept many of them restrained in her basement, did not let them go to school, and spent the ...
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Court Sides With MySpace In Suit Over Sex Assault
National News 05/19/2008MySpace is immune from a lawsuit accusing it of failing to protect a teen girl from the alleged sexual assault of a 19-year-old man she met on the popular social-networking site, the 5th Circuit ruled. A three-judge panel upheld a Texas judge's dismi...
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Vallejo, CA Declares Itself Bankrupt
National News 05/08/2008The Vallejo City Council has voted unanimously to declare the city bankrupt. The council cited falling property values and tax receipts and a $16 million budget deficit for the fiscal year that begins in July. Residents of Vallejo, a town of 120,000 ...
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Federal judge rejects Katrina damage immunity bid
National News 05/06/2008Judge Stanwood R. Duval Jr. of the US Eastern District of Louisiana ruled again Friday that the US Army Corps of Engineers cannot claim immunity from suit in connection with damages suffered by plaintiffs by virtue of alleged defects in the Mississip...