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Judge names Houston attorney to monitor company
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2009/12/28 21:01
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A Houston lawyer will serve as a court-appointed ombudsman to monitor a venerable Texas company that has been cited for discriminating against black employees.
pTony P. Rosenstein, an employment lawyer with the Houston firm Baker Botts, will investigate complaints from Lufkin Industries employees and act to resolve them, according to an injunction issued Friday by U.S. District Judge Ron Clark of Beaumont./ppThe injunction is part of the resolution of a class-action lawsuit brought against the 107-year-old company by black workers 12 years ago./ppClark ruled last June that Lufkin Industries' more than 1,000 current and former black employees are due to divvy up back pay and interest of approximately $5.5 million. The judge awarded the damages as compensation for what he called the company's unlawful discrimination in awarding promotions./ppLufkin Industries, publicly traded since 1990, manufactures oil field equipment and industrial gearboxes. It employs about 1,200 in Lufkin, a city of 33,000 about 120 miles northeast of Houston, making it one of the area's largest employers./p |
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Ky. League of Cities audit goes to law enforcement
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2009/12/18 21:01
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| A financial review that turned up excessive and questionable spending at the Kentucky League of Cities has been turned over to state and federal law enforcement agencies.pState Auditor Crit Luallen said Thursday she forwarded the report to law enforcement because of the nature and complexity of the exam's findings./ppThose findings included high pay for executives of the quasi-governmental organization that is primarily funded by public money, conflicts of interest in spending, undocumented credit card expenses and gifts from vendors, including admission to a Las Vegas strip club for three League staff members./ppThe audit team of state financial experts found 19 positions in the organization paid more than $100,000 — some far more, thanks to raises over the past seven years./ppAuditors noted that the executive director's salary had risen since 2002 from $170,000 to $331,000, and that the deputy executive director's pay rose over the same period from $141,00 to $255,000. They also noted a raise that took the chief insurance services officer salary from $124,000 to nearly $239,000./p |
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NH judge refuses to dismiss poetry program lawsuit
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2009/10/26 09:31
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| div id=body-content class=body-content pCONCORD,N.H. - A federal judge says New England College in Henniker, N.H., mayproceed with its lawsuit accusing a poet of stealing one of itsmaster's programs and its faculty and recreating it at a rival schoolin New Jersey./ppNew England College is suing Anne Marie Macari ,the former director of its low-residency Master's of Fine Arts inPoetry program , and Drew University, where Macari now directs asimilar program./ppDrew University asked U.S. District Court JudgeJoseph Laplante to either dismiss the case or move it to New Jersey.Laplante denied both motions. The judge says even though no one fromDrew ever came to New Hampshire, Macari was acting on Drew's behalf andthe school authorized or at least knew about her actions in NewHampshire./p /div |
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Judge waives waiting period for gay Iowa couple
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2009/04/27 09:33
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A same-sex Iowa couple will be allowed to wed as soon as Monday after a judge allowed them to bypass the state's three-day waiting period.
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Melisa Keeton and Shelley Wolfe of Des Moines received their waiver by 9 a.m./ppSame-sex couples in Iowa began applying for marriage license Monday after a state Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay unions took effect./ppThe high court issued an order early in the day confirming that the appeals process in the case has officially concluded./ppThe Iowa Supreme Court's unanimous and emphatic decision on April 3 made Iowa the third state to allow same-sex marriage, joining Massachusetts and Connecticut. Vermont has passed a law that will take effect in September./p |
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Judge in LA orders green card cases reopened
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2009/04/24 09:33
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A federal judge tentatively ordered the Department of Homeland Security to reopen the cases of 22 people who were denied green cards because their American spouses died during the application process.
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U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder ruled the so-called widow penalty doesn't necessarily require that immigrants' permanent residency applications be denied when their American spouses die. Citing a 2006 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Snyder ruled this week that applicants don't lose their status as spouses of U.S. citizens if the death occurs before the government rules on their applications./ppThe decision, if made final, would be a victory for more than 200 people across the country who have been affected by the widow penalty, said attorney Brent Renison, who filed the class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles./ppThis case is very significant because it's the first that follows the circuit court decision and gives guidance to the agency on what it can and cannot do in these situations, Renison told The Associated Press on Tuesday./ppThe U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has argued the law requires that residency applications be rejected for immigrants whose American spouses die within two years of being married./p |
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US Supreme Court to rule on animal cruelty law
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2009/04/21 09:32
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The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether a federal law that makes it a crime to sell videos of animals being tortured or killed violates constitutional free-speech rights.
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The high court agreed to hear a U.S. Justice Department appeal defending the 1999 animal cruelty law after it was struck down for infringing free-speech protections./pspan id=midArticle_4/spanpA U.S. appeals court declared the law unconstitutional and overturned the conviction of a Virginia man, Robert Stevens, who sold three videos of pit bulls fighting each other and attacking hogs and wild boars./pspan id=midArticle_5/spanpHis conviction in 2005 was the first in the country under the law. Stevens had been sentenced to 37 months in prison./pspan id=midArticle_6/spanpBy a 10-3 vote, the appeals court rejected the government's argument that, for the first time in more than 25 years, there was a new category of speech not covered by constitutional free-speech protections. Usually, videos and other depictions are protected as free speech, even if they show abhorrent conduct./p |
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