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Today's Date: U.S. Attorney News Feed
Law firm urges fire victims to sue agency
Headline News | 2007/07/26 18:33
A California law firm is running television ads in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area seeking potential plaintiffs who want to file lawsuits over the loss of their homes in a big wildfire last month. The ad tells viewers that if they lost a home on a lot with pine needles, shrubs or trees, they might be entitled to compensation. The fire destroyed 254 homes and 75 other structures in late June near the city of South Lake Tahoe. Fliers posted on trees in the burned area also urge residents to mount a lawsuit against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which enforces environmental regulations in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Some Tahoe residents have blamed the agency for the fire, saying the agency's regulations aimed at preserving the clarity of the lake made it difficult to clear pine needles, trim brush and cut trees around properties to create defensible space.

In the subdivision damaged in the Angora fire, an assessment found that 19 percent to 34 percent of the homes had created defensible space.

Larry Parker, the personal injury lawyer cited in the television ads, did not return a telephone call by the Associated Press to his Long Beach office Tuesday seeking comment.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reported that the firm sent the newspaper an e-mail Monday that said the firm "has represented over 100,000 injury victims during the past 30 years and recovered over $750,000,000 for its clients."

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency officials said they've seen the ads and the fliers but haven't received any notification of legal action. The agency says it relaxed tree-cutting policies in recent years and can't be blamed for the blaze.

"We've tried to convey clearly that most defensible-space work is possible under existing rules," said Julie Regan, agency spokeswoman.

"If you look at the work that's been done in Incline Village, it's been done under the same rules as the South Shore," she told the newspaper.

"It's unfortunate that some businesses and attorneys are trying to take advantage of this community by using scare tactics."

Agency regulations say: "Leave the 'duff' layer of pine needles in your yard -- do not rake them all up. The 'duff' layer is the dark area at the ground level where the pine needles are decomposing. This matter does not burn easily."

Other residents said they didn't want agency inspectors on their property because they fear they will be cited for violations of the agency's erosion-control measures.

That fear creates a "paralysis" among homeowners who want to make changes on their property, residents and fire experts said last month.

Agency officials say the regulations weren't responsible for the blaze but are open to changes.

"We have been open to amending policies and ordinances in an effort to better address fire safety at Lake Tahoe," John Singlaub, the agency's executive director, said. "Following the Angora fire, a robust community debate is in order to help prevent such a catastrophic event from occurring in the future."



Democrats Urge Perjury Probe of Gonzales
U.S. Legal News | 2007/07/26 18:27
Senate Democrats called for a perjury investigation against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday and subpoenaed top presidential aide Karl Rove in a deepening political and legal clash with the Bush administration. "It has become apparent that the attorney general has provided at a minimum half-truths and misleading statements," four Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote in a letter to Solicitor General Paul Clement.

They dispatched the letter shortly before Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced the subpoena of Rove, the president's top political strategist, in remarks on the Senate floor. The White House has claimed executive privilege to block Congress from receiving documents or testimony by current and former presidential aides.

``We have now reached a point where the accumulated evidence shows that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States attorneys last year,'' said Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In response, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, "Every day congressional Democrats prove that they're more interested in headlines than doing the business Americans want them to do. And Americans are now taking notice that this Congress, under Democratic leadership, is failing to tackle important issues," he said.

Gonzales is at the center of the U.S. attorney controversy, but the call for a perjury probe involved alleged conflicts between testimony he gave the Judiciary Committee in two appearances, one last year and the other this week. The issue revolves around whether there was internal administration dissent over the president's warrantless wiretapping program.

As for the firing of the prosecutors, e-mails released by the Justice Department show Gonzales' aides conferred with Rove on the matter.

Leahy also said he was issuing a subpoena for J. Scott Jennings, a White House political aide. The deadline for him and Rove to comply was set as Aug. 2.

"For over four months, I have exhausted every avenue seeking the voluntary cooperation of Karl Rove and J. Scott Jennings, but to no avail," the Vermont lawmaker said. "They and the White House have stonewalled every request. Indeed, the White House is choosing to withhold documents and is instructing witnesses who are former officials to refuse to answer questions and provide relevant information and documents."

The call for a perjury investigation marked yet another complication for Gonzales, whose fitness to serve has been bluntly criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters aboard Air Force One during the day that he "might" raise the issue with the president, who has steadfastly stood by his longtime friend.

And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters, "I'm convinced that he's not telling the truth," based on conversations with Democrats on the Judiciary Committee.

In a separate letter Thursday to Gonzales, Leahy said he would give the attorney general eight days to correct, clarify or otherwise change his testimony "so that, consistent with your oath, they are the whole truth."

In their letter to Clement, the four senators wrote that Gonzales' testimony last year that there had been no internal dissent over the president's warrantless wiretapping program conflicted with testimony by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey and with Gonzales' own statements this week before the Judiciary Committee.

They also said Gonzales falsely told the panel that he had not talked about the firings with other Justice Department officials. His former White House liaison, Monica Goodling, told the House Judiciary Committee under a grant of immunity that she had an "uncomfortable" conversation with Gonzales in which he outlined his recollection of what happened and asked her for her reaction.

"The attorney general should be held to the highest ethical standards," the senators wrote.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., one of the four lawmakers to sign the letter, was sharply critical of Gonzales. "There's no wiggle room." Schumer said.
It's not misleading. Those are deceiving. Those are lying."

Clement would decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor because Gonzales and outgoing Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty have recused themselves from the investigation that involves them. The Justice Department's No. 3 official, Associate Attorney General William Mercer, is serving only in an acting capacity and therefore does not have the authority to do so.

At issue is what was discussed at a March 10, 2004, congressional briefing. A letter from then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte said the briefing concerned the administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration.

But Gonzales, at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, repeatedly testified that the issue at hand was not about the terrorist surveillance program, which allowed the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on suspects in the United States without receiving prior court approval.

Instead, Gonzales said, the emergency meetings on March 10, 2004, focused on an intelligence program that he would not describe. He said the meeting prompted him to go to the bedside of ailing then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to recertify the surveillance program, but he denied pressuring Ashcroft to do so. Ashcroft, recovering from gall bladder surgery, refused.

White House press secretary Tony Snow defended Gonzales on Thursday but would not talk about the subject of the 2004 briefing.

"Unfortunately we get into areas that you cannot discuss openly," Snow said. "It's a very complex issue. But the attorney general was speaking consistently. The president supports him. I think at some point this is going to be something where members are going to have to go behind closed doors and have a fuller discussion of the issues. But I can't go any further than that."



Ohio court: Domestic violence laws for all couples
Court Feed News | 2007/07/26 15:25
Ohio's domestic violence laws do not conflict with the state's ban on gay marriage, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.
 
In a 6-1 decision, justices rejected an argument that the domestic violence law was unenforceable in cases involving unmarried couples because it refers to them as living together "as a spouse."
Chief Justice Thomas Moyer wrote in the opinion that lawmakers included many groups under the domestic violence law, and that describing people's living arrangements isn't the same as creating a law approximating marriage.
The gay marriage ban prohibited the government from creating any such approximation.
Twenty-seven states have constitutional language defining marriage as between a man and a woman, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Indiana, opponents of a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage had argued it would cause single people to lose protection under domestic violence laws. The amendment could be placed on the statewide ballot in 2008.


Minister tells court marijuana is a sacrament
Lawyer Blog News | 2007/07/26 13:29

The mail-order minister of a Hollywood church that burns marijuana during services and allegedly sells it to members says that’s protected under federal law because the drug is a religious sacrament. But Judge Mary Strobel has ruled that the Reverend Craig X. Rubin can’t use federal law as a defense because he faces only state charges.

Rubin, who’s representing himself at his drug trial, says members of his Temple 420 believe that marijuana is the tree of life mentioned in the Bible.

Though ordained in 1990 by the Universal Life Church, police and prosecutors describe Rubin as a drug dealer. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of possessing marijuana for sale.

The 41-year-old Rubin has no legal experience, and says he spent last weekend praying and smoking marijuana with Indians in a sweat lodge at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.



NY Beggars Granted Class Action Status
Legal Career News | 2007/07/26 10:34
A U.S. District Court Judge dismissed on Wednesday the arguments by New York City lawyers and granted six panhandlers to proceed with a class action against the state and local law-enforcement agencies accused of making thousands of illegal arrests under a defunct law.

Class action status means thousands of state's panhandlers with a similar complaint can join the suit and could be included in any monetary judgment.

Judge Shira Scheindlin said that granting class action status was the only way to stop the state-wide enforcement of an anti-begging law that was ruled unconstitutional in 1992, but since then has been used in over 10,000 arrests and prosecutions across the entire state.

"We're looking forward to putting an end to this practice," said Matthew Brinckerhoff, the beggars' lawyer.

The city lawyers had contended that the plaintiffs were unfit to represent such a large group in a class action suit, due to mental illness and drug addiction.



CA Prohibits Adidas from Selling Kangaroo Shoes
Court Feed News | 2007/07/25 18:47

A court has ruled that the government of California is within its rights to prohibit Adidas from selling kangaroo-hide soccer shoes in the state.

U.S. law does not pre-empt a state law banning importation and sale of kangaroo products in California, the California State Supreme Court ruled Monday. It reversed two lower-court decisions that sided with Adidas's argument that the California law could not foreclose U.S. provisions that allow the use of the Australian kangaroo hides.

Adidas recently began one of its largest U.S. advertising campaigns. The promotions feature David Beckham, who recently joined the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.

"Although Adidas makes some shoes using kangaroo leather, a common practice in our industry, Adidas does not make shoes from any endangered or threatened kangaroo species," a company spokeswoman, Andrea Corso, said in a statement. "We are confident that we will prevail in this matter."

Beckham's soccer shoe is made with a synthetic leather upper, Corso said.

The United States lifted a ban in 1981 on imports of leather from the three kangaroo species that Adidas uses for the shoes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 took those species off its endangered or threatened species list, effectively ending the U.S. government's involvement in the matter, the California court said.

The case was brought by Viva, the Vegetarian International Voice for Animals. The California Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court to decide whether Viva had standing to bring the case under California law and whether the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibited California from trying to regulate kangaroo imports, said an Adidas lawyer, Martin Fineman.



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