Tully Rinckey PLLC is pleased to announce the addition of attorney J.E. Yancey Ellis as an Associate in its Washington, D.C. law office. Ellis joins Tully Rinckey PLLC after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps for over four years, including a year long deployment in Iraq. Ellis will provide representation to military servicemembers in all aspects of military criminal and administrative law.

As a former Marine Corps Judge Advocate and assistant advisor to a Commanding Officer in Iraq, Ellis earned a reputation as an aggressive, thorough, and highly admired attorney familiar with the legal complexities under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. At Tully Rinckey PLLC, Ellis will specialize in providing all members of the military with high quality legal services including officer misconduct, Non-Judicial Punishment proceedings, Article 32 investigations, desertion and AWOL instances, as well as violent crimes. He will also focus on handling administrative matters relating to the correction of military records.

While on active duty in the U.S. Marine Corps, Ellis served as both a military prosecutor and defender at Camp Pendleton in California as well as a Deputy Legal Advisor while stationed in Iraq. During his time as a military prosecutor, Ellis prosecuted over 100 Marines accused of violating federal or military law, or state law under the Federal Assimilative Crimes Act. In his role as defender, Ellis represented Marines accused under federal and military law of felony and misdemeanor crimes earning Defense Counsel of the Year for the Western United States in 2009.

Ellis earned his Juris Doctorate from George Mason University School of Law, graduating Cum Laude, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from West Virginia University, graduating Magna Cum Laude.

For more information about J.E. Yancey Ellis’ addition to Tully Rinckey PLLC or the firm’s military and national security practice, please contact Ali Skinner at (202) 787-1900 or at askinner@fedattorney.com

Black farmers and American Indians who say the United States discriminated against them and took their money for decades are a step closer to winning long-awaited government settlements.

Under legislation passed by the Senate on Friday, black farmers who claim discrimination at the hands of the Agriculture Department would receive almost $1.2 billion. American Indians who say they were swindled out of royalties by the Interior Department would split $3.4 billion. Both cases have languished for more than a decade, and plaintiffs say beneficiaries are dying off.

"The Senate finally did the right thing," said John Boyd, head of the National Black Farmers Association. "They stepped up and told the world civil rights still matter in America."

The legislation was approved in the Senate by voice vote Friday and sent to the House. The money had been held up for months in the chamber as Democrats and Republicans squabbled over how to pay for it.

President Barack Obama praised the Senate for finally passing the bill and urged the House to move forward on it. He said his administration is also working to resolve separate lawsuits filed against the department by Hispanic and female farmers.

Foreclosure law attorney David J. Stern has stepped away from all operations in a Plantation, Fla., company he founded. He will now concentrate on his law firm, a company statement said.

DJSP Enterprises Inc., which did work for Stern's law firm, announced Stern resigned as president and CEO and that it appointed Stephen J. Bernstein as chairman of the board, president and CEO. Bernstein served as interim chairman after Stern stepped down from that position earlier this year.

Stern's law firm and other foreclosure companies are under investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Office, which accuses them of submitting misleading or fabricated documents in foreclosure cases.

The former spokesman for the Los Angeles County Superior Court claims false rumors that he leaked information to a celebrity news website were used as pretext for his firing.

Allan Parachini was fired Monday after eight years of handling the media covering high-profile cases including those involving Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

Parachini, a former Los Angeles Times reporter, told the newspaper he met with court Executive Officer John A. Clarke on Oct. 25 and was told administrators had lost confidence in him because of a perception that he had leaked privileged materials to TMZ.

Parachini said in the report published Friday that he was not provided with specifics but Clarke said he talked too frequently with TMZ's founder, Harvey Levin.

"I responded, 'Guilty as charged. I talk to a lot of reporters on the phone. That's my job,'" Parachini said.

He denied any impropriety and contended that the allegations were a "pretext" for his dismissal.

The real reason, Parachini claimed, was that court administrators wanted him to stonewall requests from the Times and the Bay Area News Group for what Parachini considered to be public information.

The state’s highest court is releasing the findings of a probe into allegations of widespread patronage in the Massachusetts Probation Department.

The justices have been reviewing the report since last week and announced they will release it Thursday afternoon.

Independent counsel Paul Ware submitted the report to the Supreme Judicial Court on Nov. 10.

Probation Commissioner John O’Brien was suspended in May after a series of Boston Globe articles alleging that the department has become a patronage haven for lawmakers.

Among the witnesses subpoenaed to appear before Ware was state Rep. Thomas Petrolati of Ludlow, a top deputy to House Speaker Robert DeLeo. The Globe reported that Petrolati’s wife, a former aide and financial supporters had received jobs in the department.

The Ohio Supreme Court will get a chance to determine the legality of the state's smoking ban after an appeals court ruled that state officials didn't overstep their bounds when they repeatedly cited a Victorian Village bar for violating Ohio's smoking ban.

Zeno's Victorian Village is fighting a two-pronged battle against the 2006 anti-smoking law, saying that it shouldn't apply to family-owned bars and that authorities are unfairly punishing bars for violating the ban rather than the smokers themselves.

On Tuesday, the Franklin  County Court of Appeals handed Zeno's a big setback. In a  3-0 ruling, judges overturned a trial court's decision that dismissed more than $30,000 in  fines against Zeno's. The trial  court concluded that authorities had singled out bars and  restaurants for penalties while  refusing to cite smokers who  violated the ban.

The February ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain never affected how state and local health departments enforce the no-smoking law. As of the end of August, more than 2,500 fines had been imposed totaling nearly $1.2 million, according to the Ohio Department of Health. State and local officials had collected about $400,000 of that amount.