Founding Partner Mathew B. Tully has been awarded the impressive Air Force Space Badge due to his completion of space training. Tully is among one of the few Army Officers awarded this prestigious badge, and among an even smaller number of National Guardsmen authorized to wear it. 

In late 2008, Tully attended the clandestine National Security Space Institute (NSSI), the Department of Defense’s premier institute for providing service members with the space education and training required to support military operations. Upon graduation, he became one of only 200 space operations officers in the Army and the only space professional in New York. 

“I am honored to be one of the few National Guardsmen authorized to wear the Air Force Space Badge and grateful that the Army has given me the opportunity to experience our country’s space systems technology and capabilities firsthand,” said Tully. “I look forward to my continued space training and service to our country in the Army National Guard.”

Tully is a Major in the New York Army National Guard, holding the position of Space Operations Officer. His military service and experiences have led him to dedicate his legal career to protecting and upholding the rights of veterans and service members across the country. Founded in 2003, Tully Rinckey PLLC has pioneered many landmark Veterans Preference and USERRA cases.                                                                                        

To speak with Tully or to learn more about Tully Rinckey PLLC, please contact Jessica Brociek at 202-787-1900 or via email at jbrociek@tullylegal.com.

The Washington-based court on Monday said it will hear two appeals filed by the state and supporters of the 13-year-old program that provides dollar-for-dollar state income tax breaks for donations to school tuition organizations.

The action "is terrific news for the thousands of families who desperately need scholarship assistance to send their children to the school of their choice," said Tim Keller, executive director of the Institute for Justice's Arizona chapter.

The institute was one of several groups defending the program.

A lawyer for the challengers said he hopes the justices' action doesn't mean the Supreme Court intends to open the door for broad state funding of religious instruction.

"I hope they didn't take this case to say that," said attorney Paul Bender.

The American Civil Liberties Union and others challenged the program as unconstitutional because religious organizations award most of the scholarships and require children to enroll in religious schools. The suit says the program amounts to an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion.

The Arizona Supreme Court previously upheld the constitutionality of the 1997 law as written, but the current case being considered by federal courts challenges how the program has been implemented.

A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the current case, but the federal appeals court in San Francisco last year ruled that the lawsuit could proceed. In that ruling, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said the program could be unconstitutional because parents seeking scholarships didn't have a realistic range of education choices for students to attend nonreligious schools.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Texas death row inmate should have access to evidence for DNA testing that he says could clear him of three murders.

The justices said Monday they will use the case of Hank Skinner to decide whether prison inmates may use a federal civil rights law to do DNA testing that was not performed prior to their conviction.

Federal appeals courts around the country have decided the issue differently. The high court previously blocked Skinner's execution while it considered his appeal.

Skinner, 47, faced lethal injection for the bludgeoning and strangling of his girlfriend, Twila Jean Busby, 40, and the stabbing of her two adult sons. The slayings occurred at their home in the Texas Panhandle town of Pampa on New Year's Eve in 1993.

He was arrested about three hours after the bodies were found. Police found him in a closet at the trailer home of a woman he knew. He was splattered with the blood of at least two of the victims.

The Supreme Court says it will consider ending a lawsuit that challenges Arizona's tax breaks for donations for private school scholarships.

The court on Monday said it will hear an appeal filed by the state and supporters of the 13-year-old program that provides dollar-for-dollar income tax breaks for donations to school tuition organizations.

Some Arizona taxpayers challenged the program as unconstitutional because religious organizations award most of the scholarships and require children to enroll in religious schools. The suit says the program amounts to an unconstitutional state endorsement of religion.

The federal appeals court in San Francisco last year ruled that the lawsuit could proceed.

In 2002, the Supreme Court upheld school voucher programs. Supporters of the Arizona aid program say it is no different from the Cleveland program upheld in 2002 because in both cases, government does not direct any money to religious schools.

A suburban mother once at the center of a national abduction hoax stole more than $700,000 from clients and colleagues at the law office where she worked and posed as her boss before fleeing to Disney World, a grand jury charged Thursday.

Bonnie Sweeten was accused in a 23-count indictment of offenses including fraud, money laundering and identity theft between 2005 and 2009.

Sweeten, a paralegal and office manager from Feasterville, diverted money from clients' legal settlements and other accounts to spend on clothing, jewelry, tanning salons, gym usage, electronics and mortgage payments, prosecutors said. She also fabricated and forged documents including a court order, a driver's license, a passport and mortgage paperwork, an indictment said.

A telephone message left with an attorney for Sweeten was not immediately returned Thursday.

Sweeten, 39, is serving a nine- to 23-month sentence at the Bucks County prison after pleading guilty to identity theft and filing a false police report in connection with last year's hoax.

Sweeten abandoned her car in Philadelphia and called 911 to say she and her daughter had been kidnapped, but she actually fled to Orlando, Fla., and Disney World.

Napa-based law firm Dickenson Peatman and Fogarty said it will add three more attorneys to its Santa Rosa office to “serve the evolving needs of the North Bay community.”

Rounding out the Santa Rosa hires are Susan Teel, who joins as a senior counsel for the firm’s wealth management group, specializing in estate planning, trust administration, probate and tax matters; Delphine Adams, who will be a senior counsel in the litigation group, with emphasis in real estate matters; and Jennifer Phillips, who will join as a associate in the labor and employment and litigation groups, also specializing in real estate as well as labor.

Gregory Walsh will take on the role of a director at the firm’s labor and employment group.

At the same time, five attorneys are leaving the firm: Brandon Blevans, who joined Blevans & Blevans in Napa, and Michael Holman, Kevin Teague, Cathy Roche and Rob Anglin, who formed their own firm in Napa under their names.