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Hartford Courant wants plagiarism suit dismissed
Business Law Info |
2011/05/24 12:09
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Lawyers for The Hartford Courant say in recently filed court documents that a $7.5 million plagiarism lawsuit filed by a competing newspaper should be dismissed because no copyright laws were broken. The motion to dismiss filed on May 4 in Hartford federal court comes nearly two years after Courant CEO and Publisher Richard Graziano acknowledged that the newspaper had plagiarized competitors, but not intentionally. The Journal Inquirer of Manchester first filed the lawsuit in state court in 2009, but withdrew it for technical reasons. The paper refiled the lawsuit in federal court in February, saying the Courant plagiarized at least 10 Journal Inquirer stories in violation of copyright laws. The Courant says in the new court documents that there was no "substantial similarity" between the Courant and Journal Inquirer stories. |
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AIG, Treasury offering 300M shares worth $9B
Business Law Info |
2011/05/13 09:20
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Bailed-out global insurance company American International Group Inc. and the federal government are offering to sell a total of 300 million AIG shares to the public.
The stock sale would be a big step by the government toward disentangling itself from the company. The government stepped in to rescue AIG from collapse with $182 billion in 2008 — the biggest bailout of the financial crisis.
AIG and the government didn't specify a price for the shares in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. But 300 million shares of AIG were worth about $8.89 billion at Tuesday's closing price of $29.62. |
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LA lawsuit claims Deutsche Bank is 'slumlord'
Business Law Info |
2011/05/05 16:13
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The city attorney sued Deutsche Bank on Wednesday, claiming the giant international lender illegally evicted tenants from foreclosed properties and left dozens of homes and apartments to rot, many in low-income neighborhoods.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, accuses the bank of violating federal, state and city laws and seeks potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursements to the city and to evicted tenants.
The bank's subsidiaries, Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. and Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, are the city's largest slumlords, according to the lawsuit.
The city attorney's office contends the bank failed to act properly as trustee to more than 160 homes and other residences with owners who couldn't meet their loan obligations during and after the 2008 international financial meltdown.
"It's time to recognize that the fraud committed on Wall Street turns into blight on Main Street," City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich said at a news conference.
He said the bank's subsidiaries acted as trustees for trusts composed of mortgage-backed securities involving at least 2,000 properties across the country.
The complaint focuses mainly on properties in low-income areas of the city, specifically South Los Angeles and the northeastern San Fernando Valley, but Trutanich said it could be amended to include more homes if further problems are found. |
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Lawsuit over fish pedicures heads to Arizona court
Business Law Info |
2011/04/26 15:15
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The Arizona Court of Appeals plans to hear arguments Wednesday on a civil lawsuit involving a Gilbert spa owner whose clients paid to have fish eat dead skin off their feet. The case was filed by the Goldwater Institute on behalf of spa owner Cindy Vong. A lower court dismissed the suit. The Arizona Republic reports the Arizona Board of Cosmetology threatened to pull Vong's license in early 2009 if she didn't stop offering the pedicure service. The board alleged the fish were unsafe because they could not be sterilized. Vong says the board's ruling hurt her financially. The Institute sued in December 2009, alleging the board lacked jurisdiction over the practice because it was not a cosmetic service and that it violated Vong's right to run her business. |
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Community Health makes all-cash bid for Tenet
Business Law Info |
2011/04/19 11:05
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Hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. on Monday revised its $3 billion offer for rival Tenet Healthcare Corp. to an all-cash bid.
Community Health is now offering $6 per share in cash. In December, it had gone public with a bid of $5 per share in cash and $1 per share in stock. At the time, the offer was a premium of about 40 percent to the Dallas company's shares.
But Tenet's board rejected that offer, and adopted a "poison pill" measure to fend off the bid.
Tenet's shares have recently been trading above $6.
But the company said Monday it will review the revised offer and make a recommendation. It said shareholders should take no action for now.
Tenet shares fell 26 cents, or 3.9 percent, to $6.40 in afternoon trading while Community Health shares dropped $1.74, or 5.5 percent, to $30.16 after falling as much as 14.3 percent earlier in the session.
Community Health Systems runs 130 hospitals in 29 states, and focuses on fast-growing and non-urban markets. Tenet runs 50 hospitals spread across 11 states, and most of its facilities are in urban and suburban communities. |
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S&P cuts long-term outlook for US debt to negative
Business Law Info |
2011/04/17 16:17
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Standard & Poor's Ratings Service cut its outlook Monday on the United States' sovereign debt, saying there is a one in three chance it will downgrade the rating on the debt in the next two years.
The agency lowered the long-term outlook to "Negative" from "Stable."
It reaffirmed its investment-grade credit ratings on the U.S. long- and short-term debt itself, but said the ratings are at risk from the country's growing deficit.
S&P said the U.S. has a high-income, diversified and flexible economy that has helped it to encourage growth while containing inflation.
But the country's ballooning deficit could offset those positives over the next two years.
The agency noted that the deficit grew to 11 per cent of gross domestic income in 2009. That is much higher than the average of two per cent to five per cent in the previous six years.
S&P said it has little confidence that the White House and Congress will agree on a deficit-reduction plan before the fall 2012 elections. By that time, the measures won't go into effect until the fiscal year 2014.
"We see the path to agreement as challenging because the gap between the parties remains wide," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Nikola G. Swann.
Mary Miller, assistant secretary for financial markets, said S&P "underestimates the ability of America's leaders to come together to address the difficult fiscal challenges facing the nation."
President Barack Obama and Congress are working on ways to reduce budget deficits over the long term, she said. |
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