The court issued the injunction after it found that Baisden had promoted a plan which encourages and assists customers to create corporations into which they allegedly had their incomes deposited for the primary purpose of decreasing their tax liability.

Several of Baisden's customers are physicians and nurse anesthetists from North Platte, Neb., many of whom have not filed past-due tax returns. According to Baisden's plan, the customers created real estate and forestry corporations, but almost all of the income reported by the corporations was derived from the customers' income from their jobs in the medical profession. Baisden reported deductions for the corporations for customers' lawn care expenses, expenses related to their personal residences, car expenses, and for one customer, the purchase cost and storage fees for an airplane. Baisden also prepared tax returns in California which characterized wages as rent, which is not subject to self-employment or employment taxes.

The court found that Baisden prepared tax returns that identified customers as investors when they were actually physicians or nurses and claimed business deductions for non-deductible personal expenses of customers or for which he and his customers did not provide supporting documentation. The tax returns he prepared also failed to report a reasonable compensation to owners of such corporations and otherwise mischaracterized their income. Finally, the court found that Baisden engaged in misconduct related to his representation of customers by falsely advising them not to comply with IRS document and meeting requests, filing meritless requests to delay civil audits, advising clients to make insufficient estimated tax payments, and advising customers not to file lawfully due returns.  More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv06670.htm.

USDOJ

As part of a deal Cox struck with the government, prosecutors have agreed to recommend that U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten sentence Cox at the low end of federal guidelines. The exact range has not been determined.

Cox pleaded guilty to six charges that were leveled in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee: bank fraud, identity theft, passport fraud, two counts of mortgage fraud conspiracy, and violating his probation for a previous mortgage fraud conviction.

Forty-one other counts against him in Georgia will be dropped as part of his plea agreement.

Prosecutors say Cox and Rebecca Marie Hauck rented properties, fraudulently erased mortgage liens on the properties and then stole the owners’ identities and fraudulently took out multiple new mortgage loans.

They also used stolen identities to obtain driver’s licenses, purchase vehicles, lease mail drops, rent apartments and open bank accounts to receive proceeds from their schemes in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina and North Carolina, authorities said.

Zak, owner of the Mohawk Trout Hatchery, had pleaded guilty on March 26 to two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and one count of conspiracy.

His attorney, Vincent Bongiorni, said then his client was not willing to accept a guilty plea for the eagle charge.

"There was a factual basis to support those two counts and our claim is that it doesn't support the bald eagle count," he said.

Zak's employee, Timothy Lloyd, 30, of Easthampton, pleaded guilty March 23 to two counts of violating the migratory bird act and one count of conspiracy.

Federal investigators said they found more than 250 great blue heron carcasses, as well as carcasses of ospreys and a bald eagle on hatchery property. Tests showed the birds were killed by gunshots.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents say they staked out the hatchery periodically and saw Zak shoot at a heron with a scoped rifle and Lloyd shoot and kill an osprey.

The men are to be sentenced on June 27. Zak faces up to three years in prison and Lloyd faces up to 18 months.

A 2006 US Department of Justice report said that sexual violence in US prisons, perpetrated by both inmates and prison staff, often goes unreported because abused inmates fear a reprisal. Last month, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed a commission to review the records of approximately 90 percent of the state's juvenile inmates following allegations by families and community activists that prison officials extended sentences in retaliation for inmates filing grievances. Staff-initiated sexual misconduct constituted 38 percent of allegations. The authors of the report also warned against placing juvenile inmates with the adult prison population, finding that the incidents of rape and abuse are five times higher against juveniles. The report, which was the second in an annual series required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, showed a marked improvement over staff sexual misconduct and harassment since the initial 2004 study.

According to the government complaint, Holcher, a certified public accountant (CPA), helped customers claim improper tax deductions for such non-deductible personal expenses as home maintenance expenses, vacations, and personal vehicle expenses. Holcher allegedly also prepared tax returns for customers falsely reporting employment income as royalties in order to evade Social Security taxes. The permanent injunction order was signed by Judge John Steele of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

The court order requires Holcher to mail a copy of the injunction to all persons for whom he has prepared a federal tax return or form since 2002 and to provide the government with a list of his customers' names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, and Social Security numbers.

Since 2001, the Justice Department's Tax Division has obtained more than 230 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm.

"While we have little regard for A.B.'s use of vulgar epithets, we conclude that her overall message constitutes political speech," Judge Patricia Riley wrote in the 10-page opinion.

In February 2006, Greencastle Middle School Principal Shawn Gobert discovered a Web page on MySpace purportedly created by him. A.B., who did not create the page, made derogatory postings on it concerning the school's policy on body piercings.

The state filed a delinquency petition in March alleging that A.B.'s acts would have been harassment, identity deception and identity theft if committed by an adult. The juvenile court dropped most of the charges but in June found A.B. to be a delinquent child and placed her on nine months of probation. The judge ruled the comments were obscene.

A.B. appealed, arguing that her comments were protected political speech under both the state and federal constitutions because they dealt with school policy.

The Court of Appeals found that the comments were protected and that the juvenile court had unconstitutionally restricted her right of free expression.

There was no number for Shawn Gobert in publishing phone listings. The Associated Press left a message seeking comment Monday at Greencastle Middle School.