Free Republic

CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his government would take legal action against Pat Robertson and potentially seek his extradition after the U.S. evangelist called for Washington to assassinate the South American leader. Robertson, who later apologized for the remark, said he was expressing his frustration with Chavez's constant accusations against the administration of President George W. Bush. "I announce that my government is going to take legal action in the United States ... to call for the assassination of a head of state is an act of terrorism." Chavez said in a...

Party says it will sue to get on ballot Libertarians lose place for failing to get enough votes last November JIM MORRILL Staff Writer Posted on Tue, Aug. 23, 2005 Leaders of North Carolina's Libertarian Party said they'll challenge the state's election laws in court after the state elections board decertified the party Monday. The board voted unanimously to deny the Libertarians an automatic place on state ballots after the party failed to get enough votes last November to qualify. The decision effectively erases the names of Libertarian candidates from municipal ballots this fall, including five in Mecklenburg County. Two...

SANTA CRUZ — A well-known local medical marijuana advocate is considering a lawsuit after getting caught with the drug at a Southern California airport in late July. Valerie Corral said she was at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank when security officials found about "5 or so grams" of pot in her bag. She had a Santa Cruz County medical identification card and a doctor’s recommendation, she said. That didn’t keep her from being detained for about 45 minutes, having her pot taken and getting a citation. Corral, co-founder of Santa Cruz’s Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, said she is fighting...

Question: Can the relatives of fallen heroes sue Sheehan and her cadre for using their relative's names on those crosses withou permission?......

SACRAMENTO – California's top school official and the state's largest teachers union sued Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday to restore $3.1 billion they claim is owed to public schools. At issue is a deal that was struck during a meeting with the governor in December 2003, a month after he was sworn into office. Educators said they agreed to accept $2 billion in cuts to help the newly elected governor balance the 2004-05 state budget. To do that, lawmakers had to suspend Proposition 98, the voter-approved funding guarantee for schools. In return, the governor promised that schools would get more...

PORTLAND -- The Patriot Act is about to come under fire in Portland. Brandon Mayfield, the local Muslim mistakenly linked to the Madrid bombings, is fighting back. Friday he and his high profile attorneys go to court and the case is getting international attention. The federal court docket lists this case as Brandon Mayfield vs. John Ashcroft et al. Along with the former attorney general, he's also suing the FBI and the Department of Justice. Who knows if his case will ever go before a jury, but Friday a judge will hear arguments that could change the way the country...

New Yorkers sue for the right to shimmy Fri Jun 24,12:52 PM ET People dance at a ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. A group of dancers jointly filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court that seeks to declare a city ordinance forbidding dancing in clubs without cabaret licenses as unconstitutional.(AFP/File/Stan Honda) NEW YORK (AFP) - Despite living in a city renowned for its vibrant nightlife, a group of New Yorkers have deemed it necessary to embark on a legal battle to win the right to go out dancing. A group of social dancers, dance teachers...

A coalition of the nation's leading news organizations filed a legal brief Monday supporting The Sun in its lawsuit against Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., contending the governor's ban on two Sun journalists was an act "characteristic of repressive regimes." The 27-page amicus brief was filed in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., by lawyers representing the New York Times Co., The Washington Post, the Associated Press, Time Inc., CNN, the E.W. Scripps Co. and Advance Publications Inc. Ehrlich's ban, now six months old, forbids state employees from speaking with Sun columnist Michael Olesker and Maryland...

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A public school prohibited a second grader from singing a religious song at a talent show, prompting a lawsuit Friday alleging violation of the girl's constitutional rights. A federal judge declined an emergency request to compel Frenchtown Elementary School to allow 8-year-old Olivia Turton to sing "Awesome God" at the Friday night show, but allowed the lawsuit to go forward. School officials in the western New Jersey community had said the performance would be inappropriate at a school event. A message seeking comment from a school board attorney about the judge's ruling was not immediately returned....

CHICAGO (AP) - Two men claim photographs in the Chicago Tribune misidentified them as high-ranking mobsters, prompting one of the men Wednesday to sue the newspaper. Retired businessman Frank Calabrese is suing the Tribune Co. for more than $1 million in damages, claiming defamation. His picture ran Tuesday as part of a package about the indictment of several mobsters - including one named Frank Calabrese Sr. - on charges of plotting at least 18 murders. "I have voice mails from people calling me who were my customers asking me what's happening. Is that you?" Calabrese, 76, was quoted as saying...

Environmental groups have the right to sue state agencies for not controlling pesticide pollution, a federal judge in Sacramento ruled Monday. State air quality agencies violated the federal Clean Air Act,which calls for a 20 percent reduction in smog caused by pesticides between 1990 and 2005, the lawsuit says. The required smog reduction hasn't happened in the San Joaquin Valley, where pesticide-induced smog has increased since 1990. "I'm ecstatic that (the judge) saw it our way," said Teresa DeAnda, an activist from Earlimart whose organization joined four others in the suit. They say the state's approach to pesticide smog pollution...

SACRAMENTO - Attorney General Bill Lockyer has denied a Reedley grower's request for permission to sue a state board member who earned money on the side as a consultant. Lockyer determined Thursday that Daniel Zingale, a member of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, should not be removed from the board for earning $50,000 last year campaigning against a November ballot initiative. State labor code Section 1150 states ALRB members are not to engage in any other business, vocation or employment outside of their work on the board. Farmer Dan Gerawan - whose family business has had cases before the ALRB...

 Bill would let workers sue if boss hires illegally Federal law prohibits the hiring of the thousands of foreign workers who sneak into the country each year, but many businesses turn to illegal immigrants to fill construction, agricultural and service industry jobs. A frustrated Arizona lawmaker says he will push a proposal next year to give American workers the right to sue companies that fire them while keeping illegal immigrants on the payroll. Violators would have their state business licenses suspended.Supporters say the low pay illegal immigrants accept drives down wages for American employees, and businesses that follow the law...

WASHINGTON - Environmentalists sued the Bush administration on Thursday over new rules for managing the 192 million acres of national forests. The rules issued in December give managers of the 155 national forests more discretion to approve logging and other commercial projects without lengthy environmental reviews. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims the rules water down protection of wildlife and the environment "to the point where they are virtually meaningless." The suit filed by San Francisco-based Earthjustice on behalf of a coalition of conservation groups said the rules fail to include important environmental protection measures...

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 11 (Reuters) - McDonald's  has agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over artery-clogging trans fats in its cooking oils, the company said on Friday. McDonald's said it will donate $7 million to the American Heart Association and spend another $1.5 million to inform the public of its trans fat plans.The settlement is the result of litigation from a San Francisco area activist who has been seeking to raise public awareness of the health dangers from the trans fatty acids (TFAs) in hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Trans fats are used in thousands of processed...

LATEST WARD CHURCHILL NEWS: PSEUDO-INJUNS GO ON WARPATH; DEMAND FAKE CASINO (Scarsdale, NY) -- Rushing to the defense of controversial University of Colorado professor and pseudo-Indian Ward Churchill, pseudo-Indians from as far afield as the Hamptons and Berkeley are joining forces to get the United States federal government to recognize their claims as an official non-existing ethnic group. Running Polo Pony, Chief of the Pseudo-Sioux Nation of Scarsdale, New York and Greater Westchester County, yesterday told reporters at a pow-wow held outside the Dakota Apartment Building on Manhattan's East Side, that the Pseudo-Sioux are prepared to engage in "virtual scalpings"...

Microsoft Corp. and Pfizer Inc. on Thursday announced parallel lawsuits against two international spam rings pushing a variety of drugs, especially those purporting to be generic versions of Pfizer's Viagra product. The two companies filed a total of 17 lawsuits in courts in New York and Washington state. According to the companies, Pfizer filed civil actions against CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct, alleging trademark infringement, "unfair competition under both federal and state law, as well as deceptive trade practices in violation of New York state law." They also allege that the companies are selling non-FDA approved sildenafil citrate, the chemical name...

Atriks claims it's innocent, but company shows up on independent spam monitor list. A company reported to an ISP for sending bulk spam is replying by suing the individual who made the allegation. The sued party, Jay Stuler, reported New Hampshire-based Atriks, otherwise known as Distributed Mail, to his ISP after receiving unsolicited bulk e-mail over a period from April 2003 onward. According to court papers, Atriks then lost its account with its ISPs, Lightship Telecom, Spectra Access, and North Atlantic Internet, resulting in the legal action against Stuler. The writ issued by the company denies the allegations, stating that...

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington Republicans, considering whether to challenge Democrat Christine Gregoire's razor-thin victory for governor, yesterday demanded a list of the 900,000 who cast ballots in vote-rich, problem-plagued King County. [snip] "We're mostly posing questions," Vance said. "King County is where we saw the votes changing. King County is the one county that was allowed to take ballots that were declared dead in November and bring them back to life in December." He stopped short of committing to a challenge of the election results.

SACRAMENTO - California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Friday he will sue to block the federal government from proceeding with a far-reaching plan to manage 11.5 million acres of Sierra Nevada national forests. The head of the U.S. Forest Service approved the plan Thursday. U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey has 15 days to decide whether to review the decision before it becomes final. Should Rey not act, Lockyer said he will sue in federal court contending the plan violates federal environmental protection laws, and will increase logging, endanger wildlife habitat, harm water quality and weaken grazing restrictions. Environmental groups said...

Failed presidential candidate John Kerry is considering filing a libel suit against the leader of the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, John O'Neill, whose book "Unfit for Command" is credited with capsizing Kerry's Vietnam War-based campaign. "I don't know if they will actually go forward," a member of Kerry's inner circle told New York Post's Page Six column, edited by Richard Johnson. "But consideration is serious. If Kerry plans on running again in 2008 — and I'm hearing he will — it would make sense that he'd file the suit." Co-written by Jerry Corsi, "Unfit" sold more than 800,000...

The move was criticized by Republicans, who said Democrats threatened to turn the gubernatorial election into ``another Florida.''

November 01, 2004 Live Report From Courtroom A Mr. Jordan was just testifying at the hearing in Daschle's lawsuit to stop poll watching. He worked for Howard Dean in Iowa. He said that poll watchers would "roll their eyes" and make a "negative face" at times and that, in his opinion, this constituted "intimidation" of voters. See SDP for a look at the complaint. UPDATE: Another report on Daschle's first witness, the Howard Dean worker. He's a lawyer from Virginia who works for Lexis-Nexis and has been in South Dakot for 48 hours. He testified to "note-taking" and "faces" being...

Story in Argus Leader now. We can't link, but the address is: http://www.argusleader.com/breaking/Mondayfeature.shtml A hand-picked Daschle judge will hear the case to keep GOP poll watchers from observing tomorrow.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to reverse a Bush administration decision to set aside Reagan-era rules aimed at protecting wildlife in national forests. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks to reinstate a 1982 rule that required the Forest Service to ensure that "viable populations" were maintained of wildlife species that are not endangered, such as elk, Appalachian brook trout and river otters. The administration set aside the rule last month, saying officials now can rely on the "best available science" - a less specific standard - to guide their decisions....

Voters found on both N.C., S.C. rolls Miscount, fraud possible as election officials not cross-checking lists SCOTT DODD AND TED MELLNIK Staff Writers As many as 60,000 voters may be registered to cast ballots in both Carolinas -- and officials aren't checking. That's one of the flaws discovered by a Charlotte Observer/WCNC 6News investigation of voter registration records in both states that could lead to miscounting or even voter fraud. After the razor-tight 2000 election that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, both presidential campaigns are keeping a close watch for voting irregularities this year. The parties have...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Conservative activists vowed Thursday to sue the state if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proceeds next week with his $920 million, 20-year borrowing plan to pay off part of one year's pension obligations. Attorneys for the Pacific Legal Foundation said Schwarzenegger's widely expected move would violate a state constitutional ban on governments borrowing more than $300,000 without a popular vote. The foundation represents a Fullerton taxpayers group aiming to derail the idea. Last year, courts cited the constitutional ban in striking down a similar borrowing plan by then-Gov. Gray Davis. "This is a clone of last year's borrowing ploy,"...

MIAMI -- A coalition of unions sued Secretary of State Glenda Hood and elections officials from five counties Tuesday, arguing that thousands of voters have been disenfranchised by the rejection of their voter registration forms. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Miami, is similar to one filed by state Democrats last week. It accuses Hood of violating federal law for telling the 67 elections supervisors that they should reject incomplete voter-registration forms.

Ten Dumbest Food Cop Ideas September 27, 2004 Over the years, the growing cabal of diet dictators have proposed a litany of crazy proposals to tax, legislate, and litigate away many food and beverage choices. What follows are ten of their dumbest ideas: "We're going to sue them and sue them and sue them."As a grim precursor to a campaign of extermination-through-litigation, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) recently convened its second annual meeting dedicated to suing American food producers into oblivion. Following their first conference, "intended to encourage and support litigation against the food industry," then-PHAI executive director...

The former Texas National Guard commander who supplied CBS with forged records on President Bush's National Guard service now plans to sue the network, his former lawyer said Tuesday. Burkett's one-time attorney, David Van Os, told the New York Sun that his former client had "several meetings with lawyers to determine the best course of action." He said the planned lawsuit would center on what he termed "defamation of character and libel."

Cal State San Marcos is the first university in the nation to dump Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore, and he plans to sue if administrators don't let him speak. "If they don't do the right thing, follow through on the contract – and we have a written contract and an oral one – then we will take legal action," Moore said yesterday. The issue has become a matter of principle to Moore, who said he believed university officials were sending the wrong message to students by reversing their stand and revoking their invitation to him to speak Oct. 13. Although students...

Democrats Sue To Keep Nader Off Florida Ballot Dems Say Candidate Never Nominated By His Party POSTED: 6:37 pm EDT September 2, 2004 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The Florida Democratic party is suing the state and Ralph Nader to keep him off the November ballot, saying that the Reform Party's nomination process was a sham. The suit says the Reform Party is not a viable political party and that Nader was never nominated at a convention, which is required by state law to get on the ballot. Democrats and Republicans agree that Ralph Nader’s presence on the 2000 ballot cost Al...

Drugstores Sue Makers Over Prices SAN FRANCISCO, August 27, 2004 Nineteen California pharmacies filed a lawsuit in state court Thursday accusing the world's largest pharmaceutical companies of conspiring to inflate U.S. drug prices. The pharmacies accuse the 15 drug makers of illegally conspiring to charge inflated prices in the United States while barring pharmacies from buying the makers' drugs at lower prices outside the country. "Each of the companies, all of them, are doing exactly the same thing: They're charging substantially more in the United States than they are elsewhere," Joseph Alioto, the San Francisco attorney representing the pharmacies, told...

Over dued Due Process by Linda Eddy John Kerry’s 1971 Senate testimony put into the American public’s mind stories of war crimes being done by American troops serving in Vietnam. These stories Kerry told to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and to the American people were based on lies by men falsely claiming to be Vietnam veterans. Here is what Kerry said: “I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed...

NEW YORK (AFP) - An Arab-American organization and a group opposed to war and racism filed suit charging they were unconstitutionally denied a permit to hold a protest in Central Park during the upcoming Republican National Convention. Attorneys for the National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) and ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism), filed suit in US District Court in Manhattan accusing Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York Police Department and others of violating their right to a permit for the park's Great Lawn. The groups want to hold a civil rights rally on Central Park's Great...

Thirty-five years ago when his swift boat on patrol in Vietnam was under heavy fire from the shore, John Kerry turned his craft right into the fire, beached the boat, chased down the enemy, and killed him. Now, Kerry ... is under a different kind of attack. ... (A) group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) has taken to the airwaves in three battleground states with an ad claiming that Kerry lied to get his first Purple Heart and his Bronze Star." snip Now, any political consultant worth his retainer would say that for any candidate--much less a...

Attorney General Abbott Sues Top Manufacturer Of Bullet-proof Vests Alleges potential vest failures pose threat to police officer safetyFARMER’S BRANCH - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott today sued a major manufacturer of police protective body armor, alleging a failure to reveal potentially fatal flaws in the material from which many of its protective “bullet-proof” vests have been made. The suit againstSecond Chance Body Armor Inc. of Central Lake, Michigan, which made and sold a protective vest containing the material “Zylon,” follows an investigation the Attorney General launched last December. According to the suit, the company maintained that its “Ultima” and...

TAMPA -- Sue Clayton and Sheila Serrao met at church nine years ago. Three years later, Serrao's dad walked her down the aisle at the couple's commitment ceremony. The day was a "dream come true," Serrao said. But as a gay couple, the state does not allow the two Sarasota women to legally marry. Florida law defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. On Monday, the couple moved to change the law. Led by their attorney and surrounded by members of local and national gay rights groups, Clayton and Serrao filed a lawsuit in Hillsborough Circuit...

<p>Microsoft Corp. has filed suit against nearly 200 people accused of sending millions of fraudulent, unwanted e-mail messages, including one Florida man considered to be among the worst "spammers" in the world.</p> <p>The Redmond, Wash., company, in an effort to slow the a barrage of junk e-mail directed at its customers, filed four lawsuits on Wednesday and four others on June 2, each naming at least 20 defendants whose identities are not known.</p>

[Due to their copyright restrictions the article below is my re-write. Click on the link to see the original.] Lawsuits have been filed in federal court against the city of Chicago and number of Chicago police officials by two men, Michael Evans and Paul Terry, who after 27 years in prison were recently cleared by DNA evidence of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Lisa Cabassa in 1976. The lawsuits charge that the police officials, under pressures to bring the case to a conclusion, coerced witnesses, fabricated evidence, and altered other evidence to finger the two men. There was no...

A man plagued by mosquitoes in India's Andhra Pradesh state is demanding compensation from the council in his insect-infested town. K Srihari Rao says too little has been done to protect him from mosquitoes - and if the council doesn't pay up he's itching to sue. "Me and my family are suffering a lot because of the mosquitoes. We cannot sleep at night and we have had to undergo anti-malarial treatment," he says. Mr Rao is testing a recent ruling by the High Court in Delhi, which said eradicating mosquitoes was the duty of civic bodies. 'Impossible to prove' Perhaps...

SCO is expanding its campaign to spread Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt about open source software to Congress. The excessive hyperbole and “the sky is falling rhetoric” underlines the failure SCO has had in advancing its apparently frivolous claims against other companies which still create technology products and innovate. The company has been spreading FUD through past letters and lawsuits, and now SCO executives are telling Congress that Linux, open source software in general, and specifically, the General Public License (GPL), which protects most open source software is: a threat to the U.S. information technology industry; a threat to U.S.’ competitive...

<p>Rowe, a 17-year-old high school senior and Web designer from Victoria, has angered the software giant by registering an Internet site with the address www.MikeRoweSoft.com.</p> <p>"Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe.</p>

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Mike Rowe thinks it's funny that his catchy name for a Web site design company sounds a lot like Microsoft. The software giant, however, is not amused. "Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe, a 17-year-old computer geek and Grade 12 student in Victoria, British Columbia. Microsoft Corp. and its attorneys have demanded that he give up his domain name, the Vancouver Province newspaper reported Sunday. Rowe registered the name in August. In November, he received a letter from Microsoft's Canadian...

Gephardt Must Pay Salary Back to Missouri Taxpayers Law requires absentee members of Congress to return paycheck According to the U.S. Code, Presidential candidate and former House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt is required to pay back 90 percent of his $157,000 salary to Missouri taxpayers. Absentee Member Gephardt has missed more than 90 percent of votes in the U.S. House, and the law requires the Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House to dock a member's pay for each absent day. ACU filed a suit earlier today demanding that the law be enforced. American Conservative...

In the now world-famous libel suit between Holocaust Denier David Irving and Dr. Deoborah Lipstadt, Irving sued Lipstadt and her publisher. Lipstadt had written that Irving was a Nazi apologist and admirer of Hitler. She had asserted that Irving was a Holocaust Denier who had distorted facts and manipulated documents to prove that there had been no genocide of Jews during World War II. Irving sued for libel. He claimed that Lipstadt damaged his reputation and credentials as a serious historian and writer. Lipstadt's claims against Irving were in part based on Irving's own efforts as apologist for and promoter...

Parents of Slain Child Beauty Queen JonBenet Ramsey Sue Fox News Network The Associated Press Published: Dec 24, 2003 DENVER (AP) - The parents of slain 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey filed a $12 million federal defamation lawsuit against Fox News Network over a story they say cast suspicion on them. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Atlanta, John and Patsy Ramsey took issue with a report that aired last year for the six-year anniversary of JonBenet's death. In it, a Denver-based employee stated there has "never been any evidence to link an intruder to her brutal murder." John and Patsy Ramsey...

PORTLAND - A 71-year-old Portland woman who is blind intends to sue police because she claims officers used excessive force. Eunice Crowder was still recovering from the June scuffle with officers. She claimed police went too far when they used handcuffs, tazers and pepper spray when they tried to restrain her outside her north Portland home. “They pepper sprayed me in my prosthesis,” she said. “It ran through and down my nose so fast.” Crowder is seeking unspecified damages in federal court. She is legally blind and has trouble hearing and walking. “It stung,” she said. “It made me feel...

Ken Schram Commentary: Trying Hard Not To Be Judgmental SEATTLE - I'm trying hard not to be judgmental. I'm trying hard to understand why some seem to think that tragedy, grief and loss should mean a shot at the big brass ring. Earlier this week, a U.S. District Court judge gave the green light to a possible flood of lawsuits because of what happened on 9-11. The judge decided that the hijacking and crashing of jetliners on 9-11 was a "foreseeable risk." He also ruled that the owners of the World Trade Center property can be challenged on whether they...

Libya’s payment of compensation to the families of victims in two plane crashes seems to have inspired yet another compensation claim – by families of victims of an Arab aircraft that was shot down by Israeli airforce jets 30 years ago. According to the Islamic Association of Palestine news agency based in the US, Arab families who lost their relatives in the shooting down of the Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 are planning to go to court to get compensation from Israel. However, the families of the 106 victims would need help from human rights organisations, as the money involved...