Free Republic

Edwards raps excess greed DES MOINES - Democrat John Edwards yesterday released a plan he said would demand corporate responsibility, including limits on executive compensation packages and requirements that big businesses operate more openly. The presidential candidate said his plan would also restore retirement security for the middle class through tax overhauls and savings help, allowing more people to put aside money and purchase stock from companies. He said those companies would perform better for regular workers under his proposed corporate changes. Edwards said that a culture of greed has taken over and that while profits are skyrocketing on Wall...

Louis Barletta, the Mayor of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, has thrown down the gauntlet to those who think America belongs to anyone who can walk across the border. The ACLU and a Puerto Rican group have taken up the challenge. And the Mayor has upped the ante by hiring as defense counsel the former head of immigration in the Department of Justice. Step one in this legal clash, likely to go to the US Supreme Court, was a series of three ordinances passed in Hazleton. Propelled by several local crimes apparently committed by illegal aliens, and inspired by the Mayor, the City...

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (AP) - The Islamic Society of Orange County and two of its officials must pay more than $1.7 million to lawyers for a woman who successfully sued the organization for discrimination, a judge has ruled. Zakiyyah Muhammad, a 60-year-old black woman who converted to Islam, served for five years as principal of the Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove before she was fired in 2003. The school is operated by the Islamic Society. An Orange County Superior Court jury awarded her $788,000 in damages last September after she claimed she was dismissed for challenging her male bosses...

I remember watching Bill Clinton being interviewed around the time his secretary was being questioned about the Lewinski matter. He was complaining about the legal fees his staff were facing because of the impeachment. I remember distinctly him saying how much he wished he could pay their legal bills but he was just a poor public servant and how unfair it all was. Now that his financial situation is so much better does anyone know if he ever followed through on his desire. I wonder if any of his loyal impeachment defenders has had the guts to ask him. mike...

WASHINGTON (June 14) - The Clintons' long financial hangover from Whitewater and impeachment has finally ended, thanks to millions of dollars in post-White House payments for speaking appearances and book contracts. More than four years after Bill Clinton left office, financial filings released Tuesday show he and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., have paid off the last of their debts from the investigations that spanned both his terms in office. ''They are both pleased that it's been paid,'' said Jim Kennedy, a spokesman for the former president.......

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A retired Marine who has waged a five-year fight with his homeowners' association over a flag pole won a battle Wednesday when an appeals court ruled his home can't be sold for lawyers' fees. In a 3-0 decision, the appeals court agreed with George Andres, and his wife, Anna, that the Florida Constitution protects homes from forced sales except in very limited circumstances - and attorneys' fees are not on the list. "I'm glad to see we were able to get the laws to do what they were supposed to," Andres said. A trial judge...

Request Denied Friday January 23, 1:57 am ET Jonathan Groner, Legal Times Law.com It's been almost five years since the demise of the law that empowered Kenneth Starr and almost 20 other independent counsel to probe allegations of government misconduct. But to the former Clinton administration officials and other figures from that era's scandals who were targeted under it, the law remains very much alive. The special three-judge panel overseeing the statute is still ruling on requests by those caught up in IC probes who are seeking government reimbursement of their legal fees. And it is taking a consistently hard...

WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court rejected Susan McDougal's request to have the government pay her legal bills stemming from the special counsel's investigation of President Clinton. A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said McDougal could not receive $345,412 from the government for legal bills in connection with her indictment by then-special counsel Kenneth Starr on charges of obstructing the probe. A jury acquitted McDougal of one count and deadlocked on two others, which were later dismissed. "Congress did not say that fee awards are available to an individual who is...

By Enron's own reckoning, the legal and accounting costs of its bankruptcy will exceed $1 billion in 2006. Typically, legal fees in a bankruptcy drop off dramatically after a company gains approval for a plan of reorganization -- a road map for its exit from bankruptcy -- which Enron expects to do early next year. But the company's budget through 2006 estimates more than $300 million will be spent after Enron confirms its plan. That's more than any company has ever spent confirming a Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. "It's shocking," said Lynn Lopucki, a law professor at the University of...

8/5/2003 CLINTON LEGAL FEES’ DECISION JUST MEDICINE by Prof. L. Lynn Hogue Chairman, Legal Advisory Board, Southeastern Legal Foundation Hogue, an Arkansas-licensed attorney, filed the successful Bar complaint against former President Clinton resulting in the first-ever surrender of a law license by a sitting President. As appeared in Knight-Ridder newspapers across the nation, July 2003 A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that it is time for the Clintons to pay the piper, in large measure because, as attorneys, they should have known better. The Clintons’ sleazy shenanigans in Arkansas land...

<p>A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that it is time for the Clintons to pay the piper, in large measure because, as lawyers, they should have known better.</p> <p>The Clintons' shenanigans in Arkansas land dealings, Rose law firm misconduct and playing fast and loose with Jim and Susan McDougal (Whitewater, Madison Guaranty), not to mention Travelgate and related matters prompted an extensive, time-consuming investigation.</p>

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the Federal Reporter or U.S.App.D.C. Reports. Users are requested to notify the Clerk of any formal errors in order that corrections may be made before the bound volumes go to press.United States Court of Appeals FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUITFiled July 15, 2003Division No. 94-1IN RE: MADISON GUARANTY SAVINGS & LOAN (CLINTON FEE APPLICATION) Division for the Purpose ofAppointing Independent CounselsEthics in Government Act of 1978, As Amended Before: SENTELLE, Presiding, FAY and REAVLEY, Senior Circuit Judges. O R D E RThis matter coming to be heard and...

Picking up Bill's tab: Former President Bill Clinton is seeking more than $1 million from the federal government to compensate him for legal fees he incurred to protect himself from the Whitewater investigation. He may be legally entitled to the money. There is, however, a better and fairer way of compensation. There's a precedent for federal subsidy. President Ronald Reagan got money for fees he incurrred during the Iran-contra probe, as did President George Bush the elder. The Clinton claim is only for the original Whitewater probe, not for paying his lawyers for their work during the Monica Lewinsky investigation...

Should taxpayers compensate the Clintons for their Legal fees? EMAIL NOW! (10:00 am) question@msnbc.com or tv@msnbc.com

Bill and Hillary Clinton have finally made good on a 1996 pledge to pay off witnesses who stuck by them throughout the scandal investigations of the 1990's, according to financial disclosure forms released by Sen. Clinton's office on Friday. Beyond showing that the former first couple now has a multimillion dollar annual income with up to $30 million in the bank, the disclosure forms reveal that the Clintons paid in excess of $1.3 million in legal bills from an account separate from their legal defense fund, with a portion of that money going to former staffers. Ostensibly, the staffer payments...