Free Republic

Calif. Wildfires Drive Lawyers From Homes, Offices As fires sweep across seven counties, attorneys and staff scramble to set up shop -- or just find shelter for a night Kellie Schmitt The Recorder October 24, 2007 As a brown haze shrouded Southern California on Tuesday, law firms in San Diego's Carmel Valley region remained shuttered, and more and more local attorneys were forced to leave their homes. At Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps, the chief operating officer and a partner have already lost their homes, and dozens of attorneys have been displaced -- including managing partner Robert Bell. "It's pretty...

AKARP, Sweden, March 9 A Swedish woman has been sued for smoking in her own garden. Her neighbor in Akarp in southern Sweden, a lawyer, demands 15,000 kroner ($2,000) in damages for her previous smoking plus another 2,000 kroner ($280) every time she lights up in the future, The Local reported. She has received a district court summons to respond to his complaint. It makes me sad and angry, the 49-year-old single mom told Aftonbladet. Should somebody else be able to control my life?The woman said she has already made concessions to her neighbor's dislike of cigarette smoke, including picking...

Father: Costumed 'Tigger' hit his son Sun Jan 7, 5:53 AM ET ORLANDO, Fla. - A Walt Disney World employee dressed as the character "Tigger" was accused of hitting a child while posing for a photo, a spokeswoman for the theme park said Saturday. Park officials temporarily suspended Michael J. Fedelem while they investigate the accusations, Disney spokeswoman Zoraya Suarez said. "Naturally, physical altercations between cast members and guests are not tolerated," Suarez said. Jerry Monaco of New Hampshire videotaped his son, Jerry Jr., posing with the costumed character at Disney-MGM Studios on Friday and recorded the confrontation, according to...

LOS ANGELES -- With a new study showing that exposure to on-screen smoking prompts many American adolescents to light up, attorneys general from 32 states want Hollywood to slap anti-smoking admonitions on all new DVDs. They signed a letter sent this week to 10 movie studios asking executives to add anti-smoking public service announcements to all home-viewing releases that depict smoking. "We're urging (studios) to do more," said Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., author of the letter. "The industry's leaders are responsible Americans," he said, "and I'm sure they're just as concerned about the health of their children...

For a performance in its "winter program," a Wisconsin elementary school has changed the beloved Christmas carol "Silent Night," calling the song "Cold in the Night" and secularizing the lyrics. According to Liberty Counsel, a religious-liberty law firm representing a student's parent, kids who attend Ridgeway Elementary School in Dodgeville, Wis., will sing the following lyrics to the tune of "Silent Night": Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm. Liberty Counsel says this year's winter program included decorating...

Another Utah community is on edge after a junior high school student is suspended for creating a "list of special friends." This time it's in the town of Pleasant Grove. And unlike recent cases in two others schools, there have been no weapons found, or any evidence of overt threats of violence. But, officials are investigating it as an "implied threat." Students at the school felt uncomfortable, even worried when they found out another student put their names on his list. The only list students expect to be on is the class roll call. But another list emerged recently at...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Oct. 4 -- Spartacus Press is pleased to announce the release of the new book, "Senator Edwards and the Destruction of American Healthcare," by Glenn W. Knox MD, FACS. It is the first definitive work to criticize Senator Edwards and his positions on healthcare. This book is written for both healthcare professionals and the general public. Did you know: - Senator Edwards used "junk science" theories to win millions of dollars from the healthcare industry in North Carolina. - Most of his campaign funds come from the trial attorneys' lobby. - He even sued the American Red Cross...

The strongly partisan among both The Democrats and The Republicans will tend to find new and puerile ways to call the other side a bunch of Nazis. As if they were actually going to convince dedicated people of a different political dogma to recant by the sheer force of personal insult. This generally doesn't win any sympathy from an informed electorate and it also misses the gravest threat to individual liberty in our country. For those who have membership in Stormfront and actually hope Nazis will get power one day, the totally dictatorial behavior of judges and attorneys greatly trumps...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a convicted Alabama killer can pursue an appeal claiming lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment in his case. Justices said that lower courts were wrong to block appeals by death row inmate David Larry Nelson, who was less than three hours from execution last fall when the Supreme Court gave him a temporary reprieve. Nelson's case had given justices a stark look at how inmates are put to death. Nelson maintained that his veins - damaged by drug use - make it impossible to insert an intravenous line without...

Manchester, N.H. (CNSNews.com) - Sen. John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat who finished fourth in Tuesday's presidential primary in New Hampshire, refused to answer allegations that he had used "junk science" in part to win hugely lucrative legal judgments or settlements against the medical profession. The outcome of those cases, many of them dealing with the debatable cause of cerebral palsy in infants, made Edwards a rich man, allowing him to self-finance a 1998 run for the U.S. Senate from North Carolina and position himself as a presidential candidate in 2004. As CNSNews.com reported Jan. 20, Edwards won record jury...

Santa's knee off-limits for New Zealand children Fri Nov 28, 6:23 AM ET DUNEDIN, New Zealand, (AFP) - A small town in New Zealand has banned children from sitting on Santa's knee because organisers fear liability if anything goes wrong, organisers said. Instead, children in the South Island village of Mosgiel would be asked to sit next to him, on specially decorated "elf chairs", as they discuss their Christmas wish list. Organiser Gail Thompson, secretary of the Mosgiel Business Association, which is organising the event, said the precaution was "ridiculous" but necessary. She feared children coming back in at a...

By Karen Robinson-Jacobs, Times Staff Writer BOSTON — Last week, behind closed doors, veteran attorneys of the tobacco wars taught a class on how to attack what they say is the nation's latest health affliction: fast food. The session at Northeastern University was as secretive as McDonald's has been about the special sauce on a Big Mac. Those who attended the class — about two dozen lawyers, health activists and nutritionists, most of them svelte — signed affidavits promising not to reveal to the food industry any of the strategies they learned at the symposium: "Legal Approaches to the Obesity...

Oh no, the lawyers are in control. We should all be running for cover, I mean they´re really in control. Morals are out, procedure is in. Instead of standing on ethical grounds, our leaders retreat to the grey, lukewarm area of the courtroom. Swapping blows of the legal sort are as ingrained in our degenerating culture as the words "hot dog". Americans, from the lowest levels of society to the oval office regress to this, the most primal of threat language. Politically, our vote throwers on Capitol Hill know that, rhetorically, the threat of legal action speaks widely across the...