Free Republic

Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS is getting whittled down like a redwood at an Alabama beaver party. A Manhattan judge yesterday threw out two more of Rather's claims against the network, including his charge that his former bosses committed fraud by falsely promising to help restore his reputation after he became a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's military career. "We are extremely gratified that the court has now dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather's claims," CBS said in a statement. Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold, said that despite Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman's ruling striking...

The hourly rates of the country's top lawyers are increasingly coming with something new -- a comma. A few attorneys crossed into $1,000-per-hour billing before this year, but recent moves to the four-figure mark in New York, which sets trends for legal markets around the country, are seen as a significant turning point. On Sept. 1, New York's Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP will raise its top rate to more than $1,000 from $950. A select group of attorneys began billing at that rate before this year, such as Stephen Susman, a founding partner of a Houston firm who has...

OK folks you can't make this stuff up. The patent office is going crazy! First, obvious software patents, and now this: "As the American tax law gets more and more complicated, lawyers have come up with one more way to make life difficult for taxpayers: Now you may face a patent infringement suit if you use a tax strategy that someone else thought of first.".....

United Parcel Service Inc. employs hundreds of hearing-impaired people who may hold any job other than delivery-truck driver. The rule is based on the company's justifiable concerns about public safety (and predatory trial lawyers). But in ruling the policy discriminatory under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has created a situation in which UPS and other companies may be sued no matter what they do. The "9th Circus" ruled against UPS essentially because it failed to prove a negative. The company might have won had it put deaf people in the driver's seat...

ATTLEBORO, Mass. - Tag, you're out! Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled this month that a lawsuit filed against Target Corp. by the National Federation of the Blind challenging the accessibility of the retailer’s Web site can move forward. NFB officials contended that the ruling sets a precedent, establishing that retailers must make their Web sites accessible to the blind under the federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA). “This ruling is a great victory for blind people throughout the country,” said NFB President Marc Maurer. When asked if the NFB would file lawsuits against other retailers in an effort to improve Web site accessibility, NFB...

MILWAUKEE -- A Janesville man who admitted breaking into a home is suing the homeowner who shot him. Kurt Prochaska, 39, was on probation last fall when he admitted he broke in to a home and was shot by the homeowner, but that's not stopping him from going after cash through the courts. Late last year, the Rainiero family awoke to find Prochaska in their home. Michael Rainiero, a doctor, ordered Prochaska to leave. He didn't and was shot in the back. Nearly a year later, Rainiero's attorney said it's far from over because Prochaska is suing him from beind...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US doctors' group has sued seven leading fast-food chains including McDonald's and Burger King over their use of a "dangerous carcinogenic" in grilled chicken. The Washington-based Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) filed suit in California Thursday "to compel the restaurants to warn unsuspecting consumers". The group said every sample of grilled chicken products from the seven national chains "tested positive for a dangerous carcinogenic compound called PhIP" during analysis at an independent laboratory. PhIP is one of a group of carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) that are found in grilled meat. In 2005, the...

NEW YORK - The father of "American Idol" winner Fantasia Barrino has filed a $10 million libel suit against the publisher of a book about his daughter, alleging that it contains "false, exaggerated, sensational, intentional and malicious untruths." In papers filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Joseph Barrino is seeking damages from Simon & Schuster, which released "Fantasia: Life Is Not a Fairy Tale" in 2005. The book was made into a TV movie, starring Fantasia, that aired on the Lifetime network in August. Among the details disputed by Joseph Barrino: that he was hostile to the music...

Today: August 17, 2006 at 8:45:37 PDT Son Sues Over Katrina Wheelchair Death By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The son of a 91-year-old woman who died in her wheelchair while waiting to be rescued from the city's Convention Center in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina sued the city and state Thursday. Herbert Humphrey Jr.'s lawsuit accuses numerous state agencies and the city of New Orleans of willful misconduct in the death of his mother, Ethel Freeman. It was filed in state Civil District Court in New Orleans. The Convention Center had been overwhelmed with desperate evacuees,...

CLAYTON, MO. - A St. Louis weight-loss instructor is suing the Coca-Cola Co. over its product loyalty campaign, claiming the program might encourage children to drink so much of the soft drink that they could die. The campaign, called "My Coke Rewards" gives customers points for buying Coca-Cola products. Customers trade in points for prizes that range from baseball gloves to free vacations. Julia Havey says it's no sweet deal. The program expires in January, and to accumulate enough points by that time for high-end prizes, customers would need to drink hundreds of Cokes a day, she said. Coca-Cola spokesman...

Man didn't ask to be like Mike, so he's suing Court - Allen Ray Heckard says his resemblance to Michael Jordan is distressing, and he wants the star and Phil Knight to pay Related Documents (PDF): 1 Saturday, July 08, 2006 HOLLY DANKS HILLSBORO -- Michael Jordan made a bushel of money shooting baskets and pitching Nike products. Allen Ray Heckard, a 51-year-old Northeast Portland man, says he has been told he looks like Jordan. Now he wants some of that fortune for the pain and suffering of having a famous face. Heckard, an airport shuttle driver and auto detailer...

INNSBRUCK, Austria -- It's been suspected for centuries, but a team of world-renowned scientists has finally confirmed it: Lawyers and leeches have identical genetic makeup. Dr. Andreas Volkenweiler of Austria's famed Innsbruck Institute of Genetic Research confirms that, "While studying the DNA sequences of many genes that control body patterns in various occupations, our research team observed that each lawyer gene contains a stretch of 180 nucleotides -- or structural components of DNA -- which exactly match the structure of those found in leeches. "Once we made that basic match, other similarities between the two species were fairly easy to...

Pittsburgh -- A city attorney is suing the creator of a Web site that lets women dish dirt on men they claim have wronged them, saying they made defamatory statements about him. Attorney Todd J. Hollis sued because he contends two Pittsburgh-area women and other anonymous users posted items about him on in which they claim he is unfaithful, among other things, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Thursday. Hollis filed the suit Thursday in Allegheny County against Tasha C. Joseph of Miami, who created the site, which bills itself as a "cost-effective weapon in the war on cheating men." Joseph, 33,...

A doctor and a consumer group have sued KFC in an effort to stop the chicken chain from cooking with high-fat partially hydrogenated oil. Dr. Arthur Hoyte, a retired physician from Rockville, Md., and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, want a judge to order Kentucky Fried Chicken to use other types of cooking oils or make sure customers know about trans fat content immediately before they make a purchase. KFC spokeswoman Laurie Schalow called the lawsuit frivolous and said the company will fight it in court. Schalow said KFC is looking at using other types of oil...

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A nanny who was arrested after police viewed hidden camera video recordings that appeared to show her shaking a 5-month-old baby is suing the recording system's manufacturer. Claudia Muro, 32, alleges that distorted camera footage wrongfully led to her arrest and imprisonment. She was arrested in October 2003 and spent two years awaiting trial before prosecutors dropped the case because of concerns about the tape. The footage was broadcast on television around the country. The lawsuit was filed against Boca Raton-based Tyco Fire & Security, according to a report in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The lawsuit...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A man who was beaten by employees of a store he was trying to rob is now suing. Police say Dana Buckman entered the AutoZone in Rochester, New York, last July, brandished a semi-automatic pistol and demanded cash. That's when employees Eli Crespo and Jerry Vega beat him with a pipe and held Buckman at bay with his own gun. Buckman escaped when they retreated into the store to call 911, but he was arrested a week later. He pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a repeat violent felon.

PHILADELPHIA -- Bistec con queso? Not at Geno's Steaks. An English-only ordering policy has thrust one of Philadelphia's best-known cheesesteak joints into the national immigration debate............ has posted small signs telling customers, ``This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH.' "........... Juntos, a Hispanic neighborhood organization, said it plans to send people to Geno's to try to order in Spanish and may pursue court action, depending on what happens.

Chapman is suing the operator of an Internet blog, or web journal, for defamation and his camp blamed the pending lawsuit for throwing them off course and missing the filing deadline. ... Chapman's spokesman, Faisal Gill, said Chapman missed the deadline because he was distracted by the ongoing defamation lawsuit against an Internet blogger. "I think he was kind of caught up with that and it was just something that he missed," Gill said. Chapman is suing a blogger who goes by the name Black Velvet Bruce Lee and follows Manassas politics. On several postings, the blogger and his Web...

(CBS) CHICAGO The smell of popcorn may bring a whiff of excitement to many people, but not everyone appreciates it. That could keep Garrett’s Popcorn from opening at a new location downtown. Published reports say the owners of the Oriental Theatre Building at 24 W. Randolph St., has filed a lawsuit to block the popcorn maker from opening in the building, which houses the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. The theater planned to sublease a storefront to Garrett’s, but the owners of the building fear the smell of popcorn will invade other offices and cause people to cancel their...