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An employee at a Publix supermarket in Miami-Dade county was allegedly prohibited from wearing a mask at work. Now his family is suing the company over his death. The coronavirus had already made its way well into the US by the time Gerardo Gutierrez, 70, asked his employer if he’d be permitted to wear a face mask while he worked. Despite the fact that his deli counter colleague was showing signs of the illness as they worked together on March 27 and 28, Publix told him that masks were not allowed because they may “scare” customers, the family’s lawyer has...

This has gone on long enough. This was sold as 14 days, then the new pitch became Easter and "maybe" May 1, 2020. As I drive around the San Francisco Bay Area I see restaurant after restaurant "CLOSED!!!" I do not see how they come back. That is, I don't see how most of them come back. It takes so much capital to open a restaurant and then you are guessing how many people will come in that day, what your rush hours are and what will they order. That kills 30-40% of the restaurants currently closed. There are new...

WACO JUDGE AGREES TO LET MOST BIKERS GO – IF THEY SIGN A CONTRACT VOWING NOT TO SUE FOR WRONGFUL ARREST “It appears the public defenders office in McLennan County is involved in this scurrilous activity,” said Paul Looney, a Houston attorney with Looney & Conrad, P.C. “I’ve never seen anything like the lawlessness that the authorities have perpetrated on these people and now to add insult to injury they are trying to cover their own tracks in exchange for bond.”

CBS News has learned that the family of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata has filed a claim for wrongful death against the Justice Dept. and other federal agencies. Zapata was gunned down by suspected drug cartel members in Mexico in Feb. 2011 with weapons later linked to an ATF case in the Texas area. Joining the claim is Zapata's surviving partner in the attack: Victor Avila. In an interview last November, Zapata's family told CBS News they feel that U.S. law enforcement could have stopped the sale of a gun used to kill their son. CBS News obtained law enforcement...

New York (CNN) -- Federal prosecutors will investigate the case of a white police officer who shot and killed an ailing 68-year-old black veteran in his own apartment, a spokeswoman said Friday. "Consistent with our office's practices in cases of this kind, we will review all of the available evidence with respect to the death of Kenneth Chamberlain, including the evidence collected during the state's investigation, to determine whether there were any violations of the federal criminal civil rights laws," said Ellen Davis, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. She spoke one day...

An appeals court says an inmate can't sue former Gov. Gray Davis even though he wrongly denied the prisoner parole for three years. The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals says governors are shielded from private lawsuits because they are essentially acting as judges and that erroneous decisions can be corrected on appeal. But the court did agreed that Davis had no authority to reverse the decision by the California Board of Prison Terms to parole Donald Miller, who was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder. Governors can only review parole decisions on murder convictions.

SAN FRANCISCO - California’s attorney general announced indictments Wednesday against Hewlett-Packard’s ousted chairwoman Patricia Dunn and former ethics lawyer Kevin Hunsaker for their roles in a snowballing boardroom espionage scandal. “In this misguided effort, people inside and outside HP violated privacy rights and broke state law. Those who cross the legal line must be held accountable,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer told reporters. Three private detectives involved in the US computer equipment giant’s alleged spying operations were also indicted, Lockyer said. Dunn and Hunsaker were indicted along with Ronald DeLia, Matthew Depante and Bryan Wagner, Lockyer said at a press conference...

BEIJING, July 19 — Only a few years ago, Chen Guangcheng, a blind man who taught himself the law, was hailed as a champion of peasant rights who symbolized China’s growing embrace of legal norms. Mr. Chen helped other people with disabilities avoid illegal fees and taxes. He forced a paper mill to stop spewing toxic chemicals into his village’s river. The authorities in his home province, Shandong, considered him a propaganda coup and broadcast clips from his wedding ceremony on television. All that changed last year, when he organized a rare class-action lawsuit against the local government for forcing...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A jury found Friday that tobacco maker Philip Morris USA is not liable for damages in the death of a man who smoked for 35 years. The jury returned its verdict in the case of Fredric Reller of Marina del Rey, a longtime Marlboro smoker who first sued the company in Nov., 2001, alleging that Philip Morris misled him by failing, for years, to acknowledge that smoking is addictive and may cause cancer. A jury cleared Philip Morris, the nation's biggest cigarette maker, last August of negligence and misrepresentation in the lawsuit, but deadlocked on one...

FORT WORTH - Donnie and Tara Reese celebrate their son Clarence's birthday every year at his small grave in vast Greenwood Cemetery. It's one way of dealing with the loss of their son, who died at a hospital before ever taking a breath. "I bring him presents, a balloon, a cake," Tara Reese said last week as she stood over Clarence's headstone. "Everybody sits down and eats some of the cake here." Besides drawing the Reeses to the cemetery each year, the love they feel for their stillborn son has put the shy River Oaks couple into the middle of...

The mother of a Los Angeles woman allegedly killed and partially eaten by aspiring Texas rapper Antron Singleton (aka Big Lurch) has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Tha Row Records and others, Billboard Bulletin reports. Singleton, 27, allegedly killed and mutilated his 21-year-old roommate, Tynisha Ysais, on April 10, 2002, following a night of drug use. A medical examination of Singleton's stomach after his arrest found human flesh, according to reports. Singleton is awaiting trial on charges of murder and torture. The civil suit, filed last week by Carolyn Stinson in L.A. Superior Court, alleges that Singleton was actively courted...