United States, Canada and South America
Banking
Bank
regulation blowout - 17 June
The Obama administration seems to have found a way to fill the
regulatory gaps in the banking system : call for regulation of just about
everything in sight and hope that most of it becomes law. Wednesday at
noon, the president will outline his plan, which he wants Congress to
write into law by the year's end. The administration proposes changes in
five key areas. - Forbes
website
Regulation
in the financial sector, and Obama's "Financial Regulatory
Reform" - 19 June
Interview with Robert Foster (Alternative Management Association),
Russell Loubser (JSE) and Felicity Duncan on the Moneyweb
website
Brazil
Brazil's
Lula signs Amazon bill - 26 June
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has approved a
controversial bill allowing Amazon farmers to acquire an area of public
land larger than France. But the president vetoed some of the most
contentious clauses that would have enabled absentee landlords and
companies to benefit from the measure. Smaller parcels of public land
will be handed over for free, and larger ones at reduced or market
rates. Critics say it will amount to an amnesty for illegal
land-grabbers. - BBC
News website
Canada
South
African judge criticises HIV criminalisation in Canada - 13
June
Canada is the world leader in criminalising people with HIV, according
to Justice Edwin Cameron of the South African Constitutional Court.
Cameron, the first senior official in South Africa to publicly disclose
his HIV-positive status, was in Toronto Friday evening to address
lawyers and policy-makers at the Law Society of
Upper Canada. He spoke out against the growing trend in
Canada of criminally prosecuting people who fail to disclose their HIV
status. Earlier this year, a court in Hamilton, Ontario became the first
in the world to convict a man of murder for failing to disclose his
HIV-positive status to his sexual partners, two of whom later died of
AIDS. Since then, criminal prosecutions have increased and the
degree of charges being laid has been elevated. - Rabble
website
Weird
cases : possession of pie with unlawful intent - 26 June
The Supreme Court of Canada will soon hear a case about an arrest for
"possession of a pie with unlawful intent". Surreally, the pie
didn't even exist but the case has now become one of major
constitutional importance in Canada. The story started in 2002 when
police said they believed that someone in Vancouver was going to throw a
pie at Jean Chrétien, the Canadian Prime Minister. A judge later
described the evidence for the plot as nothing more than "a third
hand rumour". Nonetheless, the police swung into action. Cameron
Ward, a prominent lawyer often involved in litigating cases of alleged
police misconduct, was arrested and subsequently sued the police, the
city and the provincial government for wrongful arrest, false
imprisonment and negligence. He offered to settle the case in return for
an apology but his offer was rejected. Ward won the case although the
judgment swung on violations of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, not on specifically illegal
police conduct. The Supreme Court of Canada will now
consider in what circumstances damages should be awarded to a citizen
whose constitutional rights have been infringed but where the
authorities haven't broken any particular law. - Times
Online website
Constitutional Law
Supreme
Court avoids major voting rights ruling - 22 June
The US Supreme Court declined on Monday to rule on the constitutionality
of part of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act
which sought to protect minorities in states with a history of racial
discrimination. The nation's top court instead ruled on a more narrow
constitutional question, deciding that political subdivisions within a
state can apply to be exempted from the Act. - Reuters
website
Justices
retain oversight by US on voting - 22 June
The Supreme Court on Monday left intact one of the signature
legacies of the civil rights movement, the Voting Rights Act of
1965. - New York
Times website
Justices
exempt Texas district from Voting Rights Act - 22 June
The Voting Rights Act, the government's chief weapon against racial
discrimination at polling places since the 1960s, survived a Supreme
Court challenge Monday in a ruling that nevertheless warned of
serious constitutional questions posed by part of the law. Major civil
rights groups and other defenders of the landmark law breathed a sigh of
relief when the court ruled narrowly in favor of a small Texas governing
authority while sidestepping the larger constitutional issue. - New
York Times website
Keyphrase :
Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v Holder
Courts
Supreme
Court rejects school strip search - 25 June
A public school violated the privacy rights of a teenage girl who had to
disrobe on suspicion she had ibuprofen pills, the US Supreme Court ruled
on Thursday in its first decision on student strip searches. The ruling
by the nation's high court was a major defeat for school officials who
had defended the strip search as necessary for student safety, school
order and combating a growing drug problem. School officials in Safford,
Arizona, had ordered the strip search in 2003 of the 13 year-old in the
eighth grade. It did not turn up any ibuprofen - an over-the-counter
anti-inflammatory medication used to treat fever, headaches and pain -
or any other drugs. The strip search was prompted by an unverified tip
from a girl. In another part of the ruling, Souter said the school
officials who ordered or carried out the search were entitled to
immunity from liability because of uncertainty over whether the right
had been clearly established at that time. - Reuters
website
Lawyer
Edward Fagan is disbarred in NJ for misusing Holocaust victims' funds
- 24 June
Only a few years ago, Edward Fagan was a world-renowned lawyer for the
underdog, brash and audacious enough to take on Swiss banks and even
whole countries to win judgments for Holocaust survivors and victims of
South African apartheid. This week, the Supreme Court announced he was
barred from practicing law in New Jersey, completing one of the steepest
falls from grace in the state's law community. The court found Fagan,
56, misappropriated nearly $400 000 of the money he won for the victims
he so effectively championed. - NJ.com
website
See also :
Apartheid
suit faces hurdles, reparations row - 18 June
A multi-billion dollar suit against Swiss and US banks on behalf of
victims of apartheid faces daunting legal hurdles and has fuelled debate
over who should pay for the sins of white-ruled South Africa. More than
500 South Africans called a telephone hotline on its first day to join a
$50 billion class action suit to be filed soon in a New York court by
Edward Fagan, a US lawyer known for his controversial tactics. - SABC
News website
[InfoUpdate
16 of 2002]
Lawyers
proving the 'slippery slope' is real - 7 June
If you've spent any time at all on Internet message boards or in college
debate class you'll have seen the rafters vibrate with righteous
condemnation against the "slippery slope argument". It is
claimed that a worst case, ultimate extrapolation of a thing is a bad
argument because it isn't necessarily a truism. A case brought against
South Africa by class-action attorneys many years after apartheid ended
is a "dramatic example," say Bradley and Goldsmith. It was
brought to a New York court in hopes of penalizing American corporations
for having had dealings with South Africa during the years of apartheid.
The Bush administration opposed the litigation. Even the post-apartheid
South African government opposed the litigation because they felt it
interfered with its own policies. Even the Supreme Court ruled that the
executive branch had privilege in dealing with South Africa. But the
arrogant New York court didn't care. Unfortunately, the activists in the
New York court refused to dismiss the case despite so many voices
opposed to it. What is the result? This case can now go forward to
interfere with the right of South Africa to reconcile with its own past
in its own ways and could have major economic impact on our own economy
by ruling that American firms are now liable for what some other country
did with its people. - Right
Side News website
Keyphrase :
United States. 'Apartheid Case'
Rights
case gone wrong - 18 April
As American taxpayers shell out hundreds of billions of dollars to
bail out US companies, a federal court in New York recently paved
the way for significantly increasing some of these firms' financial
burdens. Relying on the Alien Tort Statute of
1789, the court ruled this month that certain companies that
did business with apartheid South Africa - including distressed
firms such as General Motors and Ford - can be held liable for South
Africa's human rights violations during that period. The underlying
acts associated with apartheid are abhorrent. But it is crass
retroactivity to say that these firms are legally responsible for
actions of the South African government. Under the New York court's
standard, a great deal of global investment in the developing world
would now be subject to US judicial scrutiny. - The
Washington Post website
Counties
get sympathy but no money from judges on juvenile legal costs
- 6 June
Faced with tens of thousands of dollars in added expenses caused by the
need to pay additional attorneys to help low-income parents in juvenile
court cases, county commissioners received sympathy but not many dollars
Friday from the judges of the 25th Judicial Circuit. Meeting in what's
called an "en banc" session, the judges told Pulaski County
Presiding Commissioner Bill Ransdall and others that they ought to lobby
the state legislature, not the judges, to solve the problem. Phelps
County Associate Circuit Judge Ralph Haslag and other judges said the
risk of a person not having a legal advocate and then appealing is too
great and the judges have to follow procedures to ensure adequate legal
representation for poor parents. - Pulaski
County Daily website
Cyberlaw
US
mum is guilty of file-sharing - 19 June
A woman has been ordered to pay $1.9 million (£1.2m) in the only
file-sharing case to go to trial in the US. A jury in Minnesota ruled
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, had violated music copyright and must pay
damages to the record industry. The mother of four from Minnesota was
accused of illegally sharing 24 songs from artists including Sheryl Crow
and Green Day. - BBC
News website
Entertainment
Promoter
sues Michael Jackson - 10 June
A New Jersey concert promoter, AllGood Entertainment, has sued the
singer for breach of contract and fraud. Jackson is accused of backing
out of an agreement to perform in a Jackson Family Reunion concert to
sign with concert giant AEG Live to perform 50 concerts at London's O2
Arena. The suit seeks at least $20 million in damages and to bar
Jackson's London appearances, set to begin next month. - Los
Angeles Times website
Deep
pockets behind Michael Jackson - 1 June
In this, the first part of an absorbing story on the come backing
"King of Pop", Michael Jackson finds an unlikely champion in a
financier who made his fortune investing in distressed assets. - Business
Mirror website
More
woes for Michael Jackson - 14 June
In recent years, it has seemed that all of Jackson's time and energy
has been spent on litigation rather than music. Certainly, it's been
the source of the bulk of the conversation and publicity surrounding
the tabloid beloved star. - gaywired
website
Michael
Jackson dead at 50 - 25 June
ABC website
O2
arena counts cost as curtain closes on the greatest show of all - 26
June
AEG Live, the company that persuaded Michael Jackson to sign up for 50
nights at the O2 arena, is facing a liability of up to £300 million and
a dark house for the next nine months. - Times
Online website
Michael
Jackson leaves hefty debts - 26 June
The Times website
A
look at the career of Michael Jackson - 26 June
Associated Press on Google website
Environment
Court
orders $507.5 million damages in Exxon Valdez spill - 15 June
A federal appeals court on Monday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp to pay $507.5
million in punitive damages stemming from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil
spill off Alaska, plus 5.9 percent interest running from the 1996 trial
judgment, the opinion said. The amount is a fraction of the $5 billion
in punitive damages originally awarded to fishermen, Alaska natives,
business owners and other litigants by a jury in 1996, and equals the
compensatory damages agreed to in a subsequent settlement, the opinion
said. The opinion issued on Monday by the Ninth US Circuit Court of
Appeals set the punitive damages figure, and determined the date from
which the interest would run, after the US Supreme Court ruled that the
maximum ratio of punitive to compensatory damages is 1:1 under maritime
law. - Reuters
website
Finance
Madoff
victims push 150-year sentence - 16 June
More than 100 victims of failed financier Bernard L. Madoff’s
multibillion-dollar fraud have urged a judge to sentence him harshly,
saying he ruined their lives, leaving many of them depressed, bitter and
hopeless. Letter after letter urged US District Judge Denny Chin to
sentence Madoff to the maximum 150 years in prison after he pleaded
guilty in March to securities fraud, perjury and other
charges. Madoff, who has been jailed since he entered his guilty
plea, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 29. - Jakarta
Globe website
4
people and firm sued in Madoff case - 22 June
Three lawsuits filed on Monday provided new details about what
regulators say went on inside Bernard L Madoff's long-running Ponzi
scheme, including information about who might have helped perpetuate the
fraud for so long. No one but Mr Madoff and his accountant have faced
criminal charges so far. But in two civil fraud cases filed Monday,
federal regulators contend that a prominent investor and a small
brokerage firm both helped Mr Madoff sustain the Ponzi scheme by
steering billions of dollars into it, in exchange for hundreds of
millions of dollars in fees and profits. - New
York Times website
Madoff
asks for 12 years in jail - 24 June
Disgraced US financier Bernard Madoff's lawyer has said his client
deserves 12 years in prison for his crimes. In March, Madoff pleaded
guilty to 11 charges that he masterminded a $50bn (£35bn) investment
fraud. He will be sentenced on 29 June and could be jailed for up to 150
years. Madoff is 71 years old now. - BBC
News website
Foreign Policy
4 June 2009
Obama
: Address by the US President at Cairo University
Polity
website
Muslims
not sure President Obama's speech means real change - 5
June
President Obama's much-anticipated speech Thursday to the Muslim
world sought to dissolve the mistrust between Islam and the West by
highlighting his personal appeal as he called for an end to
intolerance and violence and a move toward a shared future. It was a
carefully textured blend of history, the president's experience with
Islam and the need to quell religious extremism. The 55-minute
address at Cairo University was short on policy details. Many in
this region want deeds and progress and believe that the speech was
more of a balancing act than an aggressive agenda. - Los
Angeles Times website
Health
Obama
signs landmark law to regulate tobacco - 22 June
President Barack Obama, citing his own struggle to give up
smoking, signed a law on Monday giving the US government broad
regulatory power for the first time over cigarettes and other
tobacco products. Obama said the law would curb the ability of
tobacco companies to market their products to the young. The law
followed a campaign by tobacco industry foes in Congress for more
than a decade to put cigarettes under the control of the US Food and
Drug Administration. It allows the FDA to put strict limits on the
manufacturing and marketing of tobacco products but stops short of
allowing it to ban cigarettes or their addictive ingredient
nicotine. - Reuters
website
Human
Rights
Supreme
Court to decide federal sex offender law - 22 June
The US Supreme Court said on Monday that it would decide whether
Congress may adopt a federal law that keeps sex offenders in custody
indefinitely after they complete their prison sentences. The high
court agreed to hear an Obama administration appeal seeking to
reinstate a 2006 law providing for the continued detention of
"sexually dangerous" convicted federal inmates who have
served their prison terms. A US appeals court based in Virginia
struck down the law for exceeding the limits of congressional
authority and intruding on police powers Constitution reserves for
the states, many of which have similar laws. - Reuters
website
Miami's
tent city for sex offender - 21 June
A Miami law is forcing many of the city's sex offenders to sleep
rough under a bridge, reports Emilio San Pedro for the BBC's
Americana programme. The area under the Julia Tuttle Causeway in
downtown Miami has in recent years become the unlikely home for a
growing community of about 70 convicted sex offenders. They have
ended up living in a makeshift tent city under one of the causeway's
bridges because of a local law which prohibits those who have
sexually abused minors from living within 2 500 ft (760m) of
anywhere where children congregate, such as schools, libraries and
parks. - BBC
News website
Labour
Issues
Tentative
settlement at The Boston Globe - 24 June
After months of bitter struggle that included a threat to shut down The
Boston Globe, the New York Times Company and
the paper's largest union reached a tentative contract settlement on
Tuesday night, with employees agreeing to significant cuts in wages,
benefits and job security. - New
York Times website
Land
Affairs
Atlanta
is making way for new public housing - 20 June
In 1936, Atlanta built Techwood Homes, the nation's first housing
project. By the 1990s, a greater percentage of the city's residents
were living in housing projects - sprawling red-brick barracks that
pockmarked the skyline - than in any other city in America. Now,
Atlanta is nearing a very different record : becoming the first
major city to knock them all down. By next June, officials here plan
to demolish the city's last remaining housing project, fulfilling a
long and divisive campaign to reduce poverty by decentralizing
it. - New York Times
website
Mexico
'No
extradition' for kidnap woman - 23 June
Mexican President Felipe Calderon has said a French woman who was
convicted of kidnapping will have to serve her 60-year sentence in
Mexico. The French government had been urging the Mexican
authorities to extradite Florence Cassez, who has long pleaded her
innocence. But Mr Calderon said Mexican law must be upheld. - BBC
News website
Miscellaneous
Chronic
Lyme disease treatment could face insurance battle - 14
June
Many Lyme disease patients rejoiced last month when the General
Assembly unanimously passed a bill specifying that physicians could
diagnose the controversial chronic Lyme disease and prescribe equally
contentious long-term antibiotics to treat the tick-borne illness
without fear of reprisal. But the bill, which needs to be signed by
Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell, did not address another issue: Must
insurance companies cover the extended treatments when various health
organizations do not recognize the existence of chronic Lyme and warn
against overuse of antibiotics? - The
Advocate website
Announcing
James Kilgore's We are All Zimbabweans Now (with Excerpt)
- 3 June
Umuzi proudly announces the release of We Are All Zimbabweans Now
by James Kilgore. Written from a California prison cell by this
one-time fugitive author, the book occupies an important place amongst
the fictional chronicles of post-independence Zimbabwe. - Umuzi
website
See
also :
Symbionese
Liberation Army member released on parole
- 10 May 2009
Los
Angeles Times
website
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