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Does anyone know why Michelle Obama had her law license revoked in 1993?

Apple has followed the judge's direction and filed a motion to dismiss or enjoin prosecution [PDF] of Psystar's Florida action. There is no reason, it argues, to have the same issues litigated in two courtrooms 3,000 miles away from each other simultaneously. It also asks to reopen limited discovery for 45-60 days, just about the issue of the technical method Psystar uses to install Snow Leopard on its non-Apple hardware. Apple asked for this at the recent hearing, and the judge said to officially file a motion, so this is it. Apple doesn't mind if that means putting off the...

... "These Credit Default Swaps have been written (as insurance is written) as private contracts. There is nil government regulation of them. Who writes these policies? Banks. Investment banks. Insurance companies. They now owe the buyers of these Credit Default Swaps on junk mortgage debt trillions of dollars. It is this liability that is the bottomless pit of liability for the financial institutions of America." ...

ISLAMABAD - Police resorted to light baton charge to disperse a rally of leaders of bar associations and civil society activists converging here from across the country to demand restoration of deposed judges including chief justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, who led the rally outside the Parliament House, rejected government’s move to invite judges to take fresh oath after reappointment though with previous seniority. He said the government action is illegal and can be challenged by new judges who claim to be senior to the reappointed judges under the constitution. He...

Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain travelled to Oregon in mid-May to deliver the definitive climate change speech of his campaign. He spoke in Portland, at the U.S. headquarters of Vestas Wind Systems AS, a Danish company that markets wind turbines around the world. He started on a self-deprecating note. “Today is a kind of test run for this company,” he said. “They've got wind technicians here, wind studies and all these wind turbines. But there's no wind. So now I know why they asked me to come and give a speech.” It was perhaps his most perceptive statement of...

At long last, there's good news in the fight against "jackpot justice" tort claims and the nefarious law firms that file them. In courts and legislatures across the country, fraudulent lawsuits are being exposed, and the abusive tort lawyers that file them are finally getting a taste of their own medicine. Most notable is the recent indictment of Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman, the nation's most notorious class-action law firm. For four decades, Milberg Weiss has filed hundreds of dubious class-action lawsuits and wrung billions of dollars from terrified companies. Now, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles has indicted...

The Truth Behind the iPod Nano "Scratch" Class Action Suit May 22, 2006 Dear Mac Community: Hello! My name is Jason Tomczak. Many people around the world rightly know me as a mild-mannered techie, photographer, writer, and nature-lover. I am an Apple fan and have been fortunate enough to use Mac computers and other Apple products since about 1985. On October 19, 2005, my life changed due to the unauthorized conduct of others. From that date forward, countless numbers of people around the world were driven to hate me and slander my name, sometimes using foul and threatening language. Since...

The industry's VIPs mingle at political galas and Super Bowl parties. Their product is available on cell phones, podcasts, and particularly the Internet _ there it's an attraction like no other, patronized by tens of millions of Americans. It's pornography. And if you're a consumer, John Harmer thinks you're damaging your brain. Harmer is part of a cadre of anti-porn activists seeking new tactics to fight an unprecedented deluge of porn which they see as wrecking countless marriages and warping human sexuality. They are urging federal prosecutors to pursue more obscenity cases and raising funds for high-tech brain research that...

There's bad news and there's more bad news for paralysis victims hoping that some variety of stem cell will soon help them walk again. Adult stem cell paralysis treatment has just suffered a major setback, on the one hand. On the other, these victims are being mercilessly exploited by those desperate to convince us that embryonic stem cells (ESCs) -- yet to be tested in a human -- are a miracle cure desperately needing massive infusions of taxpayer funds. There have been many claims of improvements for quadriplegics using adult stem cells -- those found throughout the human body as...

NASHVILLE -- Despite a massive lobbying effort and doctors declaring that Tennessee faces a "crisis," legislation to put new state limits on medical malpractice lawsuits has been killed for another year. The bill backed by the Tennessee Medical Association (TMA) and a coalition of 46 other organizations was defeated in the five-member Civil Practice subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. Two members voted for it; three against. Rep. Rob Briley, D-Nashville, who chairs the subcommittee, said proponents simply had not presented any objective evidence that lawsuits have really caused a problem in Tennessee and that the proposed limits would be...

A SOUTH Korean lobbyist has been indicted in New York on charges of scheming with top UN and Iraqi officials to defraud the now-defunct oil-for-food program. Tongsun Park, 70, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Manhattan on charges including conspiring to act as an unregistered agent of Saddam Hussein's former government and money laundering. Mr Park was added to a previous indictment that now names 12 defendants, including Texas oil tycoon Oscar Wyatt, David Chalmers of Bayoil Inc, Bulgarian oil trader Ludmil Dionissiev and two Swiss executives and their companies. Mr Park is accused of taking more than...

JAG, we are told, mistakenly thought the open-tip round was the same as hollow-point ammunition, which is banned. The original open-tip was known as Sierra MatchKing and broke all records for accuracy in the past 30 years. The difference between the open-tip and the hollow point is that the open tip is a design feature that improves accuracy while the hollow point is designed for increasing damage when it hits a target. About 10 days ago, the Army JAG in Iraq ordered all snipers to stop using the open-tip 175-grain M118LR bullet, claiming, falsely, it was prohibited. Instead of the...

Over the past few days, December 21st — when our first Hindenburg Omen (of whatever cluster is coming) — and Thursday December 22nd, the Federal Reserve has conducted one of the largest two-day Repo injections of money into the system since back in September 2001. On Wednesday they added $18.0 billion in reserves and on Thursday they added another $20.0 billion. Is this a coincidence, coming right as we get another Hindenburg Omen? Probably not. Is something high-risk going on behind the scenes here? Let’s review some facts at the Fed. On November 10th, 2005, shortly after appointing Bernanke to...

IT'S OFFICIAL: 2005 WILL BE the newspaper industry's worst year since the last ad industry recession. And things aren't looking much better for next year either, according to a top Wall Street firm's report on newspaper publishing. "Sadly, 2005 is shaping up as the industry's worst year from a revenue growth perspective since the recession impacted 2001-2002 period," says the report from Goldman Sachs, adding a warning that meaningful growth in 2006 is "very unlikely."

Three days after a grand jury turned down a second indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, prosecutor Ronnie Earle went to a new grand jury citing new evidence and won indictments on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money. Mr. DeLay and two political associates were first indicted Sept. 28 on a charge of a criminal conspiracy to violate campaign-finance laws and then were indicted by another grand jury Monday on the two money-laundering charges. But in between, Mr. Earle, the district attorney for Travis County, Texas, tried but failed to get still another grand jury to...

The Lost Coast Brewery in Humboldt, Calif. says it will take off the shelves its Indica India Pale Ale, whose label currently depicts the Indian elephant-god Ganesh "holding a beer in one of his four hands, and another in his trunk". Although brewery co-owner Barbara Groom said her Hindu friends don't mind the label, a California man named Brij Dhir sued the brewery, along with other defendants such as the Safeway supermarket chain, claiming that it is offensive and intimidates Hindus from practicing their religion. "Dhir seeks at least $25,000 and his lawsuit mentions that $1 billion would be appropriate...

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has cleared his former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, of any violation of staff rules in shredding documents shortly before the start of an inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal, a UN spokesman said today. "After reviewing the findings in the latest Volcker report and consulting with the Office of Legal Affairs ... the Secretary-General has found there is no ground for disciplinary action against him," said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric. "The Secretary-General acknowledges that Mr Riza's actions were careless but he does not believe that they can be construed as deliberate attempts to impede the...

Bush puts compensation lawyers in the dock (Filed: 28/03/2005) In a nation so litigious that one attorney found he was suing himself, the White House's attack on frivolous lawsuits is proving popular, reports Alec Russell Michael Cogan paces his office with the predatory panache that has won over many a jury in his brilliant career. From his ninth-floor window he has a premier view of Chicago's skyscraper skyline, a testament to his success as one of America's top medical malpractice lawyers. Michael Cogan is now defending himself against President Bush's anti-litigation policy But now his oratory and flair are facing...

Those two Long Island men who say they were arrested for telling lawyer jokes at a Nassau County courthouse (see yesterday's post) were soon deluged with offers by lawyers to represent them for free. Reports Newsday: "Barbara Bernstein, executive director of the Nassau chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said she found the arrests "bewildering" and she called the men yesterday to determine whether the organization could help. "It's just bewildering and preposterous that they should be arrested for telling lawyer jokes," Bernstein said. "What's the violation of law here?" (Zachary R. Dowdy, "Lawyers offer help after pair's...

I possess zero doubt that this picture represents the Thanksgiving 2004 fantasy of every Kerry fanatic after the Bush victory next Tuesday.

M-LAW ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF SEVENTH ANNUAL WACKY WARNING LABEL CONTEST Fishing lure which warns, "Harmful if swallowed," catches one of the top awards A five-inch fishing lure which sports three steel hooks and cautions users that it is, "Harmful if swallowed," has been identified as one of the nation's wackiest warning labels in an annual contest sponsored by a consumer watchdog group. The Wacky Warning Label Contest, now in it's seventh year, is conducted by Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, M-LAW, to reveal how lawsuits, and fear of lawsuits, have prompted many manufacturers to issue warnings against even obvious misuses of...

December 23, 2003, 1:01 a.m. Judge Not, All Ye Faithful The beatitude excuse. Religious folk looking for a way to get out of jury duty may have been handed one by an unlikely ally in civic sloth: trial lawyers. According to a new guidebook for the plaintiff's bar, trial lawyers are advised to be wary of potential jurors with "extreme attitudes about personal responsibility." These jurors, the guidebook counsels, often reveal themselves by chatting up "traditional family values" — values that reflect "strong religious beliefs." If you want to get off the hook, chant a beatitude or two. That may...

Law firms Brown Rudnick Berlack & Israels and Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein now say they'll sue the state of Massachusetts for the whole $2 billion they say they're entitled to -- a 25 percent contingency share of the state's $8 billion tobacco-settlement booty -- rather than accept the measly $775 million they've been awarded in arbitration. The Associated Press says the firms "risk becoming poster children for attorney greed at a time when the profession is already under attack for high damage awards. 'This lawsuit is about greed and it's about selfishness. They should be ashamed of themselves,' said...

A Texas law firm faked evidence and tried to bribe witnesses in a products liability case, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday in San Antonio by the DaimlerChrysler Corporation. The lawsuit follows an appeals court decision last year that dismissed the products liability case and imposed sanctions of $865,000 against three of the firm's lawyers. The appeals court called the firm's conduct "an egregious example of the worst kind of abuse of the judicial system." According to the court's decision and a lawyer for DaimlerChrysler, federal prosecutors are investigating the firm. The United States attorney's office in San Antonio...

Hospitals are responsible for their patients, but an Allentown woman's lawsuit hits new heights of ridiculousness. Amanda C. Hagan, 29, blames her drug overdose on Norristown State Hospital — an overdose that wouldn't have been possible if a roommate's son hadn't sneaked illegal drugs into the hospital in May 1999. According to the suit filed in Montgomery County Court, when the 18-year-old visited his mother, he slipped to Ms. Hagan and his mother some cocaine, heroin and needles. The women injected themselves with the two drugs and a needle broke off in Ms. Hagan's arm. Ms. Hagan was gasping for...

<p>The FBI is investigating huge jury verdicts in Jefferson County and several of the trial lawyers who have been involved with them, according to sources close to the investigation.</p> <p>Those sources say the still-early probe has uncovered allegations of unethical conduct by some of those being investigated. It remains to be seen whether those unspecified allegations are true and, if so, whether they constitute crimes.</p>

Desert Springs Hospital will shut down its maternity center at the end of the summer because the facility has lost more than half its obstetricians. The closure comes just months after hospital officials closed the orthopedic department and struggled to find enough surgeons to care for emergency room patients. Health officials blame the closure on the state's medical malpractice insurance troubles, which have forced some doctors to leave the state or curtail their speciality services. Larry Matheis, executive director of the Nevada State Medical Association, said the closure is another example of the fallout from the state's medical liability troubles....

It is now official. With the initiation of two new legal actions, one against Kraft/Nabisco and the other against an Illinois high school, May 2003 marks the reemergence of the frivolous lawsuit. September 11 seemed to put a clamp on this phenomenon. After the selfless heroism of New York Firefighters and the passengers of Flight 93, who wanted to be seen in court claiming no one warned them that sniffing rubber cement could lead to psychosis?

Medical Malpractice Cap TV Ads Blame A Father’s Death on Lawyers http://nationaljournal.com/members/adspotlight/2003/04/0424carh1.htm 2003 POLITICAL ADS Californian Blames Dad's Death On Lawyers By Mark H. Rodeffer, NationalJournal.com © National Journal Group Inc. Thursday, April 24, 2003 In a TV commercial pushing caps on malpractice awards, Californian Mary Rasar tells the story of her father, Jim Lawson, who died last summer in Las Vegas after a trauma center there "was put out of business" by "frivolous lawsuits." "Emergency rooms across America are closing for the same reason, and people like my father are dying," Rasar says in the spot. Saying that "frivolous...

<p>SACRAMENTO -Despite a budget crisis that pushed state legislators to cut aid to the poor and suspend tax breaks for teachers, lawmakers last year rewarded loyal aides with generous raises and six-figure salaries that have driven legislative spending to record levels.</p>

Posted on Tue, Mar. 18, 2003 LOS ANGELES (AP) - Major record labels have targeted about 300 companies whose computers were allegedly used by employees to feed file-swapping networks in the latest attempt to crack down on Internet music piracy.Letters sent out in the last week by the Recording Industry Association of America informed the companies of the alleged piracy and warned that employees and employers might be subjected to ``significant legal damages.'' However, the letters made no explicit threat to sue.The recording association declined to name the companies that received the letters, but said some of them are...