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"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov." The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) have filed suit in...

A family in Saudi Arabia is taking a "genie" to court, accusing it of theft and harassment, reports say. They accuse the spirit of threatening them, throwing stones and stealing mobile phones, Al Watan newspaper said. The family have lived in the same house near the city of Medina for 15 years but say they only recently became aware of the spirit. They have now moved out. A local court is investigating. In Islamic theology, genies are spirits that can harass or possess humans.

SCOTUS released their 5-4 decision in Ashcroft v. Iqbal today... with Kennedy writing for the majority opinion, and siding with the conservative side of the Supreme robed ones. (see opinion at at the bottom of this post)Iqbal is a Pakistani Muslim who, in 2002, was detained for a year in NYC following the 911 attacks, and spent six of those months in solitary confinement. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud, and was deported to Pakistan after serving a 16 month sentence. Iqbal then filed a lawsuit saying his Constitutional rights were violated based on discrimination of race, religion and...

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court decides that top officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and current FBI Director Robert Mueller, are immune from such a lawsuit.

Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, the state's high court on Thursday said a would-be Good Samaritan accused of rendering her friend paraplegic by pulling her from a wrecked car "like a rag doll" can be sued. California's Supreme Court ruled that the state's Good Samaritan law only protects people from liability if the are administering emergency medical care, and that Lisa Torti's attempted rescue of her friend didn't qualify. Justice Carlos Moreno wrote for a unanimous court that a person is not obligated to come to someone's aid.

In a lawsuit filed in Alaska Superior Court, a Republican activist seeks to force Gov. Sarah Palin to produce copies of official correspondence she sent and received on private e-mail accounts. Andrée McLeod filed the suit Wednesday and publicized it in a news release today. "Rather than using her state e-mail account, throughout her two-year tenure as Governor of Alaska, defendant Sarah Palin, as a matter of routine, has used, and, on information and belief, continues to use, (at least) two private e-mail accounts... to conduct official business of the State of Alaska," the suit alleges. The suit is the...

link only per rules: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080725/METRO/807250385/1409/METRO

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A Planned Parenthood in the District of Columbia is the subject of a new lawsuit from the mother of a teenager injured in a botched abortion. The abortion involved a teenager who was a victim of rape and the abortion left her with significant medical problems. According to the lawsuit, Shantese Butler sustained significant physical damage as a result of the abortion and became infertile as a result.

The driver of the vehicle hit by Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, last year has sued for personal injury and property damage. The lawsuit was filed in Solano County Court on Friday by Ellen Butawan. In a widely-publicized incident, Migden rear-ended Butawan last May 18 while driving her state-provided 2007 Toyota Highlander. According to news reports, Butawan, the 32 year-old wife of a California Highway Patrol officer, went to the ER with minor head injuries, while her daughter Leila suffered chest abrasions. Butawan was waiting at a light on Highway 12 in Fairfield when she was hit, propelling her Honda...

Tampa issued a promissory note for $299.58 to pioneer storekeeper Thomas Pugh Kennedy on June 21, 1861. And his great granddaughter Joan Kennedy Biddle, 77, who has known about the note since she was a little girl, wants to collect with interest. TAMPA — In the early months of the Civil War, the city of Tampa needed ammunition and other supplies to defend against attack but apparently was short on cash. So it issued a promissory note for $299.58 to storekeeper Thomas Pugh Kennedy on June 21, 1861. Kennedy's great-granddaughter says the city never made good on its loan. Now,...

DAKAR, Senegal - The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots. Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital. The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to...

SAN FRANCISCO - Former state Democratic leader John Burton was accused of sexual harassment Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the director of his non-profit organization dedicated to helping California's homeless children. Kathleen Driscoll, who is on medical leave as executive director of the San Francisco-based John Burton Foundation, filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court. "Burton made inappropriate sexual advances on a regular and ongoing basis, used vulgar and profane language and publicly humiliated Driscoll with sexual comments and behavior," the lawsuit stated. "Burton has a long history of being abusive, crass and profane."

Spitzer Sued Over License PlanStory Updated: Oct 31, 2007 at 6:40 PM EDT Governor Eliot Spitzer's plan to issue driver's licenses to illegal aliens has sparked legal action by Assembly republicans, and created a point of controversy for the democratic candidates for president. Assembly Minority Leader James Tedisco (R,C,I-Schenectady-Saratoga) plans to file a lawsuit Thursday accusing Spitzer and DMV Commissioner David Swarts of attempting to enact an "unlawful plan." Tedisco cites five causes of action, including an existing state law that requires driver's license applicants to have a valid Social Security number. Moderator Tim Russert asked Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)...

COLUMBIA, Md. (AP) -- The nation's two largest makers of toy trains are nearing a conclusion to a seven-year-old, multimillion-dollar lawsuit. Columbia-based MTH Electric Trains had sued Lionel, a century-old brand, accusing it of stealing train designs through a Korean subcontractor. The dispute focused on patented computer technology that synchronizes a train set's sound, smoke and speed, critical technology in their small but competitive market. "We're happy that we've reached a settlement," said Jerry Calabrese, chief executive of Lionel, based in Chesterfield, Mich. "It was a long, terrible case." However, MTH founder Mike Wolf said the settlement is contingent on...

The arbitration tribunal of Moscow has sustained a case of Mikhail Renzhin, who claimed for compensation of 24 million rubles (about $968 thousand) after he had been stolen 95.2 thousand shares of Gazprom. The plaintiff wanted Gazporm and CJSC SR-Draga, a registrar, to cover the payout. In the course of the hearings the representatives from the both companies tried to assure the court that the plaintiff had sold his shares himself. Particularly they said that Mikhail Renzhin had neither visited any shareholders’ meetings nor asked for dividends in the period of 2000-2006.

Following an outbreak of lawsuits that Planned Parenthood is illegally concealing the age of minors and failing to report incidents of statutory rape, the nation’s largest abortion provider has threatened civil action of its own against an 18-year-old female student at UCLA. Student reporter Lisa Rose, posing as a pregnant 15-year-old, visited the Santa Monica Planned Parenthood, expressing her interest in an abortion and introducing her 23-year-old boyfriend. With the entire exchange caught on film, the employee warns Rose that the company is required to report cases of statutory rape to the police, but encourages Rose to conceal her age...

Tele-evangelist sued over 'God can heal' claim Ed Pilkington Darlene Bishop, a tele-evangelist with a nationwide following, does not do things by half. When she and her husband Lawrence erected a statue of Jesus on the grounds of their mega church in Monroe, Ohio, they made it 62 feet high. No less gargantuan are her claims about the power of prayer to overcome illness. Through a series of sermons, books and a television show, Sisters, broadcast on religious satellite channels throughout the US and abroad, she preaches that God has the power to heal even the most deadly diseases, including...

SAN FRANCISCO - Environmentalists sued the Bush administration Tuesday for failing to produce a report on global warming's impact on the country's environment, economy and public health. The plaintiffs claim the government must complete such a report every four years under the Global Change Research Act of 1990. The plaintiffs say the last report was due in November 2004. The lawsuit seeks to compel the U.S. Climate Change Science Program to issue the national assessment, which should contain the most recent scientific data on global warming and projections for its future impacts. Without the report, decision makers and the public...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Six New York teen-agers sued Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld on Monday, alleging the U.S. Department of Defense broke the law by keeping an extensive database on potential recruits. The suit in federal court in Manhattan follows a series of allegations last year of misconduct by recruiters, who have experienced difficulty meeting targets because of the war in Iraq. The Pentagon last year acknowledged it had created a database of 12 million Americans, full of personal data such as grades and Social Security numbers, to help find potential military recruits. The Pentagon has defended the practice as...

NEW YORK — The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the city yesterday, challenging restrictions on people's right to photograph public places after an award-winning filmmaker from India was blocked from videotaping near the MetLife building. In its lawsuit, the civil rights group highlighted the plight of Rakesh Sharma, who said he was left feeling ashamed and humiliated when he was detained in May 2005 after police saw him use a hand-held video camera on a public street in midtown Manhattan. Sharma was taping background footage for a documentary examining changes in the lives of ordinary people such as taxi...

Florida School Board Sued for Unequal Education Friday, November 18, 2005 PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — A first-of-its-kind class-action lawsuit in Pinellas County, Fla., could force the local school board to reveal how it teaches and disciplines its 20,000 black students, who struggle academically in disproportionate numbers to students of other races. "Public education, to me personally, is specifically set up to dumb us down," said William Crowley, who filed the lawsuit. Click in the video box to the right to watch a report by FOX News' Orlando Salinas. Crowley said the white-run school system allowed his son to fall behind....

You guys hear the latest on Mr. Robertson, Apparently he is being sued by Hugo Chavez. (CBS/AP) President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his government may ask the United States to extradite U.S. religious broadcaster Pat Robertson to Venezuela for suggesting American agents should kill him. Earlier Sunday, Rev. Jesse Jackson offered support for Chavez, saying the televangelist's call for the Venezuelan leader's assassination was a criminal act. The U.S. civil rights leader, who is on a four-day visit to Venezuela, called Robertson's statements "immoral" and "illegal." He urged U.S. authorities to take action, and said the U.S. government must...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Four major agricultural companies and a nonprofit organization were sued in federal court Wednesday by Canyon County commissioners, accused of conspiring to hire and harbor illegal immigrants. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court contends the four companies - Modesto, Calif.-based Harris Moran Seed Co., Syngenta Seeds, Sorrento Lactalis and Swift Beef Co. - and the nonprofit Idaho Migrant Council have violated the federal Racketeering influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was designed to target the mafia. Canyon County in southwestern Idaho alleges it's been damaged by an "illegal immigrant hiring scheme," paying millions of dollars for...

Clinton to be Sued for Missed Restaurant Reservation? May 25, 2005 Bill Clinton’s legendary eating habits have long been the butt of jokes, but it was an allegedly skipped dinner at one of Rome’s most fashionable restaurants that now seems to be needling the ex-chief of state. Whatever the reason for Clinton’s no-show, the restaurant owner is apparently none too pleased. According to reports, the owner may sue the former president who, the owner claims, didn't bother to cancel his reservation. Just weeks after his surgery, the president said while hitting the campaign trail for John Kerry, "If this isn’t...

LISBON - County Sheriff David L. Smith may form a board to review applications of persons he denied permits to carry concealed weapons. The idea was suggested Wednesday by the Mahoning County Common Pleas Court magistrate presiding over the lawsuit filed by a man whose application for a permit to carry a concealed weapon was denied by Smith. "I'm the final word but there is a provision in the law that says I can set up a review board to look at denials," he said. The Mahoning County man, identified in the lawsuit as John Doe, filed a lawsuit against...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A business group raising money to back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's package of constitutional amendments for an upcoming special election has sued to overturn a cap on contributions to committees controlled by elected officials. The suit, served Wednesday on the California Fair Political Practices Commission, targets a regulation that officials from the Citizens to Save California and the governor's office have said does not apply to them because Schwarzenegger does not play a controlling role in the group. Critics have charged that Citizens to Save California is violating the regulation by raising unlimited amounts of money for campaign...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The federal appeals court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was an unconstitutional endorsement of religion is being sued for allegedly displaying the Ten Commandments on its seal and courthouses. The case was brought by Pleasanton attorney Ryan Donlon, who was admitted to practice before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in June. In his lawsuit against the San Francisco-based court, he said the certificate admitting him contains the court's seal which unlawfully contains what he believes is a tablet object that "represents the Judeo-Christian Decalogue commonly referred to as the Ten Commandments." Cathy Catterson,...

A former CIA officer is suing his employers for retaliating against him for his alleged refusal to falsify reports on weapons of mass destruction. In a complaint published on Wednesday, the unnamed operative said he was warned by a colleague that management wanted to "get him" for his actions. His reports were "contrary to official dogma", the document says. The subject of the reporting has been blacked out, but correspondents say the complaint clearly refers to Iraq. The CIA has refused to comment on the lawsuit, but spokeswoman Anya Guilsher told the Washington Post newspaper that the idea that officers...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A law firm filed ethics violation charges Monday against three federal judges who sit on the governing board of an organization that favors business-based solutions to environmental issues. Community Rights Counsel, or CRC, alleged that the judges' service on the board of the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment created an appearance of impropriety. The judges include Douglas Ginsburg, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, who served on the board with Edward Warren, an oil industry lawyer fighting an air pollution case being considered by Ginsburg's court. Ginsburg...

Ex-Rep. Janklow Faces Wrongful-Death Suit By CARSON WALKER, Associated Press Writer SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The family of a motorcyclist killed in a collision with a car driven by Bill Janklow has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the former South Dakota congressman. AP Photo Janklow, who resigned from Congress on Tuesday, was served with papers at the Minneapolis airport on his way from Washington to Sioux Falls, said Ronald Meshbesher, a lawyer for the family of Randy Scott. Janklow was convicted last month of speeding, running a stop sign, reckless driving and second-degree manslaughter in the Aug. 16 death of...

DETROIT - James Nichols, the brother of Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols, says he was tricked into appearing in the documentary "Bowling for Columbine," according to a federal lawsuit filed against filmmaker Michael Moore

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- In May, former Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD) filed a $5 million lawsuit against a website operator who included him among a group of "traitors." The website, www.ProBush.com, lampoons liberals from the entertainment industry and politics who have been vocal in their opposition to the war in Iraq or critical of President George W. Bush. Some of the others on the list are Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as well as actors George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, and Janeane Garafalo and the country music group, the Dixie Chicks....

New York Woman Sues Defunct Rosie O'Donnell Show NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Rosie O'Donnell (news) Show was sued for $3 million on Wednesday by a 71-year-old widow who alleges she was hit in the mouth by a hard rubber ball while attending a taping of the defunct television program. Reuters Photo Lucille DeBellis of Hartsdale, N.Y. claims in the suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, that while attending a taping of the show in November 2001, she was struck in the mouth by a ball thrown by a member of O'Donnell's staff. The suit alleges the ball was "recklessly...

Great White Testifies, Gets Sued Tuesday was a busy day for Great White--and the band's lawyers. Members of the '80s heavy metal outfit finally began testifying before a Rhode Island grand jury and faced the first of what is likely many wrongful-death lawsuits blaming the band in part for the deadly nightclub fire two weeks ago. The families of two of the victims are suing both Great White and club owners Jeffrey and Michael Derderian, claiming they're responsible for the inferno that killed 98 people and injured close to 200--one of the worst blazes in the U.S. in more than...

LOS ANGELES –– The owners of the KaZaA file-sharing network are suing the movie and recording industries, claiming that they don't understand the digital age and are monopolizing entertainment. Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.

Los Angeles - A Los Angeles man who says he was libelled in eBay's "feedback" section of its website has sued the online auction house for refusing to remove statements he says damaged his reputation. Analysts say the case, sparked by an online sale of vintage Hollywood magazines, cuts to the heart of what makes eBay work: the power of buyers and sellers to keep an eye on each other. Robert Grace, publisher of a Los Angeles legal newspaper, sued eBay and Hollywood memorabilia dealer Tim Neeley this week in a California Superior Court after the website refused to remove...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A group of barbers and beauticians has sued the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, claiming the activists' remarks about the movie "Barbershop" drove away customers. The suit was filed Monday by the National Association of Cosmetologists. It accuses Jackson and Sharpton of intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, and negligence stemming from their demand for apologies from MGM, which produced the comedy. The activists had called for scenes deriding Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks to be removed from the film starring Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer. MGM refused to cut the scenes....

A local landscape designer is suing CNN news anchor Paula Zahn and her husband for failing to pay in full for extensive landscaping at the couple's Greenwich home on Hurlingham Drive, according to documents filed in state Superior Court in Stamford. Memrie Lewis, of 15 Pecksland Road, alleges that as a designer, she hired other firms to do the work Robert Cohen and Zahn wanted on their home, an agreement laid out in a contract. Lewis said the couple has not paid about $108,000 for services rendered. With interest and compensation, Lewis is seeking close to $200,000. Her complaint...