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Larry A. Silverstein, who has won nearly $4.6 billion in insurance payments to cover his losses and help him rebuild at the World Trade Center site, is seeking $12.3 billion in damages from airlines and airport security companies for the 9/11 attack. Mr. Silverstein, the developer of ground zero, sought the damages, whose amount was not previously known, in a claim filed in 2004, that says the airlines and airport security companies failed to prevent terrorists from hijacking the planes used to destroy the buildings. His case was consolidated last week with similar, earlier lawsuits brought by families of some...

BARNAUL, Russia (Reuters) - A shepherd is suing Russia's space agency for compensation after he said a 10-foot-long chunk of metal from a space rocket fell into his yard, just missing his outdoor toilet. Boris Urmatov, who is asking for 1 million roubles ($42,000) from the Roskosmos agency, lives in a small village that lies underneath the flight path of rockets taking off from the Baikonur launchpad Russia leases in nearby Kazakhstan. "Something woke him up in the night, like something exploded. Since he's visually handicapped he didn't notice the fallen rocket parts," Urmatov's sister Marina told Reuters from the...

WASHINGTON - Larry Klayman, once a hero of conservatives for persistently taking Bill Clinton to court, sued former aides and financial backers of President Bush on Monday for using the name "Freedom's Watch" to mount a multimillion-dollar campaign in support of the war in Iraq. In the federal lawsuit, Klayman accuses the group of appropriating a name he has used to promote his own public interest legal work. Klayman, who lives in Miami, said he first used the name Freedom Watch in 2004 on behalf of his nonprofit legal and educational activities and later registered it with the U.S. Patent...

NEW ORLEANS - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the city of Slidell on Tuesday for displaying a painting of Jesus in a courthouse lobby, saying it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. The ACLU sued after the Slidell City Court refused to voluntarily remove the picture and a message below it that reads: "To Know Peace, Obey These Laws." The ACLU says the portrait — an image of Jesus presenting the New Testament — is a religious icon of the Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity. "We did not file this lawsuit because the ACLU is anti-religion ......

A grandfather who went on a massive spending spree when doctors told him he would die is taking legal action against the NHS after learning he had been misdiagnosed. John Brandrick, from Newquay, Cornwall, was told he had pancreatic cancer two years ago after scans revealed a 7cm tumour. The 62-year-old said he was told by doctors at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske that he only had a short time left to live. So he quit his job and stopped paying his mortgage, instead splashing out on a lavish lifestyle of hotels, restaurants and holidays. Then the hospital told...

The Alaska Supreme Court has ruled that Anchorage Baptist Temple, a church in the state, will be allowed to defend a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union contesting certain tax exemptions granted to the church. The ACLU has filed two lawsuits challenging a statewide tax exemption on real property owned by a religious group, when the property serves as the residence of a teacher in a private religious or parochial school. Anchorage Baptist Temple (ABT) runs a number of ministries, including alcohol and drug abuse recovery programs, community outreaches, a bus ministry and other services. The congregation also owns...

A 47-year-old Portland woman is suing two city police officers, claiming they stormed into her home and arrested her without reason two years ago. Sherrie Carlson Sandau has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Portland, claiming her constitutional right to due process was violated when Portland officers John A. Wood and Christopher Cass entered her home without a warrant, grabbed her and arrested her. Sandau said she was wearing only a tank top at the time of her arrest and the officers ignored her pleas to put clothes on before she was placed in a patrol car. She...

Mark Studler has nothing against people expressing their religious beliefs, even on their license plates. But the Allen County man says he also believes those folks should be treated like Hoosiers who use their vehicle tags to promote education or the environment and are charged an extra fee to do so.

TROY, Mich. — She went in for an oil change, but came out with a brand-new car. Now a Michigan woman is suing the auto dealer, saying it took advantage of her bipolar disorder to sell her the $32,000 vehicle.

Mandela sues over 'missing' cash By Christopher Munnion in Johannesburg Last Updated: 1:33am GMT 26/02/2007 Nelson Mandela is taking legal action against a former friend and lawyer after £118,000 was reported to be missing from a trust fund. The retired South African president's legal team alleges in papers filed at the Johannesburg High Court that Ismael Ayob, a former fund trustee, used the money to buy cars and pay large sums into his own companies. In an affidavit, George Bizos and Wim Tremgrove, who are both trustees of the fund, allege that Mr Ayob made "disbursements of more than 1.2...

The South Coast Air Quality Management District sued state public utility officials, claiming the liquefied natural gas that officials approved for use in California could worsen air pollution. Energy providers plan to spend about $3 billion on the construction of seven natural gas terminals on the coast of California and Baja in Mexico. The air-quality agency alleges that natural gas could set back progress toward clean air. The lawsuits were filed with the California appeals court and the state Supreme Court. The California Public Utilities Commission has approved a standard that will allow oil companies and other energy providers to...

ORLANDO, Fla. - Relatives of a missing boy's mother who killed herself after aggressive questioning by CNN's Nancy Grace sued the network and the talk-show host Tuesday, claiming Grace caused emotional distress that led to the suicide. Melinda Duckett committed suicide Sept. 8, a day after Grace's show on CNN Headline News aired a segment in which Grace grilled Duckett about her whereabouts Aug. 27 — the day 2-year-old Trenton Duckett was reported missing. Authorities, who said last week they believe the boy is alive, have named Melinda Duckett as the prime suspect in his disappearance. Jay Paul Deratany, 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...

LOS ANGELES A Korean grocers' group sued former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young for libel for claiming that they and other market owners "ripped off" blacks. The suit, filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court, also names the Wal-Mart store chain and seeks at least $7.5 million in damages. The former Atlanta mayor resigned as head of a Wal-Mart advocacy group on Aug. 18 amid controversy over comments he made to the weekly, black-owned Los Angeles Sentinel. In an interview, Young said that Wal-Mart competition had forced smaller, "mom-and-pop" stores out of his neighborhood. "But you see, those are...

Former San Diego Superior Court Judge G. Dennis Adams, convicted a decade ago in a corruption case for illegally accepting gifts from a lawyer, is back in court – suing the state retirement system for cutting his pension. In a lawsuit filed Aug. 10 in the courthouse in which he once worked, Adams is seeking to overturn a June 21 final decision by the board of the California Public Employees Retirement System that sliced his judicial pension by about 20.4 percent. The retirement system has decided his pension should be reduced from 49 percent of his last judicial salary to...

SAN FRANCISCO The Sierra Club sued the Department of Defense in federal court Wednesday for allegedly halting construction of new wind farms across the United States by failing to complete a study on whether they interfere with military radar. The suit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco claimed that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Pentagon missed a deadline for completing a study that is holding up more than a dozen wind farm projects in the Midwest. "The end result is the wind industry is being crippled," said attorney Kristin Henry of the Sierra Club. The study...

MIRA LOMA A high school student sued his school district after he was suspended for distributing flyers about an off-campus rally against illegal immigration. Joshua Denhalter, an 18-year-old senior at Jurupa Valley High School, said he sought permission to hold a demonstration after a school assembly turned into a virtual rally supporting illegal immigrants. School officials denied his request, saying a protest could lead to violence. Denhalter said he then tried to organize an off-campus rally in March and was suspended for three days for passing out flyers about it on school property. He said he also was told he...

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...

MIRA LOMA - A Jurupa Valley High School senior suspended for promoting an anti-immigration protest on campus has filed a lawsuit, arguing the school violated his free speech rights. Joshua Denhalter, 18, was suspended for three days in late March after he attempted to organize a counterprotest against pro-immigration-inspired demonstrations and school walkouts. The mass protests were in response to harsher penalties for illegal immigrants being proposed in Congress. "There are two standards. Students can walk out of school, walk on to freeways, and nothing happens to them. I try to do something legally, and I get slapped,'' Denhalter said...

Ronald Michalowicz, a fire inspector for the village of Bedford Park, was given a 27 percent chance to live as he battled a rare form of tongue cancer. The community rallied around him, raising about $25,000 to help. He fought the cancer into remission. But the village where he had worked for 28 years fired him for taking the contributions, in alleged violation of the Illinois Gift Ban Act and village code prohibiting employees from soliciting gifts that could affect their decision-making. On Friday, Michalowicz sued Bedford Park, its mayor and village board in federal court for allegedly violating his...

Three chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union sued AT&T Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc. in state court Friday to block the telecommunications companies from providing phone records to the federal government. Two complaints filed in San Francisco Superior Court claim the companies violated state law by helping the National Security Agency assemble the largest database in the world. The complaints name 17 individuals as plaintiffs, including a former congressman, a nationally syndicated journalist and a psychiatrist. The allegations, which a spokesman from Verizon denied, are based on a May 11 article from USA Today, which said AT&T, Verizon and...

FRESNO, Calif. - Lawyers for a woman who was spanked in front of her co-workers as part of what her employer said was a camaraderie-building exercise asked a jury Wednesday for at least $1.2 million for the humiliation she claimed to have suffered. Janet Orlando, 53, quit her job at the home security company Alarm One Inc. and sued, alleging discrimination, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress. Employees were paddled with rival companies' yard signs as part of a contest that pitted sales teams against each other, according to court documents. The winners poked fun at the losers, throwing...

An environmental group sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday claiming a new regulation over air pollution in the Central Valley is too lax. Earthjustice is challenging the rule over particulate matter with a lawsuit filed in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In particulate matter pollution, tiny specks of dust and dirt can linger in the air and become lodged in people's lungs, causing numerous health problems, such as asthma. Agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the nation's most polluted air basins, is one of the leading causes of particulate matter in the region. The...

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota Public Radio is suing an Internet television network co-founded by Al Gore, claiming the network's alternative and amateur news reports interfere with MPR's trademark. The San Francisco-based network, Current TV, and the MPR music station the Current are both transmitted via the Internet. MPR says the similar names creates confusion for potential consumers. Current TV is a national cable and satellite channel featuring alternative news and "citizen journalism," or amateurs who send in their own news and video. According to its web site, viewers contribute about one-third of the station's content. According to the lawsuit, filed...

The nonprofit organization Students for Sensible Drug Policy announced late last week it has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education alleging that the department is refusing to release state-by-state data on the number of students affected by a law barring them from receiving financial aid because they have a drug conviction unless SSDP pays a hefty fee for the service. The student group wants information about the impact of the Higher Education Act's (HEA) drug provision, authored by arch-drug warrior Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), and in effect since 2000. SSDP is part of a large coalition of student,...

PITTSBURGH - A high school senior who was transferred to an alternative school as punishment for parodying his principal on the Internet is suing the district, arguing it violated his freedom of speech. Justin Layshock had used his grandmother's computer and the Web site MySpace.com to create a phony profile under the principal's name and photo. The site asks questions, and Justin filled in answers peppered with vulgarities, fat jokes and, to the question "what did you do on your last birthday?" the response: "too drunk to remember," according to the lawsuit filed on Justin's behalf by the American Civil...

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union sued the U.S. government Wednesday for preventing a Muslim scholar from entering the country, arguing that the government was using anti-terrorism laws as "instruments of censorship." The lawsuit asks the court to find a provision of the Patriot Act unconstitutional and seeks clearance for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak in the United States. Ramadan was blocked from accepting a tenured teaching position at the University of Notre Dame when his visa was revoked in August 2004 because of a provision of the Patriot Act,...

A MAN tried to sue the council after he soiled his own trousers, it emerged today. He blamed the embarrassing accident on the council's decision to close a public lavatory at a bus station, and claimed he was owed the cost of a new pair of trousers. The bizarre claim was among thousands of public liability claims which cost local government and insurance firms an estimated £250 million per year. Public sector insurer Zurich Municipal said many claimants are genuine but exaggerated and spurious claims are an increasing problem. The firm compiled a list of other ludicrous and dubious claims....

A grand jury will decide if the retail giant was justified in acting against shoplifting suspectThe father of a shoplifting suspect who died while struggling with Wal-Mart employees wasn't shocked when officials ruled the death a homicide. Now, H.C. Driver and other family members are hoping that the people responsible for Stacy Clay Driver's death will be brought to justice. "Something like that isn't supposed to happen, especially in this country," the father said. "I have believed up to now in the justice system, and I hope it continues to work." Also, the Driver family has filed a lawsuit seeking...

WASHINGTON - Federal election officials on Monday sued a political group to try to force it to comply with campaign finance limits, the first lawsuit of its kind to arise from controversial big-money fundraising during the 2004 elections. The Federal Election Commission filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Washington against the Club for Growth. The pro-Republican group spent at least $21 million in the 2003-04 election cycle. The FEC contends the Club spent enough in federal races to require it to file with the commission as a political committee and abide by contribution and spending limits. It wants...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - An environmental group is suing California wildlife regulators, alleging officials broke the law by giving a North Coast timber company the right to damage the habitats of two endangered species. Pacific Lumber Co. gained permission under the 1999 Headwaters deal for certain logging activities that environmentalists said would harm populations of coho salmon and marbled murrelets, a seabird that nests in old growth redwoods. A Humboldt County Superior Court judge revoked the permits in 2003, saying they violated the California Endangered Species Act. In February, the state Department of Fish and Game cleared the way for the...

NEW YORK - A violinist who claims the New York Philharmonic fired him because he is a man says some of the women who were promoted ahead of him gave flowers and other gifts to their bosses. Anton Polezhayev, 29, says in a lawsuit that he was asked to leave after the 2003-2004 season, in the last month of his 17-month probation, despite being told by orchestra officials that he was doing "a fine job" and that his playing was "perfect." Polezhayev's lawyer, Lenard Leeds, said Friday that the Philharmonic's personnel manager, Carl R. Schiebler, even wrote a letter to...

BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Faced with the costs of coping with illegal immigrants, one county is looking to the courts for help - by filing a racketeering lawsuit against the businesses that hire these workers. The legal theory: that a pattern of immigration violations by employers is costing Canyon County millions for law enforcement, education and social services. "Their presence lowers the labor wage for American citizens and removes employment opportunities," county Commissioner Robert Vasquez, an ambitious politician who just started a bid for Congress, said of the illegal workers. "Certainly it uses tax dollars to provide them with educational...

New York's 'Son of Sam' Killer Sues Lawyer By SAMUEL MAULL, Associated press Writer 58 minutes ago NEW YORK - David Berkowitz, the imprisoned "Son of Sam" killer who terrorized New York City for 13 months in 1976 and 1977, filed a lawsuit Friday to force the return of personal property that he says his former lawyer is planning to sell. Berkowitz, serving six 25-years-to-life sentences for killing six people and wounding seven others, says in court papers he agreed to let lawyer Hugo R. Harmatz use the items as props for a youthful offender program the lawyer said he...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - A Muslim woman who was ordered by male prison guards to take off her headscarf before she could visit an inmate filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging her constitutional right to practice religion had been violated. Cynthia Rhouni, 43, of Madison, says the scarf, or hijab, that always covers her head and shoulders in the presence of men shows the world she is a devout Muslim. Rhouni's lawsuit claims that male prison guards at the maximum-security Columbia Correctional Facility north of Madison told her rules prohibited any head covering in the visiting room. They ordered her...

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) - Seminole County Republican Party Chairman Jim Stelling believes five marriages is OK, but a sixth would be indecent. A judge will decide whether Stelling was defamed by a former county GOP executive committee member who sent a letter to party executives statewide that falsely accused him of having been married six times - once more than he actually has.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - A woman barred from reading the Bible in her son's kindergarten class is suing a suburban Philadelphia district, claiming it is infringing on her right to express her religious beliefs - and discriminating against Christians. "What Wesley has learned in all of this is that the Bible is bad in school, and they don't like it," Donna Busch said of her 6-year-old son. With the help of the Rutherford Institute, a Christian-oriented civil liberties group based in Charlottesville, Va., Busch, who attends a Baptist church, filed a federal lawsuit May 3 against the Marple Newtown School...

SACRAMENTO - The union representing prison doctors sued the Department of Corrections to block higher standards for physicians, blaming appalling health care problems on an inferior prison system. The Oakland-based Union of American Physicians and Dentists said Monday its doctors are not responsible for the problems. The Department of Corrections wants doctors to be board certified in internal medicine or family practice, or pass a competency test. The plan follows a series of scathing reports on health care at state prisons. National experts reported last month that conditions are so poor that inmates are dying of neglect and maltreatment. The...

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A woman who was fired by Costco in 2001 for refusing to remove her eyebrow ring has accused the company of religious discrimination, saying she is a member of the Church of Body Modification. Kimberly M. Cloutier said she wears her eyebrow ring as a sign of faith. She has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider hearing the case. The church, established in 1999, counts about 1,000 members who participate in practices such as piercing and tattooing, according to a December ruling by the First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld a trial judge's...

INDIANAPOLIS - Planned Parenthood (news - web sites) sued the state of Indiana Monday to stop the seizure of its clients' medical records, saying investigators were on a "fishing expedition," possibly to identify the partners of sexually active 12- and 13-year-olds. The lawsuit filed in Indianapolis seeks temporary and permanent injunctions barring Attorney General Steve Carter and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit from searching the private records of clients at 40 Planned Parenthood clinics across the state. Already, the unit has seized records of eight clients from clinics in Bloomington, Franklin and Lafayette, according to Betty Cockrum, chief executive officer...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's attorney general sued the Bush administration Thursday over its plans for the Giant Sequoia National Monument, home to two-thirds of the world's largest trees. The U.S. Forest Service plan would illegally allow commercial logging in the monument, alleges the suit filed in San Francisco federal court. It argues former President Clinton's April 2000 proclamation creating the reserve south of Sequoia National Park bans logging unless it is "clearly needed" for public or environmental protection, which it says isn't the case under the management plan adopted in December. The service adhered closely to Clinton's proclamation, responded spokesman...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's elections cop sued a Democratic Party campaign committee Friday for failing to disclose more than $1.2 million in contributions before the 2000 general election. Going to court allows the Fair Political Practices Commission to seek higher penalties for the committee, called the Democratic National Committee, Non-federal - Corporate, than the $4,000 fine the commission could impose itself. The court could fine the committee as much as the size of the undisclosed contributions. The FPPC said the DNC committee made just over $1.2 million in contributions to California's Democratic State Central Committee between Oct. 1 and Oct....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Billionaire investor Ron Burkle sued Michael Ovitz on Thursday, claiming the former Walt Disney Co. president breached an agreement to invest in Internet businesses and to allow Burkle to buy into his talent agency and the Google search engine. The suit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages. Ovitz's attorney, James Ellis, said the allegations are "baseless and false." "The lawsuit was filed in retaliation for Mr. Ovitz having come forward with facts which revealed that Mr. Burkle and his affiliates had breached their fiduciary duties and engaged in other unlawful activities," Ellis...

PARIS - Muhamed al-Jundi, the Syrian driver of two French journalists taken hostage in Iraq in August, filed suit at a Paris court Tuesday alleging torture and mistreatment by the US army. “The suit is against members of the US armed forces in Iraq who were guilty of mistreating me, who tortured me, who threatened to kill me,” he said. Jundi, 47, was captured with reporters Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot on August 20 south of Baghdad and found in a house in Fallujah on November 12 when US troops invaded the city. The two Frenchmen were released on December...

Taser sues N.C.-based rival over advertising Associated Press Posted on Tue, Dec. 21, 2004 SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Taser International Inc. has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina-based rival Stinger Systems Inc., a rival maker of stun guns, alleging false advertising and unlawful patent marketing. On Tuesday, Taser said Stinger claims to be certified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and that its gun was the first ATF-certified weapon. Scottsdale-based Taser said the ATF does not certify stun guns, it regulates them, and also said it now owns a product that has been regulated by the ATF since the...

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood movie studios on Tuesday sued scores of operators of U.S.- and European-based computer servers that help relay digitized movie files across online file-sharing networks. The copyright infringement suits expand on a new U.S. film industry initiative whose initial targets were individual file-swappers. The defendants this time run servers that use BitTorrent, which has become the program of choice for online sharers of large files because of its immunity to industry attempts to confound file-swappers with bogus decoy files. "Today's actions are aimed at individuals who deliberately set up and operate computer servers and Web sites that,...

Teacher Sues School For Religious Reference Ban POSTED: 3:11 pm EST November 29, 2004 UPDATED: 3:19 pm EST November 29, 2004 CUPERTINO, Calif. -- A public school teacher is suing his district and principal for barring him from using the Declaration of Independence and other historical documents in class because they contain references to God and Christianity.

Man ducked from flying shrimp; family sues Benihana saying it caused his death Family of man who ducked a piece of shrimp tossed by a chef is suing the chain claiming the occurrence eventually lead to the man’s death BY JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER STAFF WRITER Posted November 24 2004 A sizzling piece of shrimp tossed at a man during dinner at a Long Island Japanese restaurant in 2001 led to his death, his family has claimed in a lawsuit against the Benihana chain. Jerry Colaitis injured his neck while ducking from the shrimp, which a chef flipped his way during...

Hollywood's major movie studios started production on their latest epic today, a remake of the recording industry's aggressive legal campaign to stop the illegal trading of copyrighted works on the Internet. The lawsuits, filed against hundreds of people suspected of trading movies online, are a first for the studios and are paired with an ambitious public education effort aimed at curtailing online piracy before it makes a significant dent in the film industry's bottom line. The lawsuits, which could seek up to $150,000 in damages for each film illegally copied, are the first of their kind to be filed by...

Student Sues to Pose With Gun in YearbookCONCORD, N.H. — Where other students might pose for their senior yearbook photo with tennis rackets or favorite cars, Blake Douglass (search) wants to be seen with his shotgun.The 17-year-old senior filed a federal lawsuit to force Londonderry High School (search) to allow the photo and give up the policy school officials used to reject it."What they’re doing is basically discriminating based on content or message," said Penny Dean (search), Douglass’ lawyer and a specialist in gun cases. "You can’t do that. You might want to but you can’t — and especially you can’t with...