Texas: 3 Mexican states sue BP over Gulf oil spill
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Three Mexican states have sued BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. seeking unspecified damages over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The San Antonio Express-News reported Wednesday that the negligence lawsuits were filed in San Antonio by Tamaulipas, Veracruz and Quintana Roo, known for its beaches. The suits allege the plume has reached international waters.
Attorney Enrique Serna, representing the states, says San Antonio is a very international, friendly city for Mexican nationals to feel comfortable in the legal environment.
BP, facing hundreds of lawsuits over the April spill, declined comment.
Halliburton spokeswoman Teresa Wong says the allegations are without merit. Houston-based Transocean, which owned the rig, says its position will be clearly heard during the court process.
New York: NYC prof says she was fired because she is Muslim
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City college professor claims she was fired because she is a Muslim.
Hanaa Khalil was awarded $7,700 in back pay and $10,000 in damages after filing a complaint with the city’s human rights commission.
The chemistry professor says she was hired by Kingsborough Community College sight unseen after posting her resume on the City University of New York website in March 2009.
Court papers say when the Egyptian immigrant from Queens arrived wearing a headscarf the college’s secretary asked for her ID. The papers say she was given a hard time for not having a Social Security card even though she produced a green card, passport and driver’s license.
Khalil says she was fired after complaining to the personnel department.
Arkansas: Hot Springs hospital sued by dead girl’s parents
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — A suit has been filed against a Hot Springs hospital by the parents of a 6-year-old girl who died last year and was found to have had the swine flu virus.
The parents of Kharra Davis filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Garland County Circuit Court against National Park Medical Center, two doctors and a nurse. The hospital and the nurse denied the suit’s allegations in responses filed with the court Monday.
According to the Sentinel-Record newspaper, the suit claims that the child’s mother took the girl to the hospital when she became ill and told the nurse that the little girl had been exposed to the swine flu virus by another child who rode on her school bus. But the suit claims the child was sent home with orders for plenty of rest and fluids.
According to the suit, not until after Kharra returned to the hospital and was transferred to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock was she tested for swine flu. She died on September 7, 2009.
California: Oakland diocese faces 5th lawsuit on priest abuse
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland is facing a fifth lawsuit over a former priest accused of sexually abusing multiple children.
A woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday, saying she was molested in 1995 by Stephen Kiesle when she was 10. According to the lawsuit, Kiesle got to know the plaintiff’s family as a parish priest in Pinole in the 1970s.
The Alameda County Superior Court lawsuit accuses the diocese with negligence for failing to warn parishioners during the ‘70s that Kiesle already had been the target of sexual abuse allegations.
Kiesle was defrocked in 1987.
He pleaded no contest in 2004 to molesting the plaintiff in his Truckee home and served prison time.
A diocese spokesman says he still hasn’t seen the latest complaint and can’t comment.
New York: NYC judge tosses out biologist’s lawsuit vs city
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge has tossed out the lawsuit of a Columbia University-trained biologist who said New York City ruined his good name by falsely saying he had sexually tortured a college student he met in an Internet chat room.
Federal Judge Paul Crotty (CRAUGH-tee) said Oliver Jovanovic (Joe-VAN-uh-vick) was not prejudiced at trial by city statements.
Jovanovic was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping, sexual abuse and assault involving the woman. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison but an appeals court reversed the conviction.
Jovanovic sued for $20 million in 2004, saying he was jailed nearly two years after being falsely charged and that the city had labeled him as the “Cybersex Fiend” or the “Cybersex Suspect.”
A lawyer for Jovanovic, Jon Norinsberg, says they’re “deeply disappointed” and plan to appeal.
Arkansas: Large crowd expected for Echols oral arguments
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Supreme Court officials are bracing themselves for a large crowd for this week’s oral arguments in the case of convicted killer Damien Echols.
The high-profile case has drawn attention worldwide, and the court says it’s expecting a high level of interest for Thursday’s oral arguments. The court says it will open an overflow room for people who can’t get seats in the courtroom. The arguments will also be webcast live on the Supreme Court’s website.
Officials also say that no T-shirts, buttons or signs regarding the case will be permitted. Supporters of Echols and the two other men convicted in a 1993 triple murder often wear “Free the West Memphis Three” shirts at public events.
Supporters plan a vigil Wednesday night at the Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church in Little Rock.
Echols is seeking a new trial after he was sentenced to death for the murders of three 8-year-old boys in West Memphis.
Spokeswoman Ruby Ryles says the college denies the allegations.
Missouri: Paris Hilton settles with Hallmark over 'that's hot'
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Hallmark Cards Inc. says a greeting card using Paris Hilton’s “that’s hot” catch phrase and image was meant as a parody. But the celebrity socialite apparently didn’t appreciate the humor.
The Kansas City-based greeting card giant and the hotel heiress have reached a settlement in a 3-year-old lawsuit over the card, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday.
The deal was sealed, and Hallmark spokeswoman Julie O’Dell declined to provide details. Hilton’s lawsuit had sought a half-million dollars.
“All I can say is we did settle,” O’Dell said. “We were able to reach a mutually acceptable conclusion.”
Hilton’s attorneys had said the company misappropriated Hilton’s image and her catch phrase, which she trademarked in 2007, months before the lawsuit was filed against Hallmark.
“This was a calculated way to use Miss Hilton’s actual photo, name and catch phrase by Hallmark to draw attention to Hallmark’s product,” Brent Blakely, Hilton’s attorney, told the AP.
Blakely said the case was significant in that it gave courts direction on how to judge a case dealing with the right of free speech versus the right of someone to control and profit from their persona. A trial had been scheduled to begin in December.
“All trial was going to be about is, what is the commercial value of Paris Hilton’s likeness,” he said. “In many situations, that is based on comparables. Fortunately in our case, Miss Hilton has numerous endorsement deals and we had a good idea” of her commercial value.
Hallmark attorneys had argued that using Hilton’s face on top of a cartoonish image was “transformative,” meaning the image had been changed enough that it became Hallmark’s own expression, the Kansas City Star reported. The company said the card warranted a “public interest” defense.
But that argument was rejected last year by an appellate court because a birthday card “does not publish or report information,” according to the ruling.
O’Dell said it was unclear whether the settlement would change how Hallmark decides which cards to sell.
“Our card decisions are based on consumers and the kind of product they want at any time,” she said. “One of our goals is to stay with the times, stay relevant. When we feel we can do that, especially in our humor lines, we probably will.”
