National Roundup

Mississippi
Judge won’t toss $75 million suit against casino 
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing a Mississippi casino of serving a gambler so many free drinks that he died.
The $75 million lawsuit against IP Casino Resort and Spa in Biloxi was filed in federal court in Gulfport in 2012.
It says employees ignored pleas from Bryan Glenn’s relatives and served him free drinks in 2009 after he was visibly intoxicated.
He died in his hotel bathroom.
The casino was formerly known as Imperial Palace. Boyd Gaming bought it in 2011.
Boyd asked for dismissal, saying that under Mississippi law a casino isn’t responsible if a person is injured because of voluntary intoxication.
The judge declined to dismiss the suit Wednesday because of allegations that the casino served Glenn alcohol when he was visibly drunk.

Mississippi
Man wants pay for snakes seized during porn case
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A man serving 30 years for allegedly enticing a teenager to pose for pornographic pictures with venomous snakes has filed a federal lawsuit seeking compensation for the loss of his reptiles.
John Joseph Maillet’s lawsuit says his snakes were worth more than $12,000 and that he didn’t have the chance to object to their forfeiture because he wasn’t properly notified of court filings.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Gulfport, Miss., the same place Maillet was sentenced on the enticement conviction in January 2011.
Maillet, of Port Jervis, N.Y., was living in Carriere, Miss., when he allegedly enticed a 15-year-old girl to pose with the snakes in 2007.
Mallet’s lawsuit also says the number of snakes listed in government filings mysteriously changed from 41 to 12.

Kentucky
Judge to rule soon in health exchange case
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A lawsuit has raised the question of whether taxpayers have legal standing to challenge the legality of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange that Gov. Steve Beshear created last year by executive order.
Franklin County Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd said at the conclusion of a hearing Monday that he’ll answer that question as soon as possible.
The Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange is intended to help uninsured state residents arrange insurance coverage under the federal health care overhaul.
Tea party activist David Adams filed the lawsuit last month, claiming Beshear created the exchange without necessary legislative approval. Adams is asking Shepherd to order work on the exchange to cease.
Attorneys for Beshear asked Shepherd to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming that Adams and other tea party activists lack legal standing to sue. That contention was rejected by Irvine attorney Michael Dean, who says his clients have standing because they are taxpayers.
The courtroom exchange prompted a pointed question form the judge: “I’m just wondering here, if they don’t have standing, who does?”
Tea party activists in Kentucky have been sharply critical of Beshear’s decision to operate a state health insurance exchange, saying taxpayers are picking up the bill for an unnecessary government entity. Beshear administration attorney Patrick Hughes said the lawsuit is essentially an improper attempt to use the court system to stop the exchange.
“That is purely a political question,” Hughes said. “It’s been addressed in the political forums. It’s not appropriate for this court.”
Kentucky is one of 17 states that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has approved to build their own exchanges to provide one-stop shopping for health insurance. Open enrollment begins Oct. 1, and the exchange starts operation next Jan. 1. Some 21 states have declined to set up exchanges, which means federal authorities will set up and operate the new insurance marketplaces for them.
Startup costs for the Kentucky exchange are being covered by federal grants, but the state will be responsible for all funding beginning in 2015. Kentucky has already received $252 million from the federal government to set up the exchange.

Idaho
Couple and Sun Valley resort in Twitter tussle
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A central Idaho couple is suing the Sun Valley Co. and the Twitter Inc. social media site seeking to bar the resort from using the handle “SunValley.”
Leonard Barshack and Erin Smith, the husband and wife, also said the San Francisco-based company should return the Internet handle to them because they had been using it for about three years and weren’t impersonating the Idaho resort.
The Idaho Mountain Express reports the resort sought to use the handle in October. That’s when Twitter sent Barshack an email, saying he was in violation of the Twitter’s rules.
“At that time, Twitter gave the following reason for the suspension, ‘We have received a valid report and determined that your account, (at)sunvalley, is engaged in non-parody impersonation,’” according to the Barshack’s complaint, filed earlier this month in Idaho’s 5th District Court in Blaine County.
Twitter’s policy — meant to curb unwanted or inappropriate Internet impersonation — mandates that an account’s profile information “should make it clear that the creator of the account is not actually the same person or entity” as the subject of the impersonation.
But Barshack contends he never impersonated Sun Valley and only periodically sent messages, or tweets, since registering for the handle around April 2010.
He said his tweets covered a variety of subjects, including Apple products like the iPhone, local weather, including ski conditions, a pig roast and skiing.
He told The Associated Press on Monday that he wasn’t trying to undermine the resort’s operation or reputation.
He contends that Twitter has provided him a “boiler plate” response to multiple emails he sent seeking to have the handle returned to his control.
The complaint acknowledges Barshack used an image of a sun to accompany his tweets, but he contends it was sufficiently different from the resort’s trademark so as not to cause confusion.
The resort’s logo consists of a sun, positioned above and to the right side of the words “Sun Valley,” according to the complaint, which adds that the resort allowed its registration for a stand-alone sun to lapse.
Barshack contends he used only a stand-alone sun to accompany his tweets.
In the lawsuit, he wants attorney’s fees and any other compensation the court deems appropriate.