Oklahoma
Judge to decide commandments display lawsuit
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma County judge has scheduled a hearing on a request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the placement of a monument bearing the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state Capitol.
The hearing is scheduled Friday before District Judge Thomas Prince. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in August against the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission.
Republican Rep. Mike Ritze and his family paid nearly $10,000 to build and erect the 6-foot-tall granite monument authorized by the GOP-controlled Legislature in 2009 and signed into law by then-Democratic Gov. Brad Henry.
Courts have ruled against many similar monuments, saying they could imply that the government is endorsing religion. But the commission says the U.S. Supreme Court has held that an identical monument is not an impermissable endorsement of religion.
Colorado
Federal judge upholds new gun use restrictions
DENVER (AP) — A federal judge upheld Colorado gun restrictions that were enacted in response to 2012 mass shootings, saying Thursday that limiting the size of ammunition magazines and expanding background checks on firearm purchases are constitutional acts.
But gun-rights advocates who sued the state to overturn the laws called the ruling only the first round and said they planned to appeal.
In a 50-page decision, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger said both laws don’t infringe on individuals’ right to bear arms. The judge further said that limiting magazine sizes doesn’t obstruct individuals’ ability to protect themselves, and that the expansion of background checks to include firearms sold online and between private parties “is no more severe” than the requirements already in place for commercial sales before the new law.
Gun rights advocates and county sheriffs filed the lawsuit to overturn the laws, which Democrats passed last year without Republican support.
Minnesota
Judge dismisses case over driver license look-ups
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of current and former Minnesota residents who allege that dozens of public employees violated their privacy by illegally looking up their driver’s license data for political reasons.
The 18 plaintiffs, including some local elected officials, claimed they were targeted because they had been critical of Wabasha County government. They alleged officials in 26 counties, 36 cities, state agencies and other entities violated their privacy by looking up their driver’s license data 600 times from April 2003 until the lawsuit was filed last September.
Massachusetts
Caesars to appeal dismissed lawsuit against the state
BOSTON (AP) — Caesars Entertainment intends to appeal a federal judge’s decision dismissing its lawsuit against the state’s top gambling regulator, according to a notice filed in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts this week.
The Las Vegas gambling giant sued Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby last year alleging he violated the company’s constitutionally-guaranteed due process and equal protection rights and unfairly favored Wynn Resorts’ rival casino project in Everett.
But U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton dismissed the suit in May, concluding Caesars’ claim rested on a “shaky foundation” of “naked assertions,” “improbable inferences” and “sensational accusations.”
The casino had accused Crosby of having a conflict of interest because he had been business partners in the 1980s with Paul Lohnes, one of the owners of the industrial, waterfront land that Wynn intends to develop.
Montana
New settlement talks ordered in sex-abuse case
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — The Ursuline Sisters of the Western Province have found a lender willing to put up money to allow the order to begin settlement negotiations with hundreds of people who claim they were abused by priests and nuns in Montana, an attorney said Thursday.
The disclosure by Ursulines attorney Thomas Johnson comes less than three weeks before the first in a series of trials against the order was to get underway.
District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock pushed the July 14 trial date to Dec. 1 to allow the attorneys for the Ursulines and the plaintiffs in the two lawsuits to hold talks. The Ursulines and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Helena are defendants in the lawsuits filed by 362 people who say they were abused between the 1940s and 1970s.
Hawaii
World’s largest maritime military exercises begin
HONOLULU (AP) — More than one month of naval maneuvers involving the militaries of 22 nations kicked off in Hawaii last week. For the first time, China has sent vessels to participate in the Rim of the Pacific drills that the U.S. Pacific Fleet hosts every two years.
Thailand was initially among 23 nations expected to send units to Hawaii for the world’s largest maritime exercises. But it’s no longer doing so after its military orchestrated a coup last month. The Obama administration suspended various assistance and military exercises after a junta took power on May 22.
The exercises will include disaster-relief training as well practice countering pirates, clearing mines, landing amphibious ships and searching for submarines.
The exercises began in 1971. Most of the drills will take place in and around the Hawaiian Islands. As in 2012, a small part of it will take place off Southern California.
New York
Tourist known as plague survivor is dead of cancer
A man who nearly lost his life in New York City’s first instance of bubonic plague in more than 100 years has died of an unrelated illness in a Santa Fe, New Mexico, hospital, his wife said Thursday.
John Tull was diagnosed with a rare cancer last month, but doctors didn’t believe it was connected to his previous health struggles, said Lucinda Marker, his wife. Tull was 65 when he died Wednesday.
In November 2002, the New Mexico couple was on vacation in the Big Apple when both came down with flu-like symptoms including a fever and swollen lymph nodes. They were diagnosed with the plague, an exceedingly rare disease that wiped out a third of Europe in the 14th century. It was considered New York’s first plague case in more than a century.
