North Dakota: Judge: No merit to suit over Ten Commandments
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A U.S. magistrate judge says a lawsuit over a Ten Commandments monument in downtown Fargo should be thrown out of federal court.
The lawsuit by the Red River Freethinkers group claims the city gave the monument a religious purpose in voting three years ago to keep it. The city argued that the case should be dismissed for lack of merit.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Klein says the Freethinkers should not be allowed to challenge the city’s decision, which reversed an earlier vote to move the marker.
U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson has not ruled on Klein’s recommendation.
The monument was donated to the city in 1958, to commemorate an urban renewal project. It was installed on its current site near the Fargo Civic Auditorium in 1961.
Louisiana: Deadline extended for death penalty decision for DOJ
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge has extended a deadline for the Justice Department to decide whether to seek the death penalty against four current or former New Orleans police officers charged in deadly shootings on a bridge after Hurricane Katrina.
At the request of defense attorneys, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt agreed Tuesday to give prosecutors until Sept. 10 to announce a decision. The deadline had been Aug. 31.
An indictment last month charged Sgts. Robert Gisevius and Kenneth Bowen, officer Anthony Villavaso and former officer Robert Faulcon with deprivation of rights under color of law and use of a weapon during the commission of a crime. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
Two people were killed and four others wounded by police on the Danziger Bridge less than a week after the storm.
Kansas: Judge denies renewed bid for ‘pill mill’ retrial
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a second defense request for a new trial or an order of acquittal for a Kansas doctor and his wife convicted of running a so-called pill mill.
Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, were found guilty in June of money laundering, health care fraud and unlawfully prescribing drugs at their clinic.
The clinic served hundreds of pain patients and was linked by federal prosecutors to several overdose deaths.
U.S. District Judge Monti Belot in Wichita ruled Tuesday there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions.
Belot noted the jury had deliberated for seven days after a seven-week trial that included about 90 witnesses. The judge said the jury clearly did its job.
South Dakota: Sprint Nextel suing South Dakota company
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sprint Nextel Corp. is suing a South Dakota company it says is operating a scheme on an American Indian reservation to obtain more money from the wireless carrier.
Sprint says it was billed too much for calls by Native American Telecom LLC, which provides services on the Crow Creek Reservation.
Native American Telecom lawyer Scott Swier declined immediate comment on the lawsuit but said the company was proud of its work to help the tribe operate a telecommunications company.
The company “is creating jobs and enabling the reservation to have access to state-of-the-art modern technology, like high-speed broadband service,” he said.
The lawsuit alleges that Native American Telecom operated what is known as a “traffic pumping” scheme under which a local phone company partners with conference call services or chat rooms to artificially drive up call volumes.
The practice is not illegal, but Sprint — which also is involved with cases in California, Utah and Kentucky — said it wants to end it and recoup money it has paid to Native American Telecom. The lawsuit does not list an amount.
“What’s happening with traffic pumping is conference-calling companies approach the rural telephone companies, and they’re saying, ‘why don’t you let us set up a bunch of conference lines and chat lines in your area’” then share the profits, Sprint Nextel spokesman John Taylor said.
State Rep. Deb Peters, R-Hartford, drafted a bill earlier this year aimed at banning traffic pumping but it died in the House. She said she intends to try again next year.
“It’s getting more and more out of control,” she said. “North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Kentucky all have the same problem.”
Texas: AG sues 2 former National Guard commanders
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two former Texas National Guard command generals are being sued by the state in a dispute over more than $150,000 in alleged excess pay.
The lawsuit was filed in Austin by Attorney General Greg Abbott. The suit alleges the generals did not comply with written demands, from July and from June 2009, to return state money they received while they also collected paychecks from the federal government.
The lawsuit says Maj. Gen. John Furlow owes more than $129,444, while Maj. Gen. Allen Dehnert owes more than $21,000. Both allegedly also wrongly took state-paid emergency leave while on federal deployment.
Both men have denied the double-dipping allegations, which surfaced in 2009 in an investigation by KHOU-TV in Houston.
California: Appeals court: Stolen Valor Act unconstitutional
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — A three-year-old federal law that makes it a crime punishable by up to a year in jail to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court panel in California ruled Tuesday.
The decision involves the case of Xavier Alvarez of Pomona, Calif., a water district board member who said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.
Alvarez was indicted in 2007. He pleaded guilty on condition that he be allowed to appeal on First Amendment grounds. He was sentenced under the Stolen Valor Act to more than 400 hours of community service at a veterans hospital and fined $5,000.
A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with him in a 2-1 decision Tuesday, agreeing that the law was a violation of his free-speech rights. The majority said there’s no evidence that such lies harm anybody, and there’s no compelling reason for the government to ban such lies.
The dissenting justice insisted that the majority refused to follow clear Supreme Court precedent that false statements of fact are not entitled to First Amendment protection.
The act revised and toughened a law that forbids anyone to wear a military medal that wasn’t earned. The measure sailed through Congress in late 2006, receiving unanimous approval in the Senate.
Dozens of people have been arrested under the law at a time when veterans coming home from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are being embraced as heroes. Many of the cases involve men who simply got caught living a lie without profiting from it. Almost all the impostors have been ordered to perform community service.
Kentucky: Family sues Wal-Mart, finds mouse in milk
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky family has sued Wal-Mart, saying they found a dead mouse in a milk container the family had been drinking from for three days.
The Courier-Journal reported that Robert and Rosalind Grant and their 23-month-old granddaughter sought medical attention and treatment in May after finding the mouse.
Wal-Mart spokesman Phillip Keene says the retail giant takes quality and safety seriously and is looking into the complaint, along with the supplier, Ohio-based Superior Dairy Inc.
The Louisville paper reported that the child had blood in her stool from drinking the tainted milk.
The Grants claim they bought the milk May 1 at Sam’s Club, which is owned by Wal-Mart, and the container had not been tampered with.
Nevada: Icahn files suit over Tropicana Las Vegas name
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is suing the Tropicana Las Vegas hotel-casino in hopes of forcing it to pay royalties for using its 52-year-old name.
Icahn-owned Tropicana Entertainment Inc. filed suit last week in U.S. bankruptcy court in Delaware.
Icahn’s company is now separate from the Las Vegas hotel. It says the Las Vegas Strip resort is using the name and other trademarks for free.
“For more than 30 years, the (Tropicana Entertainment and Tropicana Las Vegas) debtors represented to the world that the Tropicana trademarks were owned by (Tropicana Entertainment),” Icahn’s company said in the suit.
Tropicana Entertainment LLC went bankrupt in 2008. The resort was spun off to investors. Icahn bought the rest of the company, which is now based in Las Vegas under the slightly different name.
During the bankruptcy case, Icahn’s company proposed the Las Vegas resort pay $10 million to use the name for five years.
Hotel officials say they shouldn’t have to pay to use the name.
“At all times it was understood and agreed by Tropicana Las Vegas and each person or entity owning Tropicana Las Vegas that, despite changes in ownership, Tropicana Las Vegas would continue to have the right to the use of its own name,” the hotel said in a court filing this summer.
Both sides have traded arguments over the name since last year, when the hotel, now controlled by Onex Corp. and hotel executive Alex Yemenidjian, sued last year in Las Vegas over the issue.
