National Roundup

 Ohio 

Student points finger like gun,   is suspended 
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A central Ohio principal says she suspended a 10-year-old boy from school for three days for pretending his finger was a gun and pointing it at another student’s head.
The boy’s father says it’s the adults who are acting childish for suspending the boy from Devonshire Alternative Elementary School in Columbus last week.
The fifth-grader said he was “just playing around.” But district spokesman Jeff Warner told The Columbus Dispatch that Devonshire Principal Patricia Price has warned students about pretend gun play numerous times this year, and everyone should know the rules by now. He said warnings have been included in three newsletters sent home with kids.
Warner says the boy put his finger to the side of the other student’s head and pretended to shoot “kind of execution style.”
“The kids were told, ‘If you don’t stop doing this type of stuff, there would be consequences,’” Warner said. “It’s just been escalating.”
The boy’s father said no one felt threatened. The other student didn’t see it happen, but a teacher witnessed it.
“I was just playing around,” said the fifth-grader, who had never been in trouble before. “People play around like this a lot at my school.”
Since zero-tolerance policies were adopted following school shootings around the country, Columbus schools have disciplined students for violations including firing a Nerf foam-dart gun at school. A similar policy was cited last year when a Maryland school suspended a 7-year-old boy who had chewed a Pop-Tart into a gun shape.
 
New York
Judge rules for Chevron in Ecuador case 
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York judge says Amazon rainforest residents who obtained a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron in Ecuador cannot try to enforce it through U.S. courts, because it was obtained through fraud.
Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan issued the nearly 500-page written ruling Tuesday. It follows a trial last year that pitted rainforest tribes against the San Ramon, Calif.-based oil company.
In February 2011, a judge in Ecuador issued an $18 billion judgment against Chevron Corp. in a lawsuit brought on behalf of 30,000 Amazon residents. The judgment was for environmental damage caused by Texaco during its operation of an oil consortium in the rainforest from 1972 to 1990.
Ecuador’s highest court last year upheld the verdict but reduced the judgment to about $9 billion.
 
Florida
De­lay sought in fatal loud-music case sentencing 
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys are seeking to delay the sentence for a man convicted of attempted murder until after he’s tried again for fatally shooting a teenager during an argument over loud music.
Michael Dunn was convicted last month and faces at least 60 years in prison for the attempted murder of three teens — Tevin Thompson, Leland Brunson and Tommie Stornes — who were in a car with Jordan Davis, 17, of Marietta, Ga. Dunn is accused of opening fire on the group as they were parked outside a Jacksonville gas station in 2012. Jurors deadlocked on whether Dunn was guilty of killing Davis, and Dunn is expected to be retired.
The Florida Times-Union reports that attorney Cory Strolla argued in a motion filed last week that it would be unfair to sentence Dunn before disposing of the murder charge. Sentencing is set for the week of March 24.
He said his client can’t properly prepare a statement for a pre-sentencing report or testify because it would put him “in a very precarious legal dilemma regarding this 5th Amendment Right against self-incrimination.”
Because Dunn won’t be able to speak on his own behalf, he risks a more severe sentencing, Strolla said.
The teen’s parents, Ron Davis and Lucia McBath, oppose delaying the sentence.
 
New York
Ex-NYPD police diver claims discrimination 
NEW YORK (AP) — A retired officer who spent seven years in the New York Police Department’s elite scuba-diving unit has filed a discrimination complaint against the department with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Oscar Smith, who is black, says he was subjected to racial taunts and prejudice from the moment he applied to the unit until his last day on the job.
His lawyer says Smith’s situation raises serious questions about racial stereotyping in the NYPD.
Smith tells The New York Times he believes he was the first black member of the police diving team.
A police spokesman says the unit currently has no blacks among its 29 divers. He declined to comment further until the NYPD had an opportunity to review Smith’s complaint.
The 48-year-old Smith is a surfer and worked as a lifeguard before joining the NYPD.

California
U.S. sues Sprint over company’s wiretap expenses 
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Federal officials filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that Sprint Communications Inc. overbilled government agencies $21 million for wiretap services.
The lawsuit filed federal court in San Francisco alleges that that subsidiary of Sprint Corp. collected unallowable expenses from the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and other government agencies while carrying out court-ordered wiretaps and other electronic intercepts of its customers.
Communication companies ordered by courts to intercept customers’ communications are allowed to recoup the cost of installing and maintaining the wiretaps.
The lawsuit arises from a dispute between communication companies and the federal government over the expense of installing and maintaining wiretaps. In 1994, lawmakers passed a law requiring communication companies to upgrade their equipment and facilities to ensure they can comply with court orders seeking wiretaps of their customers.
The companies and government tussled for 12 years over who was responsible for those expenses. The Federal Communications Commission settled the dispute in 2006 in favor of the government, ruling that companies can’t bill for modifying its equipment and facilities to more efficiently intercept communications.
The Department of Justice claims in its lawsuit that Sprint received payments for such modifications between Jan. 1, 2007, and July 31, 2010.
The DOJ is seeking $63 million, a tripling of its damages it said it’s entitled to if a jury finds Sprint filed false claims.
A Sprint spokesman said the company denies the allegations.