Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge to California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage marks the first time that the state's top lawyer has refused to defend a newly enacted ballot measure since 1964 - another epic discrimination case that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property sales and rentals.
Attorney General Thomas Lynch - newly appointed to succeed Stanley Mosk, a Prop. 14 opponent who had just been named to the state Supreme Court - concluded the initiative violated U.S. constitutional standards and left private lawyers representing sponsors as its sole defenders in court.
The state Supreme Court - minus Mosk, who removed himself from the case - overturned Prop. 14 in 1966, and the U.S. Supreme Court followed suit in 1967. Lynch filed written arguments urging the nation's high court to rule the measure unconstitutional.
Brown personally opposed Proposition 8, the initiative restoring the ban on gay and lesbian marriages that the state Supreme Court had struck down in May, but said the day after the Nov. 4 election that he planned to defend it in court.

Read Entire Article: San Fransisco Chronicle

Christmas Tree Sales up Despite Bad Economy

This Christmas season the recession may force many people to cut back on spending for gifts or holiday parties, but when it comes to getting a real Christmas tree, that's one sacrifice few are making. Despite the poor economy, Ohio Christmas tree growers are saying business is as good as ever, if not better, because when hard times hit, people turn to traditions to comfort themselves. "We saw a huge bump in sales the Christmas after (Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks) because people were in a crisis mode and I see the same this year," said Theresa Feisley, of Feisley Tree Farms in Belmont, in Eastern Ohio. She said the company has already sold out its allotment to retailers and there has been no drop in business for their choose-and-cut sales at their farm. "In times of crisis, people turn back to the basics for comfort," Feisley said. "They may be cutting back on gifts, but they're still buying trees." She said she has even been surprised by the sales of wreaths and other "green" decorations. "Our goal was to hold steady on our wreath sales, but we're finding that people are still buying the extras," said Feisley. Typically, between 25 million and 30 million real Christmas trees are sold every year, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. Sales nationally are expected to be strong again this year. "Most of what we're hearing is that (tree sellers) are having a pretty good year," said Rick Dungey, spokesman for the National Christmas Tree Association. Ohio is the 11th-largest Christmas tree producing state, with more than 370,000 harvested each year. There are more than 1,100 Christmas tree farms in Ohio, the eighth-most in the country. There are more than 21,000 Christmas tree growers across the country. Cackler Family Farms in Delaware County, too, is having a good season so far. "Business has been good," said Donna Cackler, co-owner of the farm, which has more than 22,000 trees. "We don't appear to be affected by the economy." She also said there is an emotional element to buying a Christmas tree that isn't inhibited by a downturn in the economy. "We're in the business of creating memories. People look back and think about getting their tree," Cackler said. Though she did say she's noticed some customers cutting back on extras, such as a nicer tree stand. Feisley said sales are strong in Eastern Ohio despite that region having been hit especially hard by the recession. "Things are very tough down here. A lot of people have lost their jobs, but they're still coming out and buying Christmas trees," she said. The mean purchase price of a real Christmas tree last year $41.50. More than $1.3 billion worth of trees were sold last year nationally. Of the real trees sold, 84 percent of them were pre-cut while 16 percent of those sold were cut by the buyers, according to the National Christmas Tree Association. More trees are sold at chain stores, 23 percent, than any other site. Another 21 percent are sold at choose and harvest farms and 20 percent at nurseries and garden centers.

Consumer Debt Lawsuits Handled on One Day

Every Wednesday at noon, debt collection lawyers take their seats behind a thick wooden table in a downtown Baltimore courtroom for a ritual they call the "rocket docket."It's one way officials at the city District Court try to unclog a backlog of consumer debt lawsuits, including thousands filed by hospitals over unpaid bills.Lawyers call up debtors one at a time to work out payment plans in rapid, on-the-spot settlements. Other days, lawyers haggle with debtors in the courthouse hallways. When cases go to judges, hospitals typically win after hearings that last a few minutes or less.Nearly one-third of the 132,000 lawsuits that Maryland hospitals have filed against patients in the past five years over unpaid bills have been filed in the city District Court, which serves an area where many debtors are "living on the margins," as University of Maryland law professor and former Legal Aid lawyer Michael Millemann puts it.

These lawsuits have played out even though hospitals' costs of unpaid bills and provision of free care to the poor are supposed to be covered by the rates paid by all patients, under Maryland's unique rate-setting system. Some of the hospitals that have filed the most lawsuits have received millions of surplus dollars from the payment system.Maryland hospitals have won at least $100million in judgments against patients in the past five years and placed liens on at least 8,000 homes across the state, despite national hospital industry guidelines that caution against the wholesale use of that practice, an investigation by The Baltimore Sun found.Some hospitals have won judgments against patients covered by Medicaid for bills the giant government health plans didn't pay, despite a Maryland law outlawing that, The Sun found in sampling more than 200 court files. Hundreds of patients have filed complaints with state regulators over billing issues, including allegations that hospitals tried to collect amounts beyond what they agreed to accept under insurance company contracts by going directly after patients.And some hospitals have sued patients three or more years after their stays ended, raising questions about whether the statute of limitations had expired.

Read Entire Article: BaltimoreSun

Family of Officer Killed in Crash Awarded $8M

A car that ran a stop sign in Pembroke Pines ended a North Miami officer's life in 2004. Now his widow and daughters have been awarded compensation.

Four years after a highly decorated North Miami Beach police officer was killed in a car crash, his wife and three daughters were awarded $8.07 million by a Broward County jury.

Yvette Lorenzo and her three daughters were not in the car with the father, Officer Orestes ''Oreo'' Lorenzo, when he swerved out of the way while driving west on Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines to avoid hitting a red Honda Civic that ran a stop sign. Lorenzo's car went straight into a drainage curb, tripping his vehicle and smashing it against a large royal palm tree. The father of three was ejected from the car. He died in the hospital seven days later.

It was July 2, 2004, when Natasha Russo, 18, drove her father's new car past the stop sign on 180th Avenue. The jury awarded the compensatory damages -- against the Florida Department of Transportation and William and Natasha Russo -- at midnight Saturday. The trial was closed to the public because of the flooding that closed the courthouse last week.

The lawsuit maintained that the 18-year-old's negligence led to Lorenzo's death. It also alleged that the FDOT was responsible as well for violating its own rules by allowing a drainage curb and large royal palm trees to be placed on a road where the speed limit was 50 mph.

According to court documents, the jury estimated the damage to Lorenzo's family that was caused by the crash at $11.5 million. But after distributing the blame placed on Russo, the FDOT, and Lorenzo himself, the family of four was given 70 percent of the total monetary damages.
The jury concluded that Lorenzo was 30 percent responsible for his own death. More than half of the blame, 55 percent, was placed on the young Russo.

The jury decided the FDOT was the least responsible of the three, and 15 percent of the crash was be attributed to the department.

Miami Herald

Who's to Blame when Car Crosses Median?

Refugio County, TX: A car accident is everyone's worst nightmare, as you never know when, and if it's going to happen. Will your loved ones be hurt in an automobile crash? Will they die? It may be a morbid thought, but death and injury from car crashes is something that weighs in the back of everyone's mind every time they slip behind the wheel.

For 27-year-old Leticia Alvarado, A Corpus Christi mother of three, the worst of both worlds happened when she was driving her kids home from a shopping trip. They never made it home. What would have, and should have been an ordinary day in the life of a young mother and her three kids, was anything but.

The day ended with Avarado and her son in hospital, in critical condition. Her two lovely daughters, meanwhile, were never coming home again.

The car accident happened in mid-morning. It had been raining, and the roads were wet. Alvarado was just heading home in the family SUV with her three kids in tow, when she lost control on the wet pavement and skidded into oncoming traffic.

Critics of highway construction will say that every highway should have a concrete median separating the two directions of traffic. Every roadway, in fact. If there were, Alvarado's two daughters might be alive today.

Instead, the SUV skidded over the centerline unprotected by a barrier of any kind, and careened right into the path of an 18-wheeler semi.Leticia Alvarado was thrown clear from the SUV, as were her two daughters—13-year-old Alisha Alvarado, and 3-year-old Skyler Mendoza. Both girls were killed instantly. Leticia was critically injured. Her son Roman, aged 2, was the only person who remained strapped into the SUV after it crashed. The tot was rushed to hospital with a broken leg and neck injury.

The driver of the 18-wheeler, not surprisingly, was fine.

READ Entire Article

Car, Truck, Bus, Motorcycle or other Vehicle Accidents

Automobile accidents injure millions and kill thousands of Americans each year, and are also the leading cause of brain and spinal cord injury in the United States. Car accident lawyers can support a victim throughout the judicial process and can help determine if the accident was caused by the negligence of another driver or due to car part defects. An auto accident lawyer can help you with issues dealing with car crashes, fatal accidents, road rage, personal injury and insurance complaints. If you or someone you love has been injured in an automobile accident or you need help in dealing with insurance issues, please click the link to have an experienced attorney contact you.

Phillips And Lyon

Right on the heels of Yahoo!'s top search announcement last week, Google has posted its annual year-end Zeitgeist report, revealing the year's most popular searches by country.Not surprisingly, President-Elect Obama took first place in the United States' fastest rising general searches, with former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin taking seventh. Interestingly enough, though, Palin was the fastest rising search globally, while Obama was placed at number six. The Beijing Olympics also held a place in both the US and global rankings, taking eighth and second, respectively.These findings, according to the New York Times, bring up questions of personal security in the Internet age and demonstrate the degree to which Internet surfers give away facts about themselves.

Fastest Rising (Global)
1. Sarah Palin
2. Beijing 2008
3. Facebook login
4. Tuenti
5. Heath ledger
6. Obama
7. Nasza Klasa
8. Wer Kennt Wen
9. Euro 2008
10. Jonas Brothers

Read Entire Article

TV Camera in the Supreme Court?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court does not allow cameras at its proceedings and only rarely authorizes the immediate release of audio recordings of its argument sessions.
But if any justices happened to have their office TVs tuned to C-SPAN on Tuesday, they would have seen something unusual, if not instructive.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York allowed live television coverage of arguments in the case of a Canadian engineer who wants to sue the United States for mistaking him for a terrorist and sending him to Syria, where he claims he was tortured.
The arguments lasted nearly three hours in a packed courtroom, and C-SPAN viewers saw lawyers and judges at the top of their games, seemingly oblivious to the cameras and engaged in lively questions and answers in a case of wide interest.

"It was certainly an argument worthy of broadcast," said Catherine O'Hagan Wolfe, the Clerk of the 2nd Circuit.

The justices have given several reasons for their opposition to televising their sessions. Some have worried that the presence of cameras would lead some lawyers or even justices to ham it up. Others have said it would change the way justices relate to each other or be a distraction. Justice Antonin Scalia has said he fears video would be used to air misleading or out-of-context snippets of arguments.

READ: MSN - Associated Press

FL JUDGE DENIES MOTION TO INSPECT CHILD REMAINS

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - A judge has denied a defense attorney's motion to inspect a child's remains found near the home of a missing 3-year-old central Florida girl.
The motion, filed by Jose Baez, was denied Friday. He represents the girl's mother, 22-year-old Casey Anthony, who is charged with first-degree murder in the disappearance of Caylee Anthony.

Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary says a medical examiner found evidence among the remains link them to the missing girl's home, but officials would not immediately give further information.
The remains were found Thursday by a utility worker on a wooded lot less than a half-mile from the house where Caylee lived with her grandparents and her mother.

CBS news report

GROUND ZERO LAWSUITS WILL BEGIN 2010

After years of wrangling, lawyers for New York City and for the thousands of ground zero workers suing the city have agreed to begin trials in the spring of 2010. The lawsuits claim that workers suffered illnesses as a result of their exposure to dust at the site, and most of the first cases to be heard will involve people with the most severe health claims.

After a hearing on Wednesday, the lawyers said they were moving forward with 50 to 60 cases.
“The people who need relief the most will be at the front of the line, where they should be,” said Paul J. Napoli, who represents more than 9,000 of the workers.

Nearly 10,000 firefighters, police officers, construction workers and others have sued the city and its contractors, saying they suffered respiratory and other illnesses because they were not given breathing masks during the nine-month rescue and recovery operation after the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

The defendants face a liability that could reach $1 billion or more if they are found to have been negligent.

The thousands of claims range from deaths, cancers and serious respiratory problems to cases which the city has said involve nothing more than common symptoms like a runny nose or cough, or no illness at all.

Read Entire Article: New York Times