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WASHINGTON, DC – The Large Truck Crash Causation Study (LTCCS) is is the first-ever national study to attempt to determine the critical events and associated factors that contribute to serious large truck crashes. It has been conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which are agencies under the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT).

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SEATTLE, Nov. 2 – After a six-day trial, a federal jury dismissed Blue Niles $60.1 million claim against  Yehuda Diamond Company. The Jury ruled against Blue Nile, acknowledging Yehuda Diamond’s right to compare the prices of its clarity enhanced diamonds to the untreated diamonds sold by online retailer Blue Nile.

Blue Nile loses 60.1 Million Claim against Yehuda Diamond Company

Yehuda Diamond, based in New York, has earned widespread industry and consumer loyalty for its successful competition with Blue Nile and other online jewelers, favoring consumers not only with lower prices but also with unsurpassed expert face-to-face service and full Federal Trade Commission-compliant disclosure… ... Read Full Story

A default judgment award of 1.26 Billion was handed down on Sept. 30 by a Wisconsin state court in a case alleging that PepsiCo stole the idea to bottle and sell purified water from two Wisconsin men. PepsiCo filed motions to vacate the order and dismiss the claims on Oct. 13, saying it wasn’t even aware of the lawsuit until Oct. 6.

Administrator mistake costs PepsiCo $1.26 Billion in default judgment

Charles Joyce and James Voigt sued PepsiCo in April plus two of its distributors, alleging they had misappropriated trade secrets from confidential discussions the plaintiffs had with the distributors in 1981 about selling purified water. The information was illicitly passed to PepsiCo, which used it to develop and sell Aquafina bottled water, the plaintiffs allege in the case filed in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County before Judge Jacqueline Erwin.
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According to a legal action filed yesterday in New York, Bernie Madoff’s  prison associates are quite cast of characters. Right now Madoff shares a jail cell with a 21-year-old drug dealer and hangs out with a former crime boss and an Israeli spy.

Complaint lodged against Bernie Madoff in New York Supreme Court by California Law Firm

Attorneys who interviewed Madoff in jail in July used information obtained from him to file a series of claims against major banks and accountancy firms, in an action that also throws light on Madoff’s life behind bars… ... Read Full Story

Pfizer found guity of criminal fraud

Pfizer pleaded guilty to a felony crime for “…for misbranding Bextra with the intent to defraud or mislead.”  Read more from the actual DOJ documents.

The feds relied heavily on evidence from a half-dozen whistleblowers  who give testimony that eventually proved  Pfizer fraudulently marketed Bextra.  This settlement is  the largest health fraud settlement in U.S. history.

What Pfizer did was ask the FDA for the approval of Bextra to be used for several diseases and conditions, but the FDA refused those approvals. Pfizer then went ahead anyway and off-label marketed the drugs for those diseases and conditions.

The key whistleblower was  West Point grad John Kopchinski, who was hired by Pfizer as a sales rep when he left the Army in 1992. Kopchinski, 45,  was fired by the company in 2003.

Kopchinsk was talking with lawyers by then about evidence he had accumulated on how Pfizer was marketing  Bextra, a painkiller withdrawn from the market in 2005 amid safety concerns… ... Read Full Story

White House May Obtain Power Over Internet

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, along with his aides, have spent months behind closed doors drafting a revised U.S. Senate bill that proposes giving the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.

CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.

The new version would allow the president to “declare a cybersecurity emergency” relating to “non-governmental” computer networks and do what’s necessary to respond to the threat. Other sections of the proposal include a federal certification program for “cybersecurity professionals,” and a requirement that certain computer systems and networks in the private sector be managed by people who have been awarded that license.

“I think the redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,” said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board. “It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill.”  Read full story here

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TiVo Inc. has sued AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. for patent infringement, regarding the ability to pause and rewind live TV.

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO) today filed complaints in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas against AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications, Inc. for infringement of the following three TiVo patents U.S. Patent Nos. 6,233,389 B1 (”Multimedia Time Warping System”), 7,529,465 B2 (”System for Time Shifting Multimedia Content Streams”), and 7,493,015 B1 (”Automatic Playback Overshoot Correction System”). The complaints seek damages for past infringement and a permanent injunction, similar to that issued by the United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas against DISH/EchoStar… ... Read Full Story

Rapper "C Murder" sentenced to life

The Huffington Post writes:

Rapper Corey “C-Murder” Miller has been sentenced to life in prison for his second-degree murder conviction.

District Judge Hans Liljeberg gave Miller the mandatory life sentence on Friday, days after the rapper was found guilty of the 2002 killing by a Louisiana jury.

The 38-year-old Miller was convicted of shooting 16-year-old fan Steve Thomas at a now-closed nightclub in Harvey.

It was the second time that a jury convicted Miller in the case, but a 2003 conviction was overturned.

Miller has been in jail after pleading no contest to two counts of attempted murder in a separate altercation at a nightclub in Baton Rouge in 2001.

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On Thursday, June 25^th, the United States Supreme Court decided a case styled Atlantic Sounding Co., Inc. et al. v Edgar L. Townsend 2009 WL 1789469 (U.S. June 25, 2009).  This case marked the Supreme Court’s decision to protect a seaman’s right to receive damages for an employers’ willful and wanton disregard of a maintenance and cure obligation.

Petitioners allegedly refused to pay maintenance and cure to respondent Townsend for injuries he suffered while working on its tugboat. Townsend filed suit under the Jones Act and general maritime law, alleging arbitrary and willful failure to provide maintenance and cure. He filed similar counterclaims in the declaratory judgment action, seeking punitive damages for the maintenance and cure claim… ... Read Full Story

sonia-sotomayor

I am concerned about Sonia Sotomayor being confirmed as the latest supreme court judge. I am not comfortable with her decision in New Haven Connencut that ruled against the firefighters being promoted on merit. That was a bad decision and is being appealed to the Supreme Court. I am also very uncomfortable with her remarks found on the Youtube video where she speaks of policy being made from the bench.

Her latest quote “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion [as a judge] than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” doesn’t bother me as much. I don’t think she is a racist.

Leading conservative commentators and news outlets have jumped on the 2001 Sonia Sotomayor quote claiming that she has said that Latinas are better than white men. If you read the quote in context, it’s clear that Sotomayor was merely saying that it’s inevitable that a judge’s personal race-based and gender-based experiences will impact judging, particularly in race and sex discrimination cases. As a result, she said, while such formative experiences can be enriching and contribute to wise decisions, a judge should also be aware of them in order to avoid being wholly dominated by them. She vowed “complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives.”… ... Read Full Story