A Texas county filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court this week in the latest bid to stop construction of hundreds of miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border.
In asking the court to review a lawsuit previously dismissed by a federal court judge, lawyers for El Paso County contend that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff overstepped his legal authority when he waived 37 federal laws that could have slowed or blocked construction of fencing along the border.
Attorneys for the county also allege that Chertoff violated the 10th Amendment, which grants states the right to enforce laws neither prohibited by nor delegated to the federal government.
Congress authorized the fence to help secure the border and slow illegal immigration, and then gave Chertoff the power to waive the federal laws in 2005.
Previous legal challenges to the waiver authority, which includes a lawsuit by several environmental groups in San Diego, failed to gain traction in courts. The Supreme Court also declined to hear border fence challenges.
El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez said Wednesday he believed the 10th Amendment protects the county and other jurisdictions from Chertoff's action.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Regulators allege illegal monopoly for baby meds
Federal regulators alleged Tuesday that an Illinois-based company bought the only two medicines approved to treat premature babies born with a potentially life-threatening congenital heart defect, and then increased prices nearly 1,300 percent.
The Federal Trade Commission said in a civil lawsuit that Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., illegally maintained a monopoly in drug treatments for the heart defect. The commission seeks to prevent Ovation from maintaining simultaneous interest in the two drugs — NeoProfen and Indocin. Also, it seeks forfeiture of all unlawfully obtained profits.
The commission said Ovation purchased the rights to Indocin in August 2005 and then acquired the rights to NeoProfen five months later. It set the price for the two medicines at about $500. Before the second acquisition, Indocin was priced at $36.
An estimated 30,000 babies are treated with the drugs each year.
"Ovation's profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal," said FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in a statement issued separately from the lawsuit.
Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., rejected the commission's allegations. It said NeoProfen is superior to Indocin, and is not interchangeable for most premature infants with the heart defect.
The Federal Trade Commission said in a civil lawsuit that Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., illegally maintained a monopoly in drug treatments for the heart defect. The commission seeks to prevent Ovation from maintaining simultaneous interest in the two drugs — NeoProfen and Indocin. Also, it seeks forfeiture of all unlawfully obtained profits.
The commission said Ovation purchased the rights to Indocin in August 2005 and then acquired the rights to NeoProfen five months later. It set the price for the two medicines at about $500. Before the second acquisition, Indocin was priced at $36.
An estimated 30,000 babies are treated with the drugs each year.
"Ovation's profiteering on the backs of critically ill premature babies is not only immoral, it is illegal," said FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz in a statement issued separately from the lawsuit.
Ovation Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., rejected the commission's allegations. It said NeoProfen is superior to Indocin, and is not interchangeable for most premature infants with the heart defect.
Sen. Kennedy awarded honorary degree from Harvard
Saying he has "lived a blessed time," Sen. Edward Kennedy smiled broadly and flashed a thumbs up as he accepted an honorary degree Monday from his alma mater during a rare special convocation at Harvard University.
The 76-year-old senator walked onstage to a standing ovation and leaned lightly on a cane. He made no mention of his battle with cancer but sounded a reflective note toward the end of his eight-minute address.
"We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make," Kennedy said. "I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."
In being honored at a special convocation, Kennedy joins a select group that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Kennedy staffer, spoke at the ceremony, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden was among those in attendance. The event had been scheduled for last spring but was postponed as the senator recovered from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor.
The 76-year-old senator walked onstage to a standing ovation and leaned lightly on a cane. He made no mention of his battle with cancer but sounded a reflective note toward the end of his eight-minute address.
"We know the future will outlast all of us, but I believe that all of us will live on in the future we make," Kennedy said. "I have lived a blessed time. Now, with you, I look forward to a new time of aspiration and high achievement for our nation and the world."
In being honored at a special convocation, Kennedy joins a select group that includes George Washington, Winston Churchill and Nelson Mandela.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Kennedy staffer, spoke at the ceremony, and Vice President-elect Joe Biden was among those in attendance. The event had been scheduled for last spring but was postponed as the senator recovered from surgery to treat a malignant brain tumor.
Judge gives would-be LAX bomber same 22-year term
A federal judge in Seattle has re-imposed a 22-year sentence on an Algerian convicted of plotting to bomb the Los Angeles airport at the turn of the millennium.
An appeals court had told U.S. District Judge John Coughenour (COON'-our), to recalculate the 22-year term he handed down three years ago to Ahmed Ressam (AH'-med res-AHM'). But Coughenour on Wednesday kept the same sentence.
Prosecutors had sought a life term because they say Ressam has stopped cooperating on other cases.
The judge earlier had shown Ressam leniency for testifying against two coconspirators and providing other information about his training with al-Qaida.
U.S. border guards in Washington state arrested Ressam as he drove a rented car packed with explosives off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. Investigators determined Ressam's target was a terminal at LAX, busy with holiday travel.
A jury convicted Ressam in 2001.
An appeals court had told U.S. District Judge John Coughenour (COON'-our), to recalculate the 22-year term he handed down three years ago to Ahmed Ressam (AH'-med res-AHM'). But Coughenour on Wednesday kept the same sentence.
Prosecutors had sought a life term because they say Ressam has stopped cooperating on other cases.
The judge earlier had shown Ressam leniency for testifying against two coconspirators and providing other information about his training with al-Qaida.
U.S. border guards in Washington state arrested Ressam as he drove a rented car packed with explosives off a ferry from British Columbia in December 1999. Investigators determined Ressam's target was a terminal at LAX, busy with holiday travel.
A jury convicted Ressam in 2001.
Appeals court upholds embassy bombers' convictions
A federal appeals court established a legal precedent Monday that U.S. citizens overseas can face searches without a warrant, ruling that three Osama bin Laden followers convicted in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies received fair trials.
"There is nothing in our history or our precedents suggesting that U.S. officials must first obtain a warrant before conducting an overseas search," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.
The three-judge panel added, however, that the searches must meet the Fourth Amendment's requirement of reasonableness, saying an individual's expectation of privacy must be weighed against the government's need for certain information.
Defendant Wadih El-Hage of Arlington, Texas, had argued that his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when U.S. authorities searched his home in Nairobi, Kenya, and tapped his telephone lines without a warrant.
The appeals court responded that the searches' intrusion on El-Hage's "privacy was outweighed by the government's manifest need to monitor his activities as an operative of al-Qaida because of the extreme threat al-Qaida presented, and continues to present, to national security."
El-Hage, 48, was convicted in 2001 with three others in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and prompted President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missiles on bin Laden's Afghan camps two weeks later.
"There is nothing in our history or our precedents suggesting that U.S. officials must first obtain a warrant before conducting an overseas search," the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote.
The three-judge panel added, however, that the searches must meet the Fourth Amendment's requirement of reasonableness, saying an individual's expectation of privacy must be weighed against the government's need for certain information.
Defendant Wadih El-Hage of Arlington, Texas, had argued that his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when U.S. authorities searched his home in Nairobi, Kenya, and tapped his telephone lines without a warrant.
The appeals court responded that the searches' intrusion on El-Hage's "privacy was outweighed by the government's manifest need to monitor his activities as an operative of al-Qaida because of the extreme threat al-Qaida presented, and continues to present, to national security."
El-Hage, 48, was convicted in 2001 with three others in the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings at U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and prompted President Bill Clinton to launch cruise missiles on bin Laden's Afghan camps two weeks later.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Train Crash Lawyer Jerry Ringler - Chatsworth Metrolink Accident
Special Message for Victims of Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster
On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. Our hearts go out to the victims. But this tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of Metrolink employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of RKA know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters.
Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and freight train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.
In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.
In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Mr. Ringler's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.
Mr. Ringler is currently lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Ringler has, against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2009, with Mr. Ringler as lead counsel.
The verdicts detailed on this page all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.
If you or a loved one has suffered injury or death as a result of the horrific Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster, we are available to discuss your rights with you confidentially and at no charge.
Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Ringler,or any of his partners, at (213) 473-1900.
Train Accident Attorneys
On September 12, 2008, an unprecedented tragedy occurred in Chatsworth, California when Metrolink Train #111 struck a Union Pacific freight train which was traveling on the same tracks. Our hearts go out to the victims. But this tragedy should not have happened. It happened because of human error on the part of Metrolink employees. Unfortunately, as the lawyers of RKA know well, human error by railroad engineers is not at all unique as a cause of commuter rail disasters.
Jerome L. Ringler has greater experience in representing victims of commuter rail and freight train disasters than any other lawyer in the State of California, if not the country. He has served as lead counsel in every one of the largest commuter rail disasters which have occurred in Southern California in the past 10 years.
In the Placentia Commuter Rail Disaster of 2003, Mr. Ringler was appointed by the Court as lead counsel for all of the Plaintiffs. He was requested by all of the lawyers representing individuals injured or killed in that incident to try the first case. That case resulted in the largest verdict for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ever rendered by a jury in the United States. That verdict, which was for $9 million, is detailed below in the multimedia section.
In the Burbank Commuter Rail Disaster, which also occurred in 2003, Mr. Ringler was again appointed by the Court to serve as lead counsel. In that capacity he was given the responsibility to try the entire liability (i.e., fault) case for all of the victims. In other words, every one of the dozens of lawyers who represented individual victims in that disaster trusted Mr. Ringler to try the liability phase for them, knowing that their clients would only recover if Mr. Ringler was successful. He was. In fact, Mr. Ringler not only obtained a favorable verdict for all of the plaintiffs, he obtained a $12 million verdict for his own client as well. This verdict was the largest in the State of California for a person with the type of injuries Mr. Ringler's client had suffered. This verdict is detailed below in the multimedia section.
Mr. Ringler is currently lead counsel for all plaintiffs in the Glendale Metrolink Derailment Disaster of 2005. This incident was, before September 12, 2008, the largest Metrolink disaster in history. Interestingly, in that case (which involves 11 deaths and dozens of serious injuries), Mr. Ringler has, against all odds, developed testimony proving that, even though a mentally-ill person placed a jeep across the tracks that the Metrolink train was traveling upon, human error on the part of the Metrolink engineer prevented him from stopping the train before hitting the jeep, which caused the train to derail. In other words, while the jeep certainly never should have been on the tracks, the Metrolink engineer would have been able to stop the train before ever striking the jeep had he only been paying proper attention. That case is scheduled to go to trial on June 8, 2009, with Mr. Ringler as lead counsel.
The verdicts detailed on this page all relate to railroad litigation. However, Mr. Ringler has achieved enormous, record-breaking monetary awards across California in a variety of complex areas. Those accomplishments are detailed elsewhere in this website. To see them, click here.
If you or a loved one has suffered injury or death as a result of the horrific Chatsworth Metrolink Disaster, we are available to discuss your rights with you confidentially and at no charge.
Please feel free to contact us at your convenience. Ask for Mr. Ringler,or any of his partners, at (213) 473-1900.
Train Accident Attorneys
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Lawyer, LI political pioneer Neal Capria dead at 66
Neal Capria, an environmental lawyer and a pioneer in Democratic politics who helped bring his party to power in Brookhaven in the 1970s, was found dead in his Port Jefferson Station condominium Tuesday morning. He was 66.
Capria, who last month began work as an aide to the Suffolk legislature, was found in his bed by his son Justin who came by to drive his father to work.
"He was one of the trailblazers," said Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman. "People should know who he was because he is partly responsible for where we are today," referring to recent party victories in the county and various Suffolk towns.
Capria served as part of the Democratic majority on the Brookhaven Town Board from 1978 to 1982. He was the last elected Democratic town board official until the party regained power in 2006. For the past 18 months, Capria worked as an assistant town attorney, but was let go last month when Republicans regained control of the town board.
Capria, who last month began work as an aide to the Suffolk legislature, was found in his bed by his son Justin who came by to drive his father to work.
"He was one of the trailblazers," said Richard Schaffer, Suffolk Democratic chairman. "People should know who he was because he is partly responsible for where we are today," referring to recent party victories in the county and various Suffolk towns.
Capria served as part of the Democratic majority on the Brookhaven Town Board from 1978 to 1982. He was the last elected Democratic town board official until the party regained power in 2006. For the past 18 months, Capria worked as an assistant town attorney, but was let go last month when Republicans regained control of the town board.
Von Briesen attorney launches own firm
John Cabaniss, a trial attorney for the Milwaukee law firm von Briesen & Roper SC, is leaving the firm to launch his own practice in Mequon focusing on personal injury cases.
The move will alleviate some of the conflicts of interest that arose while he worked for von Briesen & Roper, said Randall Crocker, president and CEO of the law firm.
"We’ve discovered that John’s practice as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer and the firm’s continued growth in health care, toxic tort defense, management labor and general business has created conflicts of interest that have precluded John from taking the cases that he’s particularly good at," Crocker said in a press release Friday.
Cabaniss concurs.
"Regrettably, a personal injury plaintiff’s practice is, at times, not consistent with a large corporate, health and business law firm,” Cabaniss said.
The new firm will be known as the Cabaniss Law Office and will be at 10200 N. Port Washington Road in Mequon.
The move will alleviate some of the conflicts of interest that arose while he worked for von Briesen & Roper, said Randall Crocker, president and CEO of the law firm.
"We’ve discovered that John’s practice as a plaintiff’s trial lawyer and the firm’s continued growth in health care, toxic tort defense, management labor and general business has created conflicts of interest that have precluded John from taking the cases that he’s particularly good at," Crocker said in a press release Friday.
Cabaniss concurs.
"Regrettably, a personal injury plaintiff’s practice is, at times, not consistent with a large corporate, health and business law firm,” Cabaniss said.
The new firm will be known as the Cabaniss Law Office and will be at 10200 N. Port Washington Road in Mequon.
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