USLegal Reporter

A US District Judge in California this week ruled that the Bush Administration has violated deadlines for reviewing the nation’s carbon monoxide standards.

Environmental groups have sued the Environmental Protection Agency to prompt it to update its policies. The current carbon monoxide standard was put in place in 1974. It was last reviewed in 1994 and no changes were made. Federal law requires assessment every five years.

Carbon monoxide is an orderless gas and pollutant which comes from auto emissions and the burning of other fossil fuels. Environmental advocates and California officials says it contributes to human health problems and global warming.

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/07/MNJR10I1HQ.DTL

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Thursday that the social networking site Facebook will implement new restrictions to prohibit misuse of the site by child predators. Negotiations for the agreement between 49 Attorneys General and Facebook was led by Massachusetts and several other states and follows a similar one with MySpace entered into in January. Texas is the only state that has not entered agreements with Facebook or MySpace.

As part of the agreement, Facebook plans to impose 40 safeguards, including establishing a hotline for law enforcement inquiries, preventing users from altering their ages and blocking mechanisms that would prevent access to minors’ profiles. Facebook will also heighten its monitoring of website content, including that of contact information and inappropriate material.

Source: http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=607&docId=l:l:788886963&topicId=12708&source=undefined&start=13&topics=single

Minnesota’s governor, Tim Pawlenty, signed legislation Thursday that provides compensation to victims and/or their families of the August 1st Interstate 35W bridge collapse that killed 13 individuals and injured 145 more.

The bill allows for $38 million in funds, consisting of individual distributions of up to $400,000 for persons present on the bridge and additional payments from a supplemental fund for those who received more severe injuries. Victims and/or family members have until October 15 to file a claim and in accepting the payment, must forfeit their right to sue the state and other governmental entities.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/other/1110//05-08-2008/20080508085003_03.html; http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jUh_mElfJjbKk0e620KmTxCHwPSwD90G27TO0

The state of Georgia Tuesday became the first state to peform an execution by lethal injection after the US Supreme Court held in Baze v. Rees that certain lethal injection procedures are not unconstitutional.

William Earl Lynd was executed for kidnapping and murder shortly after the US Supreme Court rejected his request for a stay on his execution on the basis that the murder was not premeditated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080507/ap_on_re_us/georgia_execution;_ylt=ApdbQ.aT4Pq38pkmWsohK_BI2ocA

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill to fine drivers who drive with pets in their laps. The law would impose a $35 fine for those caught in violation of the lap dog ban. Assembylan Bill Maze’s bill passed the Assembly with a 44-11 vote and is headed to the Senate.

Assemblyman Maze, R-Visalia, says he was prompted to introduce the legislation after seeing a woman driving with three dogs in her lap. There are currently no restrictions on having pets in cars. The only restriction applies to pets who are put in the back of a pickup, requiring them to be secured in a cage or by other means.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/06/pets.driving.ap/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

A week after the measure passed the US Senate, the House of Representatives passed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Thursday, which prohibits the use of genetic testing in employment and health insurance practices. Although federal law already addresses race and gender discrimination, the new legislation will specifically prevent employers from using genetic tests in deciding whether to hire, fire or promote a particular individual and insurance companies in deciding whether an individual is eligible for healthcare coverage and in setting the amount of that individual’s premium.

Many employers across the country currently conduct medical exams of employees and use genetic testing to measure certain healthcare risks and hazards, while insurance companies in the past have restricted coverage based on findings of genetic tests. To combat this practice, individuals have been refusing genetic testing and have been paying cash under a false name. Most states have current legislation regarding genetic discrimination by healthcare insurance companies and many have enacted similar employment genetic discrimination laws.

The bill is H.R. 493.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1153//05-02-2008/20080502063504_28.html

A federal court in Richmond, VA ruled on Thursday that Tyson Foods must stop a multi-million dollar ad campaign that says it chickens are raised without “antibiotics.” Tyson now has 14 days to remove the ads nationwide.

The lawsuit was brought by Tyson’s competitors, Sanderson Farms and Perdue Farms.

Competitors sought an injunction against the ads which they said were misleading. None of the companies use the types of antiobiotics that can lead to drug resistance in humans.

Source: http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2008/05/tysons_chickens.html

A US District Court in Georgia ruled Wednesday that the state’s lethal injection procedures were not unconstitutional. The court compared the execution methods to those of Kentucky and upheld by the US Supreme Court recently in Baze v. Rees. The court held that a higher risk of pain than that allowed in Kentucky was not associated with the Georgia protocol.

Jack Alderman, an inmate convicted of murder whose execution was stayed pending the US Supreme Court’s decision, argued that Georgia did not have in place the safeguards used in Kentucky, such as training of officials to perform the executions and confirmation by such officials that an inmate is unconscious prior to administering additional drugs. The state, however, contended that Georgia uses trained officials to carry out executions, experienced licensed nurses who monitor the consciousness of inmates and standby physicians.

Georgia may conduct the first execution since the Baze case of William Earl Lynd on May 6, 2008.

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/05/federal-judge-rejects-challenge-to.php

April 29, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that will determine the legality of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) policy that even a single utterance of an obscene word on radio and television broadcasts during daytime and early evening hours may be penalized. It will be the first time in 30 years for the court to rule on the use of expletives on television and radio.

The lawsuit arose when Fox Broadcasting sued the FCC after being reprimanded for the use of vulgar language by Cher and Nicole Richie during televised awards shows in 2002 and 2003. Fox claims the enforcement of the indecency policy is arbitrary and unconstitutional. The reprimand came after the FCC reversed its position in 2004 and said even “fleeting” expletives could subject a network to sanctions.

In June 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York found that the FCC’s policy was “arbitrary and capricious” under the Administrative Procedure Act because the commission had “failed to articulate a reasoned basis for its change in policy.” The court also raised questions about its constitutionality under the First Amendment.

In FCC v. Pacifica Foundation, 438 U.S. 726 (1978), involving a monologue by the comedian George Carlin, the Court held that the federal government has the authority to police over-the-air radio and television broadcasts for “patently offensive” material of a sexual or excretory nature from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., when children are mostly likely to be in the audience. However, Justice John Paul Stevens noted in the decision that “We have not decided that an occasional expletive in either setting would justify any sanction.” It was not until a wardrobe malfunction involving Janet Jackson at the Super Bowl in 2004 that the FCC changed its enforcement policy.

The FCC claims that technology has made it possible for the networks to edit the use of expletives. The networks argue that variants of expletives are used which don’t reference sexual or excretory organs or activities, and that the FCC has exceeded its authority when it issues sanctions for a word that does not convey a sexual message.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/17/AR2008031700842.html?sub=new

Since 1999, the number of executions under the death penalty have dropped 57%, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). The number of executions in 2007 was 42, compared to 98 in 1999. 37 states currently have a death penalty, although executions were carried out in only ten states last year. 86 percent of the executions in 2007 were carried out in southern states, mainly in Texas, with 62% of the total executions nationwide. Executions outside the South were conducted in Arizona, South Dakota, Indiana, and Ohio.

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a moratorium on executions in September 2007, in order to decide whether lethal injections constitute uncontitutional cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. This month the Court decided that the method doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment, and stays imposed on executions pending the court’s ruling have been lifted. Therefore, this month’s decision may lead to an increase in executions in 2008.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/12/18/death.penalty.decline/index.html