USLegal Reporter

Target Corporation on Thursday announced plans of a settlement in a $6 million class action lawsuit brought by the National Federaton of the Blind. The Federation filed the lawsuit on behalf of sight impaired individuals who said that blind people could not access Target.com.

Target says it will upgrade its website to include software that can assist the sight impaired with transactions and will provide training sessions for its web developers to better address such needs.

Source: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9113750&intsrc=hm_list

A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a copyright infringement case against Veoh, an online video sharing website. The suit had been filed by IO Group, an adult entertainment company.

IO claimed that Veoh had allowed its users to upload its content without permission.

However, Judge Howard R. Lloyd ruled that Veoh was protected against such activity by its users under a safe harbor provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

Google’s YouTube faces a similar lawsuit which has been filed by Viacom.

Source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2008/08/veoh-youtube-vi.html

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that the number of reported salmonella cases has returned to the normal amount expected at this point in the year, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has lifted its consumer warning regarding raw jalapeno and serrano peppers as the contaminated strain is no longer being circulated.

The Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, the largest of its kind in a decade, has caused approximately 286 individual hospitalizations and two possible deaths.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/08/28/salmonella/index.html

The Environmental Protection Agency today reached an agreement with a Lake Charles refinery to reduce its pollution emissions. The EPA had filed a lawsuit against Calcasieu Refining Co. for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act.

Under terms of the settlement agreement, Calicasieu has agreed to pay $612,500 in fines. The refinery, which is owned by Transworld Oil U.S.A. Inc. of Houston, will also reduce its nitrogen oxide emissions and monitor benzene waste.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/08/27/ap5363759.html

Inmate Richard Cooey, who was convicted of killing two college students in 1986 and is scheduled to be executed, has asked for clemency due to his obesity. Cooey claims that his obesity will prevent him from being properly executed by lethal injection, due to the difficulty of finding a vein. He also claims that his weight could diminish the effectiveness of one of the lethal injection drugs. Cooey stands 5 feet 7 and weighs 267 pounds.

Cooey made a similar request in 2003, which the Ohio Parole Board denied. Cooey came within a day of being executed that year before a federal judge issued a reprieve. If his execution proceeds as scheduled on October 14, 2008, it will be the first execution in Ohio since the end of a moratorium while the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-25-death-row_N.htm

After the participation of only eight individuals in the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Scheduled Departure Program, the government announced it would end the trial program last Friday. The program was designed to assist 457,000 illegal immigrants across the nation who could turn themselves in by August 22, 2008 at offices in Santa Ana, San Diego, Chicago, Phoenix and Charlotte, North Carolina to be deported without being detained. Eligible illegal immigrants were limited to those without criminal histories who had not followed judicial deportation orders.

The government spent $41,000 in advertising the program, and claimed the costs of detaining the six participants during the first week of the trial alone would have been $37,000. The director of ICE’s detention and removal operations, Jim Hayes, claimed that failure of the program emphasizes the need for enforcement. Critics of the program blame its failure on its lack of incentives for immigrants and the fact that many of the immigrants have family ties in the U.S. Under the program, immigrants were given up to 90 days to plan their deportation, but many would have been prohibited from reentering the country for up to ten years.

Of the eight participants, three persons applied at an office in Chicago, two in Santa Ana and one each in Phoenix, Charlotte, North Carolina, and San Diego.

Source: http://news.findlaw.com/ap/a/w/1152/08-22-2008/20080822035007_14.html

The US Third Circuit Court of Appeals Thursday refused to strike down a Pennsylvania law that requires parents who home school their children to comply with certain reporting and curriculum requirements. Several families claimed that the requirements violated their freedom of religion under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and the Civil Rights Act. The court rejected these claims, but remanded their claim under the state Religious Freedom Protection Act to state court.

According to the court, the state law in question “is a neutral law of general applicability. It neither targets religious practice nor selectively imposes burdens on religiously motivated conduct. Instead, it imposes the same requirements on parents who home-school for secular reasons as on parents who do so for religious reasons. Furthermore, nothing in the record suggests Commonwealth school officials discriminate against religiously motivated home education programs (e.g., denying approval of home education programs because they include faith-based curriculum materials). [sic]”

Source: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2008/08/third-circuit-upholds-pennsylvania-home.php

The Food and Drug Administration today approved irradiation of fresh spinach and iceberg lettuce. The irradiation process will expose the produce to low amounts of radiation designed to kill germs and bacteria such as E. coli and salmonella. The method is also believed to help food last longer and according to the FDA, the produce will not lose its nutrient value.

The FDA says the irradiation process has been tested for more than 40 years and deemed safe to be used on a variety of foods.

Food growers and shippers can voluntarily decide whether or not to irradiate iceberg lettuce and spinach. However, if they do treat their produce, they must notify consumers. The FDA requires that foods which have been irradiated carry the “radura” label along with the statement “Treated with radiation” or “Treated by irradiation.”

The FDA continues to recommend that consumers wash fresh and bagged produce before eating it, unless the packaging specifically states that the product has been prewashed.

Source: http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/irradiation082208.html

A new federal law enacted as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act authorizes a credit of as much as $7,500 for qualified first-time buyers purchasing homes on or after April 9, 2008, and before July 1, 2009. However, the money must be paid back to the IRS over 15 years.

A new National Association of Home Builders website explaining the new law reports 116,000 hits since its debut in the beginning of this month. To qualify, a person must be a “first-time home buyer”, meaning he/she has not owned a principal residence during the three-year period prior to the purchase. The home purchased must be used as a principal residence. For married taxpayers, the law examines the homeownership history of both the home buyer and his/her spouse. There are also income restrictions.

Source: http://www.federalhousingtaxcredit.com

Mrs. Fields says it will file for Chapter 11 bankrputcy protection. The company has more than 1,200 franchises across the country and is best known for its cookies. The chain also includes TCBY frozen yogurt.

Mrs. Fields’s Co-Chief Executive Michael R. Ward has confirmed the company will file a prepackaged bankruptcy reorganization plan with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.

The company posted a net loss of $10.7 million last quarter.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121883327656645413.html?mod=googlenews_wsj