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Bush's Latest Targets Farmworkers
Legal & Political |
2009/01/13 08:59
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The Labor and Homeland Security Departments will render meaningless many of the basic workplace safety regulations for farm workers by revised regulations to the H-2A visa program scheduled to take effect on Jan. 17, the United Farm Workers claim in Federal Court. The extensive changes published in the Federal Register on Dec. 18 undo worker protections, cripple the Department of Labor's oversight and enforcement powers, and unequivocally conflict with the plain language of the H-2A enabling statues, the complaint states.
nbsp; nbsp; The DOL's extensive changes to the H-2A program do not tinker around the edges; rather, they render meaningless many of the basic health, safety, and wage protections provided to farmworkers under the H-2A statute and current regulations, the complaint states. The new rules accomplish this not only by undoing many of the substantive worker protections found in the current regulations but also by weakening DOL's role in overseeing and enforcing the statutory mandates of the H-2A program. Many of these regulations unequivocally conflict with the plain language of the H-2A enabling statues. Many others are arbitrary and capricious rules that are inconsistent with the purposes of the statute, run contrary to evidence before DOL in the administrative record and elsewhere, and are poorly explained and justified. These new rules go well beyond DOL's discretion to promulgate regulations; rather, they constitute a wholesale attempt to undo decades-old protections of U.S. farmworkers and H-2A agricultural guestworkers, the complaint states. These regulations will cause irreparable harm to U.S. and H-2A workers by reducing wages and labor protections, and by decreasing job opportunities for workers who are already among the most impoverished in the country.
nbsp; nbsp; Plaintiffs claim the changes will essentially let labor contractors and employers certify themselves as complying with a wide range of laws and regulations, and excuse the Department of Labor from bothering to certify or investigate.
nbsp; nbsp; Lead counsel in the 69-page complaint is Wilmer Cutler Pickering. |
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For Sale: Unibomber's Property
Legal World News |
2009/01/12 09:47
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The 9th Circuit upheld a plan to sell or disposal of the Unabomber's personal items - including notes, books, guns and bomb-making materials and instructions - that were seized during his 1996 arrest.
nbsp; nbsp; Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber, claimed the plan restricts his freedom of expression and impermissibly allows his victims to vie for any profits from the auction of his goods. He also contested a provision that calls for the destruction of his bomb-making materials instead of returning them to his designee.
nbsp; nbsp; He tried to reclaim his property in 2003, but the district court said the government had a superior ownership interest in the Unabomber's property. It also determined that his belongings were essentially worthless, as they had to be valued before he gained criminal notoriety in order to keep him from profiting from his crimes.
nbsp; nbsp; Kaczynski is serving four consecutive life sentences plus 30 years for a series of mail bombings that killed three people and injured nine others.
nbsp; nbsp; In 2005, the 9th Circuit held that the government has an ownership claim in Kaczynski's stuff, but only if that property is needed to satisfy the terms of the restitution order.
nbsp; nbsp; The items aren't worthless, the court noted on appeal, if their sale helps fulfill the $15 million restitution order.
nbsp; nbsp; The court said the plan does not violate the First Amendment, because Kaczynski would receive a full set of legible copies before anything was sold.
nbsp; nbsp; Kaczynski argued that the originals were more valuable, but offered no explanation as to how his right to free speech or freedom of expression is impinged by their sale, Judge Hawkins wrote. |
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John Q. Kelly on Natalee Holloway Case - Fox News
Headline Legal News |
2009/01/05 14:18
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a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comNatalie Holloway /aAttorney John Q. Kelly
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And, finally, the Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos, responds. John Q. Kelly, the Holloway family attorney, has been trying to get Aruban prosecutor Hans Mos on the phone. Mos did leave him a rather nasty voicemail the other day. But now Hans Mos has responded to a letter from Kelly.
So what did Mos say in this response? a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comJohn Q. Kelly/a joins us. John, what did he say?
a href=http://www.kellygrouppc.comJOHN Q. KELLY, HOLLOWAY FAMILY ATTORNEY/a: It's basically two-fold. One is that Joran [van der Sloot] has given different versions of the same event, so they can't be bothered with it.
And, two, they have no interest in any evidence or information that might assist him at this point.
VAN SUSTEREN: That is cute. The key is if you want to commit a crime, go to Aruba and tell three stories, because they will not investigate you and they won't look to corroborate. That's lesson number one. That's good advice.
You ask to have him arrested. What happens about that?
KELLY: He said we have no basis for it. This is the first time we have had any information that has been corroborated. He says he father was engaged in a cover-up, and it turns out that the chief of police and Paulus [van der Sloot], it has been confirmed that they hindered the prosecution. We have taped conversations that confirmed the boys talking about hoping that Natalee, or fearing that she may be alive. There are cell phone pings as to locations of Joran down by the fisherman's hut. There are all kinds of things independently that confirm what Joran is saying now, and they just won't listen.
VAN SUSTEREN: I know that he doesn't like us here at On the Record. And I will make this promise tonight-we will stop being the monkey on his back if he does any investigation at all.
But I can tell you one thing. We have learned new information that a member of the Dutch parliament, Hero Brinkman, he is about to raise holy hell on Hans Mos. He is going down to Aruba in early January.
And if Hans Mos does not like us, wait until he gets a hold of this member of parliament, because he says that Aruba is corrupt as hell I think were his words, not mine.
KELLY: Greta, can I take you to the woodshed on one thing? I think people have to understand that even thought it was five months before your aired your interview with Joran that Hans Mos was made aware of it and the substance of it in great detail almost immediately, and he had no interest in following.
span style=font-weight: boldRead the entire interview at Fox News/span - a href=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465291,00.htmlClick Here/a |
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Grocery Wholesaler in Federal Antitrust Action
Legal World News |
2009/01/05 08:48
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The nation's two largest grocery wholesalers, Supervalu and Camp;S Wholesale, conspired to allocate territories, restrain competition and inflate prices, according to a federal antitrust class action. Gary's Foods claims the defendants competed until 2003, when Vermont-based Camp;S decided to go after Supervalu territory in the Midwest.
nbsp; nbsp; Rather than extend their competition to the Midwest or continue to compete in New England, the Defendants conspired to allocate territories: Supervalu agreed to
nbsp; nbsp; exit New England in return for Camp;S's commitment not to enter Wisconsin, Iowa, and other states in the Midwest, the complaint states. This scheme has caused substantial harm to retailers: prices for wholesale sales and services have been inflated, fewer manufacturer discounts have been passed on to retailers, and the supply of wholesale sales and services has been artificially reduced.
The two defendants have combined annual revenue of $28 billion,according to the complaint. Gary's also claims the defendantsfraudulently concealed their conspiracy. Gary's demands treble damagesand punitive damages for the class. It is represented by Daniel Kotchenwith Kotchen amp; Low of Washington, D.C. |
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Judge Upholds Detention of Two Gitmo Detainees
Court Press News |
2009/01/02 09:27
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A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the U.S. government is properly imprisoning two people as enemy combatants in Guantanamo - the first legal victory for the Bush administration in the issue for a long time, and the first of an expected 200 or more similar cases.
nbsp; nbsp; U.S. District Judge Richard Leon in Washington, D.C., was the jurist who ruled about a month ago that the Bush administration had illegally imprisoned five Algerians at Guantanamo for nearly 7 years. He ordered the administration to release them.
nbsp; nbsp; The recent case involved a Yemeni, Moath Hamza Ahmed al Alwi, and a Tunisian, Hisham Sliti.
nbsp; nbsp; Judge Leon found that Sliti was an al Qaeda recruit who attended a military training camp in Afghanistan.
nbsp; nbsp; Judge Leon ruled that though there was no proof that al Alwi had made war upon U.S. forces, his ties to the Taliban were sufficient to justify his imprisonment as an enemy combatant. |
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