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Biesecker named to NC investigations, court beats
Legal News |
2011/07/12 09:24
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Michael Biesecker, an award-winning reporter and investigative journalist for The News amp; Observer of Raleigh, has been hired by The Associated Press to cover federal courts, investigations and politics in North Carolina.
Biesecker is a North Carolina native and has spent his 15-year-career in his home state. He worked at the Winston-Salem Journal in a variety of positions including as a columnist and reporter before going to work for The News amp; Observer in 2003. He has covered the state capital for the newspaper since 2009.
His work probing the failings of North Carolina's mental health care system in 2008 uncovered more than 80 questionable deaths in state mental hospitals. The newspaper's series Mental Disorder: The Failure of Reform led to new policies on how state facilities report deaths and monitor care. He has won numerous awards from the North Carolina Press Association, including for general news and for investigative reporting. In 2008, he was part of a team that won an Associated Press Managing Editors Association First Amendment Award for reporting on access to email written by public officials.
The appointment was announced Monday by South Editor Lisa Marie Pane, Chief of Bureau Michelle Williams and Carolinas News Editor Evan Berland.
Biesecker has some serious reporting chops and we're looking forward to his using those to cover the vitally important federal courts beat and being involved in some important investigative projects, Pane said. |
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Legal questions raised on NY's gas-drilling rules
Topics in Legal News |
2011/07/12 09:23
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While an energy industry economist says New York's proposal to place large areas off-limits to gas drilling is overly restrictive, an environmental lawyer says the proposed watershed protections don't go far enough.
The Department of Environmental Conservation posted its 700-plus-page blueprint for hydraulic fracturing in the lucrative Marcellus Shale region on its website on Friday, allowing industry and environmental groups to start dissecting the proposed plan to allow gas drilling in an area where it's been on hold since 2008.
More than 3,300 gas wells have been drilled since 2005 across the border in Pennsylvania, bringing new jobs and economic benefits as well as environmental problems such as accidental chemical spills, gas-tainted well water and river pollution. New York state regulators have upheld permitting for three years while they conduct an environmental review and draft new regulations.
The proposed New York rules include a section describing several gas-drilling operation accidents in Pennsylvania and outlining New York's measures designed to mitigate such incidents.
Our biggest concern is the restrictions that have been added, said John Felmy, chief economist for the American Petroleum Institute. In particular, the New York City and Syracuse watersheds, and taking state lands off the table. Those are big areas.
Felmy said natural gas development in New York's economically depressed Southern Tier would bring billions of dollars in economic activity, thousands of jobs, and new tax revenues. But a coalition of 47 health and environmental groups has called for a statewide ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, saying it poses unacceptable risks. |
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Court: Gov't must state position on gay troop ban
Lawyer Media News |
2011/07/12 09:23
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A federal appeals court that has called for the immediate halt of the military's ban on openly gay troops issued an order Monday requiring the U.S. government to state whether it will continue to defend the policy's constitutionality in court.
Monday's order comes less than a week after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco told the Obama administration to immediately cease enforcing the don't ask, don't tell policy, which could speed up its repeal.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the Log Cabin Republicans against the Department of Justice.
The gay rights group last year persuaded a lower court judge to declare the ban unconstitutional after a trial that put the Obama administration in the position of defending a policy it opposes.
DOJ attorneys have said they are defending the policy in court as they do with any law that is being challenged. They also have said the issue should be decided by Congress and not the courts.
The three-judge merits panel of the 9th Circuit said after reviewing briefs from both parties in the case, that it appears the government is not prepared to defend the policy's constitutionality.
The order was not signed by the judges and it was not known if the three jurists were the same ones who ruled last week on stopping its enforcement. |
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Illinois Supreme Court upholds public works plan
Legal News |
2011/07/11 09:23
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The Illinois Supreme Court has unanimously upheld a law that created a $31 billion statewide construction program, averting a threat to the thousands of jobs the projects created.
The decision also removes a roadblock to allowing video gambling at bars, restaurants and truck stops across Illinois.
The court on Monday unanimously rejected arguments that lawmakers improperly mixed different issues in a single law.
Lawmakers approved the public works program in 2009, deciding to fund the construction by raising taxes on liquor and candy, as well as legalizing video gambling.
Chicago Blackhawks owner and liquor distributor Rocky Wirtz challenged the law. An appeals court agreed with him that it violated a requirement that laws be limited to one topic. The Supreme Court said it all was connected to the construction program. |
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Ballard Spahr says Stewart new chair of national law firm
Lawyer Media News |
2011/07/06 08:43
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Law firm Ballard Spahr LLP says that Mark Stewart, who helped the firm open six new offices, has been named its chair.
The law firm — its headquarters are in Philadelphia — said Stewart became chair on Friday, succeeding Arthur Makadon who took the position in 2002. He is returning to active practice with the firm.
Stewart joined the firm as a summer associate in 1981.
Ballard Spahr has more than 475 lawyers in 13 offices across the U.S. and offers litigatition, business and finance, real estate, intellectual propery and public finance services. |
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Orange County judge to restrict Costa Mesa layoffs
Headline Legal News |
2011/07/06 02:43
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An Orange County judge said Tuesday that she will issue a court order to restrict Costa Mesa from laying off nearly half of the city's workforce and outsourcing jobs.
Superior Court Judge Tam Nomoto Schumann said she would grant the Orange County Employees Association's request for a preliminary injunction. But the city has until Friday to file objections before she issues her ruling.
The union filed suit in May, arguing that the city's plan to outsource municipal jobs violates state law and the union contract.
In March, the Costa Mesa City Council majority voted to outsource jobs to mostly private companies in a drastic move to plug a $15 million budget hole.
Soon afterward, 213 of 450 employees got layoff notices that would take effect in September.
Union spokeswoman Jennifer Muir said the court order would protect employees' jobs until the case against the city goes to trial.
Schumann said the city must follow proper procedures when laying off workers, but she didn't explain what those procedures are.
Assistant City Attorney Harold Potter contends the city has been following procedures while pursuing austerity measures.
The judge's ruling won't stop the city from exploring outsourcing options, he said. |
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