…says a lawyer who’s sued ex-NBA star Allen Iverson three times, most recently over an alleged bar fight, and who professes surprise that Iverson turned irate at a recent deposition. [Detroit News]
Archive for November, 2011
Update: “Kellogg Settles ‘Toucan Sam’ Dispute With Archaeologists”
A happy ending (kinda) to the cease-and-desist battle that began when the giant food company decided the toucan on the Maya Archaeology Initiative’s logo was too reminiscent of its Froot Loops mascot. [Kevin Underhill/Forbes via Musing Minds, earlier]
“Passing along” our new tax? Tell it to the judge, mate
The official Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is menacing businesses with audits, “substantiation notices” and potentially stiff fines if they tell customers — even over the phone or in emails — that future price hikes on goods or services are the result of the nation’s newly adopted carbon tax. I discuss at Cato at Liberty (& Mark Hemingway, Weekly Standard).
Feds punish tarmac delays, airlines cancel flights instead (redux)
The Washington Post reports further developments on a regulatory-backfire story aired in this and many other places nearly two years ago.
Food and agriculture law roundup
- Just as FDA begins laying groundwork for mandatory salt reduction in prepared food, research raises new doubts about the science [Reuters, Atlantic Wire, Alkon]
- Feds now scrutinizing “everything about kids’ food” [Star-Tribune] Top-down remake of school lunches runs into trouble in Congress [AP]
- “Christmas tree tax”: blame big growers and GOP lawmakers, not White House [Tad DeHaven, , Mark Perry]
- Living right by a USDA-designated “food desert,” she’s “never had better access to food in my life.” [Angie Schmitt, Urbanophile] “As income rises, so does fast-food consumption, study finds” [L.A. Times, Sullum] “You can eat local, or you can eat organic, but it’s very hard to do both.” [Felix Salmon]
- Bloomberg News (not Bloomberg Hizzoner) hypes food-as-addiction, child obesity figuring in more custody battles [WSJ] Michelle Obama on the role of personal responsibility, alas not in this realm of life [Andrew Coulson, Cato]
- Private bed-leasing law is finally restoring Maryland’s depleted oyster stocks [Rona Kobell, Reason] Catch shares for Alaskan king crab might even be saving human lives [Adler]
- Why bother cooking for your kids at all? Feds ramp up program that serves them dinner as well as breakfast, lunch [Stoll]
Chesley’s cautionary tale
What went wrong with one of the biggest names in the plaintiff’s bar. [Corporate Counsel]
Food co-op sued after joining Israel boycott
After the Olympia Food Co-op in Washington removed products from Israel from its shelves, it was sued by several members who claimed that it had violated its bylaws. “A motion filed by attorneys with Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle and by attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights asserts that the lawsuit is a ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,'” banned under a Washington statute; one of the attorneys who filed the suit says “it is ‘absolutely, positively not’ a SLAPP suit.” [The Olympian, more here and here]
November 17 roundup
- Executive with “Autism Speaks” group quits to found group more aligned with scientific opinion on cause of condition [SciAm]
- Here comes the ban-cigarettes-entirely crusade [Peter Singer on forthcoming Robert Proctor “Golden Holocaust”] “Parents try to blame Four Loko for son getting shot” [Elie Mystal, Above the Law] Still-relevant cartoon from ’30s on Federal War on Drugs (or Booze, take your pick) [Perry]
- Controversy over definition of medical disorders in DSM-V has implications for workplace law including ADA, FMLA [Labor Related, petition]
- “Not Safe to Display an American Flag in an American High School” [Volokh]
- “Criminal Defense Lawyer Charged in Alleged $1.5M Fraud On Clients Obtained Under False Pretenses” [ABA Journal, Greenfield; Texas]
- Father of Notre Dame student who died says family never considered suing [Chicago Tribune]
- “The Ignominious End Of The Digitek Mass Tort” [Beck]
Life lessons in cross-examination
Do not ask a question that the adverse witness may answer in a way you will not like (“How did robber sound? ‘He sounded like you'”). [Allentown, Pa. Morning Call]
Texas: “Dog Owners Can Recover Sentimental-Value Damages for Loss of Pet”
A veterinarian-dreaded development: “Fort Worth’s 2nd Court of Appeals has ruled that value can be attached to the love of a dog, overruling a 120-year-old case in which the Texas Supreme Court held that plaintiffs can only recover for the market value of their pets.” [Texas Lawyer, earlier]