WASHINGTON (CN) - John Murtha, an influential Democratic Congressman from Pennsylvania, died Monday afternoon at the age of 77 after complications from a recent surgery.

     (CN) - Michael Jackson's personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the pop icon's death last June, prosecutors said. 

By ELIZABETH BANICKI 

     (CN) - The University of California, Davis may have discriminated against female wrestlers by barring them from the team unless they proved they could "compete against men under men's rules," the 9th Circuit ruled.  

By MILT POLICZER 
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     I know I must be missing something, but I can't see the point in preemptive litigation
     Those are the lawsuits that get filed all the time by people saying someone has threatened to sue them so they want a declaration that nothing is their fault.
     It's a lot like throwing a punch to avoid getting into a fight.
     If you think you're in the right and you don't want to get sued, why make certain that you end up in court?
     A classic example of this appeared last week in a complaint filed on behalf of actors Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith. They asked for a declaration that they hadn't made any false representations or breached any duties to a guy who invested in one of their movies, didn't make money, and was threatening to sue.
     So they sued.
     The kicker comes in the very last paragraph just before the prayer:
     "Plaintiffs note that the operating agreement provides that any dispute arising out of the operating agreement is to be resolved by binding arbitration.... and plaintiffs reserve the right to petition the court to refer this cause of action and any causes of action asserted by the Tycoon defendants to binding arbitration."
     Let that sink in for a moment.
     They've gone to court to avoid being sued over a dispute that they don't want to be sued over and which may well not have gone to a court anyway.
     I could be cynical and say that a preemptive suit guarantees that lawyers will get paid for litigation, but you know that I'm not like that. I prefer to look for positive, humanitarian motives.
     P.R. move?
     Well, we wouldn't know about the disgruntled investor if the actors' lawyer hadn't told us in his suit. So that can't be it.
     Settlement strategy?
     You kind of lose the value of a threatened suit if you've already sued.
     I've got it!
     The movie didn't make a profit and most of us have never heard of it. It's called Human Contract. Have you heard of it?
     Well, now you have.
     It's brilliant!
     HOW TO ENJOY A SPORT. I know I like a lot of odd things, so I can't look down on anyone for liking golf.
     But I have a good reason for not being able to relate to golf.
     I tried it once.
     Actually, all I did was attempt to hit a golf ball with a golf club once during high school.
     I couldn't hit the ball.
     With baseball at least I had an excuse - those balls were moving awfully fast and looked like they could do a lot of damage.
     The golf ball was just sitting there, taunting me.
     I immediately gave up on the sport and have been completely unable to understand why anyone else would like it.
     Until now.
     A cameraman for The Golf Channel has filed a suit in Cleveland claiming he was harassed and eventually fired for complaining that his co-workers were smoking pot while covering golf.
     Watching golf while on drugs!
     OK, that makes more sense.
     And now we know why they have to be so quiet. You don't want to freak anyone out on the golf course.

     WASHINGTON (CN) - Airbus 330 and 340 airplanes must be checked for landing gear cracks, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.  

By TRAVIS SANFORD 


     WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to reintroduce the endangered Sonoran pronghorn into historical habitat in Arizona. Known as "prairie ghosts" because they are so elusive, the Sonoran pronghorn is the fastest land mammal in North America. 
By MARIA DINZEO 

      SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - San Francisco voters and a defeated candidate for the Board of Supervisors challenged the city's three-candidate "instant runoff" voting system in Federal Court. They claim the system, adopted in 2002, deprives voters of the chance to vote in later rounds by limiting their choices to three, regardless of how many candidates are running.

By NICK WILSON 


     WASHINGTON (CN) - More than two feet of snow piled onto the capital over the weekend, closing schools and businesses, and sparking community snowball fights. "Damn, that was a good shot," said a startled woman, whose red umbrella had absorbed the impact of a large snowball.

By ROBERT KAHN 

     (CN) - A woman claims her psychologist had sex with her in his office while treating her for depression, "on a weekly, and at times, a daily frequency," and had the brass to bill her insurance company for the "treatments." And she says he "committed further acts of professional malpractice by voluntarily ingesting plaintiff's psychotropic medications during their sexual encounters to 'enhance' his sexual gratification with plaintiff."  

By ELIZABETH BANICKI 

     SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - Day laborers say Costa Mesa enforces an unconstitutional ordinance that prohibits them from seeking employment on public streets. The Asociacion de Jornaleros or Association of Day Laborers claims the 2005 ordinance violates the First and 14th Amendments.  

By JAMIE ROSS 


     PHOENIX (CN) - Arizona unconstitutionally swiped $12.5 million from the Arizona Water Banking Authority and intends to grab another $5.4 million, the Central Arizona Water Conservation District says. The water district, which manages the Central Arizona Project, claims that the money deposited by two Nevada water commissions to finance the purchase, delivery and storage of Colorado River water - not to help the state stave off its budget woes.  

By JOE HARRIS 

     ST. LOUIS (CN) - Prosecutors say a check written to cover court costs for a former state representative who pleaded guilty to bribery charges has bounced. T.D. El-Amin pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges in 2009. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

By TRACEY DALZELL WALSH 

     BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (CN) - A federal class action accuses Internet provider Cable One of "interception and eavesdropping" by installing devices in its broadband network so that NebuAd, an Internet ad company, could place targeted ads in Web sites visited by Cable One customers.  

By ROBERT KAHN 

     (CN) - NFL Hall of Famer Michael Irvin countersued a woman who claims he raped her 2 year ago in a Florida hotel room. Irvin claims his accuser waived prosecution 2 years ago and police found her claims "un-credible," but her attorneys, in a "thinly veiled extortion plot," threatened to sue him, and did sue him, to "capitaliz(e) on the media circus that is Super Bowl weekend." Irvin says the false accusation cost him his job as announcer with ESPN radio.  

By JOE HARRIS 

     CHICAGO (CN) - Prosecutors reindicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich on corruption charges, fearing an upcoming ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could complicate or delay his trial, scheduled for June. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on "honest services."

By SARAH HULL 

     MANHATTAN (CN) - An art collector claims a Manhattan gallery owner said he wanted to a Basquiat painting to show it "to his family," then sold it for $300,000 without permission. Lio Malca sued Katzuhito Yoshii and his Yoshii Gallery in New York County Court.  

By ERIN MCAULEY  

     PITTSBURGH (CN) - A middle-school teacher says a Cox TV station defamed him by reporting that he was "in trouble again, this time convicted of having drugs." The teacher claims WPXI-TV falsely reported that he had been "'convicted today' of possession of heroin."  

By KARINA BROWN 

     VENTURA, Calif. (CN) - Musician Paul Anka claims his wife, a former model and current cast member of "Swedish Hollywood Wives," spread "false and defamatory" rumors about him in the Swedish press, emotionally abused him and battered him. Anka filed for a divorce in December.  

     WASHINGTON (CN) - An Englishman writing a book on Iraqi oil policy says the U.S. Central Command blew off his requests for documents on U.S. Adm. William Fallon's meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on June 10, 2007.  

     MANHATTAN (CN) - The former owners of Amerindo Investment Advisors were sentenced Friday to 12 and 5 years in federal prison for fraud. Alberto Vilar got 12 years, Gary Tanaka 5. They "guaranteed" investors fixed rates of return and then blew millions when the tech bubble burst in 2000.

By JOE HARRIS 

     SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CN) - The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday found the state's cap on medical malpractice damages unconstitutional. The 4-2 decision rejected the 2005 law that limited jury awards for pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. The court called the law a legislative branch infringement on an issue that should be decided by the courts.  
By ELIZABETH BANICKI 


     (CN) - Customers who bought defective Dell notebook computers can sue as a class because the binding arbitration agreement in the "Terms and Conditions of Sale" is unenforceable, the 9th Circuit ruled.  

By ANNIE YOUDERIAN 

     (CN) - The 3rd Circuit reached opposite conclusions in two cases involving students who created fake MySpace profiles for their principals. The rulings hinged on whether the profiles created a substantial disruption of school.  

     (CN) - A blind law school graduate can use a computer during the bar exam, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ordered the National Conference of Bar Examiners to provide the test-taker with a computer equipped with special screen-reading software.  

     (CN) - Before deporting a convicted thief, immigration authorities must consider reports that El Salvadorian police and gangs harass, persecute and kill tattooed criminal deportees, the 9th Circuit ruled, reviving a heavily inked man's bid for asylum.  

By ANNIE YOUDERIAN 

     (CN) - The 8th Circuit upheld lethal injections in Arkansas, the latest state to face a constitutional challenge over its three-drug method of capital punishment. Death-row inmates also lost their claim that the state's protocol unconstitutionally allows executioners to inject chemicals directly into an inmate's heart as a last-resort measure.  

By JEFF GORMAN 

     (CN) - The Florida Supreme Court announced that it will publicly reprimand a judge over a misleading YouTube advertisement. 

By ELIZABETH BANICKI 

     (CN) - The 9th Circuit tossed a class action accusing the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department of taking its "sweet time" to process release orders, detaining people up to 29 hours after courts authorized their release.  

     (CN) - A Michigan police officer who shot an unarmed woman on New Year's Eve lost his bid to have an excessive-force claim against him dismissed. The 6th Circuit said it wasn't clear that the officer thought he was being fired at, as he claimed.  

     (CN) - The 7th Circuit reinstated a class action brought by inmates of Tippecanoe County Jail, who say jail staff ignored their grievances, opened their legal mail in their absence and barred them from using the law library. 

By TRAVIS SANFORD 

     (CN) - A company formed by a convicted sex offender for the purpose of legalizing child pornography doesn't qualify for tax-exempt status, the U.S. Tax Court ruled, because its goals are "contrary to public policy and would encourage illegal activity."  

By SABRINA CANFIELD 

     NEW ORLEANS (CN) - Murphy Oil USA has violated the Clean Air Act 21 times since 2004 with excessive emissions from its refinery in Meraux, La., a federal judge ruled Thursday.  

By ANNIE YOUDERIAN 

     (CN) - A federal prosecutor won dismissal of a $9 million lawsuit accusing him of failing to disclose exculpatory evidence at the 2003 trial of a suspected terrorist supporter.  

By TIM HULL 

     (CN) - A popular Venezuelan folk song belongs to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the 1st Circuit ruled, because the music association had terminated a contract transferring rights to the song more than 20 years ago. 

By TRAVIS SANFORD 

     WASHINGTON (CN) - President Obama has ordered the creation of a task force aimed at speeding up the development and implementation of "clean coal" technology.  
By MATTHEW HELLER 

     The ex-lover of a Northern California man did not injure his wife by providing him with crack cocaine during their two-year affair, a jury has ruled in a case of sex, drugs and a law that makes drug dealers liable for the injuries they cause. more

By TRAVIS SANFORD 

     (CN) - A woman who underwent transgender surgery can deduct the cost of her vaginoplasty and sex hormone therapy from her taxes, the U.S. Tax Court ruled, but not the cost of her breast augmentation surgery.  

By NICK WILSON 

     WASHINGTON (CN) - Focusing on the commercial effect of a changing global climate, the U.S. Commerce Department announced a new office Monday to help Americans already dealing with more intense storms, longer growing seasons and changing river flows. "Our scientific observations of the climate tell us that climate change is real, and we are already seeing its impacts in our own backyards," said a department statement.

     A mother claims her 34-year-old daughter died on Dec. 18, 2009 because the defective "electronic components and sensors used in the gas pedal systems" of her 2009 Toyota Corolla caused uncontrollable acceleration into a cement embankment, in Harris County Court, Houston. 


     STC.UNM claims Environmental Robots violates a patent on "Soft Actuators and Artificial Muscles" in robots, in Albuquerque Federal Court. 

     To capitalize on swine flu "hysteria," Procter & Gamble added vitamin C to its NyQuil and Day Quil drugs without a new drug application, and hawked them with false and misleading ads, a class action claims in Cincinnati Federal Court. 

     Memphis has dumped sewage into the Mississippi River illegally for more than 6 years, the Tennessee Attorney General says in Memphis Federal Court. 

     Allied Waste Industries and BFI Waste Systems fired one man and disciplined another for violating its illegal "English only" policy, which it enforces even on breaks and lunch, the men claim in Monterey County Court, Calif. 


     Tippah County, Miss., Sheriff's Deputies Jeffery and William Rogers repeatedly Tasered a man without cause, until he defecated on himself, and they were both prosecuted and sentenced to jail for it, Jimmy Dale Hunsucker Jr. claims in Oxford, Miss., Federal Court. 

     CVS Caremark sells expired medications, baby formula and food, a class action claims in New Orleans Federal Court. 

      George Hanna dba Goldstar Wireless dba Gold Star Communications advertised himself as an attorney (notario) in a Spanish-language newspaper, though he is not, the Tennessee Attorney General says in Davidson County Court, Nashville. 

     Air Products and Chemicals wants Airgas directors ordered to consider its $60 per share offer, a 38% premium over market price, or market cap plus $1.35 billion in cash, in Delaware Chancery Court.