SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - California claims the Interior Secretary did another end run around the Endangered Species Act, with new Section 7 regulations that eliminate or short-circuit consultation processes, restrict the range of effects that must be evaluated and mitigated, and replace the scientific consultation process with self-interested decisions of proponents of federal agency projects.  

By DAVID LEE 

     DALLAS (CN) - A blackout struck the federal courthouse Monday afternoon, shuttering the courts and several federal agencies for the rest of the day. The Earl Cabell Federal Building on Commerce Street remained open to visitors, but elevators were inoperable and all the lights were off. The District Clerk's Web site and electronic case filing system were still offline Monday evening.

By MILT POLICZER 
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     Well, no wonder we have an immigration problem - the government is importing illegals from Mexico.
     On the very last day of 2008, the U. S. Justice Department issued a press release proudly announcing that Mexico was sending us 10 criminals - none of whom were U. S. citizens - for trial on drug charges.
     I assume so that we could deport them.
     Said the release: "The extradition of these 10 defendants brings the total number of extraditions from Mexico to the United States to 95 for 2008, the highest yearly number of extraditions from Mexico to date, surpassing last year's record number of 83."
     You'd think that keeping them in Mexico - where they'd been arrested - might be a tad more sensible.
     Maybe it has something to do with the balance of trade.
     
     REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS. I keep telling you: you need to read appellate opinions to find the most interesting issues of the day.
     This week's example comes from a U. S. Tax Court ruling called Magdalin v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue. The issue is: is it sex discrimination to allow women to deduct the costs of childbirth on their tax returns but not let men who pay for egg donors and "gestational carriers" -- neither of whom are related to the men -- to deduct those payments?
     After all, both expenditures result in the production of children for the taxpayer. Are they all that different?
     Well, according to the IRS and the Tax Court, "he cannot deduct those expenses because he has no medical condition or defect to which those expenses relate and because they did not affect a structure or function of his body."
     But they could be a business expense if he's breeding them to produce workers for his company.
     Expect another Tax Court ruling involving this guy very soon.
     
     LAST WORDS. Best last line of an appellate ruling that I've seen recently: "This case is finito."
     You can't say it any better than that. More cases should end that way.
     The line, in case you're wondering, is from a U. S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruling called Mirfashi v. Fleet Mortgage Corporation in which Judge Richard Posner points out two-thirds of the basic problem with class actions that I've been nagging all of you about for decades:
     "The lawyers for the class could not concede the utter worthlessness of their claim because they wanted an award of attorneys' fee. The lawyers for (the defendant) were reluctant to argue the utter worthlessness of the claim because they were able to negotiate a settlement that cost their client virtually nothing - provided they did not take such a strong stand that it jeopardized the class lawyers' shot at a generous award of attorneys' fees."
     Attorney fees, of course, are the primary purpose of any litigation.
     Now, regular readers (if any of you can be called regular), what is the third part of the problem? Come on. You know this.
     Yep. The judges who rubberstamp the settlements that don't do anything for the plaintiff class because it's way too much trouble not to. (And, indeed, it is way too much trouble not to. I don't blame them a bit.)
     This column is finito.
By ROBERT KAHN 

     KANSAS CITY, Mo. (CN) - Courthouse News Service sued the Missouri state court system in Federal Court on Monday, challenging the state's plan to give a private vendor a 4-year contract giving preferential access to electronic court filings, and allowing the vendor to charge all others for access. Courthouse News claims the program will create an unconstitutional "system of discriminatory media access to public court records." The complaint adds, "Defendants have no right to elevate one news entity (the EFSP [Electronic Filing Service Provider]) over all others by granting the chosen entity preferential access to public court records."  


     SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A federal antitrust class action accuses Wal-Mart and Netflix of conspiring to monopolize the sale and rental of DVDs. Consumers claims Walmart.com agreed to stop competing with Netflix in the online DVD rental business, and Netflix agreed to promote sale of new DVDs at Wal-Marts, and agreed not to sell new DVDs in competition with it.  

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Visa swiped $397,000 from a client for unsubstantiated "fines and fees," while refusing to inform the client what it supposedly had done, Kabuki Restaurants says in a class action. "Plaintiffs were never told what their potential violations were, or what the fine amounts could be for any specific violations. Visa simply kept more than $300,000 from Kabuki, and similar amounts from other plaintiffs," according to the complaint in Superior Court.

     MANHATTAN (CN) - Federal prosecutors on Monday asked a federal judge to revoke Bernard Madoff's $10 million bail and send him to jail. Prosecutors said Madoff sent more than $1 million worth of jewelry to friends and family last month, in violation of terms of his release. U.S. Magistrate Ronald Ellis gave prosecutors and Madoff until Wednesday to submit briefs. Madoff is suspected of running the biggest Ponzi scam in history.

     LAS VEGAS (CN) - Win 4 Charity, which wanted to run online sweepstakes for good causes, claims its CEO stole its money, bounced checks to charities, never paid the "winners" their prizes, stiffed staff for payroll, sold the office computers and pocketed the money, hid the office furniture, juggled the books, swiped its Internet domain names, and is trying to set up his own company with them. Win 4 Charity sued its ex-CEO John Kaspar and its ex-COO, Traci Kaspar, in Clark County Court. 

     CHICAGO (CN) - Cassetica Software claims 3M Co. swiped its "NotesMedic" software by misrepresenting itself as a "home user," then downloading, copying and distributing the program to its subsidiaries to weasel out of licensing fees. 

By CHARLES BABINSKI 

     MANHATTAN (CN) A New Jersey man pleaded guilty to spying on the U.S. military for Israel in the 1980s. Ben-Ami Kadish pleaded guilty to taking classified documents home from his work at the U.S. Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at the Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J., and photographing them with help from an Israeli agent. 

By ADAM KLASFELD 

     BROOKLYN (CN) - Nassau County's Office of Minority Affairs threatened, sexually harassed and retaliated against a woman who discovered that it paid women less than similarly situated men, a former Affirmative Action supervisor claims in Federal Court.  

By JOE HARRIS 

     SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CN) - An Illinois prison inmate who strangled his cellmate must pay $13 million to the late cellmate's estate, and the estate of his mother, a federal judge ruled. U.S. Magistrate Judge Byron Cudmore issued the default judgment in favor of Sherree Daczewitz, who sued Corey Fox and Illinois prison officials for the February 2004 strangling of her son, Joshua.


By NICK WILSON 

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Two Chinese men were charged last week with sending thermal-imaging cameras to China over a 5 year period without government approval. The cameras are based on highly sensitive U.S. technology that has a military application, said prosecutors.  
By ANNIE CLEMENS 

     (CN) - The 2nd Circuit overturned an order requiring the Department of Defense to disclose the identifying information of Guantanamo detainees who claim they've been abused by military personnel and fellow detainees.  

     (CN) - A federal judge in Kentucky dismissed General Tobacco's $1 billion challenge to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the states and 19 tobacco manufacturers, saying the defendant states and "grandfathered" tobacco companies are immune from antitrust claims.  

By ANNIE CLEMENS 

     (CN) - The full 9th Circuit refused to reconsider its decision granting a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple standing in a constitutional challenge to San Diego's practice of leasing public park land to the Boy Scouts of America.  

By JEFF GORMAN 

     (CN) - The 5th Circuit blocked a group of Hurricane Katrina victims from pursuing a class action to stop the demolition of their storm-damaged housing project.  

     (CN) - The 6th Circuit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a lawsuit accusing General Motors Europe of breaching an agreement to make U.S. Motors the exclusive distributor of GM vehicles in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. 

By JEFF GORMAN 

     (CN) - The South Dakota Supreme Court revived a lawsuit accusing a shell corporation of improperly concealing the identity of a mystery donor who anonymously contributed $750,000 to an anti-abortion ballot measure.  

By A.E. YOUNG 

     (CN) - A federal judge in Chicago gave prosecutors an additional three months to obtain an indictment against Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who faces corruption charges in a federal criminal complaint.  

     (CN) - Merrill Lynch's sale of corporate assets among its subsidiaries must be treated as a distribution in exchange for stock, the U.S. Tax Court ruled. 

     (CN) - A construction company cannot collect delay damages from the U.S. Army after it was unable to work at a military base for 41 days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Federal Circuit ruled. 

     (CN) - Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. is not liable for the actions of a man who buried dead cattle in a shallow grave on a couple's property, the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled. 

     (CN) - The Kentucky Court of Appeals denied more than $12,000 in legal fees to an Indian doctor who claimed the University of Kentucky withheld portions of her graduate medical records, including a letter recommending that she not be licensed in the state.  

     WASHINGTON (CN) - Makers of books, magazines, video or Internet sites that show conduct "depicted in a manner that would cause a reasonable viewer to believe that the performers engaged in actual sexually explicit conduct, even if they did not in fact do so," must retain records with the legal names, stage names and birth dates of the performers for seven years, according to a new Department of Justice regulation based on changes to the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. 

     Click on the document icon for new federal regulations. 
By MATTHEW HELLER 

     Peace has yet to return to a Cincinnati neighborhood where an 88-year-old woman was arrested after refusing to give the boy next door his ball back. She is now suing the boy's parents for disturbing her enjoyment of her home. more


     SAN JOSE (CN) - Facebook claims a competitor, Power.com, is stealing electronic data from Facebook users and using it to send commercial spam, while claiming to be part of the "Facebook team." The complaint in Federal Court says, "Defendant essentially admits that its activities violate Facebook's rights, and it has informed Facebook that it made a 'business decision' to continue these malicious activities."  


     SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) - Two men who were married in California in July 2008 have sued the state and the federal governments for refusing to recognize the validity of the marriage. They claim the Federal Definition of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8 are unconstitutional, in Orange County Court. 

     Volvo North America sued UAW Local 2069 in Charlotte, N.C., Federal Court, insisting it can terminate the health-care benefits of everyone who retired from the New River Valley Assembly Plant in Dublin, Va., before Jan. 1, 2008.  


     Sara Hickman claims MB Recordings and SMC refuse to pay royalties or provide an accounting for her album, "Motherlode," in Travis County Court, Austin. 

     RFD-TV demands $10 million from Intelsat Corp., in a dispute over cable and satellite TV transmission services in rural areas, in Douglas County Court, Omaha. 


     The Rainbow Center for Communicative Disorders has an employee known as "Uncle Knuckles" who regularly beat a mentally disabled man in his care, the man's father claims in Jackson County Court, Independence, Mo. 


     The American Forest Resource Council claims the Secretary of the Interior isn't allowing them to log enough Oregon forests. It challenged six rulings, in DC Federal Court. 

     Wachovia Mortgage Corp. violated truth in lending laws, a class action claims in Orange County Court, Calif. So did Countrywide Home Loans and Litton Loan Servicing, according to another class action in the same court. 

     Scott Pettit, a former CFO, claims Deloitte & Touche and two of its partners defamed him and tortiously interfered with his ability to make a living by putting him on a "blackballed CFO list" based on false accusations of "accounting shenanigans," in Cook County Court. 

     Taylor Woodrow Homes and Taylor Morrison of California built homes with defective decks and balconies in The Woodlands development in Valencia, a class action claims in Los Angeles Superior Court.

     Information Protection and Authentication of Texas claims Symantec, Microsoft, McAfee, Novell and others violate patent on its authentication protocols, in Marshall, Texas, Federal Court. 


     Mini USA, BMW and Goodyear Tire & Rubber sold Mini Cooper autos with defective Goodyear Run-Flat tires, a class action claims in Manhattan Federal Court.