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Biesecker named to NC investigations, court beats
Court Watch |
2011/07/12 16:24
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Michael Biesecker, an award-winning reporter and investigative journalist for The News & 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 & 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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Illinois Supreme Court upholds public works plan
Court Watch |
2011/07/11 16:23
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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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No manslaughter convictions in ground zero fire
Court Watch |
2011/07/05 15:43
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A toxin-cleanup director and a company were acquitted Wednesday of manslaughter in an August 2007 blaze that killed two firefighters at a condemned tower at ground zero, although the firm was convicted of a misdemeanor.
The John Galt Corp. was found guilty of second-degree reckless endangerment, the only conviction in the criminal case filed over the fire at the former Deutsche Bank building. The judge acquitted worker Mitchel Alvo of all charges. Jurors had acquitted two other construction-company supervisors of all charges last week.
"I'm really mystified," said Galt attorney David Wikstrom. He said he couldn't understand how the company could be convicted of a crime when the workers were acquitted. He said he would move to overturn the verdict.
Alvo's fiancee wept tears of joy as they left the courthouse. "Now I've just got to get on with my life and start making a living again," Alvo said.
The district attorney's office said it was preparing a statement.
The fire killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph P. Graffagnino and revealed poor regulation of the damaged building, which was being dismantled in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Alvo, 59; asbestos cleanup foreman Salvatore DePaola, 56; and site safety manager Jeffrey Melofchik, 49, were the only people criminally charged in the fire. Galt, which employed Alvo and DePaola, was the only company charged. |
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Toyota class action suit to start with Utah case
Court Watch |
2011/06/25 05:41
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The first lawsuit to go to trial in a massive class action against Toyota Motor Corp. over acceleration problems that led the company to recall 14 million cars will involve a crash that killed two people in western Utah, a federal judge said Friday.
U.S. District Judge James Selna told attorneys the case of 38-year-old Charlene Jones Lloyd and 66-year-old Paul Van Alfen, whose Toyota Camry slammed into a wall in Utah in 2010, is scheduled to go to trial in February 2013.
The case - Van Alfen v. Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. - will be the first of several bellwether lawsuits, intended to determine how the rest of the litigation will proceed.
Selna wrote in a tentative order that he hoped the selection would "markedly advance these proceedings."
"The Court believes that selection of a personal injury/wrongful death case is most likely the type of case to meet that goal," Selna said.
Toyota said it welcomes the Utah case as the first suit to reach court.
"We are pleased that the initial bellwether will address plaintiffs' central allegation of an unnamed, unproven defect in Toyota vehicles, as every claim in the multi-district litigation rests upon this pivotal technical issue," the company said in a statement.
Toyota has previously argued the plaintiffs have been unable to prove that a design defect in its electronic throttle control system is responsible for vehicles surging unexpectedly. It has instead blamed driver error, faulty floor mats and sticky accelerator pedals. |
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Court: Using car to flee can be considered violent
Court Watch |
2011/06/09 06:55
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The Supreme Court says fleeing police custody in a vehicle can be considered a violent felony.
The high court made its ruling on Thursday in the case of Marcus Sykes.
Sykes was convicted of being a felon in possession of a handgun in 2008. Officials said he was subject to a sentencing enhancement because of two previous felony convictions, one of which was fleeing the police in a car in Indiana.
Sykes argued his fleeing conviction shouldn't be considered violent and two federal appeals courts, the 7th Circuit in Chicago and the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, have ruled in opposite ways.
The high court said in a 6-3 judgment that Sykes' flight from police can be considered a violent felony. |
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