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Court sides with EPA on not setting new standard
Court Center |
2014/05/27 18:19
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A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency was justified in not establishing a new air quality standard for acid rain.
The EPA decided in 2012 after a lengthy rulemaking proceeding that it needed further scientific study before it could set a new air quality standard for oxides of nitrogen and oxides of sulfur.
Environmental groups claimed that EPA's failure to issue a new multi-pollutant rule violated the Clean Air Act.
In a 3-0 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was turning aside the environmental groups' petition for judicial review because the EPA could not form a reasoned judgment as the Clean Air Act requires.
"EPA did not simply leave in place the old standard," said appeals judge A. William Randolph. "Although it did not promulgate a new standard, it identified the data gaps that prevented it from doing so and initiated a data-collection program designed precisely to fill those gaps and facilitate future regulation."
Once EPA found that the two current standards were inadequate with respect to acid rain, the agency sought to determine what new multi-pollutant standard would be appropriate, the judges said. EPA recognized that a new national ambient air quality standard would necessarily be more complex than those set historically for just one pollutant, the court wrote. |
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Man pleads guilty to stealing from farmers market
Court Center |
2014/03/17 21:44
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Prosecutors say a former Glendale city councilman has pleaded guilty to stealing nearly $305,000 from a farmers market.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office says 55-year-old John Drayman entered a plea Wednesday to felony charges of embezzlement, filing a false tax return and perjury.
While serving as the director of the Montrose farmers market, Drayman was accused of collecting proceeds from the weekly event and skimming thousands of dollars before turning the money over to the market's treasurer.
Drayman was indicted in 2012 on 28 counts dating from 2004 to 2011. The remaining 25 counts will be dismissed when he is sentenced April 7.
He is expected to be sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay $304,853 in restitution and $14,016 to the state tax board. |
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Vietnamese court rejects appeals by dissident
Court Center |
2014/02/18 23:13
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A Vietnamese appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction and 30-month prison sentence against a U.S.-trained lawyer and well-known dissident found guilty of tax evasion in a case that international rights groups say was politically motivated.
The court in Hanoi rejected Le Quoc Quan’s appeal after a half-day trial on Tuesday. His lawyer Ha Huy Son quoted judges as saying they found no new evidence, and that the conviction by the intermediate court was well founded.
The lawyer said Quan maintained his innocence throughout the trial.
‘‘I told the court that the case should not be criminalized, but should be resolved through administrative procedures instead.’’ Son said in a telephone interview. ‘‘But the court rejected my arguments.’’
Quan was sentenced to 30 months in jail in October.
About 100 people gathered near the courthouse demanding Quan’s release, and police sealed off the area. |
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Chris Brown released on assault charge in DC court
Court Center |
2013/10/29 20:58
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Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Chris Brown was freed from custody Monday after facing a judge on a charge that he punched a man who tried to pose in a photograph with him.
Prosecutors reduced a felony assault charge to a misdemeanor as a District of Columbia judge released Brown, who exited the courthouse to cheers and flashed a peace sign to supporters after more than a day and a half in custody. There was scattered applause in the packed courtroom as the judge set the singer free.
Even with the reduced charge, the assault case represents the latest legal trouble for Brown, who remains on probation for assaulting his on-again, off-again girlfriend Rihanna just before the 2009 Grammy Awards.
The 24-year-old singer and his bodyguard, Chris Hollosy, were arrested early Sunday in front of the the W Hotel in Washington.
A Maryland man told police he had tried to be part of a picture Brown was taking with a woman and her friend when Brown told him, "I ain't down with that gay s---t" and "I feel like boxing," according to charging documents in the case. The man, identified by police as Parker Isaac Adams, 20, of Beltsville, Md., said he was punched by both Brown and Hollosy before Brown boarded his tour bus. |
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NJ court: Special US Senate election in Oct. OK
Court Center |
2013/06/19 18:07
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A special U.S. Senate election to replace the late Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg can be held in October, as it was scheduled by Republican Gov. Chris Christie, a state court ruled Thursday.
The ruling could be appealed. And while it keeps an election on course it does not seem likely to chill criticism of the popular governor for how he chose to replace Lautenberg, the Senate's oldest member, who died last week at age 89.
Four Democrats and two Republicans have filed petitions to run in the Senate race to complete Lautenberg's term, with three early polls showing Democratic Newark Mayor Cory Booker as the front-runner.
Christie scheduled the election for Oct. 16. A group of Democrats sued, saying it should be held Nov. 5, the day voters are going to the polls in the general elections anyway.
Christie's critics have complained that holding the election in October will cost taxpayers unnecessarily. Officials say each election costs the state about $12 million to run.
Judge Jane Grall wrote Thursday that objections to the costs of the election are policy matters that aren't questions for the court. |
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Chicago man pleads guilty in NY hacking case
Court Center |
2013/06/01 18:05
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A self-described anarchist and "hacktivist" from Chicago pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges he illegally accessed computer systems of law enforcement agencies and government contractors.
"As part of each of these hacks, I took and decimated confidential information stored on computer systems websites used by each of the entities," Jeremy Hammond told a judge in federal court in Manhattan. "For each of these hacks, I knew what I was doing was against the law."
Prosecutors had alleged the cyber-attacks were carried out by Anonymous, the loosely organized worldwide hacking group that stole confidential information, defaced websites and temporarily put some victims out of business. Hammond was caught last year with the help of Hector Xavier Monsegur, a famous hacker known as Sabu who later helped law enforcement infiltrate Anonymous.
A criminal complaint had accused Hammond of pilfering information of more than 850,000 people via his attack on Austin, Texas-based Strategic Forecasting Inc., a publisher of geopolitical information also known as Stratfor. He also was accused of using the credit card numbers of Stratfor clients to make charges of at least $700,000. He allegedly bragged he even snared the personal data of a former U.S. vice president and one-time CIA director. |
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Supreme Court views not 'liberal or conservative'
Court Center |
2012/10/19 22:07
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U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday that
people shouldn't think the high court's justices make decisions in
terms of a liberal or conservative agenda.
Roberts told a crowd of nearly 4,800 people at Rice University in
Houston that many of the court's close votes have had nothing to do
with politics.
"We look at these cases and resolve them ... not in terms of a
particular liberal or conservative agenda," he said. "It's just easier
for reporters to say that justice is liberal and that justice is
conservative."
From reading some of the court's opinions, Roberts added, people may
think that justices are "at each other's throats." But he said all the
justices are "extremely close."
Roberts, taking a break from the high court's current term in
Washington, talked in general about his work leading the nation's
highest court. But he didn't discuss some of the court's more recent
high-profile cases — including voting to uphold much of President
Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
Roberts, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, made headlines
when he voted with the liberal justices in that 5-4 landmark decision.
After that ruling, Roberts became the focus of criticism from some of
the nation's leading conservatives while liberals applauded his
statesmanship. |
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