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Blog and Media Roundup - Wednesday, Feb 11, 2009; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 11 2009, 04:36 AM (954 Views)
Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4518008/
Pa. judges accused of jailing kids for cash
Posted: Today at 2:22 p.m.
Updated: Today at 3:30 p.m.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

"I've never encountered, and I don't think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids' lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money," said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

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Edited by Kerri P., Feb 11 2009, 05:58 PM.
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~J~ is in Wonderland
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~J~ is in Wonderland
http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/obama_not_taking_sides_in_unc_duke_game

President Obama may be identifying with Coach K.


At a roundtable of regional reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, the president came close to predicting a rebound for Duke basketball's Coach Mike Krzyzewski at tonight's highly anticipated Carolina-Duke game.

He said Duke is "coming off one of the worst losses it has had in several years," but noted that Coach K had been working the team pretty hard this week.

"They might be fired up," he said. "I hope it's a close game."

Obama, of course, has been similarly pushing Congressional Democrats to pass an economic stimulus package tonight after getting rebuffed by Republicans and losing a Cabinet pick to tax trouble.

Still, the president avoided taking sides in the famous rivalry, although he played a pickup game with many of the Tar Heel standouts before the May primary.

Pointing to his body man, former Duke basketballer Reggie Love, he said he has to remain on the sidelines, as it were.

"If I said anything contrary to Duke, I might not be able to find my Blackberry," he said.
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sdsgo

Duke’s response to NU Counterclaim due tomorrow, February 12, 2009

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5. The response to the Counterclaim is due on February 5, 2009.

6. Duke and DUHS are diligently reviewing their records in order to respond to the allegations in the Counterclaim, but need additional time to respond.

7. Accordingly, Duke and DUHS request an additional seven days to respond to the Counterclaim (through February 12, 2009).

Motion (pdf)

Justia-DUKE UNIVERSITY et al v. NATIONAL UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY

Edited by sdsgo, Feb 11 2009, 11:02 PM.
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DMom

Has there been any response, yet, to DUKE and DUHS response to counterclaim (National Union Fire Insurance Company) (Due Feb 12, 2009)
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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4525140/
Finance committee OKs UNC system tuition hikes
Posted: Today at 11:10 a.m.
Updated: Today at 6:33 p.m.

Chapel Hill, N.C. — The UNC Board of Governors' finance committee on Thursday passed the University of North Carolina system's recommendations for tuition increases.

The full board is expected to vote on the plan Friday.

[Watch Video]

Under the proposal, in-state undergraduate tuition at UNC-Chapel Hill would go up $160, to $3,865, while tuition at North Carolina State University would increase by $93, to $3,953.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/4528680/
Signs of life return to area's economic landscape
Posted: Today at 5:59 p.m.
Updated: Today at 6:58 p.m.

Raleigh, N.C. — Spring may still be a few weeks off, but signs of life are beginning to appear in the region's economy:

The number of home foreclosure notices in January declined 7.3 percent from December's volume and was 29.3 percent lower than in January 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a California-based company that tracks foreclosure data nationwide.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the number of initial claims for jobless benefits dropped to a seasonally adjusted 623,000, from an upwardly revised figure of 631,000 the previous week. The latest tally still was above analysts' expectations of 610,000 claims, however.

U.S. retail sales jumped 1 percent in January, reversing a six-month declining trend and defying economists' expectations by posting the biggest increase in 14 months.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4529111/
Texas recalls all items from plant over salmonella
By JAMIE STENGLE
Associated Press Writer

Posted: Today at 6:37 p.m.
Updated: 33 minutes ago

DALLAS — Texas health officials ordered the recall Thursday of peanut products from a plant operated by the company at the center of a national salmonella outbreak, days after tests indicated the likely presence of the bacteria there.

All products ever shipped from the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Plainview were recalled after the Texas Department of State Health Services said it found dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers in a crawl space above a production area on Wednesday.

The recalls from the plant, which operated unlicensed and uninspected for nearly four years, are the latest bad news for the company being investigated in connection with an outbreak that has sickened 600 people and may have caused at least nine deaths. More than 2,000 possibly contaminated consumer products have already been recalled in one in one of the largest product recalls ever.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4529194/
Miss. judge pleads not guilty in bribery case
Posted: Today at 6:49 p.m.

JACKSON, Miss. — A judge known for successfully prosecuting a white supremacist decades after a civil rights-era killing pleaded not guilty Thursday to five federal charges in an unrelated judicial bribery scheme that has snared some of the state's wealthiest attorneys.

Mississippi Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter was influenced with a promise that former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott would help him get appointed to the federal bench, according to an eight-page indictment unsealed Thursday. Lott has not been accused of wrongdoing.

DeLaughter, a judge in Hinds County, which includes Jackson, is charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction. His arraignment in U.S. District Court in Oxford came just two days after Lott's brother-in-law, noted anti-tobacco attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, pleaded guilty to mail fraud charges.

DeLaughter's attorney did not immediately respond to a message from The Associated Press.

DeLaughter presided over a bitter dispute among Scruggs and other lawyers over millions of dollars in fees from asbestos litigation.

Scruggs, a chief architect of the multibillion-dollar tobacco settlements of the 1990s, has admitted he was involved in a scheme to entice DeLaughter to rule in his favor by promising he'd be appointed to the federal bench. Lott talked to DeLaughter but ultimately recommended someone else for the job.

Scruggs was already serving five years for conspiring to bribe a north Mississippi judge when investigators began taking a hard look at the DeLaughter case. A plea deal in which Scruggs admitted trying to influence DeLaughter added two years to Scruggs' sentence Tuesday.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4529406/
Mom doesn't buy ruling on Miss. athlete shooting
Posted: 55 minutes ago

LUCEDALE, Miss. — The family of star Mississippi high school football player Billey Joe Johnson isn't done pressing for an explanation of how the 17-year-old accidentally shot and killed himself with his own shotgun during a traffic stop, as a grand jury has concluded.

"I ain't buying that," said his mother, Annette Johnson, after the 16-member grand jury ruled Thursday. "We are going further and we are going higher."

Her pursuit is joined by her attorney, who plans to continue his own investigation, and the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which said it would submit evidence to the U.S. Justice Department and ask for a federal probe.

Johnson, a junior at southern Mississippi's George County High School, died of a wound to the left side of his head on Dec. 8 after a deputy pulled him over for running a red light. After an initial investigation, authorities said the wound was self-inflicted.

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Kerri P.
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http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/national/story/4529393/
Ala. man executed for stepdaughter's rape, murder
Posted: Today at 7:25 p.m.
Updated: 56 minutes ago

ATMORE, Ala. — Danny Joe Bradley was executed Thursday for the rape and strangulation of his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Rhonda Hardin.

The 49-year-old Bradley was given a lethal injection at 6:15 p.m. Central Time at Holman prison after spending 25 years on Alabama's death row.

Bradley was caring for Rhonda Hardin and her 11-year-old brother on Jan. 24, 1983, in Piedmont when the girl was slain.

Bradley had no final statement. He stared at the ceiling without looking at witnesses. The prison chaplain held his left hand and knelt beside him in prayer during the procedure.
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