Alabama
Judge reinstates Harper Lee’s suit against museum
MONROEVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge has reinstated a lawsuit that “To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee filed against a museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.
U.S. District Judge William Steele signed an order Thursday granting Lee’s request to reinstate her suit. Lee sought the reinstatement after her attorneys said settlement talks with the Monroe County Heritage Museum failed.
Lee sued in 2013, accusing the museum of taking advantage of her work by selling souvenirs and using the title of her book as its website address without compensating the author. The two sides filed notice of a settlement in February. That was never signed and the time for completing it ran out. The museum did change its website address.
The 88-year-old author lives in Monroeville.
New York
Rockwell’s Red Sox painting gets $22.6M pricetag
NEW YORK (AP) — A Norman Rockwell painting of Boston Red Sox players has sold to a private buyer for $22.6 million.
“The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room)” led the bidding Thursday at Christie’s auction of American art in New York.
“The Rookie” shows Hall of Famer Ted Williams and other seasoned veterans as an awkward newcomer arrives for spring training.
The painting appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1957. An anonymous owner acquired it in 1986. It remained in the same private collection since.
It was exhibited this month at Fenway Park and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was previously shown at the museum in 2005 and 2008 following Red Sox World Series victories.
Christie’s sold 115 pieces, netting $64 million.
New Jersey
Orthodox rabbis charged in plot on ‘get’ divorces
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Four Orthodox Jewish rabbis and one of their sons conspired to kidnap and force Jewish men into granting their wives religious divorces, according to a federal indictment handed up on Thursday.
U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said several of the men charged Thursday are among a larger group previously charged in the alleged plot.
Rabbi Mendel Epstein and his son, David Epstein, both of Lakewood, New Jersey, Rabbi Martin Wolmark of Monsey, New York, and Rabbis Jay Goldstein and Binyamin Stimler, both of Brooklyn, New York, are charged with kidnapping conspiracy and related charges.
The U.S. attorney’s office alleges the rabbis charged Jewish women and their families tens of thousands of dollars to obtain religious divorces, known as “gets,” from unwilling husbands through the threat of force.
Attorneys for Goldstein, Wolmark and Stimler said their clients denied the charges.
Goldstein’s attorney, Aiden O’Connor, said the case was “overcharged” and failed to take into account the individual circumstances of the women who had been seeking divorces.
“This is not a kidnapping matter, these women were locked in terrible marriages,” O’Connor said.
Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Wolmark, issued a statement calling the charges false, and added his client was a Talmudic scholar and expert in Jewish divorce who had resolved hundreds of marital disputes, always through legal means.
Wisconsin
Full 7th Circuit won’t hear union bargain appeal
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected a request from two Wisconsin unions to re-hear an appeal they filed of Gov. Scott Walker’s law effectively ending collective bargaining for most public workers.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court in April rejected the appeal made by union chapters representing city of Madison and Dane County public workers. The unions requested another hearing before all judges on the court, but that was rejected on Thursday.
The unions could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The unions argued in their lawsuit that the 2011 law violated their rights to assemble and equal protection.
U.S. District Judge William Conley upheld the law last year, siding with Walker that the law is constitutional.
Louisiana
Raising Cane’s settles dispute over ‘One Love’
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Bob Marley’s estate and Raising Cane’s have resolved their legal dispute over the fried chicken finger chain’s use of the slogan “One Love,” which also happens to be the title of one of the late Jamaican reggae star’s biggest hits.
Todd Graves, founder and chief executive officer of Cane’s, tells The Advocate that a “mutually beneficial agreement” was reached. An attorney for Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd., said “mutually agreeable terms” led to a settlement.
Neither side would disclose the terms.
Fifty-Six Hope Road sued Cane’s in December for alleged trademark infringement. The estate claimed Cane’s never sought or obtained a license or permission to use the Marley One Love trademark.
Cane’s then sued Fifty-Six Hope Road seeking a court judgment that it is not infringing on any of the estate’s rights. Cane’s has used the “One Love” trademark since 2001 with no conflict and registered it with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2005.
U.S. District Judge James Brady, at the request of both sides, dismissed Fifty-Six Hope Road’s lawsuit May 13. The same day, Chief U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson dismissed Cane’s suit at the request of the parties.
“Hope Road is glad the matters have been settled upon mutually agreeable terms,” Hope Road attorney Timothy Ervin said Wednesday in a written statement. He said that would be Hope Road’s only comment.
Cane’s, in a statement issued through company spokeswoman Julie Perrault, said Graves and Cedella Marley met and were able to resolve the matter upon mutually agreeable terms. Cedella Marley is one of Bob Marley’s daughters.
Hope Road has sold clothing bearing the Marley One Love trademark since 1991, according to the family’s suit. Hope Road also has licensed Marley One Love hats, stickers, jewelry, other goods and restaurants since 1999
Cane’s has its headquarters in Baton Rouge, with a support office in Plano, Texas.
