Nebraska: Latino group sues city over immigration law
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A Latino civil rights group is suing a Nebraska city to stop its new ordinance that bars residents from hiring or renting homes to illegal immigrants.
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund filed the lawsuit Wednesday in federal court “to protect immigrants from unlawful, local regulation of immigration” and challenges to constitutional and federal authority.
The lawsuit targets the city’s illegal-immigration ordinance that voters approved in June. The ban is set to go into effect on July 29.
The American Civil Liberties Union also has promised to challenge the ban in court, but had not filed a lawsuit by Wednesday morning.
California: Gov. nominates 1st Filipina-American chief justice
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is nominating 3rd District Court of Appeal Judge Tani Cantil-Sakauye to become the next chief justice.
Cantil-Sakauye would become the first Filipina-American to lead the state’s judiciary, if confirmed by voters in November. She also would give the California Supreme Court a female majority for the first time in its history.
The 50-year-old Sacramento native is a graduate of the UC Davis School of Law and a Republican. She’s served as an associate justice for the 3rd District since 2005, and previously was a Sacramento County Superior Court judge.
She would replace Ron George, a moderate Republican who announced his retirement July 14.
Oregon: Man shot while fleeing police pleads guilty
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A Salem man shot in the leg while running from police in February has pleaded guilty to charges of theft by receiving and attempting to elude.
Prosecutors said that 23-year-old Joshua Bruce had faced a more serious charge of robbery.
But they asked the court to dismiss the robbery charge and file a theft charge after evidence surfaced showing that money was stolen from a victim without a struggle.
A co-defendant, 24-year-old Russell Lee Taylor, told the court he took $298 from the victim’s purse. Bruce admitted he accepted money from Taylor knowing it had been stolen.
Bruce could face up to five years in prison for the felony attempt to elude, as well as one year in jail on the theft charge.
Arkansas: Evangelist claims trial unfair in sex convictions
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Evangelist Tony Alamo has told a federal appeals court that he should get a new trial because having sex with the minors he brought across state lines wasn’t the primary purpose for transporting the girls.
Alamo attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. said Wednesday that no date for oral arguments has yet been set by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Alamo also argues in the brief that U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes was guided by his “own sense of religiosity” in sentencing Alamo to 175 years in prison.
Alamo was convicted last year of 10 counts of violating the Mann Act, which prohibits taking minors across state lines for sexual purposes.
North Carolina: Appeals court OKs tracking for sex offenders
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina appeals court says authorities can track the movements of a convicted sex offender by satellite for the rest of his life.
The Fayetteville Observer reported Wednesday that the state Court of Appeals ruled a judge's order doesn't violate the constitutional rights of sex offenders after their release from prison.
A Superior Court judge ordered in 2008 that William Lee Pait of Bladenboro wear an electronic monitoring device for the rest of his life.
The 43-year-old Pait is serving almost eight years at a Halifax County prison for kidnapping and other charges after trying to use the Internet to abduct a 14-year-old girl.
Pait argued the monitoring requirement violated the Constitution's ban against unreasonable search and seizure.
Wisconsin: Court: Menard attorney should not get job
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court says home improvement chain Menard Inc. does not have to reinstate a female executive who was fired after complaining about her pay.
The court ruled 4-3 Wednesday that the company does not have to follow an arbitration panel’s decision ordering Menard to rehire Dawn Sands as its general counsel even though she did not seek that remedy.
Sands was awarded $1.4 million in back pay and punitive damages by the panel, which found she was paid less than male employees and fired in 2006 after she complained.
Illinois: Judge: Inmates can challenge supermax transfer
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A federal judge says Illinois inmates have the right to challenge being transferred to the state’s only supermax prison.
U.S. District Judge G. Patrick Murphy, in a ruling made public Tuesday, also says current inmates of the Tamms Correctional Center in southern Illinois’ Alexander County can contest why they’ve been sent there.
Tamms has drawn scrutiny from human-rights advocates because its inmates spend most days in solitary confinement — treatment that critics consider too harsh.
Pennsylvania: Judge mulling soldier’s suit over Iraq toxin
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A federal judge in Pittsburgh must decide whether a retired, disabled soldier can continue his suit for exposure to a dangerous chemical while guarding a water treatment plant in Iraq.
U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry hasn’t said when he’ll rule on arguments he heard Tuesday from attorneys for Glen Bootay and KBR Inc. KBR is being sued by at least 140 veterans exposed to the same chemical and also for allegedly faulty systems that led 18 soldiers to be electrocuted in barracks during the Iraq war.
KBR attorneys say Bootay didn’t do enough between 2003 and 2005 to seek appropriate treatment for exposure to the chemical.
Bootay’s attorneys agree a quicker diagnosis could have curbed his health problems, but say the company didn’t act quickly enough to get rid of the chemical.
