High court presses Duke case lawyers

High court presses Duke case lawyers

WASHINGTON - Through pointed questioning, several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed doubts Wednesday on whether Clinton-era pollution regulations have been fair to Duke Energy Corp. and other utilities.

Justice Antonin Scalia said he feared changing the interpretation of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency smokestack regulations has had an unfair "whipsaw" effect on power companies.

Scalia was referring to the 1980 EPA regulation that governs emissions from smokestacks and whether power companies should be subjected to millions -- even billions -- of dollars worth of pollution control measures at aging plants.

"(Power companies) don't challenge regulations when they come out because as far as they know, the agency is interpreting them in a way they favor," he said to Sean Donahue, a lawyer for Environmental Defense, a coalition representing several environmental groups including the N.C.

Kern murder suspects lose their lawyers

Kern murder suspects lose their lawyers

A Lebanon County judge yesterday removed the lawyers defending a pair of murder suspects because of potential conflicts of interest, and a trial that could have started this winter will almost certainly be delayed.

Roberto Laboy III and James Hower are awaiting trial on homicide and other charges in connection with the beating and stabbing death of David C. Kern in January. According to an autopsy, Kern, 47, was stabbed three times, including once in the heart.

Yesterday, defense attorney Allan Sodomsky, representing Laboy, and the county's chief public defender, Charles Jones, representing Hower, filed motions to withdraw from the case.

Judge John C. Tylwalk granted the motions, citing a possible conflict of interest with both lawyers.

Sodomsky yesterday revealed the possible conflict: He recently discovered that his Reading law firm had represented Hower in the past.

---

DNA lawyers duel over evidence

DNA lawyers duel over evidence

Dueling DNA lawyers and forensic evidence took center stage Wednesday in the trial of Mario Flavio Garcia, the Auburn man accused of killing Christie Wilson and hiding her body.

Prosecutors launched into the final and perhaps most important phase of their case as they seek to show through bloodstains and body fluids that Wilson was in Garcia's car and the car was a crime scene.

Garcia, 54, and Wilson, 27 when she disappeared Oct. 5, 2005, met during a night of gambling and drinking at the Thunder Valley Casino near Lincoln. They were seen on a security videotape leaving the casino together. Wilson has not been seen or heard from since, and her body was never found despite extensive searches.

.

Candidates who were not endorsed respond

Candidates who were not endorsed respond Voters are demanding change, but George Bush and his Republican Congress aren't listening, and Rep. Jim Walsh enables that flawed system. While the Democrat and Chronicle admits that Walsh is "a strong supporter" of President Bush's policies, it says that his "influence" is needed more than ever. Really? Is this influence worth the lives of nearly 3,000 soldiers in the Iraq war? Is it worth policies that have cost our region thousands of jobs? Is it worth skyrocketing energy prices or drastic Medicare, Medicaid, or student aid cuts? At what point do we say enough is enough? The Walsh record in recent years reads far too much like George Bush's extremist right-wing agenda. His "yes" vote on President Bush's $2.6 trillion 2006 budget meant that every penny of the Social Security surplus was borrowed and spent.

Lawyers keen to defend Saddam despite dangers

Lawyers keen to defend Saddam despite dangers Amman - Despite the murder of four colleagues, Arab, US and European lawyers have rallied to the defence of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who faces the death penalty for crimes against humanity. "Everyone who takes part in the trial is subject to huge dangers," lead Iraqi lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi told AFP. On October 20, 2005, a day after the start of the Dujail trial, in which Saddam and seven others stand accused over the massacre of 148 Shiites, defence attorney Saadun Janabi was murdered in Baghdad. .