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Jan 30 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Monday shot down Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) attempt to offload tens of thousands of lawsuits over its talc products into bankruptcy court. The appeals court ruling revives those lawsuits. Monday's decision by the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed the bankruptcy filed by the J&J subsidiary in 2021. The appeals court decision could force companies considering the strategy to more carefully consider its risks, two legal experts said. The Texas two-step has garnered criticism from Democratic lawmakers in Washington, and inspired proposed legislation that would severely restrict the practice.

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☆ A decade of quiet preparations helped Ukraine turn the tables on Russia's bigger, better-armed military, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Following Russia's 2014 attack, Ukraine's military set out to improve and modernize its forces. In the years that followed, Ukraine's military underwent a period of preparation that helped it blunt the full-scale invasion that Russia launched in February 2022. Training for artillery troops was also intensified. However, Russia's tanks still outnumbered Ukraine's nearly four to one when the invasion started. Prior to 2022, Ukraine's military had struggled to retain troops, but high turnover during those years meant Ukraine had a large pool of civilians with military training.

☆ The DOJ's antitrust case against Google is ambitious but risky
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

But alongside the possibility of great reward comes significant risk in seeking to push the boundaries of antitrust law. "All antitrust cases are an uphill battle for plaintiffs, thanks to 40 years of case law," said Rebecca Haw Allensworth, an antitrust professor at Vanderbilt Law School. But, Allensworth added, the government's challenges may be different than those in many other antitrust cases. Like all antitrust cases, this one is unlikely to be concluded anytime soon. "This is clearly the blockbuster case so far from the DOJ antitrust division," Francis said.

☆ For the 2nd year in a row, Iran is sailing its biggest warship around the world to show off its growing navy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Iranian warships left Iran in September on what one official said was a journey around the world. Visiting far off landsIranian navy Makran near the Strait of Hormuz in May 2021. They have repeatedly seized Iranian arms shipments bound for Yemen and have often had tense encounters with Iranian warships. Iran has also started an indigenous shipbuilding program to grow its navy, which is designed to defend the Persian Gulf. "Yet the focus of Iran will continue to be the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Indian ocean.

☆ California authorities want to disbar John Eastman for trying to help Trump overturn the 2020 election results
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

California legal authorities want to disbar John Eastman for trying to keep Donald Trump in power. Following Trump's loss in the 2020 election, Eastman, a former professor at the Chapman University School of Law, drafted legal memos that purported to offer avenues to keep him in office. The former law professor is one of many lawyers allied with Trump who has faced professional consequences for pursuing false conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Giuliani has also been sued by election technology companies he implicated in false conspiracy theories about the election results, and has lost his ability to practice law in New York. Jeffrey Clark, a former Trump Administration Justice Department official who tried to overturn the election results, is also facing charges from the DC bar.

The U.S. government’s system for labeling and tracking classified documents appears to be broken, with potentially serious consequences for the country’s national security, lawmakers, former officials and scholars said Tuesday. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said there was a “systemic failure” if both the Obama and Trump administrations could not keep track of classified documents after their tenures ended. I don’t know how anybody ends up with classified documents. “We clearly don’t have an effective management system to oversee where classified documents go and how they’re retrieved,” said Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Goitein and others said the recent discoveries of classified documents present a political opportunity for the White House, and possibly Congress, to at last tackle the problem.

☆ As fighting rages in Ukraine, the US is sending drones to keep an eye on another tense corner of Europe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drones deployed to Greece during the final weeks of 2022. Operating from Larissa air base, the drones will keep an eye NATO's borders in southeastern Europe. The deployment comes as NATO grapples with the war in Ukraine and with tensions between Turkey and Greece. Predator in the skiesUS Air Force airmen do pre-flight checks on an MQ-9 at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in May. A US Air Force F-15C at Larissa Air Base in May 2021.

☆ Atlanta DA doesn't want the public to see the special grand jury report into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 vote
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

A special grand jury spent months investigating whether Trump and other officials criminally interfered in Georgia's 2020 election. In an Atlanta courthouse, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said the report, from a special grand jury, should not be released "at this time." McBurney dissolved the special grand jury earlier this month. They typically sit for a maximum of two months, and would review the deposition transcripts and other evidence already gathered by the special grand jury. "That was the approach when she initiated the special grand jury last year."

☆ The Supreme Court's investigation raises questions about the justices' determination to find the abortion draft leaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Supreme Court could not determine who leaked a draft abortion ruling last May. Yet the 20-page report has raised concerns about the rigor of the court's investigation. "During the course of the investigation, I spoke with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions," Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, who conducted the investigation, said in a statement. An executive-branch investigation may have led to the justices speaking under oath, a line the Supreme Court marshal did not cross, according to her statement. The Supreme Court's marshal did not note any new leads in her report.

☆ Stores say shoplifting is a national crisis. The numbers don’t back it up
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Videos of brazen shoplifting incidents, like this one posted to social media in 2021, have turned retail theft into a national issue. The metric incorporates inventory losses caused by external theft, including organized retail crime, employee theft, human errors, vendor fraud, damaged or mismarked items and other losses. Whatever the numbers say, though, retailers maintain that organized retail crime has gotten worse. Organized retail crime typically refers to large-scale retail theft and fraud by groups of professional shoplifters who conspire to steal and resell stolen merchandise. The NRF estimates that organized retail crime costs companies an average of just 7 cents for every $100 in sales.

☆ Fed up with facial recognition cameras monitoring your every move? Italian fashion may have the answer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Elliott Gotkine | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Facial recognition software immediately identifies the man as … a giraffe? While there, she read about how tenants in Brooklyn had fought back against their landlord’s plans to install a facial recognition entry system for their building. “This was the first time I heard about facial recognition,” she says. Whichever route they took, they had to test the images on a well-known object detection system called YOLO, one of the most commonly-used algorithms in facial recognition software. At the recent World Cup in Qatar, creative agency Virtue Worldwide came up with flag-themed face paint for fans seeking to fool the emirate’s legion of facial recognition cameras.

[1/2] Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Commerce, Georgia, U.S. March 26, 2022. Trump's company faces only a maximum $1.6 million penalty, but has said it plans to appeal. Bragg and James are Democrats, as is Bragg's predecessor Cyrus Vance, who brought the criminal case. "The whole narrative that Donald Trump was blissfully ignorant is just not real," Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass told jurors in his closing argument. State law limits the penalties that Justice Merchan can impose on Trump's company.

☆ Kanye West still doesn't have lawyers, and it could cost him millions of dollars in lawsuit losses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Ye, aka Kanye West, hasn't replaced lawyers who abandoned him following his antisemitic tirades. In another case in Los Angeles county court, lawyers have been trying to track down Ye since October to serve him with a lawsuit. That deadline is fast approaching, with radio silence from Ye, court filings show. In yet another case, lawyers for a plaintiff trying to sue Ye can't even find the rapper to serve him papers. If Ye doesn't come to court with an answer to the lawsuit, he risks losing it by default.

☆ Analysis: Bankman-Fried fraud charges sidestep debate over how U.S. law sees crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"It's a pretty simple deception," said Shane Stansbury, a professor at Duke University School of Law and former Manhattan federal prosecutor. The debate matters to cryptocurrency companies because it could determine which agency regulates the trading of digital assets. Both have pleaded not guilty and argued the charges should be dismissed because insider trading charges must involve securities or commodities. In bringing wire fraud charges in both cases, prosecutors avoided taking a position on how cryptocurrencies or NFTs should be classified. It is unlikely Bankman-Fried's lawyers will attempt a similar argument because the wire fraud charges are more straightforward, Kasten said.

☆ A US federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Ramishah Maruf | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —A federal agency is considering a ban on gas stoves as concerns about indoor pollution linked to childhood asthma rise, Bloomberg first reported. A US Consumer Product Safety commissioner told Bloomberg gas stove usage is a “hidden hazard.”“Any option is on the table. The CPSC has been considering action on gas stoves for months.Trumka recommended in October that the CPSC seek public comment on the hazards associated with gas stoves. The study found that almost 13% of current childhood asthma in the US is attributable to gas stove use. Trumka told Bloomberg the agency plans to open public comment on gas stove hazards.

☆ If the Supreme Court strikes down student-loan forgiveness, it could have 'startling implications,' Biden says — and set a strange legal precedent going forward
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Biden's administration filed its full legal defense of its student-debt relief plan to the Supreme Court. Student-loan company MOHELA is central to the lawsuit filed by six GOP-led states. The DOJ said that ruling in favor of the states' argument could set a strange legal precedent. She added that the states' standing is questionable, and she's concerned of the legal precedent it would set should the Supreme Court rule in their favor. Should the Supreme Court rule in favor of the states, it would have "startling implications," the filing said.

☆ Ditching noncompete clauses would be a win for workers' rights and employees in low-wage jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Noncompetes prevent some workers in low-wage jobs from leaving for better opportunities. If the FTC succeeds in banning noncompete clauses, it can be an important win for low-wage workers and a pivotal moment in the push for workplace equity, advocates for the change say. Annabelle Chih/Getty ImagesCritics point out that many workers subject to noncompete language aren't high-profile executives who've amassed trade secrets — they're average workers. In 2015, The Verge reported on Amazon's use of noncompete agreements for warehouse workers. "Noncompete agreements help artificially stifle competition in the labor market, allowing employers to keep wages low by limiting workers' employment options," Constant wrote.

The rule will make medication abortion, which accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions, more accessible in states where abortion remains legal, but its impact in states that have banned abortion will be limited. Most significantly, the FDA's new regulation will not help patients get abortion pills in states that have banned abortion, said Amanda Allen of the Lawyering Project, a legal group that defends abortion rights. Nonetheless, Allen said, the rule could make it easier to travel out of state for a medication abortion. Currently, a patient seeking a medication abortion in another state must both obtain the prescription and the pill in that state. Some conservative policy groups and lawmakers have proposed laws that would make it a crime to help someone travel to another state for abortion or mail them abortion pills.

Sotomayor, who has dissented in major cases including the abortion decision as the court's 6-3 conservative majority has become increasingly assertive, described herself as "shell-shocked" and "deeply sad" after that term ended in June. The court's current term, which began in October, could be just as consequential as its previous one. In October, conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the Dobbs opinion, warned against questioning the court's integrity. At Wednesday's conference, Chemerinsky noted that he had never before seen his law students so discouraged about the Supreme Court. Sotomayor, appointed to the court by Democratic former President Barack Obama in 2009, expressed optimism that the direction of the court will change in the future.

☆ Pharmacies can now sell the abortion pill, but you probably won't find it at top chains like CVS, Walmart, or Walgreens anytime soon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Ben Tobin | Sarah Braner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The FDA authorized retail pharmacies to become certified to carry mifepristone in a ruling Tuesday. Retailers may not sell the abortion pill due to administrative hurdles and backlash, experts say. But don't expect to be able to find the pill at your local Walmart or CVS any time soon. The FDA implemented the regulatory change Tuesday night to allow retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone to people with a prescription. Insider contacted seven major retail pharmacies to ask whether they plan to sell mifepristone.

☆ Trump tax returns show former president was subject to $10,000 SALT cap — but experts say he may have sidestepped the limit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A 2017 tax law capped SALT deductions at $10,000The House Ways and Means Committee's release of six years of Trump's tax returns follows a lengthy fight over making them public. New state rules provide a SALT workaroundHowever, the income tax returns don't provide the full picture, experts said. Here's why: Many states issued rules after 2017 that offer a workaround to certain business owners impacted by the $10,000 SALT cap. The workarounds would apply to business income Trump derived from partnerships, S corporations and some LLCs after 2017. While it's likely Trump leveraged these tax rules, it's impossible to know without additional information like business tax returns if he did and the extent to which he may have benefited, experts said.

But the sheer number of nurses working travel jobs, and the difference between what they thought was promised and what they pocketed, has led to a substantial legal pushback by travel nurses around the country on the issue. Courtesy Jordyn BashfordThis summer, Stueve Siegel Hanson, a Kansas City, Missouri, law firm, filed class-action lawsuits against four travel nurse agencies: Aya, Maxim, NuWest and Cross Country. Advertisements touted an hourly rate of $8 to $11, but many nurses wound up making less than $6, according to Pan Travelers, a professional association of travel nurses. But by February, after her first 13-week contract, Covid hospitalizations had waned and the demand for travel nurses had fallen. Mark Humphrey / APTwo travel nurses walk the hallways during their shift at a hospital in Rhode Island.

☆ The Michigan lawyer pushing Trump’s voter-fraud fictions in U.S. court
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +27 min

Lambert started in her home state of Michigan, joining four lawsuits on behalf of Trump supporters. As Trump zeroed in on vote-rigging allegations in Michigan, Lambert emailed the White House, according to her July 2021 video interview with two right-wing websites. Cotton and Penrose also were involved in examining breached voting machines in Michigan for DePerno and Lambert, according to the Michigan attorney general investigation. In the process, the commissioners were accused of flouting a court order by allowing a forensics company to inspect county voting equipment. In August 2021, a federal judge reprimanded Lambert, Powell and seven other lawyers who joined the failed lawsuit seeking to overturn Michigan’s vote after Trump’s 2020 defeat.

Known in the legal world as the “death penalty” of child welfare, it can happen in a matter of months. One in 100 U.S. children — disproportionately Black and Native American — experience termination through the child welfare system before they turn 18, the study found. Still, longer timelines can also reflect a stronger focus on family reunification and a willingness to devote greater resources to meet that goal, child welfare experts say. And some child welfare advocates have criticized the law’s focus on narrow initiatives like parenting classes, which they say fail to address poverty and the other root causes of neglect that prompt most child welfare cases. Snodgrass said she never imagined when her child welfare case started that she could lose her rights to her children.

☆ House Jan. 6 committee refers Trump to Justice Department. That's a mistake.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( David Orentlicher | David Orentlicher Is The Judge Jack | Lulu Lehman Professor At The William S. Boyd School Of Law At The The University Of Nevada | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

As a result, the committee voted Monday to recommend criminal charges to the Department of Justice against Trump and several of his associates. However, making the case for a federal criminal prosecution is the responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice rather than Congress. Ironically, in trying to hold Trump accountable under the law, the committee seems to be flouting the rule of law. The Jan. 6 committee’s referrals have no legal weight; the Justice Department alone will decide whether to charge Trump. Rather than duplicate the efforts of Justice, Congress needs to complement those efforts by broadly addressing the other factors that contributed to the events on Jan. 6.

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