FERC recently invited public comment on environmental justice matters it may consider in future natural gas pipeline certificate proceedings, reopening a three-year-old notice and comment process with new social justice issues.

On April 13, 2004, the ABC received approval from the Office of Administrative Law for an emergency rule providing for formal and published guidelines on penalties the ABC can assess for violations of laws and regulations committed by ABC licensees or their employees or agents.

On November 1, 2004, the FCC’s new "red light" rule went into effect. Under the "red light" rule, the FCC will withhold action on applications and other requests for benefits when the applicant is shown in the FCC’s database as being delinquent in non-tax debts owed to the Commission.

To the joy of countless consumers tired of spam, telemarketing and other unsolicited mass-marketing techniques, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the decision enjoining the harvesting of domain name registrations from the public domain name databases of Register.com for marketing purposes. (<I>Register.com v. Verio Inc</I>., Docket No. 00-9596, 2nd Circuit, 2004) Register.com is a domain name registrar, appointed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

Negotiating and documenting commercial arrangements presents the parties and their counsel with a variety of challenges. The ultimate goal is to have an agreement that reflects the parties’ business deal. Doing so involves striking a balance between competing objectives.

During September 1997, Nikia Clark parked her car in Agnes Scott’s south parking lot. Around noon the following day, she returned to her car. It was a sunny day and the parking lot was full. When she got to her car and began to roll down her window, she noticed a man walking toward her car. She attempted to roll up her window, but he reached into the driver’s side of the car, punched her several times in the face, unlocked the door, and forced his way into the car driving her to another part of

The next legislative session will be here before you know it. The Florida Legislature will convene an organizational session in mid-November, and legislative committees will meet each month thereafter until the beginning of the Regular Session on March 8. Early indications are that environmental and land use issues will receive much attention.

In May 2003, Chapter 558 became effective in Florida. The statute requires that a residential claimant follow the procedures in the statute to notify the contractor and other responsible parties of defective construction and provides the contractor a method of resolving the construction defect dispute prior to litigation; a right to cure.

The Pentagon inspector general’s office has launched an inquiry into the hiring practices of defense contractors that recruit high-level military officials to work for their companies. (<I>See</I> <I>"Pentagon Probes Suppliers’ Hiring," Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 2004 at A3</I>) The investigation was prompted by the Boeing Company’s decision in November 2003 to terminate Michael Sears, the company’s chief financial officer, and Darleen Druyun, a Boeing vice president who previously had served

Can a school be held liable when a student sexually harasses a teacher? "Yes," says one federal court, building on earlier opinions from courts in New York and Illinois. In Plaza Torres v. Rey, 2005 WL 1581268, a case from the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico, a female public school teacher alleged continuous sexual harassment by one of her male students.

In Overall v. University of Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit concluded that statements made at an internal university grievance proceeding were not privileged and therefore could be the subject of a defamation claim under Pennsylvania law.

In a decision that will interest online brokers, auction sites, and listing services, a federal court in Florida recently allowed a business to extract data from a competitor’s Web site. Nautical Solutions Marketing, Inc., v. Boats.com, M.D. Fla, No. 8:02-CV-760-T-23TGW, April 1, 2004.

This case involved the interpretation of recently enacted California Civil Code Section 1950.8 pertaining to "key money" demanded by commercial landlords. The California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District examined the language of the statute and its legislative history, and ultimately ruled in favor of the landlord.

A restriction in a recorded memorandum of lease prohibiting a landlord from allowing another supermarket within five miles of the shopping center may be unenforceable by the tenant against successors of the landlord.

For several months, various Assistant United States Attorneys have stated informally that HIPAA’s criminal penalties apply to anyone violating the law – not just covered entities. In their view, workforce members, business associates and others who handle "protected health information," as that term is defined in HIPAA, should use caution to ensure the information is used and disclosed properly.