Justice Department

(USDOJ) WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice today announced the filing of a lawsuit against the County of Muskegon, Mich., alleging discrimination against a former employee by subjecting her to a hostile work environment.The Department's complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan, alleges that the county violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Verizon Communications Corp. (Verizon) to divest assets in 100 areas in 22 states in order to proceed with its $28 billion acquisition of Alltel Corp. The Department said that the transaction as originally proposed would have substantially lessened competition to the detriment of consumers of mobile wireless telecommunic

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit today in U.S. District Court in Chicago to block the proposed acquisition by JBS S.A., currently the third-largest U.S. beef packer, of National Beef Packing Company LLC, the fourth-largest U.S. beef packer. The Department said that the proposed deal would combine two of the top four U.S. beef packers resulting in lower price

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today the filing of a lawsuit against the State of Vermont and Vermont Secretary of State Deborah L. Markowitz, alleging violations of the Uniformed Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).UOCAVA is designed to ensure that uniformed military members and overseas citizens may effectively participate in federal elections. Vermont and the Secretary

Bloomberg is reporting that Google (GOOG) will delay its deal to sell search advertising for Yahoo! (YHOO) "until U.S. regulators can wrap up an investigation... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

WASHINGTON – The United States has sued a Houston tax preparer, seeking to put him out of business, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, seeks to permanently bar Kyle C. Kasten and his business, KJ & J Tax Services, from preparing federal returns for others.According to the government complaint, Kasten

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department today announced that on Aug. 26, 2008, it will monitor elections in the towns of Bayou La Batre and Marion, Ala., as well as in Seminole County, Fla., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).The VRA authorizes the Justice Department to ask the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to send federal observers to areas that are specially covered

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice announced today that it has settled its employment lawsuit on behalf of Tracey Marshall, a sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve, against the Clerk of the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County, Fla.The Department’s complaint, filed last October in the U.S. District Court in Tampa, alleged that the Clerk’s Office violated the Uniformed Services Employment and

WASHINGTON - The Department of Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) have jointly filed a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to enforce a mediation settlement agreement that was entered into by the EEOC on behalf of an individual and the Housing Authority of the City of El Paso (Housing Authority). The settlement agreement resolved a charge

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today the settlement of a lawsuit against Salem County and the borough of Penns Grove, N.J., alleging violations of the rights of Puerto Rican voters under the Voting Rights Act. The settlement agreement requires the county and borough to ensure that elections are equally open to Latino voters, that Spanish language assistance and materials be availabl

A New Jersey paralegal with a longstanding interest in government corruption filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department and the F.B.I. on Monday, seeking the release of the full case file on a murderous Brooklyn Mafia informant — papers she believes may shed light on the possible involvement of a dead New Orleans crime boss in the killing of President John F. Kennedy.The lawsuit, filed in Fe

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department today announced that on Tuesday, July 15, 2008, it will monitor elections in the Georgia counties of Coffee, Dougherty and Long to ensure compliance with federal voting rights statutes.In 2006, the Justice Department and Long County settled a lawsuit regarding violations of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for

The Justice Department announced approval for the XM Satellite and Sirius Monday. The proposed $5 billion merger still has to be approved by the Federal Communications Commission who is lingering concerns that the merger would create a monopoly in satellite radio. It has now been over a year since the merger was first announced.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice seeking information about communications between a former top privacy official and Google, which eventually hired the official.  At the time Jane Horvath was named as the Justice Department’s chief privacy and civil-liberties officer in February 2006, Google was challenging a subpoena by [...]

Former 6 term congressman JD Hayworth received a phone call from the Justice Department last week, informing him and his lawyers that they have decided against conducting a formal investigation into his connections to former lobbyist Jack Abramoff."They told me that it was "their bad' and they hoped there weren't any hard feelings,” explained Hayworth on his daily radio show, "They also apologized for insinuating illegitimate connections between me and Abramoff and threatening an investigation.”In the wake of the Abramoff scandal, it was revealed that Hayworth had received contributions that could be tied to Abramoff and his partners. These connections and the threat of a pending investigation helped cast a shadow on Hayworth and boost the popularity of Democratic challenger Harry Mitchell who ultimately won the election."They said that they were "sorry' for any inconvenience they may have caused to my re-election effort,” said Hayworth, "And they offered me a c

News Update 8.16.07 North Carolina In an editorial, The Fayetteville Observer advocates for continued stays of execution while the lethal injection quagmire is worked out. Elsewhere Tennessee Supreme Court ruling will allow the execution of some mentally retarded defendants. Mental retardation is a condition that, by definition, must manifest itself before the age of 18. Therefore, the Court said, courts should not take into consideration IQ tests performed after that age. That would be reasonable if everyone was given an IQ test prior to the age of 18, but Tennessee’s new law will allow people to be executed just because they came from families or school districts without the resources to properly identify and diagnose their disabilities. There are also concerns with the age-of-18 bar because the human brain continues to develop into one’s twenties. The Justice Department is proposing new rules that would give Alberto Gonzales more control over state capital prosecutio

The Justice Department has authorized the filing of a lawsuit against the city of NY based on the findings of an investigation that showed that the FDNY’s recruitment process discriminates against Blacks and Hispanics.The FDNY has responded by stating they’ve made major changes in their recruitment techniques in order to attract more minority candidates. The FDNY commissioner, Nicholas Scoppetta said the FDNY isn’t looking for a fight, just a reasonable solution to the problem. Last year, City Hall gave the FDNY $1.4 million to use toward minority recruitment.A lawsuit will be filed within 30 days, unless some sort of settlement is reached. If a judge is brought in to review the FDNY’s hiring practices, one solution could be to require one minority candidate to be hired for every three non-minority candidates.Source: The NY Daily News, We'll Deal With Heat-FDNY, By John Marzulli and Jonathan Lemire, Wednesday, April 25, 2007

In a stunning turn of events Republican Senator John Sunnunu of New Hampshire has asked for the President to fire Alberto Gonzales as head of the Justice Department. Surprisingly the President has only shown lukewarm support at best for Gonzales in recent interviews in spite of him being a long time Bush friend and loyalist going all the way back to Bush's days as Governor of Texas. The replacement of US Attorneys in and of itself is no big deal. Most new incoming administrations ask for their resignations en masse. It's nothing out of the ordinary, just politics as usual. In this case however there has been an added dimension of politics that goes far beyond the norm as revelations surface of lawmakers pressuring US Attorneys to selectively investigate Democrats rather than fellow Republicans. Initially the White House issued a blanket denial of involvement in this, but recent email revelations have shown that the White House counsel and the Presidents chief political architect K

{mosgoogle right}WASHINGTON -- Japan Airlines (JAL) has agreed to pay approximately 11.1 billion yen in fines to the U.S. Department of Justice for forming an illegal air cargo cartel with rival companies, department officials said.JAL has admitted to the allegations. "We've fully cooperated with authorities in their investigations. We concluded that we should comply with the order after considering the relevant legislation and the facts. The incident is indeed regrettable and we a [...]