Jul 03
Today, in Brown (formerly Schwarzenegger) v. Entertainment Merchants Association, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that California’s violent video game statute is unconstitutional.
Writing on behalf of a majority of justices, Justice Scalia made clear that video games are protected speech and entitled to First Amendment protection. The California statute prevented the sale of “violent video games” to minors without parental consent. Enforcement of the law had been enjoined by the Federal District Court, which decision was affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.
In the Supreme Court decision - which is a clear win for the video game industry - the Court held that, because the California law placed restrictions on protected speech, the law would have to serve a compelling government interest and be narrowly written to serve that interest. Justice
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Jul 03
Police say a man was inside a store when he saw someone trying to steal his vehicle.
The owner foiled the theft, said Lavonia Police Chief Bruce Carlisle, and officers arrested a South Carolina man, David William Morris, 44, of Greer.
Morris was being held Tuesday in the Franklin County jail. He is wanted in Greer on charges of robbery and hijacking a vehicle.
His arrest in Lavonia came Monday afternoon at the RaceTrac gas station on SR17 near I-85.
Carlisle said his officers were called to the store to check a report that someone had been caught trying to steal a black Ford Explorer.
”Upon their arrival they learned the suspect had entered into a vehicle while the owner of that vehicle was inside the convenience store,” Carlisle said. “Th
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Jul 03
Ogier has become the first offshore firm to secure a formal presence in mainland China with the launch of an office in Shanghai.
The new base will be headed by managing director Kristy Calvert, who joins from international mining group Rio Tinto, where she was a legal director. She is a native Mandarin and Shanghainese speaker.
The office, part of Ogier’s strategy to have a presence in each of the world’s key financial centres, will work closely with the firm’s existing 40-lawyer base in Hong Kong, and will focus on capital markets, banking and finance, investment funds, trusts and private wealth and general corporate transactional advice.
Group chief executive Nick Kershaw commented: “In pursuit of our strategy we felt it critically important to establish a strong presence in mainland China so that we can provide the full range of Ogier’s services to our clients in a manner which is responsive to local conditions and practices.”
Ogier’s Hong Kong office opened in 2006, and the firm is planning to double headcount in the base over the next three years.
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Jul 02
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee on Saturday signed into law a bill that legalizes same-sex civil unions in the state. The bill effectively adds a “Civil Unions” chapter to the Rhode Island General Laws section governing domestic relations, affording same-sex couples many of the same rights and benefits available to married couples. The bill is modeled on similar legislation in Illinois, Delaware and Hawaii , and defines a civil union as “a legal union between two individuals of the same sex” who are consenting adults not party to a separate civil union or marriage. Read all post…
Jul 02
WASHINGTON – A Pittsburgh man pleaded guilty today in federal court to charges of conspiring to conduct a racketeering enterprise, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton of the Western District of Pennsylvania.
James Pendelton, 30, aka “Jim Bob,” pleaded guilty before Senior U.S. District
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