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Judge Gives Fishermen the OK to Sue Plains All-American Pipeline

A U.S. District Court judge gave a green light to the first class action lawsuit filed against Plains All-American Pipeline, but the ruling won’t allow all the plaintiffs to move forward right now. Leila Noel of the Cappello & Noel law firm in Santa Barbara said the judge only certified the class auction lawsuit on behalf of fishing businesses affected by the …


NFL Hit With Lawsuit by Cheerleaders Demanding Higher Wages

A group of NFL cheerleaders — including women who have cheered for the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders — has filed a lawsuit demanding higher wages and fairer labor practices from the NFL and 27 member teams. “We’re not asking to be paid like the football players are. But if you look at the mascot, who’s paid between $25,000-$60,000 a year, it’s just not fair for what we put into it,” former Raiders cheerleader Caitlin Yates said in a statement released Tuesday. The suit filed Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco, seeks …


American Spirit’s Long, Strange Trip to Court

Tobacco is a crop with many enemies, not all of them human. In the Coastal Plains region of eastern North Carolina, the heart of the state’s flue-cured tobacco production, growers deal with a leaf-damaging soil bacteria colorfully named Granville wilt. If you let them, various aphids will feast on tobacco leaves as they grow.


3 More Bay Area Counties Sued Over High Jail Phone Rates

Three more Bay Area counties are facing class action lawsuits for the cost of phone calls to and from jails, an expensive process that critics argue unfairly burdens inmates’ families by making them pay excessive fees to keep in touch with loved ones. A group of attorneys who have already filed several lawsuits on the matter in Southern California filed their fourth lawsuit in …


Pleasanton Street Preacher’s Lawsuit Alleges Santa Cruz Violates His Free Speech

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday seeks to allow a Pleasanton man to resume preaching on a public street after he was ticketed three times for noise complaints and had his amplified speech permit revoked by Santa Cruz police. The lawsuit also seeks to overturn two city laws that allow police to issue a city permit for amplified public speech and allows police to revoke the permits …


Lawsuit Against Natural Cigarette Maker Moved to New Mexico

A class-action lawsuit targeting a company behind a line of cigarettes touted as natural has moved to U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Three men from California, New York and Florida are suing the maker of American Spirit cigarettes, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., and its parent company, Reynolds American Inc. The plaintiffs say the cigarette maker’s marketing deliberately tries to mislead…