Thursday

Outside Group Readies Lawsuit on Trump’s Religious Exemption Order

At least one group is gearing up to file legal challenges against President Trump’s executive order intended to make it easier for religious groups to participate in politics without risking their tax-exempt status, though another has said it isn’t worth the trouble. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) said Thursday it had a 17-page complaint ready to be filed in the federal District …



Brazil Judge Suspends $50B Dam Disaster Lawsuit

A Brazilian judge suspended a nearly $50 billion lawsuit against mining firms responsible for the 2015 Samarco disaster Thursday, as negotiations between the companies and authorities moved forward. The decision came as part of a ruling in which federal judge Mário de Paula Franco Júnior approved a road map toward a final agreement between prosecutors and mining companies Vale …


20 Plaintiffs Join Lawsuit vs. MSU, Sports Doctor

Twenty new plaintiffs joined a lawsuit Thursday against Michigan State University and Larry Nassar, alleging they were sexually abused by the former MSU sports doctor. The plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in federal court in Grand Rapids, bringing the total to more than 70 plaintiffs suing …


Feds Join Whistleblower Lawsuit Claiming UnitedHealth Overcharged Medicare

Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group that claims the country’s largest health insurer and its units and affiliates overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars, a law firm representing the whistleblower said on Thursday. “We reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest them …


Feds Not Rushing Travel-Ban Appeal to Supreme Court

The Justice Department said in a brief filed Monday that it would continue to defend President Donald Trump’s targeted travel ban in the federal appeals court in San Francisco, which on Thursday refused to reinstate it. The department did not say whether it would try to appeal that ruling to the Supreme Court. But its silence on the matter suggested that the Trump administration …


Threatened by Civil Rights Lawsuit, Park Service Expedites Protest Permits

The National Parks Service (NPS) said Thursday it would grant permits to organizations planning to protest President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in later this month in Washington, D.C., a win that comes after civil rights lawyers threatened to sue the agency. “We believe that this is a significant victory for free speech. They are doing this under threat of litigation,” Mara Verheyden- …


Wells Fargo Confirms SEC Probing Its Sales Practices, Boosts Litigation Funds to US$1.7B

Wells Fargo has confirmed the existence of an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission into its sales practices, and the bank revealed that it has almost doubled funds set aside to deal with its ongoing legal problems. The bank said in a regulatory filing Thursday that the SEC has joined other federal state and local government agencies and states attorneys general, …


Embattled Lt. Glenn Evans Gets Support in Lawsuit Against CPD

It’s not every day that a priest gives a ringing endorsement of a Chicago Police officer once charged with forcing a gun down the throat of a suspect. But on Thursday, Glenn Evans got a vote of confidence from the Rev. Matthew O’Donnell, pastor of St. Columbanus Catholic Church, one of half a dozen community activists from some of the city’s most crime-plagued neighborhoods who showed up at the …


Valeant Pharmaceuticals Faces New Fraud Lawsuit Filed by Former Investor

The pharmaceutical company allegedly shielded their branded drugs from generic competition and inflated their revenues using a fraudulent scheme. T. Rowe Price also declined to comment. The lawsuit points to Valeant’s alleged decisions to massively increase prices of so-called “orphan drugs” to treat rare medical conditions that face little or no competition and “back door” efforts to receive …