Register NOW for our Annual President's Meeting & Advanced PI CLE! | Online registration is now open for our year-end conference, featuring an innovative and interactive Advanced PI CLE (Dec 4th) and our Annual Board & Membership Meeting (Dec 5th). Register now to attend at the Sheraton Hotel in Austin. Other events include the Advocates Annual Meeting, Awards Reception, and PAC event. Click on the link above to learn more and register. Hotel room rate expires November 3rd. Watch for updates on Twitter @ttla_ #ttlaannual. | Texas Tribune Daily Brief | | Judge Files Motion to Seal Botched Execution Lawsuit | | Documents related to a lawsuit over the botched execution of an Oklahoma inmate in April have been sealed by a federal judge. The lawsuit was filed by the inmate's family members who contend that the rights protecting him against cruel and unusual punishment were violated during the 43-minute execution. The physician involved in the execution who is named in the lawsuit will have his name protected, as state attorneys said revealing the name is a violation of state law. The attorney for the inmate's family says the motion to seal the lawsuit is "based upon an unconstitutional statute in place in Oklahoma" and is in "violation of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution." Graham Lee Brewer, NewsOK.com 10/25/2014 | Read Article: NewsOK.com | Fannie Mae Case Reaches $170M Settlement | | A $170 million settlement has been reached in the lawsuit accusing Fannie Mae of misleading shareholders before its seizure by the U.S. government in 2008. The lawsuit alleged that Fannie Mae mislead shareholders concerning its finances, risk management and mortgage exposure before it was taken over by the government during the financial crisis six years ago. The $170 million settlement was filed on Friday with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Of the settlement, which still requires court approval, $123.8 million will be allocated to common stockholders with $46.2 million allocated to preferred stockholders. Jonathan Stemple, Reuters 10/24/2014 | Read Article: Reuters | Quality of U.S. Hospices Varies, Patients Left in Dark | | A boom in the industry allows patients to choose from an array of hospice outfits, some of them excellent. More than a thousand new hospices have opened in the United States in the past decade. But the absence of public information about their quality, a void that is unusual even within the health-care industry, leaves consumers at a loss to distinguish the good from the bad. Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, The Washington Post 10/27/2014 | Read Article: The Washington Post | | |