Announcements | | | Share with your FB friends! | | Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded, killed 11 workers and caused one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history, said in SEC filings Friday that 2010 was “the best year in safety performance in our company’s history,” which meant top executives were granted bonuses reflecting those results. Click on the headline to read more. | Upcoming Seminars & Events. | | Road Rules: April 6, San Antonio******The Persuasive Edge: The Art of Communication and Influence, with Eric Oliver. April 29-30, Houston.******TTLA Annual Conference (formerly Midyear). June 1-3, Austin. Learn more at www.TTLA.com | Products | | | Mercedes Recalls Vehicles to Fix Cruise Control Issue | | Mercedes-Benz has issued a recall of 136,750 vehicles due to problems with the cruise control that could lead to an accident. The company reported that applying the breaks may not cause the cruise control to disengage, increasing the risk of a crash. The recall covers model year 2000-2002 M-Class and 2000-2004 M-Class AMG vehicles. Bernie Woodall, Reuters 04/05/2011 | Read Article: Reuters | Laws/Cases | | | Gun Owner, Insurer Sued in Fatal Shooting of Child | | The parents of 12-year-old Darius Tucker, who was shot and killed a year ago while playing with a 9mm handgun with his half-brother, have sued the owner of the weapon for leaving it on top of an entertainment center in the living room of his Newburg home.The lawsuit, filed this week in Jefferson Circuit Court by Fred and Sandra Tucker, claims John O'Bryan, who was living with Sandra Tucker, “improperly, carelessly and negligently stored his firearms and ammunition” in putting three semi-automatic handguns — two .25-caliber and one 9mm — behind a lip on top of the 6-foot-tall center. The lawsuit also names State Farm General Insurance Co., O’Bryan’s homeowner insurance carrier, as a defendant. , Louisville Courier Journal 04/04/2011 | Read Article: Louisville Courier Journal | Judge Tosses Overseas Claims Against Toyota | | A federal judge has dismissed a consolidated lawsuit brought by Toyota consumers in foreign countries over sudden acceleration claims. During a hearing on April 4, U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, Calif., dismissed the entire case but allowed a lawyer representing foreign plaintiffs to file a new lawsuit re-asserting certain claims, including some under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Amanda Bronstad, The National Law Journal - $$ Subscription Required 04/05/2011 | Read Article: The National Law Journal - $$ Subscription Required($) | Movie Studios File Copyright Infringement Suit | | A group of Hollywood movie studios has filed a copyright lawsuit against a movie streaming service, Zediva Inc. The company rents movies to customers for a little as $1 a month by streaming them over the Internet. The suit claims Zediva is illegally doing so because it has failed to pay licensing fees to the studios. The suit seeks at least $150,000 in damages for each movie illegally streamed. Benny Evangelista , San Francisco Chronicle 04/04/2011 | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | Suits Settled in Fatal Canal Breach | | Settlements have been reached in two lawsuits filed after a 2009 canal breach in Utah killed a mother and her two children. The suits targeted a group of entities, including the city of Logan and Utah State University, claiming they were all aware there were dangers associated with the Logan Northern Canal but failed to fix them or warn the public. The suits - one filed by the husband of the deceased, the other by a neighbor whose home was damaged - were settled for undisclosed amounts. Dennis Romboy, The Deseret News 04/05/2011 | Read Article: The Deseret News | Issues | | | BP Emails Indicate Strain Before Gulf oil Spill | | BP supervisors in Houston exchanged sometimes contentious emails about operations on the company’s Macondo well in the month prior to the deadly April 2010 blowout and oil spill. The emails, which were given to the Houston Chronicle, appear to show strain among managers overseeing the drilling operation, as well as the stress on workers trying to complete the over-budget well and shut it in for production later. The documents are expected to be evidence this week at hearings in a continuing Coast Guard-Interior Department investigation of the blowout that destroyed the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killed 11 workers and triggered the spill. Tom Fowler (blog), Houston Chronicle 04/05/2011 | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | F.A.A. to Order Airlines to Inspect 737s for Cracks | | The FAA announced that it would require extensive inspections of some older-model Boeing 737s for cracks in the planes’ fragile skin that can be caused by pressurization and depressurization of the cabin over tens of thousands of takeoffs and landings. Three days earlier, undetected cracks widened into a five-foot hole in the roof of a Southwest Airlines flight, forcing the plane, a 737-300, to make an emergency landing at a military base. The F.A.A. announcement applies to 175 aircraft worldwide, including 80 that are based in the US. Most are operated by Southwest, which started inspections over the weekend and has found three more planes with small cracks. JAD MOUAWAD & CHRISTOPHER DREW, The New York Times 04/05/2011 | Read Article: The New York Times | | | | |