| | 2012 Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE, December 6-7 at the Four Season's Hotel, Austin | | Formerly the TTLA Annual Conference, our December event is now the Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE! We've streamlined this event and we're now offering a one-day Advanced PI CLE, along with the Annual Membership & Board Meeting, President's Luncheon, and a spectacular Holiday Party with dinner and dancing with the famous Lee Roy Parnell. Click on the headline to learn more! | | Have You Voted? | | Find early voting locations in your county, the last day to early vote is November 2. | | Louisiana Seeks Jury Trial on $1 Billion Claim Against BP | | 
| | Louisiana asked a federal judge to order a separate jury trial against BP Plc over the $1 billion in economic oil-spill losses that the state claims BP has stopped paying. Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell asked a federal judge in New Orleans to make an exception that would allow the state to proceed with a solo trial over economic losses it suffered as a result of BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Economic losses include claims for lost tax revenue, royalties and fees in more than a dozen categories.
Laurel Brubaker Calkins, Bloomberg 10/25/2012    | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | The KBR Casse at the Midpoint: An Analysis | |
| | While some see it as a fight between David and Goliath, 12 lonely Oregon National Guard veterans against defense contractor KBR Inc., -- a third party is conspicuously absent from the contest playing out in federal court in Portland. The U.S. government. The trial has reached its turning point, with the soldiers' lawyers scheduled to give way Thursday to lawyers for KBR, who will remind the jury that the soldiers must prove that the company behaved negligently and committed fraud by placing the soldiers in danger. They will seek to raise doubts revolving around the soldiers' medical histories, their other experiences on deployment and whether or not the Army communicated effectively within its own ranks. It's that last point that will challenge the KBR lawyers, who will rely on the previously recorded depositions to establish who informed whom, and when, about the presence of sodium dichromate at Qarmat Ali nine years ago.
Mike Francis, The Oregonian 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: The Oregonian | | Man Dies in Okla. Rehab Center, Lawsuit Filed | |
| | The death of an Oklahoma man in a drug rehabilitation center in Pittsburg County, Okla., has prompted a lawsuit against the company that runs the center. The suit, filed by the man's mother, claims the center refused to allow the man to see a physician after complaining of constant pain and vomiting. The suit also says the center conceals the fact that it bases its treatment plans on the written "technology" of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. The victim is the third patient to die at the center within the past year.
Randy Ellis, NewsOK.com 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: NewsOK.com | | Soldier With Service Dog Tossed from Mattress Store | |
| | An Iraq veteran has filed a lawsuit against a mattress store in Texas after he was thrown out because he brought a service dog into the store. In the suit, the plaintiff claims he was told by the store manager to "get out of his store" and that he "didn't care if the dog was a service animal." The suit claims violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Victoria Cavaliere , New York Daily News 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: New York Daily News | | Panel Says Medtronic Edited Product Studies | |
| | Officials of Medtronic, the medical device maker, edited studies by outside researchers about a controversial spine treatment sold by the company, inserting claims that their product was superior to a competing one, according to a Senate finance committee report released Thursday. The treatment at issue, known as Infuse, uses a bioengineered protein to fuse spinal vertebrae as a way of reducing back pain. Spinal fusion procedures can also use a competing technique that employs real bone.
BARRY MEIER, The New York Times 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Recent Spinal Shots May Pose Greatest Meningitis Risk | |
| | The more recently a patient received a spinal injection with the contaminated steroid implicated in a nationwide outbreak of fungal meningitis, the higher the risk of developing the disease, federal health officials are reporting. People injected with the contaminated drug within the last six weeks — since Sept. 11 — may be at the greatest risk, and extra monitoring should be considered for them even if they have no symptoms, according to an advisory posted online Tuesday night by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DENISE GRADY, The New York Times 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | FDA: Monster Energy Drinks Related to Five Deaths? | |
| | The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has revealed that Monster Energy Drinks have been cited in five people's death reports over the last year. While the FDA has not completed an investigation into the connection between the deaths and the drinks, a Maryland family is citing the incidents in a lawsuit against the company over the death of their 14-year-old daughter. An Illinois Senator has asked the FDA to place a cap on the amount of caffeine allowed in energy drinks.
Anna Edney, Bloomberg 10/22/2012 | | Read Article: Bloomberg | | Insurance Industry Woes Could Hit Consumers | |
| | These are challenging times for the insurance industry. Company representatives meeting in Washington for the annual American Council of Life Insurers conference seemed downright gloomy, and were eager to tick off the troubles facing them. Low interest rates mean insurers can't easily price or profit from the annuities they are selling. Bad and uninformed pricing decisions mean they may lose their shirts on some long-term care and annuity plans they sold years ago. Some companies are leaving markets they used to find profitable and trying to invent new and complex products to fit the "new normal." And they are afraid that forthcoming tax reform will hit their products big time. You know what all that means: It's going to cost you. Here's how those industry challenges will hit your wallet and what to do about it.
Linda Stern, Reuters 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: Reuters | | TDI Commissioner Seeks to Reassure Lawmakers | |
| | The top official at the TDI told members of the Legislature that her department has no plans to restructure the historically troubled TWIA.In a letter, Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman addressed an article in Tuesday’s Austin American-Statesman that focused on an internal email by the commissioner that said she wanted to discuss “options for funding a 3-5 year transition to market rates” for property owners along Texas’ hurricane-prone coast.
Tim Eaton, Austin American Statesman 10/25/2012 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | | |
