Posted: Nov 27, 2015 3:23 PM PSTUpdated: Nov 27, 2015 3:43 PM PST
By Taylor Hemness
SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) –
Smith County is in the process of filing a civil lawsuit against automaker Volkswagen after the company admitted that nearly one million of its cars had cheated U.S. emission standards.
County Judge Joel Baker confirmed the lawsuit with KLTV 7 on Friday afternoon.
“Air quality has been an issue for us here as long as I’ve been in office,” Baker said. “This lawsuit will protect the county’s interest.”
In September, Volkswagen admitted to installing software on millions of cars globally that turns on pollution controls during government tests and shuts them off on the road, according to the Associated Press. The company would later reveal that it found other problems with emissions as the scandal spread to gasoline engines.
Smith County has hired Potter Minton, a Tyler-based firm, to represent the county in the lawsuit. In a letter sent to KLTV 7 by Smith County, Potter Minton indicated that other Texas counties, as well as the State of Texas itself, had filed similar lawsuits against Volkswagen.
But in the letter, Potter Minton attorney Allen F. Gardner tells Judge Baker, “our preliminary research indicates that local government entities that file suit themselves share any recovery equally with the State, but those who choose to allow the State to pursue the claims alone will not share in any recovery.”
The State of Texas has already filed suit against Volkswagen. Harris County has also filed suit against the automaker. Attorney General Ken Paxton asked Harris County to drop their suit since the State is suing the automaker, but Harris County has kept their lawsuit active, according to the Texas Tribune.
Baker tells KLTV 7 that Smith County, based on its research, believes Volkswagen has clear liability in the case.
Smith County now must send its agreement with Potter Minton to the Texas State Comptroller’s Office for approval, but Baker tells KLTV 7 that it’s unclear how long that approval will take.
Full Article – http://www.ksla.com/story/30618075/smith-county-plans-to-sue-volkswagen-over-faulty-emissions
Though Kendra Wilkinson and Hank Baskett don’t mind airing their dirty laundry on reality TV, the couple doesn’t necessarily want to see their toughest moments play out on their WE tv show, Kendra on Top.
“We don’t watch it,” Wilkinson, 30, admitted to Us Weekly at the Ubisoft Rainbow Six Siege “Siege Day” launch party on Monday, Nov. 23. “I’ll answer questions along the way with fans and everything, but I lived it. And we really don’t want to live it again. We’re past it now. It’s on to new and better things. We’ve grown.”
The Bad Girls Club alum says her six-year marriage (which faltered after Baskett’s cheating scandal) “couldn’t be better,” but noted that as the parents of Hank IV, 5, and Alijah, 17 months, they do struggle to find alone time.
“We’re focusing hard on our kids, and it’s the best thing,” she said. “But the one thing we haven’t done in a while is, like, really take time for ourselves. So this [event] is actually a date night that we really did need. This was a huge date night for us.”
Baskett, 33, says he has taken it upon himself to “swoop her off her feet,” noting, “We’re devoted, but you can’t get over that part. You can’t get over each other. The kids wouldn’t be here if you two didn’t fall in love with each other.”
Despite the couple’s outward display of devotion, a source recently told Us that they are still struggling to get over Baskett’s alleged affair with a transgender model in June 2014.
“She’s deeply unhappy,” an insider says of Wilkinson, but said she “wants to stay together for the kids.”
When an online video creator receives a notice instructing them to take down a video because it contains copyrighted material — such as a snippet of a TV show or, until recently, even the song “Happy Birthday” — they often have few options but to comply.
Copyright battles can often prove expensive and drag on for years, presenting a challenge for video creators and for video sharing sites, which have often cracked down harshly in a bid to stop the spread of pirated material.
Now, YouTube is offering an alternative, announcing on Thursday that it will begin providing “legal support” to a handful of users so they can fight claims from copyright holders. If the copyright-holder sues, the tech giant will assist users by paying up to $1 million in legal fees.
The site, which is owned by Google, is offering aid to the creators of four videos that it says meet the standard of fair use, an exemption to US copyright law that allows new projects that make use of copyrighted material in a way that goes beyond the copyright holder’s original intent, for example by commenting, parodying, or satirizing it.
The company says the move is intended to correct some of the power balance that can be directed against content creators in the wake of the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which implemented digital rights management software often used to protect music or downloadable movies from online piracy.
Full Article – http://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2015/1122/Why-YouTube-is-offering-legal-support-for-users-threatened-with-takedowns
LOS ANGELES — In the face of threatened legal action from the football star Jameis Winston, CNN did not back away from broadcasting “The Hunting Ground,” a documentary about sexual assault on college campuses that has stirred controversy since its January debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
“CNN is proud to provide a platform for a film that has undeniably played a significant role in advancing the national conversation about sexual assault on college campuses,” the network said in a statement. The film was shown on the network at 8 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday.
Mr. Winston, a quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is the focus of a segment in “The Hunting Ground.” While attending Florida State University in 2012, Mr. Winston was accused of sexual assault. He asserted his innocence, did not face criminal rape charges and was cleared of violating Florida State’s student code of conduct. The movie, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Amy Ziering, asserts that Mr. Winston received preferential treatment from officials.
Full Article – http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/23/business/cnn-to-show-sex-assault-film-despite-legal-threat.html?_r=0
A former lottery security director convicted of rigging a multistate Hot Lotto game in a failed effort to claim a $16.5 million jackpot in Iowa also is under investigation on allegations of fixing games involving winning lottery tickets in Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Colorado.
An Iowa assistant attorney general revealed convicted lottery scammer Eddie Tipton’s Oklahoma connection in an Iowa court hearing Thursday but said details of the allegation were contained in sealed court documents, and he could not discuss them, The Associated Press reported.
Rollo Redburn, executive director of the Oklahoma Lottery Commission, confirmed Friday that Oklahoma lottery authorities have been assisting the Iowa attorney general’s office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations with their ongoing criminal investigation.
Information forwarded to Iowa authorities included evidence relating to a winning Hot Lotto ticket purchased Nov. 21, 2011, in Idabel, Redburn said.
The Oklahoma winning jackpot had a value of $1.2 million if paid out over time through an annuity and an immediate cash value of $907,715, Redburn said. The winner chose to take the immediate cash, minus taxes that were withheld. The drawing was on Nov. 23, 2011, and the money was paid out on Dec. 21, 2011, Redburn said.
Redburn declined to say what connections the purchaser of the ticket may have had to Tipton, saying it was part of a continuing investigation.
Aaron Cooper, spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, said attorneys in Pruitt’s office are aware of the alleged Oklahoma ties to Tipton’s criminal activity and are in communication with the Iowa attorney general’s office as its investigation and prosecution continue to unfold.
“The Oklahoma attorney general’s office will continue to closely monitor the situation to determine any steps that would be necessary to address any unlawful activity that may have occurred within this state,” Cooper said.
Other cases
Tipton, 52 of Flatonia, Texas, was convicted of fraud in July by a jury in Des Moines, Iowa, for rigging a 2010 Iowa Hot Lotto game that carried a $16.5 million jackpot. He received a 10-year sentence, which he is appealing, The Associated Press reported.
Authorities became suspicious when the prize initially went unclaimed for almost a year and then efforts were made to hide the identity of the winner, something that is not permissible under Iowa law.
Tipton was an information technology security worker at the Multi-State Lottery Association, an Iowa-based lottery security agency that provides the computers used to randomly generate numbers for lottery drawings in several states. In 2013, he became the information security director.
It was part of Tipton’s job to help build the random number generators sent out to various states, The Associated Press reported.
In the Iowa case, prosecutors accused Tipton of using stealth software to rig the numbers for the December 2010 Hot Lotto drawing. Prosecutors alleged Tipton then bought a ticket with the winning numbers he had built into the system, even though Iowa rules prohibited him from playing since he was an employee of a lottery vendor.
Tipton also is suspected of rigging a November 2005 lottery in Colorado and a 2007 lottery in Wisconsin.
Tipton’s brother, Tommy Tipton, submitted a claim for the winning ticket with the help of a friend in the Colorado lottery, an investigator said in a sworn statement.
That lottery had a $4.5 million jackpot, and Tommy Tipton took a lump sum payment of $568,990 for his share of the jackpot. He paid his friend about 10 percent for claiming the winnings on his behalf, the investigator said.
In the Wisconsin Megabucks lottery case, Eddie Tipton’s close friend Robert Rhodes of Houston, Texas, used a limited liability company to submit a winning ticket claim, the investigator said.
The limited liability company was given a lump sum payment of $783,257.72 for the winning ticket. The jackpot at the time was $2 million, authorities said.
Opening eyes
Redburn said Oklahoma lottery officials do everything possible to keep games honest, and there is no way to go back and make things right for people who may have been cheated out of an honest game four years ago.
“There’s nothing you can do about it now,” he said.
“You can’t protect against bad people,” he said. “We’ve always got to be diligent about the possibility of fraud. What this has done, I think, is open the eyes of a lot of people to try to tighten things up a bit.”
“I’d say right now the games are probably as protected as they can get,” Redburn said. “If you asked me, I’d say that the games are safe. Play and the numbers are going to be picked appropriately, and you’re going to win or you’re not going to win based on fat chance.”
