International arms dealer Milton Blane was awarded $3.6 million Friday after he accused military contractor Boeing Co. of backing out of a deal to buy two missile launchers and damaging his commercial reputation. Blane, owner of Blane International Group Inc., first approached Boeing in 1999 with a proposal to sell Russian made air-to-surface missiles made [...]

The US government will consider on a case-by-case basis allowing Haitian illegal immigrants who were victims of Tropical Storm Jeanne to stay in the US, so long as they are not violent criminals. Bill Strassberger, from the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, stated that the bureau will consider immigrants who entered the country [...]

Citing sovereign immunity, the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday threw out a lawsuit filed by one of 212 women who claimed that drinking contaminated tap water from Chesapeake city caused miscarriages or birth defects. Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge Norman Olitksy had earlier rejected the sovereign immunity defense, which traditionally shields government from lawsuits. Helen Cunningham, [...]

Two of the largest textbook publishers – Holt, Rinehart and Winston and Glencoe/McGraw-Hill – have agreed to change health-related textbooks in Texas to depict marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The Texas Board of Education approved the new textbooks Friday with a 10-4 vote. A board member argued that the previous [...]

Proposition 200, State of Arizona, November 2, 2004 Read the full text of the Proposition here . Reported in JURIST's Paper Chase here.

The Chilean army has formally accepted responsibility for human rights violations from 1973-1990 under General Augusto Pinochet's rule. Chilean President Ricardo Lagos called it a "historic step" towards national unity. Current Army Commander General Juan Emilio Chyre offered no excuses and said that the army accepted full responsibility for these previous rights abuses. Under Gen [...]

US District Judge Ralph Tyson released a ruling Friday indicating he will not overturn the conviction of ex-Governor Edwin Edwards. After serving four terms as Louisiana's Governor from 1972-96, Edwards was convicted in 2000 for extorting payoffs from businessmen seeking riverboat casino licenses. The rejected defense motion claimed a political bias on the part of [...]

Attendance at a number of Arizona public schools has dropped dramatically in the past few days in what Hispanic community leaders are calling a parental response to Proposition 200 , approved by state voters on Tuesday. The new law requires a person to show proof of citizenship when seeking publicly funded benefits. It also mandates [...]

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled Friday against a recent government decision to allow newlyweds in the province of Punjab to serve food to wedding guests. The court held that the original ban against food service, imposed by the provincial government in 1997, should remain in force to discourage public displays of wealth. The three-judge [...]

In re: Personal Restraint Petition of Cecil Emil Davis, November 5, 2004 . Read the majority opinion, a concurrence and a dissent.