The UN staff union passed a resolution late Friday critical of the UN's senior management in the wake of allegations of fraud and corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program and several supposed incidents of sexual harassment and favoritism. An earlier draft of the resolution was sharper and had expressed a lack of confidence in senior [...]

In Friday's environmental law news, USDA Forest Service chief Dale Bosworth has affirmed the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment (SNFPA), a plan that regulates the 11 national forests that run along the Sierra Nevada mountains in California and Nevada. Originally proposed in 1994, the plan has undergone a few controversial changes since its original framing. [...]

By a voice vote Friday, the US House of Representatives passed a Senate bill that reinstates until 2007 a ban on all state and local taxes aimed at monthly usage fees paid by customers to Internet service providers. President Bush is expected to sign the bill. While opponents argued that the ban's expiration in 2003 [...]

Ray Brent Marsh, a former operator of Georgia's Tri-State Crematory, pleaded guilty Friday to 787 criminal counts including theft, abuse of a corpse, burial service fraud and making false statements. In 2002, an anonymous tip led law enforcement authorities to find over 300 dumped bodies in the woods and buildings behind the family-own crematory, operated [...]

Following Senate approval on Wednesday, and Thursday's 208-204 vote in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives, President Bush Friday signed a bill to increase the public debt limit of the United States by $800 billion. The debt allowance increase, President Bush's third in the past three years, was explained by Republicans as necessary to compensate for [...]

Pro-foxhunting groups are challenging the Hunting Bill 2004 which received Royal Assent Friday one day after the British government invoked the authority of the Parliament Act 1949 and passed it without the approval of the House of Lords. The groups have filed papers with the High Court in London requesting a judicial review on the [...]

In Friday's corporations and securities law news, Oracle will win its hostile takeover fight for PeopleSoft because it has support from a majority of PeopleSoft shareholders, according to sources close to the situation. The battle is nonetheless likely to stretch into the spring, when PeopleSoft will hold its next annual meeting. Oracle has more information [...]

Dan Tokaji, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University: "Last week's conspiracy theory was that the election had been stolen in Florida counties using optical scan voting equipment, a paper-based system that functions like standardized tests. This week's may turn out to be the precise opposite: that electronic voting caused Bush to receive more votes [...]

Doug Berman, Moritz College of Law, Ohio State University: "As regular readers know, I typically try to avoid blogging about high-profile criminal law cases (unless and until there is a Blakely issue). But now that the Scott Peterson case is past the guilt stage and moving to sentencing, I guess it is time to jump [...]

Officials at HMP Manchester at Strangeways announced Friday that a clerical error resulted in accused murderer Bobby Phipps being released 4 days after he was remanded for trial. Phipps was set free Monday and wasn't discovered as missing until Thursday, the day before his scheduled appearance before Manchester Crown Court. Phipps is accused of six [...]