Cingul____ has cra__py recep____

Cingular Wireless Corp. promised to provide uninterrupted service to AT&T Wireless customers when it acquired that company in 2004, but instead it nickel-and-dimed them and degraded their reception in an effort to persuade them to sign new contracts, a federal lawsuit said Thursday.

The lawsuit, which alleges breach of contract and violations of consumer protection laws, seeks class-action status on behalf of the more than 20 million customers AT&T Wireless had at the time of the merger. Many paid $18 "transfer" fees to switch to Cingular plans and were required to buy new phones or pay other fees, said the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle.

"Everyone who signed an AT&T contract had their service degraded," attorney Mike Withey said at a news conference Thursday.

Atlanta-based Cingular acquired Redmond-based AT&T Wireless Services Inc. for $41 billion in October 2004, and promised in advertisements and news releases that the customers of both companies would see uninterrupted and even improved service as a result of the "combined network."

Full article here.

Exxon loses lawsuit that was filed against them in 1991

Two law firms will get $300 million from Exxon lawsuit. 10,000 plaintiffs will split what's left. Yeah, that sounds about right.


Two Miami law firms were awarded more than $300 million Thursday in attorneys fees for their work in a 15-year legal battle involving Exxon Mobil Corp. and thousands of service station dealers who sued the company.

U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold gave the two law firms about 30 percent of the total settlement of $1.075 billion agreement awarded to the plaintiffs, amounting to about $320 million, The Miami Herald reported on its Web site.

The case against Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. began in 1991 when the service stations accused the company of failing to provide promised discounts for wholesale motor fuel and fraudulently hiding its failure to pay.

A jury found in favor of the dealers in 2001 and ordered Exxon to pay $500 million, but the company appealed that verdict. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Exxon's last appeal this past June, by which time the payment had increased to more than $1 billion with interest.

The settlement comes as a court-appointed official assesses the claims of the more than 10,000 service station owners involved in the suit.

Wrongly Convicted Man Freed

The Innocence Project helps to free another wrongly convicted man who spent two decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit:

A man who spent more than two decades in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a brutal rape was freed Thursday because DNA evidence has cleared him.

After his paperwork was processed, he stepped outside the courthouse, thanking his attorneys and offering his sympathy to the woman whose rape led to his wrongful conviction. "My unjust conviction denied both of us justice," Newton said. "It opens up old wounds and denies her closure."

He said he planned to enjoy a home-cooked meal and visit the New Jersey grave of his mother, who died about 10 years ago.

Newton was convicted of raping the 25-year-old woman in an abandoned Bronx building in 1984 and was sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.
In 1994 he filed a motion asking that new DNA testing be conducted, but the request was denied because the evidence was "unavailable."

A similar request was granted four years later, but testing of the victim's clothing "failed to yield the presence of male DNA," the papers said.

At the request of the Innocence Project, the Bronx district attorney's office last year asked the New York Police Department's property clerk division to search for the rape kit at an evidence warehouse in Queens.
Despite what Innocence Project lawyers and prosecutors said were earlier claims that it was lost or had been destroyed, officials found the kit, which was tested for DNA by two labs earlier this year. The tests cleared Newton.

Newton said he wants to complete his bachelor's degree and figure out career options. He was a bank teller at the time of his arrest. He also indicated he would pursue legal action against the police department for its handling of the case.

Man vs. God in fireworks display

Mother Nature's fireworks are cooler.... and more destructive.