High court backs foreign campaign contribution ban

Court News 2012/01/09 10:02   Bookmark and Share
The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal seeking to expand the ability of foreigners to contribute to American political campaigns.

The justices on Monday upheld a federal court ruling in favor of the ban on foreign contributions from all but immigrants who permanently live in the United States.

Washington lawyer Michael Carvin wanted the justices to extend their 2010 decision in the Citizens United case allowing greater political participation by corporations and labor unions. Carvin sued on behalf of two people with visas to work in the United States.

A three-judge court in Washington said Congress was well within its powers when it prohibited most foreigners from making campaign contributions.
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Federal court hears case on Arizona ski resort

Court Watch 2012/01/09 10:02   Bookmark and Share
A federal appeals court is hearing arguments in a case that challenges the planned use of reclaimed water for snowmaking at an Arizona ski resort.

The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case Monday morning in San Francisco.

The Save the Peaks Coalition and a group of citizens want the U.S. Forest Service to do a more thorough environmental analysis on the health and safety risks of using treated wastewater for artificial snow.

A lower court has ruled that the Forest Service adequately considered the impacts of the snowmaking plan and that the record supported the agency's decision to allow it.

More than a dozen tribes consider the mountain sacred. American Indian tribes argued unsuccessfully in a separate case that the plan violated religious freedom.
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Details emerge about hatchet, razor attacks in Missouri

Court News 2012/01/09 10:01   Bookmark and Share
Court documents reveal grisly details about the hatchet killing of one woman and the razor attack of another in northwest Missouri, crimes that have been connected to a Platte City man.

Quintin P. O'Dell, a 22-year-old Eagle Scout, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree assault and armed criminal action. Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said the death penalty would be considered in the Platte County Circuit Court case.

O'Dell is jailed in Platte County on a $750,000 cash-only bond. There is no record of him having an attorney, according to the prosecutor's office.

The investigation into the hatchet attack began this spring after the body of Alissa Faye Shippert, 22, was discovered. She had been attacked while fishing in the Platte Falls Conservation Area.

But O'Dell, who had worked with Shippert at a convenience store, wasn't charged in the crime until after he was questioned in the December razor attack. The victim in that incident, a 21-year-old woman, awoke in her Ferrelview apartment the morning after Christmas with her belly slashed open.

Authorities said she was unconscious and on a ventilator for several days after the attack. According to the probable cause statement, she gradually began sharing details with investigators, including that she had spent Christmas night drinking with O'Dell.

According to court documents, O'Dell was interviewed by investigators this past week and told them he called the woman Christmas night and asked if he could "hang out." She agreed and he arrived after 11 p.m. with a six-pack of beer and a bottle of tequila, a detective said in the probable cause statement.

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