FDA insider-trading probe expands : A Justice Department investigation of stock trades based on inside information from the Food and Drug Administration is widening beyond the government scientist charged two months ago in the case, the Wall Street Journal reported. The DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission originally suggested any illegal activity was limited to FDA chemist Cheng Yi Liang and his son. But people familiar with the matter told the Journal officials are now seeking information from a second FDA scientist and believe the Liangs' activities involved other federal employees. Agency approval or disapproval of a drug or medical device can cause stocks to rise or fall precipitously, making advance knowledge of such announcements a highly lucrative – if blatantly illegal – piece of financial information.
Arizona sheriff cooperates with federal probe : The Justice Department reached an agreement with Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, and his office in a dispute tied to the Obama administration's investigation of Arpaio's treatment of suspects and prisoners. The government said Thursday that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office agreed to provide hundreds of thousands of pages of documents and allowed federal investigators to conduct 220 interviews with its officials, including Sheriff Arpaio. Arpaio has made headlines nationally with tough policies targeting illegal immigrants and harsh treatment of prisoners. The Justice Department opened an investigation into the sheriff's office in March 2009 for alleged discrimination in police practices and jail operations, but Arpaio refused to cooperate. So the department sued last September. Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez said the government is pleased Arpaio is now cooperating.
Georgia immigration law challenged : The American Civil Liberties Union and several other groups on Thursday asked a federal court to stop Georgia from enforcing a tough new immigration law. The new rules, set to take effect July 1, allow police to verify the immigration status of criminal suspects and would force businesses to do so before hiring new employees, the Los Angeles Times reported. The ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and other plaintiffs argue Georgia's House Bill 87 is unconstitutional and copies an Arizona law struck down by a federal court after it was challenged by the Obama administration.
FDA sued for revising view of device : The medical-device maker ReGen Biologics pushed hard for federal approval of its new knee implant—in particular, it wanted a classification for the device that didn't require expensive premarket approval from the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA's legislative office said congressional pressure to grant that classification was "the most extreme he had seen," according to an agency report. Still, the FDA denied two applications for the device. But in the waning days of the Bush administration, the FDA reversed course and gave it the easier classification. ReGen then put the device on the market, but when Obama administration appointees arrived they were shocked. The device's approval process, they concluded, was "compromised.” In March the FDA reclassified the device, forcing ReGen to take it off the market. Now under bankruptcy protection, ReGen this week sued the FDA, saying the agency lacks authority to change the classification, the National Law Journal reported.
Some government attorneys out-earn governors : Lawyers are among the 77,057 federal government employees who were earning higher annual salaries in 2009 than the governors of the states they worked in, according to a report from the Congressional Research Service . This number included at least 13 federally employed attorneys in California who were paid more by federal taxpayers than the $212,179 state governor's salary (though then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger waived his paychecks). At least 60 federal lawyers in New York made more than that state governor's $179,000 salary. The CRS produced the report at the request of Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, who has argued federal employees are overpaid.
Squire Sanders nabs another prosecutor : Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Thomas Zeno is joining a large team of former prosecutors on the white-collar defense team of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, Legal Times reported. Zeno, who retired in May, most recently oversaw the prosecution of health care fraud, which will remain his area of concentration. "I’ve been able to see the kinds of factors that prosecutors take into account when deciding when to investigate and bring charges and when to investigate and say 'No, let's ... look at other options,'" Zeno told Legal Times.
Police: lawyer killed in divorce gone bad : An Arizona lawyer was one of five people shot dead today in Yuma County as part of what police described as a divorce gone bad. Attorney Jerrold Shelley had represented the ex-wife of alleged shooter Carey Hal Dyess in their divorce. She, too, was among the victims, according to the Associated Press . The reasons for the shootings were not clear, but the AP cited court records saying a judge issued a divorce-related protective order against Dyess in 2006. After the shootings Dyess was found dead in a car in the desert, of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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