Published articles, messages, chats about current legal newshttp://www.lawyers.comhttp://editorial.lawyers.com/common/image/favicon.icohttp://www.lawyers.com1616http://research.lawyers.com/news-headline/Supreme-Court-ruling-helps-bring-back-price-fixing-l:838826043.html?method=rss Manufacturers are embracing broad new legal powers that amount to a type of price-fixing - enabling them to set minimum prices on their products and force retailers to refrain from discounting. For the better part of a century, punishing retailers for selling at cut-rate prices was an automatic violation of antitrust law. However, a Supreme Court ruling last year involving handbag sales at a Dallas mom-and-pop store, Kay's Kloset, upended that original 1911 precedent, potentially altering the face of U.S. discount retailing. Retailers said an array of manufacturers now require them to abide by minimum-pricing pacts or risk having their supplies cut off. Jacob Weiss of BabyAge.com, which specializes in maternity and children's gear, said nearly 100 of his 465 suppliers now dictate minimum prices and nearly a dozen have cut off shipments to him. "If this continues, it's going to put us out of the baby business," he said. Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:00:00 -0400 http://research.lawyers.com/news-headline/Suit-demands-EPA-data-on-pesticides-and-bees--Environmental-group-suspects-chemical-is-linked-to-decline-l:838826009.html?method=rss The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is refusing to disclose records about a new class of pesticides that could be playing a role in the disappearance of millions of honeybees in the United States, a lawsuit filed Monday charges. The Natural Resources Defense Council wants to see the studies that the EPA required when it approved a pesticide made by Bayer CropScience five years ago. The environmental group filed the suit as part of an effort to find out how diligently the EPA is protecting honeybees from dangerous pesticides, said Aaron Colangelo, a lawyer for the group in Washington. In the last two years, beekeepers have reported unexplained losses of hives - 30 percent and upward - leading to a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. Scientists believe that the decline in bees is linked to an onslaught of pesticides, mites, parasites and viruses, as well as a loss of habitat and food. Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:00:00 -0400 http://research.lawyers.com/news-headline/Nurses-ignored-patient-as-he-died--Report-says-Cherry-staffers-played-cards,-danced,-hugged-while-man-sat-for-22-hours-l:838825970.html?method=rss Nurses at the state's mental hospital in Goldsboro walked past a patient sitting in a chair for more than 22 hours without giving him food or helping him to the bathroom before he died, according to an investigative report released Monday. The hospital's treatment of Steven H. Sabock, 50, who was found lifeless after a day without food, is one reason federal officials told state officials last week that they may stop sending federal money to Cherry Hospital, one of the state's four psychiatric hospitals. Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:00:00 -0400