By KARINA BROWN 

     VISTA, Calif. (CN) - The principal of Fallbrook High School shut down the award-winning school newspaper and canceled the school's only journalism class after the faculty adviser complained to a school board member about King's censorship of a student editorial criticizing the school's abstinence-only sex education policy, six students and ex-students and the teacher say in Federal Court.  

By ROBERT KAHN 

     Everyone who's upset that Somali pirates captured a Saudi tanker full of $100 million worth of oil, raise your hand. OK, that's 1, 2 ... 31 for the pirates, 0 for Saudi Arabia.
     Everyone who was alarmed when Somali pirates captured that ship full of Russian tanks, bombs, and artillery, raise your hand. OK, that's 3, 4 ... 62 for the pirates, 0 for everybody else.
     The Somali pirates are, quite obviously, murderous bastards, and I didn't mind a bit when they tried to bully an Indian ship on Tuesday and the INS Tabar turned out to be a guided missile frigate, and it blew the pirates to hell, where they belong.
     But there's no denying that people all over the world have a thing for pirates.
     Many Somalis today see the pirates as heroes - and no wonder.
     The country hasn't had a functioning government for 18 years.
     Per capita income for Somalia's 9 million people is around $500 a year - less than $1.50 a day.
     The pirates, who have seized 36 ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean, and still hold 17, are expected to earn $50 million this year. That makes piracy the country's chief source of foreign currency.
     Americans too make heroes out of murderous crooks. In an interview, Elmore Leonard reminded me that during the Depression, a lot of people admired Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde because they robbed banks. And bankers were the guys who foreclosed on farms and houses.
     The Somali pirates did not spring up out of nowhere.
     Western governments used piracy as an instrument of state of hundreds of years. Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh were pirates. Queen Elizabeth asked them, as a special favor, to prey upon Spanish and Dutch ships, and the noble Sirs were glad to do it.
     The famous pirate Harry Morgan was a trusty servant of King Charles II, until Harry absconded with the loot he took from the Spanish off Panama in 1671. Charles had poor Harry arrested - until he needed him again. Then Charles knighted the blighter and turned him loose on the Spanish again.
     E.J. Trelawny told a fine pirate tale in his memoir, Adventures of a Younger Son. Trelawny claims he hooked up two centuries ago with a pirate named De Ruyter, who may have been American. They preyed on British and Dutch ships in the East Indies, and liberated an island from the Dutch East India Company, whereupon the natives treated the pirates as gods, showering them with food and women.
     Trelawny described his life on that island as paradise, though things were a bit rougher at sea. When the pirates spotted prey, they would heat up lead shot, then load it into a cannon and threaten to fire it at the other ship's sails. If their victims didn't surrender, the pirates fired, and the other ship burned up.
     For food, pirates caught sea turtles and turned them upside down on deck. The turtles could live that way for months - fresh turtle whenever the pirates wanted.
     I say Trelawny claimed he did all this, because he was a suspicious character. The summer he quit being a pirate, he met Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley and hung out with them. Trelawny taught Shelley how to sail, and Shelley promptly went out and drowned.
     Thanks a lot, EJ.
     Trelawny dined out for years in London on his tales of piracy. And it's interesting that the English - perhaps the most law-abiding nation of all, except for the Swiss, who are not quite human - the English enjoyed Trelawny's tales, though he had preyed upon them. That's how much people like pirates.
     The Somali pirates are living it up now, but it won't last. They'll pick on the wrong guided missile frigate again, and no one will shed a tear for them. They're living on pure pluck and courage and that's why people admire them, and haven't killed them all yet.
     That's pretty much the situation in our country too. Bankers, mortgage lenders, war profiteers and Republicans have looted our country for billions in the past eight years - stealing far more money and wreaking far more destruction than the Somali pirates ever will. But no one is making Angelo Mozilo or Henry Paulson or George W. Bush walk the plank.
     There's something about theft on a grand scale that appeals to people. Not that the people who do it are not a bunch of bastards who deserve to swing from the nearest yardarm.
By BILL GIRDNER 

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - A child witness broke down in tears Friday under questioning from U.S. Attorney Tom O'Neill who is attempting to prove that the child's mother is guilty of using a computer to hound a neighbor girl to death. But the witness recovered and continued in her effort to exonerate her mother.  

By KARINA BROWN 

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Warren Beatty says Tribune Media Services cheated him of his movie and TV rights to comic strip character Dick Tracy. Beatty, who played the detective in a 1990 movie, wants to make a Dick Tracy TV special.  

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Bruce Willis says a Malaysian prince conned him out of $900,000 in an IPO for Elastomer Technologies, an alleged "green rubber" company. Willis claims His Royal Highness Prince Imram Ibni Tuanku Ja'afar, chairman of co-defendant Petra Group, suckered him by claiming that Al Gore and Mel Gibson had invested in Elastomer too.  

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Rita Wilson seeks declaratory judgment that she need not pay an art dealer $75,000 for a 1962 poster of the Beatles that she wanted to buy for her husband, Tom Hanks. Wilson says that when she asked for a certificate of authenticity, dealer Melissa Pearl became abusive and demanded $300,000 for her "time and trouble."

     BATON ROUGE (CN) - A substitute teacher taped four students' mouths shut and read their grades aloud to the class, embarrassing them, one's mother claims in state court. She sued the East Baton Rouge Parish School System and Tabitha Bell. 

      RALEIGH, N.C. (CN) - A man whose parents and nephew were murdered claims he lost his job and his reputation because Da Capo Press defamed him in Kathryn Eastburn's book, "Simon Says: A True Story of Boys, Guns and Murder." Ty Dutcher claims the book states he has "racked up convictions for drugs, robbery and uncounted numbers of traffic offenses," though he has never been convicted of robbery or drug offenses.  

     BROWNSVILLE, Texas (CN) - FEMA discriminated against poor people in the Rio Grande Valley by rejecting half the applications for home repair assistance after Hurricane Dolly, 15 people and an organization claim in Federal Court. They want FEMA ordered to disclose the standards it uses to adjudicate disaster relief applications. 

By MADISON VENZA 

     AUSTIN (CN) - A Texan is bilking the public by selling useless "software" that he claims will "repair and prevent registry errors on consumers' personal computers," state prosecutors say. James McCreary of The Woodlands pushes the bogus "RegistryCleanerXP" through his companies, Alpha Red and Branch Software, prosecutors say in Travis County Court. 

By JEANINE DEBOER 

     JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (CN) - A man says a pharmacy technician's negligence led to months of taking the wrong medication, his wrongful arrest and the seizure of his vehicle.  

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Ultralife Fitness, Pure Health Labs, Ultra Burn and other sneaks cheat the public with bogus offers of "free" or "trial samples" of diet supplements, the FTC says in Federal Court. The Utah-based companies ask for a small shipping fee, then use the credit-card information they obtain to stiff victims for $80 a month for programs they never asked for, the FTC says. 

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Flo & Eddie, which owns right to The Turtles' songs, claims Ford Motor Co. and J. Walter Thompson ad agency owe it $160,000 for rights to use the tune, "Happy Together," in a Brazilian TV commercial, and another $60,000 for a commercial in Argentina.  

By JOE HARRIS 

     JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (CN) - People are selling phony tickets to Presidential Inauguration Day ceremonies, Missouri's Attorney General warns. One St. Louisian reported an attempt to sell tickets for $1,700 apiece, and other ticket offers are being made online. The only way to get inauguration tickets is from a congressman or senator. The tickets are free, will not be available until a week before Inauguration Day, and must be picked up in person.

      MANHATTAN (CN) - A New York Police sergeant gave secret information from a federal terrorist watch list to someone to use in a child-custody dispute, federal prosecutors say. NYPD Sgt. Haytham Khalil was arrested on Thursday. 

     MANHATTAN (CN) - A federal judge split the difference in a patent fight between two arms dealers. She granted summary judgment to Defense Technology's claim for one "low lethality" weapon, but allowed Combined Tactical Systems to proceed with its patent claim on a similar weapon. 

     MANHATTAN (CN) - Two longtime international arms dealers were convicted of conspiring to arm foreign terrorists and conspiring to murder U.S. citizens. Monzer al Kassar and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy were convicted of the federal charges after a 3-week jury trial.

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - Federal prosecutors say an IRS agent committed tax fraud. Jim Liu, an IRS auditor, also is charged with obstructing an IRS investigation of his tax return.

     AUSTIN (CN) - Two men say the Texas Education Agency fired them to retaliate for their truthful reports of wrongdoing at the agency, including kickbacks paid and/or received with tax money, falsified records, refusal to investigate a suspicious charter school, singling out schools for "random" monitoring, and selling of school credits. 

     SAN DIEGO (CN) - Two more men pleaded guilty to committing mortgage fraud as part of a ring that used phony documents to get loans on $16 million worth of homes that are in foreclosure, federal prosecutors said. Five people have pleaded guilty and a sixth is a fugitive in the scam they ran as Creative Financial Solutions, a putative mortgage broker, at a Broadway address in San Diego.

     October seasonally adjusted mass layoff events (2,140) and initial claims (232,468) decreased from the prior month.
However, both layoff events and initial claims reached their highest October levels since 2001. Twelve states reached program highs in terms of average weekly initial claims for the month of October.

 

     From December 2007 to March 2008, the number of job gains from opening and expanding private sector establishments was 7.1 million, and the number of job losses from closing and contracting establishments was
7.4 million. 
By ANNIE CLEMENS 


     (CN) - A federal appeals court in San Francisco vacated the Bush administration's approval of a plan for offshore drilling in Alaska's Beaufort Sea, ordering the government to take a "hard look" at the drilling's impact on the region's people and wildlife.  

      MANHATTAN (CN) - The pastor of the House of Truth in Oakland, Calif., was convicted of a multimillion-dollar bankruptcy fraud. William H. Spencer and a cohort lied to the judge presiding over the Hawaiian Airlines Chapter 11 proceedings, and claimed to have $500 million in financing from a bank, to try to induce others to invest in their scheme.

By JEFF GORMAN 

     (CN) - An immigration judge relied too heavily on the State Department's country reports in denying asylum to a man who claimed to have been tortured in Guinea for his involvement in a political opposition group, a federal appeals court in New York ruled.  

By PEYTON BURGESS 

     (CN) - The San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District failed to adequately assess the health impacts of a permit process for managing waste emissions at large animal facilities, a California appeals court ruled. 

By SONYA ANGELICA DIEHN 


     (CN) - A New Jersey appellate court tossed a set of rules requiring cities to provide unfettered public access to all beaches in the state, which could have included building new parking spaces and restrooms.  

By JEFF GORMAN 

     (CN) - An Oklahoma law imposing a statute of limitations on medical negligence complaints is unconstitutional because it treats medical cases differently than other cases, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled. 

By PEYTON BURGESS 

     (CN) - The 9th Circuit joined two other circuits in ruling that the Department of Homeland Security should not be able to unilaterally block a motion to reopen immigration proceedings.  

     (CN) - A Texas appeals court upheld a decision to vacate the $34,345 judgment awarded to professional racecar driver Niclas Jonsson on his wage claim against Rand Racing. Justice O'Neill rejected Jonsson's claim that the racing company voluntarily submitted to jurisdiction in California, so the Orange County judgment should apply in Texas.  

By AVERY FELLOW 

     (CN) - Chicago's former head of streets and sanitation properly lost his annuity and benefits after he was convicted of mail fraud for organizing 200 co-workers to send out political ads for the mayor's office, an Illinois appeals court ruled. 

     (CN) - The West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection and the West Virginia Surface Mine Board had the authority to deny a sandstone quarry permit in Pocahontas County without banning all quarry activity in the area, the state appeals court ruled.  

     (CN) - An appeals court in West Virginia upheld a school's automatic two-game suspension for student athletes who get ejected from basketball games. Student O.J. Mayo challenged his suspension by the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission after he was ejected for committing two technical fouls.  

     (CN) - The Connecticut Supreme Court threw out a Connecticut voter's lawsuit challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to appear on the state ballot for president of the United States. Cort Wrotnowski sued Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz for failing to verify that Obama was a natural citizen of the United States. 

     (CN) - A federal appeals court in San Diego allowed an Oregon couple to pursue their claim that Sun Oil Company falsely assured them that their property was free of mercury.  


     (CN) - A federal judge appointed by President Bush ordered the release of five Algerian men from the U.S. naval prison in Guantanamo Bay, saying the government lacked the evidence to hold them there for nearly seven years.  

     WASHINGTON (CN) - Automakers and ther suppliers soon will be able to apply for some of the $25 billion in loans for increasing fuel efficiency or developing plug-in electric vehicles. 

     WASHINGTON (CN) - The Securities and Exchange Commission may have less confetti to throw around on New Years, the last day it will accept paper applications for orders under the Investment Company Act.  

      Click on the document icon for new regulations. 

     Click the document icon for new regulations. 
By MATTHEW HELLER 

     A divided South Carolina Supreme Court has ordered a new trial in an auto accident case because defense counsel did not offer a "race-neutral" reason for striking an African-American man with dreadlocks from the jury. more

By JUNE WILLIAMS 

     SEATTLE (CN) - Two high school cheerleaders say they were unfairly kicked off the squad after the football team circulated topless pictures of them, but none of the football players were punished. The cheerleaders say their private photos were swiped from their cell phones.
 

     LOS ANGELES (CN) - The Rev. Robert Jennings stole $28 million by telling his victims they would be part of a "divinely inspired" international gold exchange, a federal judge ruled. Jennings told more than 500 victims that their money would buy part of 20,000 tons of gold that Israel would sell to the United Arab Emirates.


     NEWARK (CN) - Continental Airlines cheats its flight attendants by paying them only "for hours worked when the employee is on the aircraft and the aircraft door is closed," workers say in a federal class action. They say it's particularly unfair because the airline requires them to show up 30 to 60 minutes before each flight, and doesn't pay them for time spent waiting on delayed flights. 

     QUEENS, N.Y. (CN) - A customer says a dispute over a credit card purchase at Circuit City led a store guard to beat him over the head, face and neck, stick a gun at his head, lock him in a closet for 20 minutes, then file false charges accusing him of assault. Kyle McBride says those charges were dismissed after he spent a long time in jail. And he says his credit-card purchase of a TV had been pre-approved by Circuit City headquarters. 

     Attorney Ruth Gorman claims Latino Communications defamed her and her law office in an article in its weekly newspaper, Que Pasa, in Mecklenburg County Court, Charlotte, N.C. 

     Ruby Tuesday in Daytona Beach refused to serve a black church group because of their race, and called them "N----rs," their pastor claims in Orlando Federal Court. 

     Clorox pushes its Automatic Toilet Bowl Cleaner with Bleach as safe on plumbing, but it contains corrosive chemicals that cause plastic, rubber and metal toilet parts to disintegrate, a class action claims in San Francisco Federal Court. 

     The Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District dumped untreated sewage into the Ohio River, the USA claims in Louisville Federal Court. 


     Barry Z. Levine claims Elliott Landy and Landyvision cheated him of money and credit for 200 photos of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and violated his copyright, in Albany Federal Court. 


     Steven Hodel demands $400,000 from Arcade Publishing and Richard Seaver, royalties for his book, "Black Dahlia Avenger - A Genius for Murder," in New York County Court.

     Men's Wearhouse district manager Ronald Hurt drugged a store manager with Rohypnol and raped her at a company event, the woman claims in Alameda County Court, Oakland. 

     General Growth Properties and its directors defrauded the market with false claims, and its share price dropped from $43.83 to less than $1 when the truth came out, shareholders say in a class action Chicago Federal Court. General Growth is a Real Estate Investment Trust. 

     Vallejo police officers killed a mentally ill man by needlessly Tasering him as his mom drove him to a hospital, the mother claims in Solano County Court, Calif. 

     Dicam claims SprintNextel and Sanyo cell phones violate its patented security technology, in Charlottesville, Va., Federal Court. 

     PharmaNet Development Group inflated its share price through misleading statements, shareholders claim in Trenton Federal Court. 

     Vistaprint and its CEO Robert Keane, of Lexington, Mass., sent 10,225 unsolicited spam email ads with false and misleading subject lines, and the ads are deceptive too, ASIS Internet Services claims in San Francisco Federal Court. It demands $1,000 damages for each email. 

     Federal Express and Jack in the Box violate the Labor Code, workers say in class actions in Los Angeles Superior Court.

     BH S&B Holdings and affiliates, including Heritage Licensing, Cubicle Licensing, and Fashion Plate Licensing, filed for bankruptcy in Manhattan, listing more than $100 million in debts.