The settlement, announced on Friday by state Attorney General Jerry Brown, comes weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it intended to regulate e-cigarettes, battery-powered devices made to look and feel like conventional cigarettes.

Rather than actual smoke, users inhale a vaporized liquid nicotine solution contained in cartridges that fit inside the device. Some cartridges come in flavors like strawberry, chocolate, cookies-and-cream or banana, a feature critics say is designed to appeal to youngsters.

Florida-based Smoking Everywhere and other e-cigarette companies have claimed their products are safe because they contain no carcinogens and no tar and do not produce second-hand smoke.

But the FDA has found that some brands contain a variety of dangerous chemicals, including nicotine and carcinogens such as nitrosamines, and that one brand also contained diethylene glycol, the main ingredient in antifreeze.

The FDA last month warned five makers of e-cigarettes that marketing the devices as quit-smoking aides violates federal laws against unsubstantiated health claims in advertising.

The California consent decree bars Smoking Everywhere, which imports its products from China, from promoting them as smoking-cessation devices unless the FDA approves them for that purpose, or from claiming they are safer than conventional cigarettes without reliable scientific evidence.

Claims that e-cigarettes lack second-hand smoke, tobacco or carcinogens are likewise banned under the agreement.

Moreover, the products must carry warning labels stating that nicotine in the devices is a chemical known by the state of California to cause birth defects or reproductive harm.

The restrictions on marketing claims, as well as prohibitions on advertisements aimed at young people, apply to all Smoking Everywhere promotional materials that appear in California, including over the Internet.

Ads aimed at minors are defined as those with images of people who appear younger than 28, or “cartoons, fashion or music … intended to appeal to people under the legal smoking age.”

Sales of Smoking Everywhere products are banned outright to anyone under 18 years of age as part of the settlement.

Other provisions ban the company from selling its flavored cartridges in California and from selling any of its products in vending machines or in self-service displays that are accessible to minors.

Smoking Everywhere customers will also be required to prove they are 18 or older by showing government-issued ID.

The case is The People of the State of California v. Smoking Everywhere Inc., Superior Court of the State of California, County of Alameda, no. RG10493637. William F. Wright of Sacramento was counsel for Smoking Everywhere.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has for now cleared the way for states to use foreign sources in obtaining a lethal injection drug used in carrying out the death penalty.

Although the Supreme Court has upheld death by lethal injection, the regimen it has approved includes injection with a dose of sodium thiopental that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to render the prisoner unconscious so he does not feel pain. In recent months, Hospira Inc., the only U.S. manufacturer of the drug, has been unable to meet demand, citing unspecified problems with its raw material suppliers. The shortage has left death penalty states scrambling to find alternatives.

Enter Arizona and the case of Jeffrey Landrigan. Landrigan’s lawyers sought to block his execution because state officials would not say where they were getting the drug for the execution, and defense lawyers contended that there was no way to evaluate the safety of the drug without knowing where it came from. Pressed by a federal judge, the state admitted it was using a drug from a foreign country, but wouldn’t specify which one.

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NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) – Pro football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor is returning to court on his rape case in suburban New York.

Taylor’s the case is to be called in Rockland County Court. Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala described the court session as a status conference. District Attorney Thomas Zugibe (ZOO’-guh-bee) said Wednesday he wasn’t sure what would happen.

The ex-NFL MVP is accused of paying $300 to have sex with a 16-year-old Bronx runaway in a suburban hotel room in May. He’s pleaded not guilty to third-degree rape and other charges.

A new judge, state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly, has taken over the case.

More celebrity legal news.

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(CNN) — A federal appeals court has ruled against an Arizona law that requires residents to prove their U.S. citizenship to register to vote, but upheld a part of the same law that mandates residents to show identification before voting.

The decision made by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Tuesday was part of an ongoing court battle surrounding Arizona’s Proposition 200.

Arizona passed the law in 2004, prompting legal challenges.

Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer and Secretary of State Ken Bennett blasted the court’s decision Tuesday in a joint statement.

“The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down a simple, common sense protection approved by Arizona voters requiring that all individuals provide evidence of U.S. citizenship prior to registering to vote. This decision is an outrage and a slap in the face to all Arizonans who care about the integrity of their elections,” the statement said.

Along with this immigration law, Brewer has also been in ongoing legal battles over Senate Bill 1070, another set of immigration laws that were supposed to start earlier this year.

A judge has already blocked parts of that law such as a controversial provision that instructed police to ask people about their immigration status.

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Amazon and the state of North Carolina have been fighting in court as NC tries to get residents that purchased on Amazon to pay sales tax the state feels it is owed. NC has demanded that Amazon reveal all sorts of buyer information like names, addresses, and the exact products purchased so it can asses sales tax on the items.

Amazon has refused to give specifics on what was purchased, though it did provide the names and addresses of buyers to NC authorities. Amazon has won a temporary reprieve in court with the judge presiding over the case stating that NC has “no legitimate need” to have details about purchases revealed to it.

However, the court said that the state could destroy the information is has now and then request new information from Amazon that would not be able to be tie a specific product to a specific user. Undoubtedly, NC will request this information and the courts will force Amazon to provide it setting a precedent none of us wants to think about.

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, saying he committed no crime, has been pressing for a trial since he was indicted five years ago on charges that he illegally funneled corporate money to help Republicans in Texas legislative races in 2002.

DeLay is finally getting his wish, with jury selection set to start Tuesday for one of the most polarizing politicians during President George W. Bush’s administration. DeLay’s case had been slowed down by appeals of pretrial rulings.

The jury was expected to be chosen from a group of 91 people, and Senior Judge Pat Priest said he expected a jury to be chosen by Wednesday.

Testimony in the case was set to begin Monday, the eve of Election Day, with the trial lasting at least three weeks.

DeLay’s attorneys were expected to question potential jurors about any biases they might have against the former Republican lawmaker. His attorneys – fearing DeLay could not get a fair trial in Austin, the most Democratic city in one of the nation’s most Republican states – unsuccessfully tried to get the trial moved.

DeLay has said the charges were politically motivated by Ronnie Earle, the Democratic former Travis County district attorney who originally brought the case.

Prosecutors have said Earle, who retired in 2008, did not seek the indictment based on politics.

The 63-year-old DeLay is charged with two crimes: money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted of money laundering, he faces from five years to life in prison. The conspiracy charge carries a prison term of two to 20 years. DeLay has chosen for the judge, not the jury, to sentence him if he’s convicted.

DeLay and two associates – Jim Ellis and John Colyandro – are accused by prosecutors of taking $190,000 in corporate money collected by a state political action committee DeLay started and illegally funneling it through the Republican National Committee in Washington to help elect GOP state legislative candidates in 2002. Under Texas law, corporate money cannot be directly used for political campaigns.

In 2002, the GOP won a majority in the Texas House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War era. That majority helped Republicans push through a congressional redistricting plan engineered by DeLay that sent more Texas Republicans to Congress in 2004.

Ellis and Colyandro, who face charges that are less serious than those against DeLay, will be tried later. A previous charge alleging the three men had engaged in a conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws was dismissed.

DeLay was once one of the most powerful Republicans in Congress, earning the nickname “the Hammer” for his heavy-handed style in bringing recalcitrant members of the GOP into line for votes.

But the criminal charges in Texas, as well as a separate federal investigation of his ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, forced DeLay to step down as majority leader and eventually to resign after representing suburban Houston for 22 years. The Justice Department has since ended its federal investigation into DeLay’s ties to Abramoff without filing any charges against DeLay.

Since his indictment in 2005, DeLay has been mostly out of public view except for a stint competing on ABC’s hit show “Dancing With the Stars.” He withdrew after an injury. DeLay now runs a consulting firm based in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land.

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TOKYO (AP) – Toyota Motor Corp. says it is recalling 1.53 million Lexus, Avalon and other models, mostly in the U.S. and Japan, for brake fluid and fuel pump problems.

Toyota said it will recall about 740,000 cars in the U.S. and 599,000 in Japan.

The world’s biggest automaker has recalled more than 10 million cars and trucks worldwide over the last year for a variety of problems, including sticky gas pedals.

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Cash-strapped California would get some relief by legalizing pot, but the biggest boost would be thanks to massive law enforcement cuts, not new tax revenue, experts say.

The state’s marijuana legalization initiative known as Proposition 19 goes to the polls on Nov. 2. And there’s been a lot of talk about taxing it to rescue the state from its budget woes. But even legalization’s top advocates say the drug won’t be a financial cure-all.

“No one’s promising that this is going to solve everything economically,” said Quintin Mecke, spokesman for Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who was the lead sponsor on two earlier efforts to legalize marijuana.

Most of the financial benefit would actually come from budget cuts – which means job cuts — according to a report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. The institute estimates that legalization could add $1.312 billion annually to California’s coffers. But the forecast’s breakdown calls for a savings of $960 million in law enforcement costs and an additional $352 million in tax revenue.

Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University and senior fellow at the Cato Institute who co-authored the study, said the majority of the cost savings would be a result of cuts to law enforcement personnel whose services would no longer be required. And axing police officers, prison guards, prosecutors and judges would hurt the job market, at least initially, he said.

That leaves an estimated $352 million in annual tax revenue, a tally that Miron described as “not irrelevant, but not very consequential.” He said it’s a welcome bonus for Californians who prefer legalization regardless, but it’s not enough to sway those who oppose it. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Cash-strapped California would get some relief by legalizing pot, but the biggest boost would be thanks to massive law enforcement cuts, not new tax revenue, experts say.

The state’s marijuana legalization initiative known as Proposition 19 goes to the polls on Nov. 2. And there’s been a lot of talk about taxing it to rescue the state from its budget woes. But even legalization’s top advocates say the drug won’t be a financial cure-all.

“No one’s promising that this is going to solve everything economically,” said Quintin Mecke, spokesman for Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, who was the lead sponsor on two earlier efforts to legalize marijuana.

Most of the financial benefit would actually come from budget cuts – which means job cuts — according to a report from the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. The institute estimates that legalization could add $1.312 billion annually to California’s coffers. But the forecast’s breakdown calls for a savings of $960 million in law enforcement costs and an additional $352 million in tax revenue.

Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University and senior fellow at the Cato Institute who co-authored the study, said the majority of the cost savings would be a result of cuts to law enforcement personnel whose services would no longer be required. And axing police officers, prison guards, prosecutors and judges would hurt the job market, at least initially, he said.

That leaves an estimated $352 million in annual tax revenue, a tally that Miron described as “not irrelevant, but not very consequential.” He said it’s a welcome bonus for Californians who prefer legalization regardless, but it’s not enough to sway those who oppose it.

“I think that California is being somewhat optimistic in thinking that this is going to make a significant difference to its budget situation,” said Miron, who supports legalization. “I think it won’t do much for the economy.”

Coming up with a tax revenue forecast for Prop 19 is difficult. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s yet another of case of discrimination within the United States Capitol Police (USCP). This time, the victim is a female Special Agent assigned to protect one the nation’s most powerful politicians. Special Agent Luanne Moran, who was assigned to the USCP’s Dignitary Protection Division (DPD) for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has filed a sex discrimination and retaliation complaint that is now pending in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Moran v. U.S. Capitol Police. Special Agent Moran’s complaint is based on discrimination and retaliation that she has suffered since 2008 for opposing sexual harassment by a male Capitol Police supervisor, specifically sexist and degrading comments he made toward other female agents. Read the rest of this entry »