Search

A California man is suing the Hilton Hotels Corporation for charging him 75 cents for a copy of the USA Today newspaper that he did not request, according to a complaint filed last week in federal court in San Francisco. The man, Rodney Harmon of Sacramento County, spent the night of March 28 in the Hilton Garden Inn Sonoma County Airport. When he left his room the next morning, he saw a copy of USA Today on the floor in front of his door, the familiar, bright blue logo peering up at him. But Mr. Harmon, 55, was not interested. He stepped over the paper and walked away. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Woody Allen has fired back at the clothing maker American Apparel, which he is suing for using his image in advertisements without his permission, The Associated Press reported. In court papers filed Wednesday, lawyers for Mr. Allen said that American Apparel had ''adopted a 'scorched earth' approach'' in its defense, employing excessive subpoenas and requests for documents from him and engaging in a ''despicable effort'' to intimidate him, according to The A.P. On Tuesday a lawyer for American Apparel said that at the trial in May, he intended to bring up details of Mr. Allen's personal history, including his affair with Soon-Yi Previn, now his wife. The billboards, above, which appeared in New York and Los Angeles, used an image of him dressed as a rabbi in ''Annie Hall.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Southern California Regional Rail Authority has filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to determine whether its contractor can be held responsible for the deadly collision of one of the rail agency's Metrolink commuter trains and a freight train. The agency, already facing two lawsuits related to the Sept. 12 crash, sued Connex Railroad after they could not agree on whether their contract protects the other from liability, according to court papers released Friday. Connex provides engineers who run the Metrolink trains, including the engineer blamed for the deadly collision. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A federal district court judge in Los Angeles reinstated a wrongful-death lawsuit brought by the family of the rapper Notorious B.I.G., reversing an earlier decision to dismiss the case, The Associated Press reported. Judge Florence-Marie Cooper threw out the lawsuit on March 21, ruling that the family had missed a California deadline for bringing a claim against the city and two former police officers. The family appealed, and the judge ruled that federal claims in the case can proceed, according to court papers obtained Thursday. The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was gunned down in Los Angeles in 1997, at age 24. His killing remains unsolved, and two wrongful-death suits have been filed against the city, claiming that rogue police officers conspired to commit the murder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on a lawsuit filed by Spanish-language television broadcaster Univision Communications in Los Angeles Superior Court to stop Nielsen Media Research from making changes in the way it measures television ratings in Los Angeles, California. Complaint against the switch to the local people meters from the current system of using paper diaries along with meters; Concern about the possible undercounting of black and Hispanic viewers; Urban markets where Nielsen already made the changes.

Opinion. Discusses the series of articles that were published in The San Jose Mercury News, claiming that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the distributing of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, California. Absence of evidence to support allegations made against the CIA; Importance of the CIA to the American government; When editor of the paper made a public apology for the articles which were proven to be false.