The Florida Senate will soon pass its first redistricting proposal, but the final say will be made by the courts. BY MARY ELLEN KLAS, HERALD/TIMES TALLAHASSEE BUREAU TALLAHASSEE -- After a long-fought battle to impose redistricting standards, proponents of the Fair Districts constitutional amendments have new maps — and they’re not what they had hoped for. But the first maps to be voted on by the full Senate this week are not unexpected either. The maps — one for the state Senate, the other for Congress — each leave intact the controversial minority districts that consolidate Democratic voters in oddly-shaped districts. They have deeply divided the Democratic caucus and have forced Democrats to rely on the court to sort the issue out. “The Legislature’s proposals were drawn in violation of the new criteria,” said Dan Gelber, a former Democratic state senator … [Read more...]

By Sarah Frier and Ryan Flinn, Bloomberg FT. LAUDERDALE -- Health Management Associates Inc.'s former head of compliance says in a lawsuit he was wrongfully fired after he reported fraudulent billing. The company says he was sent away after refusing to give up confidential documents. The dispute has boiled over into the public arena, causing HMA to lose a fifth of its value over two days, and spurring Chief Executive Officer Gary Newsome to address the controversy head-on yesterday in comments during the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. Newsome told investors and analysts that on Jan. 8, his 2- month-old BMW Alpina B7 was rear-ended in an accident. A day later, when he saw his company's stock plunge as a result of investor concerns over the lawsuit, “I felt rear-ended again,” he said, drawing laughter from the standing-room-only … [Read more...]

By DONNA BALANCIA, Editor The Florida Law Journal Robert Plotkin, author of Genie in the Machine, thinks the future of patent law lies in invention software. And decisions made regarding whether or not to patent that myriad software will affect a great number of innovators for years to come. "It will be possible for companies to have smaller teams doing bigger product design," Plotkin said. "You can leverage software to do it. You will see more small companies that have the software compete with big research and development divisions at major corporations. Because cost is reduced by software you'll see smaller companies able to compete." Plotkin, a patent attorney with clients who came to him with their software ideas, has done a lot of thinking about this topic. The question nagged at him so much, he decided to write a book about it. In Genie in the Machine, he takes a look at … [Read more...]

5. Charlie Sheen sues Warner Bros. for firing him. Is there anyone in the US who doesn’t know that actor Charlie Sheen is filled with tiger blood and is—duh!—winning? After a much-publicized public meltdown in February, Sheen was fired from his hit CBS show Two and a Half Men. Sheen struck back with a $100 million wrongful-termination lawsuit against Warner Bros. and the show’s creator Chuck Lorre. In September, the two sides reached a settlement and agreed to dismiss the lawsuit. Although the terms of … [Read more...]

The California Supreme Court issued the long-awaited decision in Harris v. Superior Court, addressing how to interpret the administrative exemption under California law.  The case reverses a decision of the court of appeal that effectively narrowed the exemption to employees who make company policy. At its narrowest, the Harris decision addresses the limited question of whether insurance adjusters can qualify as exempt under California's administrative exemption as it has existed at least since 2001 with the issuance of Wage Order 4-2001. Even on that limited question, the Cal Supremes declined to provide a definitive answer except to say that the court of appeal's analysis had been wrong. Read more: … [Read more...]