ABA Journal Top Stories

• Lawyer Under Fire for Using Dud Grenade in Closing

  Sheriff's officers are investigating a Kansas attorney for criminal use of explosives after they learned he used a dead grenade as a prop during his closing statements at a trial Monday. Lawyer Sam Kepfield pulled the dud grenade out to make a point in a forgery and theft case against [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 3:44pm EST
  

• DOJ Drops All Money-Laundering Charges Against Miami Lawyer

  Federal prosecutors asked Wednesday to dismiss the drug money-laundering case against Miami criminal defense lawyer Ben Kuehne. "I have had throughout a deep and abiding belief that things would turn out well in the end,'' Kuehne said in a statement provided to the Miami Herald. "However, I did not know [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 3:32pm EST
  

• ABA Praises Holder for Decision to Bring Gitmo Detainees to Trial

  ABA President Carolyn Lamm sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Wednesday, praising his move to bring detainees suspected of being involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks to trial. "The transfer of these high-profile cases to federal court affirms this nation’s adherence to due process and the rule of" [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 3:05pm EST
  

• Solo’s Complaint Against Firm Results in $45K Frivolous Suit Sanction

  New York solo Frank Shernoff represented his wife in a stock options dispute against her former employer, reached a settlement and later renounced it, saying opposing counsel from Day Pitney misrepresented its terms. Shernoff said in subsequent state court suit over the federal case that Day Pitney benefited from a [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 2:39pm EST
  

• New Competency Programs Can’t Be Just a Cover for Pay Cuts

  Law firm managers are closely watching Pittsburgh's Reed Smith as it moves ahead with its new talent-development program it's calling CareeRS. But Human Resource Executive reports that some critics remain skeptical that the program, at first geared toward the firm's associates, will succeed. Under the program, associates are no longer [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:50pm EST
  

• Bankruptcies Up 34 Percent; Lawyers Observe Health Care Cost Impact

  The number of federal bankruptcy cases is up more than 34 percent for the 12 months ending Sept. 30—the end of the federal judiciary's fiscal year—than it was for the prior 12 months, according to statistics released today. Business filings are up 52 percent over 2008 (58,271 from 38,651) while [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 1:07pm EST
  

• Candid Comments from Casey Anthony’s Lawyer: ‘Do That Barack Obama Thing’

  A death-penalty lawyer on Casey Anthony’s defense team had some candid comments about death penalty closing arguments in an Orlando appearance last year. Lawyer Andrea Lyon talked about pro death-penalty “killer” jurors, and how lawyers can appeal to those who are willing to spare their client by using emotional words [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 12:28pm EST
  

• In-House Counsel Want ‘Concierge Services’ From Firms

  At an Association of Corporate Counsel meeting in October, legal marketing consultant Larry Bodine found that what corporate clients really want is for their outside firms to offer "concierge services." This is a concept Bodine says he has suggested for years, usually to "blank stares" during retreats and training sessions. [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 12:10pm EST
  

• Judge Cites Tough ‘New Era’ in Conflicts Cases as She Sentences Ex-DOJ Lawyer

  Former Justice Department lawyer Robert Coughlin cried in court Tuesday as he apologized to a judge for accepting gifts from a lobbyist friend while working on legislative affairs in the Justice Department. Coughlin could have been sentenced to six months in jail. Instead he was sentenced to a month in [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 11:07am EST
  

• Lateral Recruiting Blog Lists More Than 150 Job Openings

  A legal career consultant is scouring job openings listed on the websites of the nation’s top 100 law firms and posting them on her new blog, RecruiterEsq.com. Melissa Sachs, a former lawyer and former recruiter, has posted more than 150 lateral openings on her blog, according to Legal Blog Watch. They [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:33am EST
  

• The Cost of a Law Firm Layoff: Multiply Senior Lawyer’s Salary by Five

  Law firms are laying off lawyers with an eye toward cost savings. But Wharton management professor Peter Cappelli says there are also costs associated with a “brain drain” and they can amount to about five years’ salary for the layoff of just one senior lawyer. Speaking in an interview with [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 10:00am EST
  

• Florida Bar Investigating Four Lawyers from Rothstein Firm

  The Florida Bar is investigating four lawyers from the dissolved South Florida firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler amid an investigation into an alleged $1 billion Ponzi scheme by name partner Scott Rothstein. Rothstein has voluntarily surrendered his law license. Now the bar is investigating four other RRA lawyers, according to the [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:12am EST
  

• FBI Raids Offices of ‘Flashy Financier,’ a Former Ice Miller Lawyer

  The FBI has raided the offices of an Indianapolis lawyer-turned-financier who was featured on the CNBC feature “Rise of the Super Rich.” The FBI raided two businesses of “flamboyant lawyer” Timothy Durham: Obsidian Enterprises in Indianapolis and Fair Financial in Akron, Ohio, the Indianapolis Star reports. The article says Durham [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 7:56am EST
  

• Court Fines Insurer & Lawyer for Appealing Duty to Defend

  An insurance company that not only refused its contractual duty to defend a policyholder but appealed a trial court's ruling that the duty to defend was not a close case has been hit with a $2,500 sanction by a Georgia appellate court. And Atlanta attorney Dennis Brown of Buckley Brown [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:34pm EST
  

• Indicted Defense Lawyer Makes Unusual Filing in Civil SEC Case

  A 56-year-old Georgia securities law practitioner and another man have been criminally charged in federal court in North Carolina concerning an alleged interstate investment fraud. But that shouldn't prevent defense lawyer Gregory Bartko from continuing to represent a client in a claimed $53 million civil fraud case in federal court' [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 6:17pm EST
  

• Was Court Decision on Beachfront Rights a Taking? High Court to Decide

  The U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether a court decision, rather than an executive or legislative decision, can create an unconstitutional taking of private property. The case before the Supreme Court involves property owners who object to a beach renourishment program, the Washington Post reports. The government is [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:19pm EST
  

• Meet William Marler, a Food Safety Lawyer Hungry for Change

  Young and "extremely overconfident," William Marler took a leading role in his first food-borne illness case when he was only five years out of law school. But news coverage about his severely injured 9-year-old client helped persuade another 200 alleged victims of a fast food restaurant in Washington state to [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:08pm EST
  

• Lawyer Sues Homeless Center, Says Disheveled People Scare Away His Tenants

  A Houston lawyer has sued a homeless center and church, claiming “disheveled individuals” attracted by offers of free meals and services are scaring away his tenants and hurting the value of his building. Lawyer Harry Arthur claims The Beacon day center for homeless people is a public nuisance, and he’s [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 1:50pm EST
  

• Juries Award $103M in Punitives in Two Prempro Cases

  Philadelphia juries have awarded two breast-cancer victims $103 million in punitive damages in two separate cases against Pfizer Inc. involving the marketing of the hormone replacement drug Prempro. Jurors had heard testimony that Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, paid consultants to write medical journal articles to play down [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 11:44am EST
  

• Veterans Courts Poised to ‘Exponentially Increase,’ Backer Says

  Special courts set up to help veterans caught up in the criminal justice system are increasing in popularity. The idea is to divert veterans accused of minor crimes into drug treatment or job training, allowing them to avoid jail time or fines, USA Today reports. In the last two years, [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 10:48am EST
  

• 9th Circuit Upholds Ban on Class Actions by Legal Aid Lawyers

  A federal appeals court has upheld restrictions on legal aid lawyers funded by the Legal Services Corp., including a ban on filing class actions. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the rules, enacted along with LSC budgets each year since 1996, in an opinion on Monday, [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:47am EST
  

• Judge Warns Lawyers for Blackwater Defendants About Single Spacing

  A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has put lawyers for five Blackwater Worldwide contractors on notice that their failure to double space won’t be tolerated. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Urbina wrote in a short notice filed on Monday that the lawyers submitted a legal memorandum in single-space type, according to [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:25am EST
  

• Lobster Criminals Unite Conservative Ed Meese and the ACLU

  The transformation of former Attorney General Edwin Meese from a tough-on-crime conservative to an opponent of vague criminal laws highlights an unusual alliance between activists on different sides of the political spectrum. At one time, Meese called the American Civil Liberties Union part of the “criminals’ lobby.” Now he says [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 8:00am EST
  

• Chair and Vice Chair of Howard Rice’s Business Practice Jump to Other Firms

  The chair and vice chair of the business department of Howard, Rice, Nemerovski, Canady, Falk & Rabkin left last week to join to other law firms. Deborah Marshall, who chairs the department, went to Sidley Austin, where she will be joined by Howard Rice partners Hank Barry and Stephen Fronk, [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:24am EST
  

• Man Wrongly Jailed for Murder Helps Make Case for Actual Innocence Test

  A little-noticed opinion by a New York judge earlier this month didn't simply free Fernando Bermudez after 18 years in prison in a murder case. It found that he didn't commit the crime. By doing so, Manhattan Supreme Court John Cataldo lent further weight to growing concern that not simply [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 7:49pm EST
  

• Blind Law Grad Sues Bar Exam Group, Seeks OK to Use Screen Reader

  Although she is legally blind, Stephanie Enyart earned her law degree with the help of software that enlarges her computer screen and converts text to audio. And, when the 32-year-old graduate of the University of California-Los Angeles School of Law asked state bar officials for permission to use the same [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 7:10pm EST
  

• Too Embarrassed to Make Layoffs, Lawyer Stole $9.3M, Gets 7 Years

  Too embarrassed to admit that he'd suffered financial reverses and make layoffs, a well-known Arkansas plaintiffs attorney instead admittedly stole $9.3 million from client trust funds he controlled to keep his law firm going. “I built several businesses. I went through a cash-flow crisis,” Steven Eugene Cauley told U.S. District' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 4:52pm EST
  

• Sutherland Elimates Lockstep, Cuts 1st-Year Pay in Atlanta

  In the latest move by a market leader to eliminate the traditional lockstep progression toward partnership, Sutherland has reconfigured its 175 associates from year-by-year classes to three groups into which they advance based on skills. Their pay increases also will be tied to skills increases, recounts the Daily Report in [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 3:39pm EST
  

• Appeals Court OKs $5M in Punitives for Victim of Phone Hoax Strip Search

  A Kentucky appeals court cut from $1 million to $400,000 a punitive damages award to a McDonald's manager who was fired and charged with a crime after she says she was duped into pressuring a young worker to comply with instructions from a prank caller to submit to a strip [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:55pm EST
  

• Several States Move Closer to National Bar Exam

  The debate for a uniform bar exam heats up as more jurisdictions consider the adoption of a single exam and scoring system that would be accepted from state to state. Missouri bar officials say they could offer the first national exam as early as 2010, USA Today reports. Jurisdictions also [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:49pm EST
  

• What In-House Counsel Want: Relationship Building and Quick Answers

  Sometimes legal costs aren’t the most important thing to in-house counsel selecting their outside lawyers. In-house lawyers also want law firms that are willing to take the initiative to build the relationship, according to a National Law Journal report on a recent panel discussion in Boston. The panel at the [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:42pm EST
  

• LSAT Test-Takers Jump by Nearly 20%; Should They Consider the Alternatives?

  The number of people taking the Law School Admission Test is at an unprecedented high, and the recession is a likely reason. But some are questioning whether bad economic times are a sufficient reason to go to law school. "We assume that the economic downturn is causing more people to" [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 1:06pm EST
  

• US Says $10M in Rothstein Ponzi Cash Paid Law Firm Salaries; Bugatti Seized

  An amended forfeiture filing alleges that proceeds from an alleged Ponzi scheme operated by South Florida lawyer Scott Rothstein helped finance his law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. The amended filing by the Miami U.S. attorney's office says the now-dissolved law firm earned about $8 million in one recent year, but [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:08pm EST
  

• Defendant Argues Law Firm’s YouTube Video Amounted to Defamation

  A company accused in a class action lawsuit of selling a dietary supplement that doesn’t live up to its memory claims has turned the tables on the plaintiffs’ firm, claiming its lawyers gave interviews and posted a YouTube video with defamatory statements. On Friday, the class action defendant, Brain Research [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 10:34am EST
  

• ‘The Right Program for Every Student’ Is Not a Contract, Court Tells 2L

  A transfer student unhappy with his “C” grade in a legal writing course has lost a lawsuit seeking to force New York Law School to change to a pass-fail system. Plaintiff Timothy Keefe claimed he was disadvantaged when New York Law School placed him in Legal Writing II, according to [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:15am EST
  

• Ohio AG: Major Credit Agencies ‘Sold Out’ in Toxic Mortgage Mess

  As federal elected officials and administrators mull potential regulatory reform to rein in lenders accused of causing a mortgage meltdown nationwide, the attorney general of Ohio has stepped into the breach and filed a federal lawsuit against the three largest credit rating agencies, Reuters reports. They created a financial crisis, [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:35pm EST
  

• Jury Says Philip Morris Must Pay $300M to Longtime Smoker

  A jury in South Florida says Philip Morris USA must pay $300 million, including $244 million in punitive damages, to a 25-year Benson & Hedges smoker who argued that the cigarette company committed fraud by concealing the dangers of smoking from her. Lawyers for Lucinda "Cindy" Naugle, who is a [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:15pm EST
  

• Double Whammy for Some at Seyfarth: Deferred Start Plus Pay Cut, Too

  In a double whammy for some incoming associates who expected to start work at Seyfarth Shaw in January, the law firm has deferred half of the incoming class until October—and cut first-year pay for all first-year associates. Seyfarth is deferring eight of the 16 new associates previously expected to begin [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:22pm EST
  

• Rothstein Receiver Finds October Surprise: Hundreds of Millions of Missing Dollars

  Hundreds of millions of dollars disappeared last month from the accounts of South Florida law firm Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, a receiver said today in a bankruptcy proceeding. Bloomberg covered the revelation by the dissolving law firm's receiver, retired Miami Judge Herbert Stettin. “Huge amounts of money were moved and removed' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:40pm EST
  

• Fieger Firm Agrees to Pay $131K to Resolve FEC Contributions Probe

  The law firm of Michigan trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger will pay $131,000 to resolve a probe by the Federal Election Commission, an amount that pales in comparison to the potential fine if commissioners had found a knowing violation of finance laws. The payment will resolve an FEC probe into contributions [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:45pm EST
  

• Don’t Cry for Me, New York: A Disbarred Civil Rights Lawyer Goes to Jail

  Disbarred civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart had a few words for her followers on Thursday before she surrendered to begin serving her 28-month prison sentence for helping an imprisoned terrorist communicate with his followers. As she walked toward the courthouse, Stewart recalled a labor organizer executed in 1915 after a [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:42am EST
  

• Judge Scolds Lawyers for Document Blizzard: ‘You Wouldn’t Do This to a Jury’

  U.S. District Judge Gregory Frizzell has endured 25 days of testimony in Oklahama’s pollution case against the poultry industry, but it’s the blizzard of paperwork that is really fraying his nerves. On Thursday, the Tulsa judge scolded a group of about 30 lawyers in Oklahoma’s case for blanketing him with [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:14am EST
  

• Law Departments Cut Costs by Squeezing Law Firms, Freezing Staff Pay

  Companies are trying to cut their legal budgets, and it’s affecting in-house lawyers whose salaries are frozen and outside law firms asked to reduce rates and offer alternatives to hourly rates. Alternative fees have been touted as the up-and-coming way to reduce outside legal costs. But law departments are trying [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:30am EST
  

• Struggling South Florida Divorce Lawyers Offer Discounts, Accept Credit Cards

  Business is off by as much as 35 percent for some South Florida divorce lawyers, spurring discounted rates and creative payment plans. The economy is forcing many lower-income couples to put off divorce, lawyers tell the Miami Herald. Sometimes a couple can’t afford to live independently, or one spouse relies [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 9:09am EST
  

• Unemployed NY Lawyers Could Benefit from London Firm’s Outsourcing

  Eight of London’s top law firms are considering outsourcing some of their legal work, and another eight already send some legal work outside. But the news isn’t all bad for lawyers. Allen & Overy’s contract with Integreon for document review sends some of its work to India—and some to New [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:39am EST
  

• Concerned Divorce Lawyer Follows Client, Witnesses Shooting Aftermath

  A concerned divorce lawyer following her client home after a consultation watched in horror as the woman tumbled from the car, shot by her husband who was hiding in the back seat. The client, Ashley Kendall, was reported in critical condition, the Oregonian reports. Oregon lawyer Sharon Mitchell was so [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:04am EST
  

• Skadden Jumps on the Bonus Bandwagon

  Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has announced its associate bonuses, and they match the lower amounts being paid at two other law firms. Associate bonuses at Skadden will range from $7,500 to $30,000, according to the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, the American Lawyer and Above the Law. Last year, [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 7:25am EST
  

• Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in E-Mail Cost 2 Their Jobs

  A hearing officer had discretion to terminate an 11-year government civil service employee over her obnoxious treatment of a co-worker, a New York appeals court has ruled. The fired woman, Penny Sindoni, was an organizer of the "I Hate Teena" club directed at a disliked fellow Tioga County Health Department [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:54pm EST
  

• Senate Confirms Controversial Obama Nominee to 7th Circuit Bench

  After a delay of more than five months, the U.S. Senate today has confirmed a controversial judge nominated to the federal appellate bench by President Barack Obama. The vote was 59-39, with the sole Republican vote in favor of Judge David Hamilton cast by Sen. Richard Lugar, who represents the [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:39pm EST
  

• Officer Who Tasered Girl, 10, with Mom’s OK Is Suspended for Not Taping Incident

  Called to an Arkansas home after the mother of a 10-year-old girl couldn't get her to take a shower, an Ozark police officer wound up shocking her briefly with a electronic stun gun last week as she was "violently kicking and verbally combative." Then Dustin Bradshaw handcuffed the now-unresisting child' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:55pm EST