Richard Meyer, previously chair of the patent practice at McGuireWoods LLP, will join Townsend from McGuireWoods' Tysons Corner office, serving as head of East Coast litigation. Also joining Townsend from McGuireWoods is partner Jonathan Link, special counsel Andrew Pratt and associate Andrea Tiglio.

"For an IP firm, Washington, DC is a logical choice by virtue of its proximity to the Patent and Trademark Office, the International Trade Commission and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit - all venues where we have been extremely active for years," said Townsend Chairman James Gilliland in a statement.

Townsend also recently opened practices in Seattle and San Diego. In addition to its home office in San Francisco, it also has practices in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, Calif., Denver and Tokyo.

http://www.townsend.com

A Los Angeles jury in 2001 had rejected Davis' claims, but the trial judge, Robert C. Hubbell, threw out the verdict and ordered a new trial after several jurors accused two members of the panel of misconduct. An appellate court in 2005 restored the jury verdict, saying conflicting accounts of what happened in the jury room did not merit a new trial. Restricting its review to a narrow legal issue - whether the appellate court was correct in reviewing the competing juror accounts in the absence of a rationale being provided by Hubbell for his own ruling - the Supreme Court affirmed the appellate decision.

"We are pleased this lengthy litigation is finally over," said NFL executive vice president Joe Browne.

Jeff Birren, the Raiders' general counsel, said, "The Supreme Court ruled that because the judge failed to insert a couple of extra words of explanation, the Raiders should be denied a new trial. The Supreme Court's ruling is incomprehensible."

Davis had claimed more than $1 billion worth of damages from the NFL, but jurors didn't believe his account that the league forced his decision to move back to Oakland by imposing onerous terms before it would help build a new Hollywood Park stadium. The jury sided with the NFL, which argued Davis took the deal in Oakland because he thought it would turn out best for the team.

After the verdict was reached, Davis personally interviewed jurors and found some who were willing to sign statements saying a member of the panel was prejudiced against the Raiders. That juror, Joseph Abiog, maintained he had no bias, saying he only had joked that "I hate the Raiders" because he once lost a bet on the team in Las Vegas.

The Oakland contract has been disastrous both for the Raiders and taxpayers in the city and in Alameda County, as Raiders fans refused to buy all the pricey personal seat licenses and club seats that the deal's proponents had projected. The Raiders have fallen to among the lowest revenue-producing teams in the league, while the city and county have paid $236 million to cover the deal costs to date, a number that will increase until bonds used to rebuild McAfee Coliseum are retired in 2025.

Panner also installed small cameras in air vents above an examination table to record a nurse practitioner performing breast and pelvic exams on a 16-year-old patient.

The recordings were made in 2001 at the Modoc Medical Clinic and were discovered three years later by hunters walking in a field, the U.S. attorney's office said. The tapes had been buried in a Tupperware-style container.

Scott said Panner admitted producing the tapes and acknowledged he kept them because he was a "pack rat." Calls to a residential number in Panner's name in Alturas went unanswered Monday.

According to state Medical Board records, Panner was a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, and had practiced medicine for 27 years. He surrendered his medical license in April 2006.

He faces up to five years in jail and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced in September in U.S. District Court.

Still, many veterans of those days must feel a sense of betrayal. Was what we stood up for as right - and this applies to those urging obedience to the law and those protesting in the streets - all wrong?

Members of the county school board must feel that the high court has turned its back to its efforts to make classrooms' racial makeup reflect the county's.

Lost among the arguments and counterarguments was the simple fact that the case didn't have to be. Louisville had won national attention in 1956 for voluntarily desegregating its public schools in compliance with Brown vs. Board of Education. It was a token action since housing patterns dictated that neighborhood schools would remain single-race.

By the 1970s, the city's demographics had changed. Housing patterns, in part spurred by urban renewal, had shifted. Louisville's West End, once dominated by ethnic, blue-collar families, became the home for blacks fleeing the inner city and, in many cases, urban renewal's relentless bulldozers. White families moved to the suburban developments springing up across Jefferson County.

A ring of small cities surrounding Louisville blocked the city from annexing the new communities. And the county's sleepy, essentially rural school system found itself scrambling to build schools fast enough to accommodate the influx.

By the early 1970s, it was apparent the Louisville school system was close to the tipping point where the city's remaining white families would flee. The county schools, by contrast, were almost all white. There were a few historically black neighborhoods scattered across the county, most of them in one school district. Both districts became the target of desegregation suits. The Kentucky Commission on Human Rights argued that the districts should be merged.

The city school board then complicated the cases. It bowed to the reality of a shrinking tax base and the threat of white flight and went out of business. The Legislature enacted merger legislation, and the systems, which had little respect for each other, began to try to reconcile their cultures and educational philosophies. U.S. District Judge James Gordon, who was hearing the desegregation suits, gave them breathing room by finding both systems legally desegregated.

But the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals wasn't convinced. Newburg School, serving a historically black community, went through the eighth grade. All other county elementary schools stopped at the sixth grade. It was a vestige of de jure segregation that Judge Gordon acknowledged having had difficulty "writing around" in finding the schools in compliance with Brown.

The case bounced back to Judge Gordon with an order to put a desegregation plan into effect. To help in drafting it, Judge Gordon turned to two young administrators in the city system. They developed a system of school clusters, pairing inner city predominantly black schools with suburban schools. Students were to be transported among the schools according to the first letter of their last name. To achieve racial balance, white students would be bused two years; black students, 10.

Implementation of the plan marred Louisville's image across the country. The ugly pictures from protest marches and rallies showed up on the 6 p.m. news nationwide. The Courier Journal and Louisville Times building at Sixth and Broadway became a favorite target because of our calls for obedience to the law. Reporters and photographers covering the marches and rallies took an undeserved share of the abuse.

To have it end up with the almost flip statement by Chief Justice John Roberts that the "way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race" is dismissive of centuries of discrimination. It puts down the good-faith efforts by Louisville and thousands of other communities to overcome that past.

Americans of all races deserve better of their highest court.

‘‘I came to understand that providing payment services to online gambling businesses serving customers in the United States was wrong,’’ Lawrence said prior to entering his plea.

Lawrence, 47, faces as much as five years in prison on the charge. Sentencing is set for Oct. 29.

John David Lefebvre, another Neteller founder, and Lawrence were arrested and charged with conspiracy in the matter in January. Lefebvre is awaiting trial.

As part of his plea agreement with the government, Lawrence agreed to cooperate with its investigation and agreed to a forfeiture of $100 million.

Lawrence, who lives in the Bahamas, was Neteller’s chairman until May 2006 and left its board last October, while Lefebvre was the company’s president from October 2000 to 2002 and served on the board until December 2005.

Neteller, which is publicly traded in London, has said Lawrence and Lefebvre are no longer affiliated with the company. Neteller has stopped handling transactions involving online gambling from U.S. customers.

Electronic Clearing House Inc., another online payment processing company, entered a nonprosecution agreement with the government in March and agreed to disgorge $2.3 million. Neteller was one of its customers.

U.S. authorities have cracked down on online gambling in recent months, arresting executives of some overseas online gambling firms when they travel to the United States.

President Bush signed into law legislation in October that makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process payments from U.S. customers to online gambling sites.

Apart from Kim, the Chinese Foreign Minister also held a bilateral meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, and met with Premier Kim Yong Il.

During the meetings, Yang reiterated Beijing's commitment to the six-party talks mechanism and supported the efforts for the implementation of the February 13 joint declaration on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang said.

The six-party talks involve the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

China was communicating and consulting closely with the other parties on the next steps in the talks, he said when asked for fresh dates for the next round of six-way talks, hosted by China.

North Korea last week announced the dispute with the United States over USD 25 million frozen in Macao's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) has been resolved, and vowed to start implementing the disarmament deal struck in Beijing on February 13.

Under the February deal, North Korea was supposed to shut down the Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in exchange for some 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

The financial dispute between the United States and North Korea over the return of the frozen assets held up progress of the talks for months.