Baseball-Rain postpones Yankees-Tigers Game Four

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/baseball-rain-postpones-yankees-tigers-game-four-013947997--mlb.html

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Judge rules for cheerleaders in Bible banner suit

File - In this Sept. 19, 2012 file photo, Kountze High School cheerleaders and other children work on a large sign in Kountze, Texas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that he is intervening in a lawsuit that cheerleaders filed against the school district. The district told the cheerleaders to stop using Bible verses at football games after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained. (AP Photo/The Beaumont Enterprise, Dave Ryan, File)

File - In this Sept. 19, 2012 file photo, Kountze High School cheerleaders and other children work on a large sign in Kountze, Texas. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced Wednesday that he is intervening in a lawsuit that cheerleaders filed against the school district. The district told the cheerleaders to stop using Bible verses at football games after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained. (AP Photo/The Beaumont Enterprise, Dave Ryan, File)

(AP) ? A judge stopped an East Texas school district on Thursday from barring cheerleaders from quoting biblical scripture on banners at high school football games, saying the policy appears to violate their free speech rights.

District Judge Steve Thomas granted an injunction requested by the Kountze High School cheerleaders allowing them to continue displaying religious-themed banners pending the outcome of a lawsuit set to go to trial next June 24, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said. Thomas previously granted a temporary restraining order allowing the practice to continue.

School officials barred the cheerleaders from displaying banners with religious messages such as, "If God is for us, who can be against us," after the Freedom From Religion Foundation complained. The advocacy group says the messages violate the First Amendment clause barring the government ? or a publicly funded school district, in this case ? from establishing or endorsing a religion.

Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott spoke out in support of the cheerleaders on Wednesday. Perry appointed Thomas to fill a vacancy on the 356th District Court, and he is running for election to continue in the post as a Republican.

Abbott also filed court papers to intervene in the lawsuit and sent state attorneys to support the cheerleaders' position that the district's ban violated their free speech rights. The Texas Education Code also states that schools must respect the rights of students to express their religious beliefs.

"It is the individual speech of the cheerleaders and not in fact the government speaking," David Starnes, the cheerleaders' attorney said, according to KDFM television. "It is not just one girl or one person in the group that comes up with the quote, but it's on a rotating basis that each girl gets to pick the quote. That is their individual voices that are being portrayed on the banner."

Thomas Brandt, the attorney representing the school district, said the superintendent had acted to comply within existing legal rulings.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which is dedicated to the separation of church and state, argued in the context of a football game it was unclear who was responsible for the messages, the school or the cheerleaders.

"The speech in question is government speech or, at a minimum, school-sponsored speech," the group said in court papers. "If the majority of the cheerleaders were atheists, would a court support their 'right' to hold up a banner insulting Christianity or all believers? The district has every right to simply prohibit all run-through and on-field banners."

Perry said Texans should encourage the cheerleaders.

"Anyone who is expressing their faith should be celebrated, from my perspective, in this day and age of instant gratification, this me-first culture that we see all too often," Perry said Wednesday. "We're a nation built on the concept of free expression of ideas. We're also a culture built on the concept that the original law is God's law, outlined in the Ten Commandments."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-10-18-Texas%20Cheerleaders-Scripture/id-a2a52f76d14342d98f3a1cbf10abdf9b

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Dutch firm ASML looks to buy US light beam maker

(AP) ? ASML Holding NV, the biggest supplier of equipment to semiconductor manufacturers, has offered to buy Cymer Inc. of the U.S. for around $2.55 billion in cash and shares.

Cymer's technology makes focused beams of light. ASML uses such beams in machines to trace out the circuits of computer chips: ASML is a key supplier for the biggest chipmakers, including Intel Corp., Samsung Inc. and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

Intel, TSMC and Samsung all purchased stakes in ASML earlier this year.

ASML said its offer of $20.00 in cash and 1.1502 ASML shares per Cymer share represents a 61 percent premium to Cymer's average closing price over the past month. Cymer shares closed at $47.83 Tuesday.

The deal must be approved by regulators and Cymer shareholders.

Separately Wednesday, ASML reported third quarter earnings of ?322.6 million ($422.4 million), down from ?350.1 million a year ago. Sales fell 16 percent to ?1.29 billion.

CEO Eric Meurice said his customers ? the chipmakers ? are uncertain over demand for chips that go in tablets and smartphones, while the market for desktop computer chips is weak ahead of the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows 8.

Demand for memory chips will be "subdued" in the first half of 2013, while demand for logic chips is growing, he said.

SNS Securities analyst Victor Bareno said ASML's outlook was "a little light but not out of line with the weakening trend in the industry."

ASML shares fell 3.1 percent to ?40.05 in early trading in Amsterdam.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2012-10-17-APFN-EU-Netherlands-Earns-ASML/id-2f48ab6102db4081b63032144e12d419

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Fox Settles 'American Horror Story' Legal Battle Over 'Zombie Boy ...

Zombie Boy

Zombie Boy otherwise known as model Rick Genest, who appeared in Lady Gaga?s Born This Way music video filed claims with Fox stating that his copyrighted body art was stolen and replicated for the FX hit show American Horror Story. Now it looks like the model may be receiving at least some relief as lawyers from Twentieth Century Fox Television have settled the copyright fight.

Rick Genest, is known for his body art and has appeared in the media for it so much that he copyrighted his art. It is said that Genest was not pleased in hearing that actor Evan Peters wears a similar tatt?d image of the skeletal design during some flashback sequences on the Emmy winning show?American Horror Story. The flashback scenes were?detrimental?to the character?s arc and eventually revealed (SPOILER ALERT) that the character went on a killing rampage in his high school and later committed suicide.

After the two parties reached an agreement, Genest released a statement to the Hollywood Reporter:

?For complete clarity, I was not approached by Fox to license what I consider to be the use of my likeness or my copyrighted body art in American Horror Story. However, I understand that there was no intent to connect me with the character in their show and I am pleased that I have come to a resolution of this matter with Fox.?

It?s likely that Fox came to a settlement because it would have been a strenuous and expensive task to digitally edit out all the scenes where the make up is worn by Peters. Ultimately it is believed that the settlement was reached to avoid a lawsuit that would expose Fox to hundreds of thousands in copyright infringement penalties.

Do you think the American Horror Story tattoo is a replica of Rick Genest?s tattoo?

Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/365652/fox-settles-american-horror-story-legal-battle-over-zombie-boy-tattoo/

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Gold nanoparticle cancer treatment in dogs has no observed side ...

We have witnessed the devastating side effects of current cancer therapies for far too many years -- we might be able to shrink or destroy cancerous masses or cells, but the effects of blasting an individual with localised radiation or injecting toxic chemicals into their bloodstream are, in themselves, deadly. We're due to wait until till as long as 2030 to see graphene become a drug delivery tool that targets only cancerous cells, but now, a collaborative team at the University of Missouri has proven that radioactive gold nanoparticles are an effective and side effect-free cancer treatment -- at least, that is, in dogs with aggressive prostate cancer.

"Dogs represent such a good model because they develop the disease naturally," explains Sandra Axiak-Bechtel, an assistant professor of oncology at the University of Missouri (MU) College of Veterinary Medicine. "It's a disease that normally we don't have a particularly good treatment for so it offers us as veterinarians the opportunity to better and more aggressively treat the disease while preserving their quality of life, and in the future hopefully it will give us a better way of treating men with prostate cancer more aggressively as well."

Previous research by Stanford University had revealed the potential for gold nanoparticles to "tag" cancerous cells. The nanoparticles were coated in imaging reagents before being introduced to brain tumour patients. "We hypothesised that these particles, injected intravenously, would preferentially home in on tumours but not healthy brain tissue," said lead radiologist on the case Sam Gambhir. This, he added, is down to the fact that, "the tiny blood vessels that feed a brain tumour are leaky, so we hoped that the spheres would bleed out of these vessels and lodge in nearby tumour material." They did just that. Using MRI, photoacoustic and Raman imaging, the coated particles could be picked out and act as a map of the brain tumours. All that was left to do was activate the gold nanoparticles so that they could go from passive mapping tools to weapons.

And this is exactly what the MU team has done.

The treatment involves introducing radioactive gold nanoparticles directly to a prostate tumour, causing it to shrink. Thus far, it has produced no side effects in the dogs taking part and has also been successful in shrinking tumours in mice. The doses required are thousands of times smaller than those used in chemotherapy, and it can also be introduced directly to the tumour, rather than passing into disease-free tissue and organs.

The results are a huge step forward in the advancement of nanotechnology in healing and curing cancer. Until now, therapy using gold nanoparticles to attack cancer cells has been purely lab-based. For instance, pancreatic cancer cells have already been destroyed using gold nanoparticles shattered by radiowaves, and breast cancer cells were destroyed in experiments using a targeted 42C laser. How safe these procedures would be in human subjects still remains to be seen, but the side effect-free dogs -- the only other mammal to naturally develop prostate cancer -- sets an exciting precedent.

According to Cancer Research UK, prostate cancer is the fourth most common form of the disease in this country, with 40,841 new cases in 2009. If it is not picked up at its early stages, it becomes very aggressive and spreads rapidly. At that point, high doses of chemotherapy are the main course of treatment but are largely ineffectual in delivering a cure. It's another reason why dogs were the ideal candidates for the study. Not only is it naturally occurring in them, suggesting the results would also be mirrored in humans, says Axiak-Bechtel, but it usually goes undiagnosed for too long: "Because dogs can't tell us how they feel, many times they are diagnosed with the disease too late, but this treatment gives us some hope that we can still combat aggressive tumours".

Source: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/16/gold-nanoparticles-cancer-dogs

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Shark social networking

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 16-Oct-2012
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Contact: Andrea Boyle Tippett
aboyle@udel.edu
302-831-1421
University of Delaware

Shark migrations studied with underwater robot along Delmarva Peninsula

University of Delaware researchers are using an underwater robot to find and follow sand tiger sharks that they previously tagged with transmitters. The innovative project is part of a multi-year partnership with Delaware State University to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of the sharks in real time.

"In the past week our new, specially equipped glider OTIS which stands for Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years," said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. "This is the first time that a glider has found tagged sharks and reported their location in real time."

OTIS is a remote-controlled device that looks like a yellow torpedo and normally darts through the ocean to sample water conditions. Oliver outfitted the apparatus with acoustic receivers that can recognize signals given off by the sharks' transmitters as they travel through coastal waters, rapidly reporting the encounters.

The technology allows the course of OTIS to be changed to follow the sharks and test the water surrounding them. Sharks were initially found on Oct. 10, and OTIS doubled back to again locate the sharks. The approach will help scientists follow where the sharks are going more quickly than conventional tracking techniques.

Sand tigers are the largest commonly occurring shark in Delaware's bay and coastal waters, serving as Delaware Bay's apex predator and playing a key role in the ecological balance of the region.

"Sand tigers have suffered from a number of threats that ultimately led to population declines," said Delaware State's Dewayne Fox. "In 1997 sand tigers were listed as a 'species of concern' by the National Marine Fisheries Service, although very little is known of their migrations and habitat requirements."

The research involves three different types of tags. One is an acoustic transmitter that "pings" receivers while passing by a set of 70 devices situated mostly in Delaware Bay, with a few along the Atlantic coast. The receivers are maintained by Fox, who has tagged more than 500 sharks since 2006.

The team is also using 34 pop-off satellite archival tags, which store data on the sharks' journeys for one year and then automatically release from the animal to dispatch a location signal for retrieval from the water.

The newest type of tag is called a VEMCO mobile transceiver (VMT), a larger tag that both transmits and receives information to communicate its location and listen for the pings of other sharks, fish or marine mammals outfitted with acoustic tags.

"It will tell us not only where it is, but who it's with," Oliver said. "It's like a social network for sharks."

Together with their students, Oliver and Fox spent the summer inserting the transmitters into sand tiger sharks in Delaware Bay. Using bait, hooks and little patience, they caught the sharks up to nine feet long -- and carefully pulled them into a stretcher alongside their boat.

Veterinarians from the Georgia Aquarium trained Oliver's graduate student, Danielle Haulsee, to insert the small transmitters in a quick surgery.

Scientists suspect that the sharks migrate widely along the Eastern Seaboard, and the Delaware research team plans to use newly collected information to map sand tiger shark habitats. They will cross-reference the sharks' data with satellite and remotely sensed environmental conditions to create a comprehensive picture of the animals' habitats.

"The integration of biotelemetry with ocean observations represents a fusion between observing networks on the East Coast," Oliver said.

Fox is part of the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network (ACT), which tracks thousands of animals as they move up and down the coast, while Oliver participates in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS), which uses satellites, underwater robots and models to study the coastal ocean. Their hope is that the combination of various data sets will assist natural resource managers in predicting where sand tiger sharks live and when for conservation and recovery efforts.

Using OTIS will help researchers know which water conditions sharks prefer to swim in during their migrations. The glider can travel further out than the static receivers' locations and also collect information on temperature, water clarity and oxygen levels. If the sharks head to a certain place, scientists may be able to better understand why, Oliver explained.

Last week his team took an educated guess on where to find the sharks, launching the glider off the coast of Delaware's Indian River Inlet and heading south. After five days, they received transmissions from sharks about 4 to 9 miles off the coast of Assateague Island, Md. Next they will try to direct the glider to stay near the sharks, unless they move south of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. The machine can stay out on a mission for about four weeks before needing a battery recharge.

"We have at least another two weeks of battery," Oliver said. "We'll see how it develops."

###


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?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 16-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Andrea Boyle Tippett
aboyle@udel.edu
302-831-1421
University of Delaware

Shark migrations studied with underwater robot along Delmarva Peninsula

University of Delaware researchers are using an underwater robot to find and follow sand tiger sharks that they previously tagged with transmitters. The innovative project is part of a multi-year partnership with Delaware State University to better understand the behavior and migration patterns of the sharks in real time.

"In the past week our new, specially equipped glider OTIS which stands for Oceanographic Telemetry Identification Sensor detected multiple sand tiger sharks off the coast of Maryland that were tagged over the past several years," said Matthew Oliver, assistant professor of oceanography in UD's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. "This is the first time that a glider has found tagged sharks and reported their location in real time."

OTIS is a remote-controlled device that looks like a yellow torpedo and normally darts through the ocean to sample water conditions. Oliver outfitted the apparatus with acoustic receivers that can recognize signals given off by the sharks' transmitters as they travel through coastal waters, rapidly reporting the encounters.

The technology allows the course of OTIS to be changed to follow the sharks and test the water surrounding them. Sharks were initially found on Oct. 10, and OTIS doubled back to again locate the sharks. The approach will help scientists follow where the sharks are going more quickly than conventional tracking techniques.

Sand tigers are the largest commonly occurring shark in Delaware's bay and coastal waters, serving as Delaware Bay's apex predator and playing a key role in the ecological balance of the region.

"Sand tigers have suffered from a number of threats that ultimately led to population declines," said Delaware State's Dewayne Fox. "In 1997 sand tigers were listed as a 'species of concern' by the National Marine Fisheries Service, although very little is known of their migrations and habitat requirements."

The research involves three different types of tags. One is an acoustic transmitter that "pings" receivers while passing by a set of 70 devices situated mostly in Delaware Bay, with a few along the Atlantic coast. The receivers are maintained by Fox, who has tagged more than 500 sharks since 2006.

The team is also using 34 pop-off satellite archival tags, which store data on the sharks' journeys for one year and then automatically release from the animal to dispatch a location signal for retrieval from the water.

The newest type of tag is called a VEMCO mobile transceiver (VMT), a larger tag that both transmits and receives information to communicate its location and listen for the pings of other sharks, fish or marine mammals outfitted with acoustic tags.

"It will tell us not only where it is, but who it's with," Oliver said. "It's like a social network for sharks."

Together with their students, Oliver and Fox spent the summer inserting the transmitters into sand tiger sharks in Delaware Bay. Using bait, hooks and little patience, they caught the sharks up to nine feet long -- and carefully pulled them into a stretcher alongside their boat.

Veterinarians from the Georgia Aquarium trained Oliver's graduate student, Danielle Haulsee, to insert the small transmitters in a quick surgery.

Scientists suspect that the sharks migrate widely along the Eastern Seaboard, and the Delaware research team plans to use newly collected information to map sand tiger shark habitats. They will cross-reference the sharks' data with satellite and remotely sensed environmental conditions to create a comprehensive picture of the animals' habitats.

"The integration of biotelemetry with ocean observations represents a fusion between observing networks on the East Coast," Oliver said.

Fox is part of the Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry Network (ACT), which tracks thousands of animals as they move up and down the coast, while Oliver participates in the Mid-Atlantic Regional Association Coastal Ocean Observing System (MARACOOS), which uses satellites, underwater robots and models to study the coastal ocean. Their hope is that the combination of various data sets will assist natural resource managers in predicting where sand tiger sharks live and when for conservation and recovery efforts.

Using OTIS will help researchers know which water conditions sharks prefer to swim in during their migrations. The glider can travel further out than the static receivers' locations and also collect information on temperature, water clarity and oxygen levels. If the sharks head to a certain place, scientists may be able to better understand why, Oliver explained.

Last week his team took an educated guess on where to find the sharks, launching the glider off the coast of Delaware's Indian River Inlet and heading south. After five days, they received transmissions from sharks about 4 to 9 miles off the coast of Assateague Island, Md. Next they will try to direct the glider to stay near the sharks, unless they move south of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. The machine can stay out on a mission for about four weeks before needing a battery recharge.

"We have at least another two weeks of battery," Oliver said. "We'll see how it develops."

###


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/uod-ssn101612.php

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Speech Therapy Office | Blogmemes

Speech-Language Development? specializes in developing customized speech disorder therapy treatment plans for each person on program. With individualized therapy sessions, we are able to properly treat apraxia of speech and fluency issues such as stuttering and cluttering of speech.

We invite you to browse through our comprehensive list of articles to learn about various speech and language disorders at http://sldq.org/

Source: http://www.blogmemes.net/speech-therapy-office/

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Perfectly Punchy Halloween Party Drinks

Add a couple of ingredients to your favorite punch recipe for an instantly spooky drink.

We?ve talked about making spooky and delicious Halloween party treats, now it?s time to make the drinks just as festive. These are some simple ways to take your ordinary punches to extraordinary heights.

Ghostly Ice Hand

You can turn any punch into an instant Halloween hit with this simple trick. All you need is a rubber glove, water, and food coloring or candies (if desired).

For a basic ghostly hand fill the rubber glove (make sure it?s powder-free) with water and tie it off on the end like a balloon. Be sure not to overfill to keep the hand shape. Place the hand in the freezer. Once the glove is solid, cut off the glove and you?ll be left with a white ice ghost hand. Put this in the punch bowl (I prefer a red punch) for a ghostly sight.

For a little more ambience, add food coloring or gummy candies to the water before you freeze it. For example, add green food coloring to the glove and the hand will be green when frozen.

Blood Dripping Drinks

Adding a little blood to your beverage isn?t hard. In fact, all you need is cranberry concentrate. This is a drink you?ll want to make as you serve them, not before hand. ?Start with a brightly colored punch and pour it into a clear glass (with or without ice). Then?add a tablespoon of cranberry concentrate around the inner rim of the glass. You will see the ?blood? slowly start trickling down into the glass. Perfect for all those little vampires at the party.

Worm Drinks

You can add gummy worms in any drink for a festive look, or if you want to take it a step further you can add some frozen worm ice cubes to the drink. Purchase the mini gummy worms and place them into your ice-cube tray with water. Freeze them and add the frozen worm cubes to the drinks. Kids will love them!

Witch?s Brew

Many of you will already know this trick, but adding a little dry ice to the punch bowl can turn a normal punch into a witch?s brew. I suggest adding the dry ice first and pouring the liquid over the ice for maximum effect. When the dry ice and liquid meet, a reaction takes place and you will have instant spooky fog. You must be careful when using dry ice though. Never touch it with your hands. Be sure to use tongs.

These are just a few simple tricks to make any punch or drink ready for your Halloween festivities. Do you have a favorite Halloween drink recipe or trick to making it more festive?

About Tara

I am a wife and work-at-home mom of three. I am an avid blogger, social media manager, lover of food, and founder of WestHome Media. I love that I have found a way to stay at home with my children without giving up my profession. I am a green living advocate and love blogging about food, green living, and anything parenting! Check out my website at http://westhomemedia.com/.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Source: http://www.socialmoms.com/food/perfectly-punchy-halloween-party-drinks/

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$199 LG Optimus G Will Hit AT&T Shelves November 2, Pre-Orders Start October 16

lgoptimusGAT&T has just announced that it's version of theLG Optimus G will be available starting November 2. But for those who need no physical introduction to make purchasing decisions, pre-orders begin tomorrow. The phone will cost $199.99 on-contract.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/-aSQseIbIJw/

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Card fee "settlement" just start of big legal battle

(Reuters) - Visa, Mastercard and a group of retailers plan to ask a judge this week to approve a landmark settlement of a lawsuit over credit card fees, setting the stage for a battle with Wal-Mart and hundreds of other merchants who say it is a bad deal.

Announced in July, the $7.2 billion settlement is intended to resolve seven years of antitrust litigation between merchants and credit-card companies and their banks over so-called "swipe fees" that retailers pay to process credit-card transactions.

Merchants alleged the card companies and banks worked together to inflate rates for these interchange fees, costing billions of dollars each year.

If approved, the settlement would apply to the nearly 8 million merchants that take Visa Inc and MasterCard Inc's cards.

But in the months since it was filed, a number of major retailers and trade groups have said they would rather have no deal than the one that court-appointed lawyers negotiated on their behalf. On Friday, 10 of the 19 trade groups and stores that led the litigation against the card companies said they would ask U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to reject the settlement.

If approved, the deal would be the largest federal antitrust settlement in U.S. history. In addition to a $6.05 billion payment and $1.2 billion in temporary fee reductions, the deal calls on card companies to allow merchants to charge customers extra for using certain cards. It would also release Visa and Mastercard from a wide range of antitrust claims and new lawsuits over interchange fees.

"This is a remarkably and fatally flawed deal," said Jeff Shinder of law firm Constantine Cannon, who argues that the settlement forces merchants to give up valuable legal rights.

Four of the major trade groups now opposing the deal have replaced their court-appointed counsel with Shinder, a veteran antitrust lawyer who has already represented clients in two other multi-billion dollar antitrust settlements with Visa and Mastercard.

Shinder also represents Wal-Mart Stores Inc , the world's largest retailer, which was not part of the original lawsuit, but would be bound by the settlement if approved.

Retail and restaurant heavyweights such as Target Corp , Starbucks Corp and Lowe's Cos Inc , and other national restaurant and retailer groups have also signaled they plan to fight the deal.

That is an unusual show of force against a proposed class-action settlement, legal experts said.

"You don't usually see a lot of objectors in class actions and you don't usually see them of this size and significance," said Jay Tidmarsh, a professor at Notre Dame School of Law.

The settlement also has the support of some big-name retailers, including Kroger Co , the largest U.S. grocery chain operator, and its No. 2 rival, Safeway Inc .

Among questions the settlement's supporters raise are whether objecting merchants are trying to create a legal stalemate to pressure Congress for credit-card fee legislation.

The "over-the-top criticism" from Shinder and the objectors is "untethered to the law, economics and dynamics of this case," Richard Arnold, who represents individual stores, including Kroger and Safeway, said in a September 18 letter to Shinder filed with the court. His clients include a group of about 20 large stores that have agreed to settle.

Those stores, mostly supermarket and drug store chains, have maintained individual lawsuits alongside the class action. They struck a separate deal for $550 million from the credit card companies and banks, but would still be subject to the non-monetary portions of the class action settlement - including the rule changes and litigation releases.

Representatives for Kroger and Safeway said the settlement would let them communicate with customers directly for the first time about swipe fees. They said consumer awareness of swipe-fee costs could motivate them to switch to less costly payment methods, such as cash.

"We think it will begin to produce real competition in the payments business and potentially lower costs for all consumers," Melissa Plaisance, Safeway's senior vice-president of finance, said of the settlement.

Those who favor the settlement ? the individual plaintiffs and a shrinking number of the stores that originally brought the suit - say that without a deal, stores will have to continue to operate in a broken interchange system for years longer.

Attorneys appointed by the court to represent and negotiate on the merchants' behalf are scheduled to formally submit the settlement by October 19 for preliminary approval.

Even without the high-profile objectors, the legal process for approving the proposed settlement was expected to stretch well into 2013. If the objectors succeed in convincing the lawyers, or Gleeson, to reject the deal in its current form, that process could go on even longer.

What merchants such as Wal-Mart say they really want is transparency into how swipe-fee rates are set by banks and credit card companies, and they do not think this deal delivers, said Mallory Duncan, general counsel for the National Retail Federation, which opposes the settlement.

The legal standard for approving class action settlements is that it be "fair, reasonable and adequate."

To Shinder, the deal falls short.

"Because of the scope of the (litigation) release, which by its express terms gives defendants more than they could ever win at trial, this settlement is worse than losing," Shinder said.

He explained that, if merchants lost, they would be back to square one, but at least they could go back to court and try again.

Craig Wildfang, one of the lawyers appointed by the court to represent U.S. merchants affected by the settlement, said merchants got "95 percent of what they wanted" from the settlement and that objectors were asking for relief that only Congress or bank regulators could provide.

The lawyers who favor of the deal, along with Visa and Mastercard and the individual plaintiff stores, say they are confident the settlement will be approved.

While the stores supporting the deal have portrayed Shinder, his clients and other objectors as malcontents trying to drag out the litigation to get Congress' attention, scholars say the legal concerns are legitimate ? even though those concerns must be weighed carefully against the court's general reluctance to upset such difficult settlements.

But Gleeson, a well-respected federal district judge, will not have an easy time setting aside the concerns of the nation's largest retailer, particularly when it has joined forces yet again with Shinder and Constantine Cannon. After all, Wal-Mart was the lead plaintiff on behalf of 5 million merchants in a $3.05 billion antitrust settlement with Visa and Mastercard over card-acceptance rules in 2003. Constantine Cannon was its law firm in the litigation and Gleeson was the judge who ultimately approved that deal.

"You have a top judge, you have very fine lawyers for the settlement's proponents, and you're going to have the same thing on the other side," said Howard Langer, a managing partner at Langer Grogan & Diver. "The overwhelming number of settlements are approved, but the overwhelming number of settlements aren't for $7.2 billion and aren't before this kind of judge with this quality of objectors."

(Reporting By Jessica Dye.; Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein. Editing by Brad Dorfman and Andre Grenon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/card-fee-settlement-just-start-big-legal-battle-140221721--sector.html

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