Court Order

Foreclosure activity in the U.S. fell last month to its lowest level since the start of the credit crisis in 2007, driven largely by drops in states such as California, where the process occurs outside of the courtroom. Foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were logged on 18,780 homes, according to RealtyTrac. That was a drop of 5% from the prior month and a 14% decline from April 2011. One in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

Foreclosure activity in the U.S. fell last month to its lowest level since the start of the credit crisis in 2007, driven largely by drops in states such as California, where the process occurs outside of the courtroom. Foreclosure filings - default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions - were logged on 18,780 homes, according to RealtyTrac. That was a drop of 5% from the prior month and a 14% decline from April 2011. One in every 698 U.S. housing units had a foreclosure filing during the month.

A court order granting pop star Britney Spears' father temporary conservatorship over the troubled singer was extended until Feb. 14, officials said. Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz also named a physician who must report on Spears' medical condition before the next hearing, said Allan Parachini, a court spokesman. The performer was also ordered to have no contact -- orally, by e-mail or text message -- with Sam Lutfi, her friend and manager who had become a constant presence in her life in recent months.

Gov. Jerry Brown has ordered prison officials to consider a single-drug method of executing condemned inmates as the state appeals a court order that has blocked California from carrying out the death penalty. Mention of the directive came in a notice of appeal filed Thursday by Atty. Gen. Kamala D. Harris seeking to counter a February ruling that halted a revised three-drug lethal injection method. The filing came just three days after certification of a November ballot measure that would offer voters the chance to repeal California's death penalty.

Robert George, the perennial Santa Claus whose home is adorned year-round with thousands of decorations, defied a court order on Christmas by opening the doors of his Glendale home to hundreds of visitors.

The "Cotton Club" case prosecutor, fighting accusations that he violated a court order, testified Tuesday he was unaware that a judge had ordered him to disclose witness statements to the defense. David Conn, undergoing a second day of defense examination, said he had opposed a defense motion months ago for disclosure of both written and oral statements and believed a judge had upheld his position. "I did not intentionally disobey a court order," he said. Conn's comments came at a special hearing ordered by Los Angeles Municipal Judge Patti Jo McKay after a key prosecution witness blurted out incriminating statements that the defense lawyers said were a surprise to them.

A woman who defied a court order to stop feeding pigeons has been fined $234, the national news agency TT reported Friday. The woman and a friend were accused of attracting the messy birds to the small town of Matfors, 240 miles north of Stockholm. The news agency did not give their names. The women were fined $78 each in February for feeding pigeons in a residential area, the report said.

Activists protesting the ouster of Selma's first black school superintendent camped out Sunday at City Hall despite a court order barring them from the building outside business hours. "We're waiting to notify the judge that they're violating the order," Mayor Joe Smitherman said.

A condominium association has asked for a court order for residents protesting a planned fumigation to leave their homes long enough to let those workers in. The Huntington Landmark Senior Adult Community Assn. filed a petition in Orange County Superior Court this week, specifically naming Adelaide Capizzi, who organized the protest. She is the mother of Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi. The petition says a delay will cause further damage to an already termite-infested complex.

Investors in an Enron Corp. partnership improperly won a court order freezing $3.8 million belonging to former Enron executive Michael Kopper after he pleaded guilty to criminal charges last month, federal prosecutors said. They asked a Delaware judge to lift a restraining order obtained by members of the LJM2 Co-Investment partnership, clearing the way for the government to take possession of the money.

SACRAMENTO — Officials Monday announced an overhaul of California prisons that would cut spending by billions of dollars, cancel some construction projects, close one lockup and bring back 9,500 inmates housed in other states — all while meeting court orders to reduce crowding and improve medical care. If state lawmakers and federal judges sign off on the proposals, California's long-troubled prison system would look significantly different by 2016 — smaller, cheaper and more autonomous.

The Food and Drug Administration must address the use of antibiotics in livestock, a federal judge in New York has ruled in a lawsuit, a signal that the FDA may soon ban the practice due to longstanding public health concerns. The ruling favors a coalition of plaintiffs including the Natural Resources Defense Council, which filed suit last May in a bid to push the FDA to exert more control over agricultural use of penicillin and tetracycline, two popular antibiotics used in feed to protect chickens, pigs and cattle from disease and speed their growth.

The offers of help arrive at a particularly vulnerable time for troubled homeowners, promising legal tactics that can fend off foreclosures or slash mortgage balances and rates. But the so-called mass joinder lawsuits against lenders often are only the latest foreclosure-rescue frauds designed to extract payments from financially strapped borrowers, the Federal Trade Commission warns. "The firms involved in this scam promise relief but generally don't deliver," the FTC said in a consumer alert posted on its website Thursday.

In a court decision that could exist only in our modern age, a man in Ohio was given the choice of posting a court-approved apology to his estranged wife on his Facebook page every day for 30 days, or facing up to 60 days of jail time. Mark Byron, a photographer in Cincinnati, chose the forced Facebook apology, until suddenly he didn't. On day 26 he abruptly stopped posting the lengthy apology written by the court magistrate, saying it violated his right to free speech. Byron told the Associated Press he was willing to go to jail to protect his rights, but it turns out that it won't be necessary.  Judge Jon Seive of Hamilton County Domestic Court said Monday that the man had posted the Facebook apology long enough, the AP reported.

Can a county judge tell you what to post on your Facebook page? That question is at the heart of the interesting case of Mark Byron, a Cincinnati-based photographer who was ordered to post a court-approved apology to his soon to be ex-wife on his Facebook page every day for 30 days -- or spend 60 days in jail. "The idea that a court can say, 'I order you not to post something or to post something' seems to me to be a 1st Amendment issue," free-speech expert Jack Greiner, told the Cincinnati Enquirer . In June 2011, Byron was found guilty of civil domestic violence against his Elizabeth Byron, and the court gave her a temporary protection order.

When it comes to national security, Michael V. Haydenis no shrinking violet. As CIA director, he ran the Bush administration's program of warrantless wiretaps against suspected terrorists. But the retired air force general admits to being a little squeamish about the Obama administration's expanding use of pilotless drones to kill suspected terrorists around the world - including, occasionally, U.S. citizens. "Right now, there isn't a government on the planet that agrees with our legal rationale for these operations, except for Afghanistan and maybe Israel," Hayden told me recently.

Asian Health Club, a massage parlor at 5859 Melrose Ave., was shut down Wednesday by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Irving Shimer pending further order of the court. Deputy City Atty. Mary E. House requested the closure, claiming that owner-operator Misora Greve had "failed to show the proper respect" for a previous court ban on prostitution.

Sonicblue Inc. moved to overturn a court order for it to track users of its Replay TV digital recording devices and share detailed viewing data with major studios and television networks, saying the order would violate privacy rights.

A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that blocked the implementation of an Oklahoma law barring judges from considering international or Islamic law in their decisions. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling released Tuesday, affirmed an order by a district court judge in 2010 that prevented the voter-approved state constitutional amendment from taking effect. The ruling also allows a Muslim community leader in Oklahoma City to continue his legal challenge of the law's constitutionality.

For months many Israelis shrugged off the mosque burnings, the uprooted Palestinian olive trees and even the death threats against Jewish leftists. But when young settlers this month vandalized army bases and stoned Israeli soldiers, the question of Jewish terrorism turned into a national emergency. The recent flare-up in settler violence has puzzled many because it comes when there are no peace talks that might lead to land concessions, Palestinian attacks in the West Bank have dropped to new lows, and Israel is led by a conservative government that is expanding settlement construction.