Federal Court

A statement posted Thursday on Lance Armstrong's website: AUSTIN, Texas - August 23rd, 2012 - There comes a point in every man's life when he has to say, "Enough is enough. " For me, that time is now. I have been dealing with claims that I cheated and had an unfair advantage in winning my seven Tours since 1999. Over the past three years, I have been subjected to a two-year federal criminal investigation followed by Travis Tygart's unconstitutional witch hunt. The toll this has taken on my family, and my work for our foundation and on me leads me to where I am today - finished with this nonsense.

SEATTLE -- A Washington state man is scheduled to appear Wednesday in federal court here after being taken into custody for allegedly threatening President Obama via an email to the FBI, authorities said. The man, identified as Anton Caluori, 31, was arrested following a brief struggle after the U.S. Secret Service and police from the city of Federal Way, south of Seattle, confronted him at his apartment door Tuesday afternoon. He answered the door carrying a shotgun, according to police.

Daniel Larsen was in a California prison serving a life sentence when he received the news he had awaited more than a decade. A federal court in Los Angeles had thrown out his conviction for carrying a concealed knife. Two judges concluded that jurors who convicted Larsen would never have found him guilty had they heard from additional witnesses who saw a different man with the knife. Larsen's attorney, who has since been disbarred, failed to adequately investigate the case and identify the witnesses before the trial, the judges found.

A federal court employee in Los Angeles has been charged with leaking confidential court files, the FBI said Wednesday. Nune Gevorkyan, 35, was accused of accessing sealed court documents and giving the information to defendants before they were arrested, officials said. Gevorkyan and her husband, Oganes Koshkaryan, were arrested Tuesday. They are charged with conspiring to obstruct justice. Federal authorities said they believe Gevorkyan looked at sealed indictments before raids across Southern California in February 2011 that led to the arrests of more than 70 people associated with the Armenian Power gang.

WASHINGTON - A conservative group has filed a suit against the Federal Election Commission, a move intended to make sure it can run ads this summer that criticize the Obama administration's energy policy without having to reveal who is paying for them. The suit, filed in federal court in Iowa by the Hispanic Leadership Fund, is the latest counterpunch in the long back-and-forth legal war over the torrent of undisclosed money flowing into this year's elections. And it's the latest consequence of  the dysfunction at the FEC, which last month deadlocked on the question of whether similar ads - which would show the White House and use President Obama's voice - are clearly aimed at defeating the president in November.

SAN JOSE -- Samsung wants you to know it isn't a copycat. "Samsung's not some copyist, some Johnny-come-lately that's doing knockoffs," lawyer Charles Verhoeven said during the company's opening statement in federal court Tuesday. During his 90 minutes addressing the jury in federal court in San Jose, Verhoeven repeatedly insisted that an average person could tell the difference between Samsung's mobile devices and Apple's, and said Apple "had no right to claim a monopoly" on a rectangle with a large screen.

A federal appeals court will take a second look at a California law that requires police to collect DNA from people who are arrested on suspicion of felonies, regardless of whether they are convicted. A majority of judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals voted Wednesday to reconsider a split decision by a three-judge panel that had upheld the program in February. The court's decision to ask an 11-judge panel to consider the case was a setback for prosecutors, who have defended the DNA collection as a vital crime-fighting tool.

County officials in Tennessee must inspect a newly built mosque immediately, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, which could allow Muslims to begin worshipping there before Ramadan begins at sundown Thursday.  Rutherford County must issue an occupancy permit for the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro before Thursday evening, provided that the mosque passes a building inspection, Chief Judge Todd Campbell of U.S. District Court in Nashville ruled....

A federal appeals court Friday rejected a class-action settlement involving allegations that Kellogg Co. made false health claims about cereal because the pact gave $2 million to the lawyers who sued and, at most, $15 for each consumer. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said the lawyers' fees — $2,100 an hour— were too high, while those who bought Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats got a "paltry" $5 a box for up to three boxes. "Not even the most highly sought after attorneys charge such rates to their clients," Judge Stephen S. Trott wrote for the unanimous panel.

Rezwan Ferdaus , an American citizen with a degree in physics, will plead guilty to terrorism charges involving a plan to bomb the Pentagon and the Capitol with remote-controlled model airplanes, according to court documents. The plea agreement, filed Tuesday in federal court in Boston, calls for a 17-year prison sentence, followed by 10 years of supervision. The deal, agreed to by both prosecutors and defense attorneys, must be approved by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, who set July 20 for a hearing.