Monday marked the whimpering death of the heavy-handed lawsuit of Facebook against local comedy blog Lamebook. The two companies have settled out of court with the stipulation that Lamebook add a disclaimer that there is no affiliation between the two. The site is just one of a handful targeted by Facebook in the past year including the educational Teachbook and the pornographic Facebook of Sex and Shagbook. And has even tried to trademark words like "face" and "book" (both of which were terribly unpopular before the company), and Apple has been of a like mind with the attempted trademark of the prefix "i." more ›

Capital Area Rural Transportation System (CARTS) recently dished out $21K in a court settlement with a former employee who refused to take two women to a Planned Parenthood on his assigned bus route. Edwin Graning, an ordained minister who is “strongly opposed to abortion,” claimed that CARTS used religious discrimination when firing him. more ›

The problem with a David vs. Goliath battle today is that you can't take the big guy out with a single shot. More often than not, you'll just piss him off. That's the situation in which Austin-based Lamebook finds itself. more ›

It's not as if he needed a little extra pocket change, but gaming legend Richard Garriott won a $28 million award from the jury in his suit against former employer, NCSoft. more ›

• Texas oilman, Republican fundraiser, and NAFTA supporter Robert Mosbacher dies at 82.
• Photos of the Port Arthur oil spill.
• Yikes! Land shifting in a San Antonio subdivision leads to evacuation of a neighborhood.

Sugar Land-based TechRadium has sued Twitter in federal court, claiming that the popular messaging service infringes on its patents for a "mass notification" concept. more ›

A Texas judge has ruled that Microsoft cannot sell its cornerstone word processor, Microsoft Word, because of patent infringement. more ›

In one of the more hilarious news stories of late, creators of the American Idol brand are suing Palazio Mens Club on Ben White for trademark infringement for their similarly named "Stripper Idol" contest. It seems the owners of the Idol trademark, Fremantle Media, are concerned about their image being tarnished by the amateur strip contest despite being completely oblivious to damage already ensued because the show makes celebrities out of no-talent hacks like Sanjaya. The lawsuit seeks to end the contest and seize Palazio's profits from the sexy strip-off. Managers of the club say that other than an M.C. that introduces the amateur dancers, there is no similarity to the television show. more ›

In an opinion released Tuesday, State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Teresi said that Dell and Dell Financial Services LP engaged in deceptive business practices, fraud, false advertising and abusive debt collection. more ›

Image from RG4N websiteResponsible Growth for Northcross Austin (RG4N) is in court today claiming the city helped Wal-Mart through illegal city planning. They claim the Northcross Wal-Mart development requires the removal of 29 trees (breaking tree ordinances) and that the development breaks a plat note controlling runoff and pollution into Shoal Creek. The Allandale Neighborhood Association had part of their anti-Wal-Mart lawsuit thrown out last week but RG4N remains undeterred. Each group will have 2... more ›

Silicon Wafer by kjetilv on stock.xchng Austin-based chip company Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has once again found itself in hot water, and this time it's over something far more visible than damaging the Edwards Aquifer. According to a lawsuit filed with the Travis County District Court on Wednesday, the company is responsible for multiple birth defects in at least one child of a former AMD employee who worked in the manufacturing "clean room." Austin resident... more ›

After being threatened with a lawsuit by "Handsome Dick" Manitoba in 2004, Toronto native, London resident, and Ph.D. mathematician Daniel Snaith was forced to change his recording alias. What was once called Manitoba (not Handsome Dick) is now Caribou, and tonight, this electronic psychadelic dreamy pop outfit (a full band plays live) will be at Club Deville. more ›

A scandal two years in the making over at Austin City Hall may finally be reaching critical mass. On July 20, one Bill Moriarty, the former head of the Austin Clean Water Program, filed a lawsuit against a virtual who's-who list of local urban developers: Development firms PBS&J, Malcolm Pirnie, Owen Consulting, CH2M Hill Inc., Parsons Engineering Science, K Friese & Associ­ates and Hey Cister! Consulting. Also named is attorney David Armbrust, Moriarty's former legal... more ›

One of UT's more infamous fraternities is in hot water again, this time as the defendant in a civil lawsuit over assault charges. more ›

Save Our Springs Alliance, long-time advocate for Barton Springs and other environmentally-sensitive zones throughout Central Texas, issued a press release yesterday stating that it's being forced into bankruptcy by a court judgment won against it by Central Texas residential developers. In 2004, SOS Alliance filed a lawsuit against Lazy Nine Municipal Utility District, seeking to prevent the district -- which is allegedly just a puppet-agent of Wilshire Homes and Forest City Properties of Cleveland, Ohio... more ›

Good-bye to Texas University. So long to the Orange and White. Good luck to the dear old Texas Aggies, They are the boys who show the real old fight. The eyes of Texas are upon you. That is the song they sing so well, So, good-bye to Texas University, We're goin' to beat you all to -- Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem! Chig-gar-roo gar-rem! Rough! Tough! Real stuff! Texas A&M! Saw Varsity's Horns Off! Saw Varsity's Horns Off!... more ›

Like fake boobs and dyed hair, fake Ohio State vs. Texas tickets are out there to ruin your day. Clay Aiken of American Idol fame just might be President Bush's new pet. Former President Clinton is getting a pimp ride, a custom Mercury Mariner Hybrid surely outfitted with features that rival the Batmobile. Ladies, ladies. Your high heels are a death trap. A man's gun accidentally fired while he was in a Wal-Mart bathroom.... more ›

The director of Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp, a camp for troubled youth, has sued Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and nine other state officials. [From San Antonio’s Express-News] Betty Lou Gaines, the former director of Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp in Bastrop County, claims Strayhorn's "Forgotten Children" report was misleading and inaccurate. The April 2004 report was critical of how the Department of Family and Protective Services protects foster children. The camp operated for more than... more ›

We'll never smoke look at broccoli the same again- especially if it means that the truck is carrying our next stash. We're getting mixed messages from those astronomers. On Monday, Pluto wasn't a planet, now we have three more to add to our solar system. Tomorrow, the Sun will be cold or something. Apparently water had nothing to do with the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. We don't want to make it a spectacle,... more ›

Joe Jamail is a household name around Austin. The football field at Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium and the Texas Swimming Center both carry his name. In his most famed case, Jamail represented Pennzoil in their lawsuit against Texaco, won and was paid somewhere in excess of one billion dollars for his efforts. more ›

Independent goober candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn Rylander Cougar Mellencamp is suing the Texas secretary of state over his refusal to let her use "Grandma" on the Nov. 7 ballot. We're pretty sure the filing of a frivolous lawsuit will do very little to help Carole Cougar gain new supporters. It seems Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is reluctant to release information about his investigation of Tom DeLay. In fact, he is suing the... more ›

Spurred perhaps by the Travis County mother-daughter pair who filed that ludicrous lawsuit against them earlier this week, MySpace today announced that it'll be implementing new restrictions on interactions between "adults" and "younger users." From the Associated Press, via KVUE: The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old. But under the new changes, MySpace users who are... more ›

The Statesman just reported that a teenage girl in Travis County, who was allegedly sexually assaulted last month by nineteen-year old Pete Solis, has filed suit against MySpace for $30 million: more ›

Random figures collected over the past two weeks: Number of voter signatures collected by Kinky Friedman's staff: 169,574 [reference] Percentage of Americans who believe that "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track," according to a new Harris poll: 69% [reference] Minimum cost of new sprinkler system to be installed in Zilker Park over the next three years, perhaps eventually rendering ACL Fest actually bearable: $500,000 [reference] Minimum peak computing power of... more ›

Seattlest saw a house party get senselessly attacked with a shotgun and end in seven dead. A local senator is debated and their version of the big dig is investigated. To truly get to the bottom of it they interview the writer Jonathan Raban. Bostonist has its first birthday party and investigates how to attach more gambling dollars to the Red Sox. Benjamin Franklin is celebrated and Johnny Damon is not. Image by Ethan Bagley... more ›

Rick Perry unveiled his school financing plan yesterday and it looks like the smokers get the short end of the stick, again. In his efforts to devise a plan to fund schools and give property tax relief, Perry has suggested cutting property tax by $6 billion, the largest reduction in history, and broaden the franchise tax to apply to more companies and raise cigarette taxes by $1 a pack. Critics of the plan say... more ›

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In a recent letter released under the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Agency (NSA) revealed that it is paying two news agencies - Reuters and the Associated Press - for information. Other government agencies purchase news wire services, but no other agency presents the NSA's level of secrecy and defensiveness with such purchases. Is it possible that the NSA is influencing the media and free speech? The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EEF) has... more ›

Texas has filed its first - and probably not its last - lawsuit against a data broker and his companies for marketing consumers' private phone records. The companies in question are USA Skiptrace, AMS Research Services, Inc. and Worldwide Investigations Inc. Apparently, USA Skiptrace charges its customers $125 to get consumers' phone records, which includes the number of calls made and received, duration of calls, and dates and times of calls. Good grief. Feel... more ›