Nota Bene

The AFP reports:

California on Tuesday became the first US state to force fast-food restaurant chains to post calorie information on menus and indoor menu boards, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office said.

In the latest example of California officials seeking to encourage healthier eating habits, a bill signed by Schwarzenegger means restaurant chains with more than 20 locations must print nutritional information on their menus.

Although New York officials introduced a similar law in April, California is the first region to impose the calorie-count on a state-wide basis.

“This legislation will help Californians make more informed, healthier choices by making calorie information easily accessible at thousands of restaurants throughout our state,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

Under the new law, restaurants affected must post calorie information on menus and indoor menu boards by January 1, 2011.

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reports:

The California Court of Appeal yesterday ordered a lower court to vacate an unprecedented order that prevented The Orange County Register from reporting on testimony in a lawsuit involving its parent company, Freedom Communications, Inc.

The unanimous panel said the gag order must immediately be vacated because Freedom’s right to publish was “so obvious that no purpose could be served” by lengthier consideration of the issue.

A trial court judge presiding over the case, Gonzalez v. Freedom Communications, Inc., issued the gag order on September 19 to prevent potential witnesses from reading about the suit. The order prohibited all parties, including The Register and other Freedom properties, from discussing any non-expert testimony given at the trial. It included “all means and manner of communication whether in person, electronic, through audio or video recording, or print medium.”

You can read the opinion here.

The ABA Journal reports:

A federal judge in San Francisco has tossed a lawsuit that had contended John McCain is not a U.S. citizen and should not be allowed on the ballot.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup said McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone made him a citizen under the relevant statutes, Legal Times reports. “Plaintiff has not demonstrated the likelihood of success on the merits necessary to warrant the drastic remedy he seeks,” Alsup wrote.

The LA Times reports:

A federal grand jury has indicted eight former and current Ralphs Grocery Co. executives and managers on 23 counts arising from a bitter Southern California supermarket labor dispute five years ago when the chain illegally rehired hundreds of locked-out workers.The indictment said that five of those indicted, along with unnamed co-conspirators “engaged in a course of criminal conduct” that included hiring “employees under false names, Social Security numbers and documentation, which was intended to, and did, undermine the labor action.”

The AP reports:

A state appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit challenging a policy that allows some illegal immigrants to pay lower in-state tuition to attend California’s public colleges and universities.

The 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Monday that a lower court erred in dismissing the suit brought by 42 students who paid far more to attend college because they were out-of-state residents.

At issue is a 2002 law that made any California high school graduate who attended at least three years of high school in the state eligible for in-state fee breaks, regardless of immigration status.

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog reports today on a group of lawyers who want to trade in high billing rates, long hours and brick and mortar offices for a more virtual, balanced law practice.

Yahoo! Tech reports:

Miffed that, if you return home from travel overseas, U.S. Customs can decide to search, and even seize, all the files on your computer, your camera, and even your cell phone? So is Senator Russ Feingold, who opened Congressional hearings on the matter last week with a scathing indictment on the practice.

In Feingold’s published opening remarks *** he begins by saying that most Americans are probably not even aware that the practice is now commonplace here. In fact, it’s been going on for at least two years; a full seven percent of business travelers now report having electronic equipment seized at the border.

The New York Times has more here.

The AP reports:

Convicted killer Scott Peterson will be heading to trial again over the death of his pregnant wife, this time in civil court. The parents of Laci Peterson have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against him, seeking a multimillion-dollar judgment. A Stanislaus County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Peterson would have to stand trial in the civil case.

The Las Vegas Sun reports:

Without comment, the justices declined to hear the case involving a segment of the $1.5 billion fantasy sports industry in the United States, in which participants manage imaginary teams based on the real-life performances of professional players.The lawsuit involves C.B.C. Distribution and Marketing Inc., a Missouri company unable to obtain a license from a subsidiary of Major League Baseball to use players’ names in C.B.C.’s fantasy baseball games.

The Missouri company sued, saying it did not need a license to continue to sell its fantasy baseball games on its Web site.

The baseball players’ union jumped into the case on the league’s side, alleging a state law violation of the players’ publicity rights _ the ability to profit from the commercial use of a person’s name.

A federal court and the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled in favor of the fantasy baseball business, saying that enforcing state law rights would violate C.B.C.’s right of free speech protected by the First Amendment.

The AP reports:

The California Senate on Thursday voted to ban helium-filled metallic balloons because they too frequently fly away and get tangled in electrical lines. That has caused hundreds of power outages in recent years and led to costly repairs for utilities.

Starting in 2010, anyone caught selling the popular party supplies faces a $100 fine under a bill the Senate sent to the state Assembly.

Sen. Jack Scott, D-Altadena, says the balloons are a growing cause of outages when they break free and cause power lines to arc.

You can review Senate Bill 1499 here.