BP America, landlord of the Lakin Law Firm, intends to evict the firm from its office in Wood River in about 90 days.

The Lakin firm intends to stay. The firm filed a complaint in Madison County circuit court March 21, seeking to extend its lease at 301 Evans Avenue for five years.

For the Lakin firm, Charles Chapman wrote that, "Plaintiff will suffer irreparable injury if this Court does not enter an injunction prohibiting Defendant from taking any actions to evict Plaintiff from the Leased Premises on or after June 30."

The property once served as office and warehouse for a refinery, and it looks more like an industrial plant than headquarters of a famous law firm.

Petrochemical pipes point toward the building. Docking structures stand by it. Three pairs of railroad tracks run by it.

At a bend in Evans Avenue, a broad asphalt apron leads to an entrance that the Lakin firm shares with oil company Atlantic Richfield.

According to Chapman's complaint, law firm founder Tom Lakin signed a 10-year lease with Amoco Petroleum Additives Company in 1996.

Amoco Petroleum Additives did not own the property, but leased it from Amoco Oil Company.

The lease gave Lakin 29,000 square feet of warehouse space and 22,000 square feet of office space, for a total of 51,000 square feet.

Rent started at $105,000 a year, a bargain rate at $2.06 per square foot.

The lease provided annual consumer price adjustments.

It gave the Lakin firm options for two five year extensions.

The lease began to run July 1, 1997. At some point, it passed to Amoco Remediation Management Services Corporation.

According to Chapman, the firm sent an option notice to Amoco Oil in Wood River in March 2006, and Amoco Oil forwarded it to Elizabeth Yordanoff, BP America managing attorney in Warrenville, Illinois.

He wrote, "Defendant did not respond to the option notice until Feb. 9, 2007, when defendant advised plaintiff, via a telephone call, that defendant was not interested in a long term lease and will not consent to the option…"

He wrote that on Feb. 23, Yordanoff advised the firm that BP America would not extend the lease because it planned to sell the property.

He wrote that Yordanoff offered to extend the lease to Dec. 31.

Chapman asked for declaratory judgment extending the lease to 2012. He wrote, "Plaintiff has complied with all prerequisites to exercise the option."

He wrote, "…the parties reasonably expected that plaintiff would exercise the option and that defendant would consent to the option."

He wrote that by delaying a response to the option notice for a year, BP America waived a provision conditioning the option on its consent.

Chapman also claimed breach of contract.

He wrote, "Plaintiff has sustained damages and will sustain damages if it is forced to move out of the premises at issue before June 30, 2012."

Chapman filed the suit on the miscellaneous remedies docket. Unelected associate judges hear "MR" cases.

As of March 26, Chief Judge Ann Callis had not assigned a judge.

If BP America dislodges the Lakin firm, Chapman will have to leave too.

He practices in the Lakin building, not as a member of the firm but as Charles W. Chapman, Chartered.

A so-called pandering provision makes it a crime to promote, distribute or solicit material in a way intended to cause others to believe it contains child pornography. It carries a sentence of at least five years in prison.

The Supreme Court in 2002 struck down an earlier version of the law that included computer generated images that appeared to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Congress then adopted new legislation in 2003, which President George W. Bush signed into law, in an effort to comply with the Supreme Court's ruling.

But a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta ruled the law still did not pass constitutional muster and violated guarantees that the government cannot suppress lawful free speech.

The Bush administration told the Supreme Court the ruling interfered with the effort by Congress to suppress the market for child pornography. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his sympathy and apologized Monday for the "situation" faced by so-called Korean and Chinese "comfort women" who were forced into sexual slavery during World War II. Abe stopped short of explicitly acknowledging the alleged roles of the wartime military and government in Japan in facilitating the practice. Until this point, Abe has been one of a number of politicians pushing for the government to revisit an official apology issued to victims in 1993 that was never ratified by the Japanese parliament.

Earlier this month, Abe denied allegations of forced sexual slavery in Imperial Japanese Army brothels, saying instead that the women were professional prostitutes paid for their services. A Japanese government probe this month also denied finding any evidence of forced prostitution.

The attorney took on the case of Reade Seligmann, one of three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting an escort service dancer, in 2006.

"Kirk stood up for Reade at great personal cost," the Seligmann family said in a statement. "He passionately believed that the truth would emerge."

Tania Osborn said her husband was particularly proud of the fact that despite defending a dozen or more suspects in capital crimes, none of his clients were ever sent to death row.

"He hated injustice. That was the essence of his life," said Ernest "Buddy" Conner, a Greenville lawyer and friend of Osborn who worked multiple cases with him. "He carried a tremendous amount of credibility, but he did it without getting all angry and aggressive and arrogant."

Osborn is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Judge L.T. Senter Jr., rejected grouping claims in one lawsuit because a "sweeping relief," as he called it, would prevent State Farm from meeting the burden of proof of cause because of "possible variations" in claims.

Claimant Judy Guice had sought the class-action grouping, a move objected to by State Farm, the Biloxi Sun Herald said.

The insurance company fought grouping claims for legal purposes and wants to handle each separately. No two owners, it says, had the same type of loss, whether from wind or water or what ratio of each destroyed homes during the storm.

The Iranian parliament reviewed and rejected Resolution 1737 in December. That resolution cited reports submitted by the IAEA which showed that Iran had not "established full and sustained suspension of all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities" as set out in Resolution 1696 or otherwise complied with IAEA instructions. Iran has consistently decried the sanctions and emphasized that its policy will go unchanged. On Saturday Iranian Minister for Foreign Affairs Manouchehr Mottaki said that Resolution 1747 takes an unlawful, unnecessary and unjustifiable action against the peaceful nuclear programme of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which presents no threat to international peace and security and falls, therefore, outside the Council’s Charter-based mandate.

The shareholder proposal is a by-product of a seven-year debate in the organic industry over the introduction of large-scale factory-farms, milking as many as 2,000-10,000 cows each. It is the contention of a growing number of public interest, environmental, and farming groups that some of these farms are violating current USDA regulations by labeling their products as organic.