Coldwell Banker spokesman David Siroty says the case is about O'Neal's -- quote "refusal to pay royalty fees and return a sizable development advancement loan," both of which date back to 2004, the year before the storm.

Siroty says the case predates the hurricane, though the lawsuit also claims O'Neal continued to use Coldwell Banker trademarks and business systems after she abandoned the franchise system in late 2005.

Between court dates in Louisiana, O'Neal says she barely has time to build relationships with new loan officers, mortgage brokers or clients. Her cell phone constantly rings, and the calls are about new court motions as often as they are about potential business.

O'Neal started Danette O'Neal Realtors 16 years ago. She staked her business on helping black residents of New Orleans -- people of modest means and often less than perfect credit -- to become homeowners. In 2004, she says the agreed to partner with Coldwell Banker, but the arrangement wasn't as profitable as O'Neal had hoped. She says the franchise fees -- six percent of the commission -- were too much for her small business.

Coldwell poured 263-thousand dollars into O'Neal's business. She says she did not expect to have to pay the money back.

Within a month of Katrina, O'Neal said Coldwell sent a letter counting her franchise as a total loss.

Typically, attorneys say, abandonment of a franchise is a breach of contract.

A German lawyer is planning to join forces with Spanish counterparts to file a lawsuit in Spain against former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the alleged abuse of detainees at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
The move by Berlin lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck comes after German prosecutors said on Friday they had decided against launching an investigation into Rumsfeld over the abuse claims.

"There is no safe haven for Rumsfeld," weekly magazine Der Spiegel quoted Kaleck's associate, Michael Ratner, as saying.

"If the Germans aren't bold enough then we'll try in Spain," he added.

Kaleck could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

Civil rights groups filed a suit with Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office in Karlsruhe in November seeking war crimes charges, arguing Germany could prosecute foreign violations of international law under its 2002 universal jurisdiction law.

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) said 11 Iraqi citizens held at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and one Saudi detainee at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay base on Cuba were victims of beatings, sleep and food deprivation and sexual abuse.

However, the German prosecutors office said it could not open an investigation as the individuals in question were not present in the country.

In addition to Rumsfeld, the suit named 13 other U.S. officials, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, former CIA director George Tenet and high-ranking military officers.

The 13 others will also be named in the Spanish suit, Der Spiegel said.

The University of Georgia reached an out-of-court settlement with a former student who filed a 25 million dollar sexual harassment lawsuit.

The woman -- Tiffany Williams -- claimed U-G-A officials were slow to respond to an alleged assault involving three athletes.

The lawsuit revolves around a 2002 claim that she had consensual sex with former Georgia basketball player Tony Cole in her dorm room. Afterward she told police that former basketball player Steve Thomas and ex-football player Brandon Williams sexually assaulted her.

The lawsuit claimed that school officials exposed her to danger by recruiting Cole even though they knew he had a history of sexual misconduct.

U-G-A attorney Ed Tolley said the settlement was six figures but he did NOT specify the precise figure.

Brandon Williams was acquitted of any wrongdoing and criminal charges against Cole and Thomas were dropped.

President Bush warned Congress Friday that he will continue vetoing war spending bills as long as they contain a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Speaking a day after the Democratic-controlled Congress approved legislation that requires that a troop drawdown begin by Oct. 1, Bush said - as he has before - he will veto it because of that demand. He invited congressional leaders to come to the White House to discuss a new piece of legislation that would not include a timetable, and expressed hope a deal could be reached.

But he made clear that if Democrats insist on including timetables again, he will not hesitate to bring out his veto pen.

``If they want to try again that which I've said is unacceptable, of course I won't accept it,'' the president said during a news conference here with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. ``I hope it won't come to that.''

Passage of the Iraq spending legislation in both houses was not by big enough margins to override a presidential veto. So lawmakers and the White House immediately began talking about a follow-up bill.

Democratic leaders said they hoped to have one ready by June 1. Several Democratic officials have said the next measure likely will jettison the withdrawal timetable, but may include consequences if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks, such as expanding democratic participation and allocating oil resources.

Bush has set benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but has steadfastly opposed attaching any timeframe to them or requiring any actions if they are not met.

Senate leaders said Friday that the bill approved Thursday should go to Bush early next week. The White House has not said whether Bush plans a quiet veto or a public ceremony. Spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was unlikely that Bush would use a Tuesday trip to the Tampa, Fla.-based headquarters of Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, including Iraq, for the veto.

A Monroe County Sheriff’s deputy, who alleged in a lawsuit that the jail operation was beset by corruption, has received a $200,000 settlement to resolve the lawsuit.

The county paid another $240,000 to an outside law firm which handled the litigation, which was settled last year.

The county paid the settlement to Deputy Thomas Zembiec, county officials confirmed today.

In a 2004 lawsuit, Zembiec alleged that jail payrolls were falsified so workers were paid for time they didn’t work; that some jail workers possessed and used drugs; and that some high-ranking officials and other jail workers consorted with "temporarily released inmates and persons with criminal backgrounds in order to make money and receive free services."

Zembiec alleged that he was transferred from his job at the downtown jail to the Brighton facility to silence his complaints about corruption at the jail.

He claimed that two nurses at the downtown jail accused him of sexual harassment, and those charges were the official reason for his transfer.

A judge has ruled that there was not enough probable cause to allow recording of a conversation between an undercover police officer and a defense lawyer as part of an obstruction of justice investigation.

Some attorneys across the state were concerned about the case, worried it could impinge on their ability to effectively represent their clients.

The matter sprang from a domestic assault case involving defendant Terry Russ. After police had trouble locating witnesses in the case, including the victim, they initiated an obstruction of justice investigation. Russ eventually entered into a plea agreement.

But because of telephone conversations between Russ and his mother, Brattleboro police apparently suspected that his lawyer, Eileen Hongisto, may have been involved in the matter as well. Police obtained a warrant allowing an undercover detective to call Hongisto and, taping the conversation, pose as a witness asking if he should testify.

No charges were ever filed against Hongisto over the case.

This week Judge Karen Carroll of Windham District Court ruled that warrant should never have been issued and ordered that the tapes of the conversation be returned to Hongisto.

"A review of the affidavit in support of the search warrant in this matter reveals that it lacked the necessary probable cause to support the belief that Ms. Hongisto was involved in criminal activity or that evidence of a crime would be obtained through a phone call to her by an undercover police officer," according to the ruling.

The judge who issued the warrant, Katherine Hayes, recused herself from ruling on Hongisto's motion that sought the tapes of the conversation.

"I feel totally vindicated," Hongisto said Friday. "I hope by going as far as we did go with this that we protected defense attorneys."

"I knew I hadn't said anything wrong or done anything wrong, but I needed to have the public know that as well," she said.

Hongisto said she is not sure if she will file a civil lawsuit in the matter.

"I haven't thought that far ahead at all," said Hongisto.

Windham County State's Attorney Dan Davis said he did not see the warrant request before it was presented to the judge originally and his office will not appeal the decision reached by Judge Carroll on Tuesday.

"We have followed the judge's direction and returned the audio tapes to attorney Hongisto," he said.

Allegations of a crime must be investigated whether the accused is a lawyer or not, Davis said.

"If, in fact, there is an allegation that someone may be involved in violating the law, that matter ought to be looked into," he said.

But the investigation and tape recording of a conversation with a defense lawyer is unusual, he added.

"This is a very rare event," he said. "This is the only time I am aware of in my 32 years in law enforcement in the state … that this has happened."

Defender General Matthew Valerio said the judge's decision this week was the correct one.

"It vindicates Eileen Hongisto and it frankly supports my opinion and the opinion of many defense counsel that there wasn't probable cause to support the warrant," Valerio said.

"I never got the sense that people were going to practice law defensively" because of the case, he said. "It's not a dimmer switch. You either do it or you don't do it."

As for Hongisto, she said she will continue on in her general law practice.

The danger in the case for the practice of defense lawyers was that they would be blocked from advising their clients about the status of their cases, said Hongisto, who graduated from Vermont Law School and worked as a public defender before going into private practice.

"You wouldn't be able to give accurate and sound legal advice to your client," she said. "If you are not allowed to discuss those options with your client, how can they make an informed and voluntary decision."

A State Department press release late yesterday afternoon said only he was leaving for "personal reasons".

On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News that he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage".

Tobias' private cell number was among thousands of numbers listed in the telephone records provided to ABC News by Jeane Palfrey, the woman dubbed the "DC Madam", who is facing the federal charges.

In an interview to be broadcast by the network next Friday, Palfrey says she intends to call Tobias and a number of her other prominent DC clients to testify at her trial.