A state appeals court is restoring the voting rights of about 100,000 local jail inmates statewide who are serving a year or less for felony convictions.

The state said it would not appeal last week's decision from the 1st District Court of Appeal. The affected inmates were eligible to vote until last year, when the state disenfranchised them.

For three decades, California's secretary of state had interpreted the state Constitution as barring voting by those in state prisons and those on parole after their release. The appeals court said the state wrongly changed the policy last year to include persons convicted of felonies but sentenced to a year or less in a local county jail.

The League of Women Voters brought the case on behalf of three San Francisco County jail inmates.

McCarter & English, LLP, has added litigator Charles Allen Yuen to their team of over 400 attorneys in the Northeast. Her will be an active part of their Newark office and be a Special Counsel in the Insurance Coverage Practice Group.

He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School (J.D. 1985) and Princeton University (B.S.E. 1982), Yuen has been widely published, including articles which are regularly submitted to appellate courts by litigants. He joins McCarter & English after representing corporations for thirteen years at New Jersey's Pitney Hardin LLP and six years at New York firms.

Governor Bob Taft (R-OH) Wednesday received a public reprimand from the Ohio Supreme Court for ethics violations stemming from charges that he received over 50 gifts worth up to $6,000 during four years in office. The reprimand will be a permanent mark on his record as an attorney, but while the justices had the option of issuing a stronger punishment in their 6-0 opinion, they cited Taft's previously clean record as a lawyer and otherwise unblemished record in public office.

In 2005, Taft pleaded no contest and was fined for the original charges, however in April of this year a disciplinary action was initiated by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, part of the Ohio Supreme Court tasked with monitoring lawyer behavior. That office determined that Taft had violated the Ohio Code of Professional Responsibility by accepting the gifts. Taft did not seek re-election due to term limits, and is leaving office in less than 2 weeks. He has said that he would be more interested in teaching than in returning to practicing law.

A podiatrist is appealing his federal-court conviction and two-year prison sentence for tax evasion, but a federal judge says the doctor must still report to prison on Jan. 5.

Dr. Clifford B. Marston of Gassville operated Sunshine Foot Clinics at Mountain Home and Harrison. The 57-year-old was convicted in May of tax evasion and filing false income tax returns.

Marston was sentenced to 26 months in prison and ordered to pay about $300,000 in restitution and fines.

U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren denied a request from Marston to remain free on bond while his appeal proceeds, and ordered him to report to prison on Jan. 5.

Marston filed a notice of appeal in federal court at Harrison on Dec. 22. He said last year that the IRS had misapplied regulations and he believed that most Americans do not have taxable income.

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today that it has sued a federal income tax preparer in U.S. District Court in Miami seeking to bar her from preparing tax returns for others. According to the government’s civil injunction complaint, Tashanna McFarland of Miramar, Fla., prepared federal tax returns claiming fraudulent fuel tax credits, a scam that the complaint explains is a serious enforcement problem for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The suit alleges that McFarland operates her tax preparation business out of a booth at a flea market in Miami.

Federal law imposes a fuel tax on gasoline and diesel fuel sold in the United States. The tax is included in the purchase price at the pump. Businesses can claim a fuel tax credit in certain rare circumstances, but most businesses and consumers who use cars or trucks on roads and highways are not eligible for the credit. According to the government’s complaint, McFarland claimed the fuel credit on her customers’ returns so they could claim tax refunds to which they were not entitled.

The complaint says that on a return for one customer—a babysitter—McFarland claimed that the customer purchased 16,451 gallons of gasoline for business-related purposes. The suit notes that for such a claim to be accurate, the babysitter (whose total income for the year was $9,316) would have had to spend approximately $36,192 for gasoline that year—nearly four times her total income—and would had to have driven approximately 246,765 miles during the year, an average of 676 miles each day, seven days a week.

The government complaint alleges that McFarland has prepared at least 970 returns since 2003 and the IRS has identified over $1.5 million dollars in fraudulent fuel tax credits on McFarland-prepared returns. “People who have their returns prepared by others should review them carefully to make sure they are truthful,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The preparer who seems to be saving you taxes now is setting you up for trouble later, when the IRS realizes that you filed a false return and obtained a larger refund, or paid less in taxes, than you should have.”

“This problem is primarily being caused by unscrupulous tax return preparers located across the country," said Kathy Petronchak, Commissioner of the IRS Small Business / Self Employed Division. "The IRS is working closely with the Department of Justice to stop this behavior."

Since 2001, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained more than 215 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns.

The United States has dashed South Korea’s hopes of a trade-off over difficult issues that block their efforts to establish a free trade agreement (FTA), pressing Korea to accept its proposal or face the consequences.

In its letter to the U.S. Congress and the Korean government Thursday, the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) clarified that it will not give any concession in the trade remedies sector, including anti-dumping and countervailing duties, to Korea, which require law revisions.

This means that Korean exporters will be subject to just as strong anti-dumping duties as ones currently imposed by the U.S. government, even if the two countries establish an FTA.

In a new briefing, Lee Hye-min, the second man in Korea’s negotiating team said, "I think it is still possible for us to ask the U.S. to revise the law on anti-dumping duties as there are further chances for talks."

Korea has called for the U.S. to soften its anti-dumping measures as one of its key demands together with the inclusion of goods produced in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in North Korea.

Meanwhile, the new head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea said that it’s now or never for both Korea and the U.S. to establish a free trade agreement and benefit from it.

"We believe the KORUS FTA is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that neither nation can afford to miss," William Oberlin, the newly elected chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM Korea) told a press conference at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul on Thursday.

Oberlin, also the president of Boeing Korea, voiced a sense of urgency for the two sides to make progress in the negotiations and meet the March deadline next year before U.S. President George W. Bush’s fast-track trade authority runs out in June.

William Oberlin, newly elected chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, bows ahead of a press conference on U.S-Korea business relations, including the KORUS FTA, at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul, Thursday. At right is Tami Overby, CEO of AMCHAM Korea. / Yonhap 
The new chairman emphasized that if this bilateral deal does not go through on a timely basis, it is not only over, but also neither the U.S. nor Korea will have the energy to restart their trade talks.
"The last time a U.S. president (Bill Clinton) lost trade promotion authority, it took almost eight years to regain it," Oberlin said. "If that happens again, it is expected to make it more difficult to conclude a trade agreement. So many believe this may be Korea’s best chance."

Oberlin strongly believes that an FTA with the U.S. is a new growth model and is the only way to turn the tide around for Korea, which is facing a weak economy next year at around 4 percent growth, due to a strong won and rising oil prices.

It can also offset Korea’s unfavorable foreign business environment and declining foreign direct investment (FDI).

AMCHAM Korea’s Tami Overby echoed that an FTA will open a lot of doors for Korea, and will boost Korea as well as the U.S. in economic competitiveness.

"Foremost, the bilateral trade accord will benefit the consumers the most in both the U.S. and Korea where they can gain greater access to each other’s products," Overby said. "An FTA will also help Korea to become a Northeast Asian economic leader."

AMCHAM Korea said it is "cautiously optimistic" that the two countries will reach a successful deal that is fair and balanced.

"Although we have no place in the negotiations, we will act as cheerleaders on the sidelines for an establishment of a win-win FTA on time," said Oberlin.