Some people say Detroit attorney Doyle O'Connor's refusal to approve the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative for the November 2006 election ballot was an act of courage.

Others call the decision by the former member of the Board of State Canvassers an act of defiance.

Either way, the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission has charged O'Connor with professional misconduct for failing to carry out his public duties -- the first time it has invoked the charge.

More than a dozen individuals and groups, including the Michigan Democratic Party and the League of Women Voters of Michigan, have urged the state Attorney Discipline Board to drop the charges. The board tries and disciplines lawyers for alleged misconduct.

"It's really an outrage," said state Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer. "If lawyers are going to be subjected to this kind of second-guessing for acts as a public official, why would any lawyer want to serve in public office? This is a political vendetta."

But the woman who filed the misconduct complaint, Owosso novelist Diane Carey, who circulated petitions for the civil rights initiative, said O'Connor violated state law and should be disbarred.

"He violated his sworn oath to ratify a petition that was legally collected by the people and deserved to be on the ballot," Carey said.

Voters passed the initiative in 2006, 58% to 42%. It banned race and gender affirmative action in university admissions and government and public school hiring and contracting.

Proposal 2 got onto the ballot, despite complaints that sponsors duped voters, especially blacks, into believing it promoted affirmative action. Supporters denied that.

The grievance commission, which investigates and prosecutes lawyers for alleged misconduct, said O'Connor refused at a July 2005 meeting to approve putting the measure on the ballot despite a state attorney general opinion that canvassers had no legal authority to look into petition fraud.

And then, in December 2005, despite a Michigan Court of Appeals order to certify the proposal, he abstained.

O'Connor said he thought he was abstaining on a motion to close debate. The next month, he voted to put the measure on the ballot.

"If lawyers can defy a court order they disagree with, then they undermine the judicial system," said Deputy Grievance Administrator Robert Edick. O'Connor stepped down from the board in 2006 under the threat of contempt charges by the court of appeals.

O'Connor, then a labor lawyer, now works as a state administrative law judge. "Rather than being prosecuted for professional misconduct, Doyle should be given an award for trying to ensure the integrity of the electoral process," said his lawyer, Kenneth Mogill of Lake Orion, who wants the discipline board to toss the charge.

A panel of appeallate judges in Washington says the case of Ahmed Belbacha (AH-med bel-BA-kah) deserves another review by a U.S. District Court judge.

The appeals court ruling Friday says the probability of Belbacha prevailing is far from clear. But the court says he is entitled to further consideration in light of the seriousness of the harm he might face if he ends up back in his home country of Algeria.

Belbacha contends his life would be in danger, both from the government and from al-Qaida.

The manufacturer of the 911 sports car currently owns 31 percent of the shares in VW and plans to raise its stake to more than 50 percent at an unspecified point in the future.

Porsche said it had called on Volkswagen to propose changes to its articles of incorporation at a shareholders' meeting April 24 and to eliminate clauses deemed illegal by a European Union court in October.

The amendments would include annulling the right of the German government, and the state of Lower Saxony which holds a 20 percent stake in VW, to send representatives to the car maker's supervisory board.

Porsche also said the VW corporation bylaws should remove a clause that caps voting rights at 20 percent regardless of the number of shares owned by an investor.

A clause that defines 80 percent of VW shares represented at the general assembly as a "qualified majority" vote should be reduced to 75 percent, Porsche said.

A qualified majority vote from the assembly is required on certain strategic issues, effectively giving Lower Saxony a veto over some decisions.

Porsche said it wanted the amendments included in the assembly agenda because VW had not implemented a ruling from the European Court of Justice.

The court ruled that certain clauses of the so-called Volkswagen Law, passed by the German government in the 1960s to protect the carmaker from hostile takeovers, violated EU laws on free movement of capital.

Porsche urged the German government to scrap the VW law altogether, after officials said they were working on a new draft that would pass EU muster.

The luxury sports car maker has called in the past for the government to begin considering VW as "a normal company."

The Florida Supreme Court this week disciplined 19 attorneys, including two in Central Florida.

Norman Sanders Moss, 813 E. Michigan St., Orlando, was suspended until further order of the court following a Feb. 27 court order, and was ordered to stop acting as a personal representative for any estate, as guardian for any ward and as trustee for any trust.

The Florida Bar's petition for emergency suspension says Moss misappropriated $107,000 held in trust for clients. Moss, who retired from The Florida Bar Jan. 14, 2008, is currently the subject of five other Florida Bar disciplinary matters.

In addition, Paulette Deloise Singleton, 499 N. State Road 434, Suite 2019, Altamonte Springs, was disbarred for five years effective 30 days from a Feb. 14 court order.

The Bar says beginning in early 2006, Singleton began not adequately communicating with clients and failed to diligently pursue their cases. Clients attempting to reach her would find her phone disconnected, and one found mail piled outside her office door.

In one case, the Bar says she took a fee and did no work and then only partially refunded the fee. In another case, she was late for a final hearing with no evidence of preparation.

As an official agency of the Florida Supreme Court, The Florida Bar and its Department of Lawyer Regulation are charged with administering a statewide disciplinary system to enforce Supreme Court rules of professional conduct for the 80,000-plus lawyers admitted to practice law in Florida.

Bear Stearns Friday revealed it will tap JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a four-week secured loan facility to boost the company's liquidity. JPMorgan will make the loan in conjunction with the New York Federal Reserve.

Throughout this week, investors have been concerned about the investment bank's possible explosure to collapsing fund Carlyle Capital and other at-risk investment funds. Carlyle Capital, an arm of private equity firm Carlyle Group, invested heavily in poor-quality mortgage assets and has had to default on $16.6 billion in debt.

The market was concerned that Bear could end up seizing low-quality mortgage-backed securities as collateral from Carlyle. That likely would have left Bear unable to sell those assets. Bear Stearns already had taken significant writedowns on its own mortgage-related holdings.

The chaotic scene marked the most violent demonstrations since protests by Buddhist monks began in Lhasa on Monday, the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. The protests have been the largest in Tibet since the late 1980s, when Chinese security forces repeatedly used lethal force to restore order in the region.

The developments prompted the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to issue a statement, saying he was concerned about the situation and appealing to the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people”.

By Friday night, Chinese authorities had placed much of the central part of the city under a curfew, including neighborhoods around different Buddhist monasteries, according to two Lhasa residents reached by telephone. Military police were blocking roads in some ethnic Tibetan neighborhoods, several Lhasa residents said.

Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Beijing warned American citizens to stay away from Lhasa. The embassy said it had “received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence.”

The Chinese government’s official news agency, Xinhua, issued a two-sentence bulletin, in English, confirming that shops in Lhasa had been set on fire and that other stores had closed because of violence on the streets. But the Chinese news media otherwise carried no news about the protests. The White House responded with expressions of concern, but not direct criticism, although it urged the Chinese authorities to use restraint.

“We believe Beijing needs to respect Tibetan culture, needs to respect multi-ethnicity in their society,” a spokesman, Tony Fratto, said while traveling with President Bush to New York. “We regret the tensions between ethnic groups and Beijing.”

The White House says that the American ambassador in Beijing, Clark T. Randt Jr., had urged restraint in his contacts with the Chinese authorities.

The disturbances appear to be becoming a major problem for the ruling Communist Party, which is holding its annual meeting of the National People’s Congress this week in Beijing. China is eager to present a harmonious image to the rest of the world as Beijing prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August.

On Thursday, attorneys for Lisa Miller-Jenkins asked the court to revisit the issue, which was decided in favor of Janet Miller-Jenkins in 2006.

The two Virginia residents were joined in a Vermont civil union in 2000, but later split up. Lisa had a child in 2002 and a Vermont family court awarded Janet visitation rights.

Lisa argues that since Virginia law doesn’t recognize civil unions her former partner shouldn’t have parental rights.

Janet says the case has already been decided in her favor by a family court.