A part-time private attorney who was listed as a full-time employee by five school districts - enabling him to earn health benefits and a nearly $62,000-a-year state-funded pension, while his law firm was paid millions of dollars in fees - has been suspended by his current law firm, one of its partners said yesterday.

Steven Schlesinger, a partner in the Garden City law firm of Jaspan, Schlesinger, Hoffman, said yesterday that his firm had suspended Lawrence Reich and asked for his resignation. Reich had been serving as of counsel, or as a consultant, to the law firm since Jan. 1.

Newsday reported Friday that five school districts falsely reported to the state that Reich, 67, was a full-time employee in each district at the same time. The districts were Baldwin, Bellmore-Merrick High School, Copiague, East Meadow and Harborfields.

"Based on the publicity, it's not any good to have him at the firm," Schlesinger said. "I don't need P.R. liabilities."

He added, however, "I don't think any laws were violated."

Schlesinger said the firm has not heard from Reich since the disclosures. "We're trying to locate him."

Reich, who lives in Centerport, did not return a call for comment yesterday. In an earlier interview, he defended his arrangement with the five districts as "common practice."

At the same time that the districts claimed Reich as an employee, they paid his then-law firm, Ingerman Smith of Hauppauge, more than $2.5 million in fees, according to district records. Under Internal Revenue Service rules, a person cannot be treated as both an employee and independent contractor for the same work.

After the Newsday story appeared, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation served all five districts with subpoenas for financial records.

In addition, the New York State comptroller has sent letters to four of the five districts, notifying them that they would be audited. Reich left the payroll of East Meadow on Nov. 30, 2001, according to records.

Reich retired with an annual pension of $61,459 in September 2006. But he continued working for some of the districts, according to letters he sent asking them to "reconfigure" his pay as a retainer, rather than as a salary.

Last July, state auditors uncovered the problem in an audit of the Harborfields school district. Reich said he then contacted the state about his pension eligibility and was assured it was common practice.

The state took no action, and the issue was not included in the final audit of Harborfields.

Nonetheless, Reich notified the districts that he was retiring for good in October.

In December, Ingerman Smith notified the districts that Reich was leaving the firm.

Gates, who called Microsoft's offer for Yahoo "very fair", said Google is the only company with "critical mass" in Web search. Microsoft needs a bigger piece of the market to create a more competitive and profitable Web search business.

"We can afford to make big investments in the engineering and marketing that needs to get done. We will do that with or without Yahoo," said Gates in an interview with Reuters.

"But we also see that we'd get there faster if the great engineering work that Yahoo has done and the great engineers there were part of the common effort," said Gates, who is Microsoft's biggest shareholder.

The two companies are at a stand-off in Microsoft's $41.7 billion unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo. Microsoft has offered to buy Yahoo for $31 a share in cash and stock, a bid which Yahoo's board rejected, saying it undervalued the company.

Microsoft countered by saying its offer was "full and fair," but did not say what it planned to do next. Analysts expect Microsoft to sweeten its bid, possibly to $35 a share, to clinch a deal.

"There is nothing new in terms of the process. We've sent our letter and we've reinforced that we consider that it's a very fair offer," said Gates, who remains the public face of Microsoft, even though he plans to switch to a part-time role at the company in June to focus on his philanthropic work.

Microsoft's stock has fallen 13 percent since its offer for Yahoo, reducing Microsoft's offer price to $29. Yahoo shares closed at $29.66 on the Nasdaq on Friday, indicating that investors expect Microsoft to raise its bid.

In addition, RIM alleges that Motorola "is demanding exorbitant royalties...for patents that Motorola claims are essential to various standards for mobile wireless telecommunications and wireless computing that RIM practices."

This includes technology that allows mobile telephone handset users to use Wi-Fi, RIM said.

At the same time, Motorola is refusing to acknowledge or pay royalties for certain patents held by RIM, the BlackBerry-maker said.

RIM claims that Motorola's response to the "declining fortunes" of its own handset business can been seen in dramatic increases in royalties charged to RIM. None of the allegations has been proved in court.

RIM's worldwide subscriber base of about 12 million includes business executives, politicians and professionals who rely on the BlackBerry to send secure e-mails. BlackBerry has been expanding from its mainstay enterprise market into the consumer sector with sleeker handsets that offer a range of services in addition to e-mail.

Congress has recognized that sometimes this power can be abused by managers who retaliate if they don't like something that employee has said or done.

This week, the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two cases examining how, when – or even if – employees can fight back against such abuses of power. On Tuesday, the high court will examine whether a US postal worker can claim retaliation in a lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act because she says her supervisor refused to let her return to her old job because he didn't like her personally. Instead, he hired a younger, less experienced worker.

On Wednesday, the justices will hear the case of a former assistant manager at a Cracker Barrel restaurant who alleges he was fired in retaliation for his repeated complaints about racial prejudice by his supervisor.

In both cases the laws cited do not explicitly authorize legal action in response to an act of retaliation. Lawyers for the employees say retaliation is a particularly virulent form of illegal discrimination and thus falls within the scope of the US's civil rights laws even when those laws don't specifically mention retaliation.

Lawyers for companies and supervisors counter that if Congress wanted to authorize lawsuits to punish acts of retaliation, it would have written it into each statute.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is the subject of an animal-abuse investigation.

The recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., the federal agency said. The company provided meat to various federal programs.

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

"Because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, Food Safety and Inspection Service has determined them to be unfit for human food and the company is conducting a recall," Schafer said in a statement.

A phone message left for Westland president Steve Mendell was not returned Sunday.

Agriculture officials said the massive recall surpasses a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats. No illnesses have been linked to the newly recalled meat, and officials said the health threat was likely small.

Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten.

"We don't know how much product is out there right now. We don't think there is a health hazard, but we do have to take this action," said Dr. Dick Raymond, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety.

Federal officials suspended operations at Westland/Hallmark after an undercover video from the Humane Society of the United States surfaced showing crippled and sick animals being shoved with forklifts.

Two former employees were charged Friday. Five felony counts of animal cruelty and three misdemeanors were filed against a pen manager. Three misdemeanor counts — illegal movement of a non-ambulatory animal — were filed against an employee who worked under that manager. Both were fired.

Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats, San Bernardino County prosecutor Michael Ramos said.

No charges have been filed against Westland, but an investigation by federal authorities continues.

About 150 school districts around the nation have stopped using ground beef from Hallmark Meat Packing Co., which is associated with Westland. Two fast-food chains, Jack-In-the-Box and In-N-Out, said they would not use beef from Westland/Hallmark.

Most of the beef was sent to distribution centers in bulk packages. The USDA said it will work with distributors to determine how much meat remains.

Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease since they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak.

Upon learning about the recall, some legislators criticized the USDA, saying the federal agency should conduct more thorough inspections to ensure tainted beef doesn't get to the public.

"Today marks the largest beef recall in U.S. history, and it involves the national school lunch program and other federal food and nutrition programs," said U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. "This begs the question: How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?"

Advocacy groups also weighed in, noting the problems at Westland wouldn't have been revealed had it not been for animal right activists.

"On the one hand, I'm glad that the recall is taking place. On the other, it's somewhat disturbing, given that obviously much of this food has already been eaten," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union. "It's really closing the barn door after the cows left."

Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, Munich's chief prosecutor, said the raids were done in cooperation with investigators in Bochum who are looking into more claims of tax evasion, following the resignation of Klaus Zumwinkel, chief executive of Deutsche Post. Bochum prosecutors last week said Zumwinkel is suspected of evading about 1 million euros ($1.5 million) in taxes by transferring money to tax haven Liechtenstein.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made clear Monday that she will press Liechtenstein for greater transparency, arguing that the tiny country's reputation is at stake.

So far, no other people suspected in the investigation have been named, but the government acknowledged over the weekend that its Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, had paid an informant some euro5 million ($7.3 million) for a list with the names of account holders from a Liechtenstein bank.

"The government received an unsolicited offer of information," Ulrich Wilhelm, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman told reporters Monday.