More Real Estate Coverage
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January 11, 2024
Tenn. Bill Would Boost Ag Land Eligible For Less Property Tax
Tennessee would more than triple the amount of land within a property tax jurisdiction that may be classified as agricultural, forest or open-space land and subject to a lower tax assessment under a bill introduced in the state Senate.
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January 11, 2024
Fla.'s Shubin Law Expands To Tampa After Co-Founder's Split
Shubin Law Group PA, formerly known as Shubin & Bass, revealed this week the firm bolstered its South Florida presence by adding a new partner with decades of experience in the region to helm a new Tampa office, shortly after one of its co-founders left to launch another practice of his own.
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January 10, 2024
WWII, Vietnam Vets Tell Jury PacifiCorp Fires Razed Homes
Following a $90 million class verdict against utility PacifiCorp over a cluster of Labor Day 2020 fires in Oregon, jurors heard individual damages testimony Wednesday from a 101-year-old World War II combat veteran and a Vietnam War combat veteran who lost homes in the fires.
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January 10, 2024
Ill. City May Be Liable In Own Pollution Suit Against Metal Co.
An Illinois federal judge has allowed a counterclaim by a scrap metal recycling company to move forward against the city of Aurora, Illinois, seeking to hold the city at least partially responsible for environmental contamination around the recycling operation.
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January 10, 2024
10th Circ. Urged To Keep National Monuments Designation
Native American tribes and environmental organizations have urged the Tenth Circuit to uphold a lower court decision dismissing Utah and other groups' challenge to President Joe Biden's redesignation of large swaths of the state as part of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
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January 10, 2024
Wash. Judge Calls Eviction Protection Ruling 'Disturbing'
A day after a Washington appellate court panel said the CARES Act's eviction notice requirement applies beyond late-rent cases, another judge on the court reviewing a separate eviction suggested Wednesday the ruling could lead to "disturbing" consequences if landlords aren't allowed to quickly evict violent tenants.
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January 10, 2024
Native Owners Again Seek To Intervene In ND Pipeline Row
A group of North Dakota tribal landowners with property alongside a gas and oil pipeline are asking a federal district court to allow them to intervene in litigation over right of way trespassing claims through the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, saying the federal government is only trying to protect its own interests in forthcoming breach of trust claims against it.
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January 10, 2024
EPA's Water Leader To Step Down After Busy Tenure
The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water office on Wednesday said she'll be stepping down at the end of February, after three years leading the office through a multibillion-dollar infusion and several high profile rulemaking efforts.
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January 10, 2024
Montana Camp Must Pay $1M Bond To Stay Tribal Lease Order
A Montana campground operator must post a $1 million surety bond to allow a stay to remain in place while it appeals a ruling to the Ninth Circuit in favor of the Blackfeet Nation in an ongoing land lease dispute, a federal district court judge said, determining that the company presented a "substantial case for relief on the merits."
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January 10, 2024
Md. Real Estate Co. Sued For $10M Over $2.5M Loan
A lender has hit a Maryland real estate company and two of its officers with a more than $10 million suit alleging that the company misused a $2.5 million loan to pay off debts instead of renovating multiple Maryland properties for resale.
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January 09, 2024
Fed. Circ. Splits In Affirming Zillow's Patent Win Over IBM
A split Federal Circuit panel on Tuesday backed a lower court's finding that a pair of IBM patents were not valid under the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice test, handing a win to Zillow, which had been accused of infringing the patents with its real estate website and app.
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January 09, 2024
71-Year-Old CPA Sentenced To 25 Years In $1.3B Tax Case
An accountant blamed by federal prosecutors for pioneering the use of conservation easements as illegal tax shelters was sentenced to 25 years in prison Tuesday following his conviction on all counts of a $1.3 billion tax fraud scheme that drew the first criminal prosecution of its kind.
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January 09, 2024
Minn. Justices Question Denial Of Housing Charity Tax Break
The Minnesota Supreme Court questioned arguments by the state's largest county Tuesday that low-income housing owned by a charitable nonprofit was not exempt from property taxation because the occupancy by the tenants did not further the organization's charitable purpose.
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January 09, 2024
NJ Revises Process For Valuation Of Farmland Easements
New Jersey revised its process for determining the value of farmland and development easements on farmland intended to be acquired for preservation purposes under a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy.
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January 08, 2024
Wash. Marketing Co. Looks To Escape Timeshare Class Action
A marketing firm connected with financial planning celebrity Dave Ramsey has urged a Washington federal judge to free it from a proposed class action accusing it of falsely promoting a timeshare-exit company, saying a decision in another suit prohibits any judgment against it.
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January 08, 2024
Feds Want Decades For Atty, CPA Convicted In $1.3B Tax Case
An attorney and an accountant found guilty by a jury of selling $1.3 billion in fraudulent tax deductions in connection with conservation easements should spend decades behind bars, federal prosecutors told a Georgia federal court in advance of their Tuesday sentencing hearings.
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January 08, 2024
Tulsa Has Interest In Prosecuting Native Crimes, Officials Say
The city of Tulsa has a strong interest in enforcing criminal law within its boundaries, its officials said, arguing that concurrent jurisdiction with the Muscogee (Creek) Nation over Native Americans who commit crimes within its boundaries is "paramount" to the Oklahoma tribe's safety.
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January 05, 2024
Minn. County Accuses Feds Of Illegally Taking Land For Tribe
A Minnesota county has sued the U.S. government in federal court, claiming the Interior Board of Indian Appeals wrongly allowed it to accept about 3,238 acres of land into trust for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indians and has threatened the county's tax revenue.
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January 05, 2024
Biden Admin Floats New Natural Resource Damage Rule
An "inefficient and inflexible" rule intended to facilitate settlements that pay for environmental damage resulting from pollution would be streamlined under a new rule proposed Friday by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
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January 05, 2024
Neb. Bill Aims To Expand Tax Break For Nonprofits' Purchases
Nebraska would expand a sales and use tax exemption for purchases by nonprofit organizations under a bill introduced in the state's unicameral Legislature.
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January 05, 2024
Del. House Bill Seeks Lodging Tax On Short-Term Rentals
Delaware would apply the state's 8% lodging tax for hotel and motel stays to short-term rentals under a bill introduced in the state House of Representatives.
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January 05, 2024
Salt Lake City, Lumen Agree To End Removal Fee Row
Salt Lake City has settled its dispute with Lumen Technologies more than two years after suing the telecom provider for $400,000, saying it had refused to pay up for the cost of moving the company's communications infrastructure from public rights-of-way during a city construction project.
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January 05, 2024
NY LLC Transparency Law Set To Lose Public Access Element
A recently signed New York law that allows the public and law enforcement to look behind the veil of limited liability companies is likely to be gutted of one of its main functions when it goes into effect in a year.
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January 05, 2024
Brookfield Buys ATC's India Telecom Portfolio For $2.5B
A Brookfield Asset Management affiliate will become India's biggest operator of telecommunications towers after agreeing to pay $2.5 billion to acquire the Indian operations of American Tower Corp.
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January 03, 2024
Seneca Nation Suit Over NY Thruway Headed For Mediation
A federal district court judge has agreed to extend the deadlines for motions in a long-running challenge by the Seneca Nation to New York over a portion of the state's thruway that runs through the federally recognized tribe's reservation land after the parties said they have agreed to pursue mediation.
Expert Analysis
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Claims Court Ruling Puts New Spin On Blue & Gold
The Court of Federal Claims' unique procedural posture in SLS Federal Services v. U.S., in which it followed a trend toward narrowing the ambit of the Blue & Gold waiver, may have significant new implications for agencies that undertake corrective action in lieu of defending against protests, say attorneys at Seyfarth.
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New AML Law May Be Key Tool To Enforce Russia Sanctions
A new anti-money laundering law for the first time authorizes monetary rewards for tips leading to government enforcement against certain sanctions violations, and though many questions remain, it gives the U.S. an additional tool in the ongoing global battle against Russian aggression, say Daren Firestone and Kimberly Wehle at Levy Firestone.
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Atty Conflict Discussions In Idaho Murder Case And Beyond
A public defender's representation of the accused University of Idaho murderer after prior representation of a victim's parent doesn't constitute a violation of conflict of interest rules, but the case prompts ethical questions about navigating client conflicts in small-town criminal defense and big-city corporate law alike, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Charles Loeser at HWG.
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Why The Original 'Rocket Docket' Will Likely Resume Its Pace
Though the Eastern District of Virginia, for decades the fastest federal trial court in the country, experienced significant pandemic-related slowdowns, several factors unique to the district suggest that it will soon return to its speedy pace, say Dabney Carr and Robert Angle at Troutman Pepper.
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How Gov't Enviro Justice Push May Affect Developers
Attorneys at Crowell & Moring contextualize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent guidance on environmental justice and permitting decisions, and the U.S. Department of Energy's requests for input on using grants to achieve EJ goals, highlighting practical implications for project developers and other industry participants.
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The Discipline George Santos Would Face If He Were A Lawyer
Rep. George Santos, who has become a national punchline for his alleged lies, hasn't faced many consequences yet, but if he were a lawyer, even his nonwork behavior would be regulated by the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and violations in the past have led to sanctions and even disbarment, says Mark Hinderks at Stinson.
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FinCEN Report Holds Key Russia-Linked Risk Considerations
A recent report from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network reminds financial institutions to review guidance issued on reporting Russia-linked suspicious activity, emphasizing the need to review anti-money laundering and sanctions monitoring processes to remain adaptive to global developments, say Siana Danch and Peter Hardy at Ballard Spahr.
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A Litigation Move That Could Conserve Discovery Resources
Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben proposes the preliminary legal opinion procedure — seeking a court's opinion on a disputed legal standard at the outset, rather than the close, of discovery — as a useful resource-preservation tool for legally complex, discovery-intensive litigation.
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Litigators Should Approach AI Tools With Caution
Artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT hold potential to streamline various aspects of the litigation process, resulting in improved efficiency and outcomes, but should be carefully double-checked for confidentiality, plagiarism and accuracy concerns, say Zachary Foster and Melanie Kalmanson at Quarles & Brady.
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How Proposed BOEM Regs Will Boost Offshore Wind Projects
Newly proposed offshore wind project regulations from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management represent a substantial regulatory shift that will improve transparency around the timing of lease auctions, streamline approval and oversight for projects in development, and provide needed guidance for future projects, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Mapping The Transport Sector's Road To Zero Emissions
Transportation companies that hope to lead the multiagency U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization's recently announced transition to zero-emission vehicles and fuels should anticipate a host of commercial and legal issues, say Levi McAllister and Pamela Wu at Morgan Lewis.
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5 Ways Attorneys Can Use Emotion In Client Pitches
Lawyers are skilled at using their high emotional intelligence to build rapport with clients, so when planning your next pitch, consider how you can create some emotional peaks, personal connections and moments of magic that might help you stick in prospective clients' minds and seal the deal, says consultant Diana Kander.
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A Look At Lease Expansion Options In A Challenging Market
Expansion options can provide a powerful incentive for businesses to sign long-term leases even amid economic uncertainty, but both landlords and tenants must carefully consider the potential rights and terms, says Kris Ferranti at Shearman.