Crack Down: The Bush administration is trying to block a congressional plan that would lighten the sentences of federal crack cocaine offenders whose sentences are far more draconian than those given out for powder cocaine. Attorney General Michael Mukasey says it will cause violent gang members to be released into communities nationwide.
The Rule of Law: The chief of the judiciary in Iran has ordered judges not to hold suspects unless they have been charged with a crime, reports The New York Times. But the decree might not have much weight since Iranian intelligence usually doesn't alert judges anyway when holding people without charges.
Going to Cadwalader: Latham & Watkins lost the head of its global private equity practice to Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft. R. Ronald Hopkinson has represented the big boys of private equity, including the Carlyle Group, Blackstone Group, and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.
Salt in the Wound: Société Générale lost a little more than $7 billion from a rogue trader in the world’s largest trading loss ever. As it turns out, the trader, Jérome Kerviel, also made money for the bank — over a billion dollars by the end of last year. And now the bank has to pay taxes on it.
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