Blocked: Democratic New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez is blocking the Obama administration's appointment of Magistrate Judge Patty Shwartz to a post on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. The New York Times called the move "an unusual display of intraparty defiance." Shwartz has been in a long relationship with the head of the public corruption unit for New Jersey’s federal prosecutor. That section investigated Menendez during his 2006 election battle.
Enforced: Corporate Counsel reports on the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission stepped up enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Enforcement action reached the second-highest level in the history of the 34-year-old anti-bribery law.
Deported: U.S. immigration officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deportation of a 15-year-old girl to Colombia, the Associated Press reports. The girl's grandmother says the government should have done more to determine the girl's identity after she provided a phony name and said she was an adult.
Jammed: A new study shows the top 1% of mobile users are consuming half of the world's bandwidth, The New York Times reports. The study also concluded the gap between "extreme" mobile users and the rest of consumers is widening.
Warned: A U.S. Commerce Department official is warning of possible "unintended and unforeseen consequences" of domain name expansion, The National Law Journal reports. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the upcoming expansion. The group will accept applications for registration of almost any word in any language as a generic top-level domain name, such as dot-computer or dot-furniture. Trademark owners are worried about cybersquatting.
Leaked: The Wall Street Journal reports on the Defense Department investigation of possible leaks of classified information to filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow about the military operation that killed Osama bin Laden.
Arrested: The authorities in Turkey have arrested the former head of the country's armed forces, Financial Times reports. Prosecutors allege the retired general, Ilker Basbug, of leading a terrorist organization. Basbug left his military post in August 2010.
Dismissed: A Washington federal judge late Thursday dismissed a suit over claims the government failed to protect a State Department official from criminal prosecution in Italy. The plaintiff, Sabrina De Sousa, was convicted in absentia for her alleged role in the kidnapping of a terror suspect. She denies any involvement in the episode.
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