Demanding Charges: Members of Congress are pushing for the U.S. Justice Department to bring criminal charges against Barclays for its role in an interest rate manipulation scheme, The New York Times reports. A dozen Democratic senators said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and to financial regulators that "banks and their employees found to have broken the law should face appropriate criminal prosecution and civil action.”
Sliding: The average starting salaries for members of law school class of 2011 fell by 6.5 percent compared with the previous class. The National Law Journal reports on research from NALP, formerly the National Association for Law Placement. "The erosion of new associate hiring at law firms has resulted in a dramatic three-year decline in starting salaries for recent law graduates," the NLJ report says.
Tossed: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has turned down am antitrust suit against major banks over allegedly inflated ATM fees, The Recorder reports. Card holders, the appeals court said, did not have standing to sue because they didn't directly pay the fees at issue.
Bias Feared: The lawyers representing U.S. Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan in the mass shooting at a Texas base said they're concerned about finding an impartial jury to hear the case, The Wall Street Journal reports. A pretrial questionnaire will be mailed to prospective jurors this week.
Underground: The Los Angeles Times examines an "extraordinary" tunnel linking the United States and Mexico that the authorities believe is the handiwork of the Sinaloa drug cartel. One DEA agent said: “I would suspect that professional engineers were cooperating with the builders, if not working on site.”
Accountability: The Legal Intelligencer in Philadelphia has this report on the nearly eight-month investigation of abuse allegations at Penn State University. More coverage here and here.
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