The Legal Street News

ISTANBUL (AP) -- U.S. Secretary ofState Hillary Rodham Clinton and Turkey'sforeign minister said Saturday that theircountries are creating a formal structure toplan for worst-case scenarios in Syria,including a possible chemical weaponsattack on regime opponents.

Clinton and Foreign Minister AhmetDavutoglu said their two nations would setup a working group to respond to the crisisin Syria as conditions there deteriorate.They said the group will coordinate military,intelligence and political responses to thepotential fallout in the case of a chemicalattack, which would result in medical emer-gencies and a likely rise in the number ofrefugees fleeing Syria.

"We have been closely coordinatingover the course of this conflict, but now weneed to get into the real details of suchoperational planning. It needs to be acrossboth of our governments," Clinton said.

She said the U.S. State Department andTurkey's Foreign Ministry had already beenworking together on the issue but that thenew working group would increase theinvolvement of the intelligence services andmilitaries of both countries.

Among the contingencies that the U.S.and Turkey agree on the need to plan for is"the horrible event" that chemical weaponsare used, Clinton said.

"What would that mean in terms ofresponse, humanitarian and medical emer-gency assistance and, of course, what

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In The News This Week

needs to be done to secure those stocksfrom ever being used or falling into thewrong hands?" Clinton said.

In July, Syria's foreign ministryspokesman threatened the use of chemicaland biological weapons in case of a foreignattack, assuring that government wouldnever use them against its own citizens. Itwas the first acknowledgement that Syriapossesses weapons of mass destruction,something that's long been suspected.

Later, the Syrian government attemptedto back away from the announcement andrevert to its previous position of neither con-firming nor denying the existence of uncon-ventional weapons.

Syria is believed to have nerve agentsas well as mustard gas, Scud missilescapable of delivering lethal chemicals and avariety of advanced conventional arms,including portable anti-aircraft missiles.

Davutoglu hinted at the possibility ofsetting up a so-called "safe zone" insideSyria if the humanitarian crisis, which hasalready claimed thousands of lives, triggersa massive flow of refugees who are vulner-able to attack by regime forces. He said55,000 Syrians have sought refuge inneighboring Turkey, and that 2,000-3,000were arriving daily. Recent arrivals camefrom the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo andsurrounding villages, while others havecome from Idlib and Latakia. Many morehave fled to Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.

US, TURKEY PLAN FORWORST-CASE SCENARIOS

IN SYRIAClinton and Foreign Minister Ahmet

Davutoglu said their two nations would set up aworking group to respond to the crisis .

GOVERNMENT WON'TPROSECUTE GOLDMAN

SACHS IN PROBEThe Justice Department said Thursday it won'tprosecute Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs.

Page 2

NYC MAN PLEADS GUILTYIN BOY'S DISMEMBERMENT

DEATHspeaking barely above a whisper, a Brooklynhardware store clerk pleaded guilty Thursday tocharges he abducted and dismembered an 8-year-old boy.

Page 3

FLORIDA ACCIDENTSTATISTICS

Accident Statistics from Florida Departmentof Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Page 4

FLORIDA ACCIDENTREPORTS

This Weeks Accident Reports from Variouscountys in Florida. Page 5

GOOGLE FINED $22.5M FORLATEST PRIVACY BREAK-

DOWNGoogle is paying a $22.5 million fine to settlethe latest regulatory case. Page 6

CONSUMER FINANCEAGENCY SETS MORTGAGE

PROTECTIONSMortgage servicing companies would berequired to provide clear monthly billing state-ments, warn borrowers before interest ratehikes and actively help them avoid foreclosureunder the proposa. Page 7

GOOGLE TO DOWNGRADEPIRATE SITES IN SEARCH

RESULTSThe move is a peace offering to Hollywood andthe music recording labels. Page 7

DISEASES THAT JUST WON'T QUIT Page 8

FTC FINALIZES PRIVACYSETTLEMENT WITH FACE

BOO Page 8 Continued on page 3

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The JusticeDepartment said Thursday it won't prosecuteWall Street firm Goldman Sachs or its employ-ees in a financial fraud probe.

In a written statement, the department said itconducted an exhaustive investigation of allega-tions brought to light by a Senate panel investi-gating the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

"The department and investigative agenciesultimately concluded that the burden of proof tobring a criminal case could not be met based onthe law and facts as they exist at this time," thedepartment said.

But the department added that if additionalor new evidence were to emerge, it could reacha different conclusion about prosecutingGoldman.

A Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. CarlLevin, D-Mich., in April 2011 found thatGoldman marketed four sets of complex mort-gage securities to banks and other investors butthat the firm failed to tell clients that the securi-ties were very risky. The Senate panel saidGoldman secretly bet against the investors'positions and deceived the investors about itsown positions to shift risk from its balance sheetto theirs.

The Justice Department's decision capped agood day for Goldman as the Securities andExchange Commission decided not to filecharges against the firm over a $1.3 billion sub-prime mortgage portfolio. At the same time, theJustice Department's decision ensured that theObama administration will continue to feelpolitical heat, particularly from the liberal wingof the president's own party, for not havingbrought more prosecutions in the financial cri-sis.

The Senate panel probe turned up companyemails showing Goldman employees deridingcomplex mortgage securities sold to banks andother investors as "junk" and "crap."

Levin said during his subcommittee's inves-tigation that he believed that Goldman execu-

tives "misled the Congress" and that Goldman"gained at the expense of their clients and theyused abusive practices to do it."

Levin questioned the accuracy of testimonyGoldman Sachs executives gave to Congressabout whether the firm steered investors towardmortgage securities it knew likely would fail.

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told theSenate panel that the company didn't bet againstits clients and couldn't survive without theirtrust. The company lost $1.2 billion in the mort-gage meltdown in 2007 and 2008 that touchedoff the financial crisis and the worst recessionsince the 1930s, Blankfein testified. He alsoinsisted that Goldman wasn't making an aggres-sive negative bet - or short sale - on the mort-gage market's slide.

In 2010, Goldman agreed to pay $550 mil-lion to settle civil fraud charges by the SEC ofmisleading buyers of mortgage-related securi-ties. The agreement applied to one of the fourdeals cited by the Senate subcommittee.

The Justice Department said it wouldaggressively pursue investigations of "mattersaffecting our financial system." The departmentpointed to its probe into the manipulation of theLondon Interbank Offered Rate. Britain'sBarclays bank admitted in June that it had sub-mitted false information to keep the rate low.Barclays was fined $453 million in settlementswith the Justice Department, the U.S.Commodity Futures Trading Commission andBritish regulators.

LIBOR, as it is known, is the interest ratethat banks charge each other for short-termloans. It is used as the benchmark for bank ratesall over the world.

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Continued on page 8

Israel.

The victim got lost on his walk home from areligious day camp and asked Aron, whom hemet on the street, for help, prosecutors said. Itwas the first time the little boy was allowed towalk alone, and he was supposed to travel aboutseven blocks to meet his mother but missed aturn.

According to court papers, the defendanthimself provided authorities a disturbing narra-tive of what happened next.

During an interrogation after his arrest andin a written confession, Aron recounted how theboy first asked for a ride to a book store. But "onthe way, he changed his mind and wasn't sure hewanted to go."

The defendant described deciding to takethe boy to a wedding upstate. He said when they

__________________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012

N Y C M A N P L E A D S G U I L T Y I NB O Y ' S D I S M E M B E R M E N T D E A T H

returned, they watchedtelevision before theboy fell asleep. Leibyremained there watch-ing TV the next daywhile Aron went towork at the hardwarestore.

By that time,Borough Park wasbuzzing over the disap-pearance. The boy'spicture was plasteredon light posts aroundthe area.

"When I saw thefliers, I was panickyand afraid," police saidAron wrote. Oncehome, he added: "Iwent for a towel tosmother him. He foughtback a little until he

eventually stopped breathing."

Detectives' notes also outlined statementsby Aron about how he carved up the body withknives and disposed of body parts, including thesevered feet found wrapped in plastic his freez-er. A cutting board and three bloody carvingknives were found in the refrigerator.

The rest of the boy's body was discovered inbags inside a red suitcase in a trash bin. His legshad been cut from his torso.

Aron claimed that after the killing he washearing voices telling him "to take his own lifefor what he did," according to court papers.

As the interrogation wore on, detectives saidAron made clear he was aware of his own noto-riety.

"I'm famous," he said.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Lookingdazed and speaking barely above awhisper, a Brooklyn hardware storeclerk pleaded guilty Thursday tocharges he abducted and dismem-bered an 8-year-old boy who lost hisway home.

The guilty plea to second-degreemurder and kidnapping guaranteesLevi Aron a sentence of 40 years tolife in a case that traumatized thevictim's tight-knit Orthodox Jewishcommunity.

Aron, 36, had previously plead-ed not guilty to first-degree murderand, if convicted, would have facedlife without parole. But the familyof Leiby Kletzky urged prosecutorsto strike a deal to avoid the painfulspectacle of a trial.

"There is no way one can com-prehend or understand the pain oflosing a child," the boy's father,Nachman Kletzky wrote in a state-ment distributed to the media. But he added thatthe plea gave the family "some partial closureon one aspect of this nightmare."

Legal closure came Thursday afternoonafter an expressionless Aron was led into thecourtroom wearing an orange jail jump suit,handcuffs and a yarmulke.

Judge Neil Firetog began by telling him thatafter seeing psychological reports, he was con-vinced claiming mental illness was "not a viabledefense."

The judge then had Aron answer a series ofoften leading questions about his conduct. Hisone-word responses were delivered in a low, flatmonotone after long pauses and prodding by hislawyers.

Aron expressed no remorse and only hintedat motive: At one point he told the judge he felt"panic" when he found out there was a franticsearch on for the boy, who was still alive in hisapartment.

The judge asked him what he decided to do,and he responded simply, "Smother." He alsoanswered yes when asked if he had bound anddrugged Leiby.

Afterward, defense attorney JenniferMcCann insisted that her client, though undermedication, knew what he was doing.

"He came here to accept responsibility forhis actions," McCann said. "He understands thecharges."

The plea deal means Aron could technicallyqualify for a parole, but only if he survives inprison into his mid-70s.

"No one should ever forget what happenedto Leiby Kletzky but we can all take solace thatLevi Aron will never, ever be able to hurt any-one again," District Attorney Charles Hynessaid in a statement.

One of the city's most gruesome crimes inrecent memory began with a chance encounterlast summer on the streets of the Brooklynneighborhood of Borough Park, home to one ofthe world's largest Hasidic communities outside

Levi Aron, center, listens to proceeding with his attorneys Howard Greenberg, left,andPierre Bazile, in New York state Supreme Court, in New York's Brooklyn borough,Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012. Aron pleaded guilty to charges he abducted and dismemberedLeiby Kletzky, an 8-year-old boy who became lost in Brooklyn after leaving a day camp.The plea will result in a sentence of 40 years to life in prison.

"If there is a huge wave of refugeemigration, then we need to maybe establisha mechanism within Syria in order to ensurehumanitarian protection," he said. "Ofcourse, we might try to protect people ifthey seek refuge in our territory, but if theyhave to live under continuous bombard-ment every day, if they are exposed to airstrikes every day, and bombardment everyday, this might even be considered a warcrime."

Davutoglu said without elaborating: "Insuch a case, the international communitycan no longer keep its silence and there arecertain measures that need to be taken up... We need to brace for impact."

In addition to planning for potentialcatastrophes, Clinton and Davutoglustressed the importance of preparing for apolitical transition that does not compro-mise state institutions that will be needed tomaintain security and provide key servicesunder a new leadership that would replacePresident Bashar Assad. Clinton said a newSyria will need to protect the rights of allSyrians regardless of religion, gender or

ethnicity.

Both nations are concerned aboutextremist groups taking advantage of anypower vacuum in Syria that could followAssad's eventual departure. The Turks areparticularly concerned about the Kurdishrebel group PKK, which already has basesin northern Iraq, from which it launchescross-border attacks on Turkish targets inits campaign for autonomy for the ethnicminority.

"We share Turkey's determination thatSyria must not become a haven for PKKterrorists whether now or after the depar-ture of the Assad regime," Clinton said.

Before they spoke to reporters, Clintonand Davutoglu met Syrian refugees to dis-cuss their needs and Clinton met separate-ly with six opposition activists, includingthree who fled the country within the pastmonth. She said she came away from themeeting impressed with their desire to builda democratic society in Syria.

However, some of the recent arrivals inTurkey expressed concern about an appar-ent lack of unity among opposition leadersoutside Syria.

Continued from page 1

4 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SF L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C S

Daylight 151,669 937 86,517 64,215

Dusk 6,115 44 3,305 2,766

Dawn 2,818 39 1,490 1,289

Dark 71,188 1,234 32,982 36,972

Unknown 3,671 7 553 3,111

Total 235,466 2,261 124,847 108,353

Dry 200,153 1,995 106,486 91,674

Wet 31,490 245 17,139 14.106

Slippery 975 7 542 426

Icy 61 1 27 33

Other 2,782 13 655 2,114

Total 235,461 2,261 124,847 108,353

LightingConditions

All Crashes

FatalCrashes

InjuryCrashes

Vehicleand/or

Prperty Damageonly Crashes

Road Surface Conditions at the Time of Crash

Lighing Conditions at the Time of Crash

LightingConditions

All Crashes

FatalCrashes

InjuryCrashes

Vehicleand/or

Prperty Damageonly Crashes

__________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012 5

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Several afternoon crashes;Brickell Bridge, westbound112 to be closed overnight

In Miami-Dade:

• A crash is blocking lanes on southboundNorthwest 27th Avenue at 167th Street.

• A crash has been reported at Northwest SeventhAvenue at 159th Street.

In Broward:

• Authorities are working a crash U.S. 1 andStirling Road in Dania Beach.

In Monroe:

• A crash has been reported on U.S. 1 at milemarker 104 in Key Largo.

August 8, 2012

Delays were easing on northbound Interstate 95remained Monday afternoon following a crashthatleft a flatbed tractor-trailer jackknifed.

The crash, which also involved other vehicles,was reported shortly before 11:30 a.m. at the exitramp to Hillsboro Boulevard in Deerfield Beach.

Traffic through the crash scene was extremelyslow for nearly three hours before the scene wascleared.

The Florida Highway Patrol reports that fourpeople were taken to hospitals for injuries that werenot believed to be life-threatening.

August 11, 2012

Delays easing from I-95crash through Deerfield

Beach

August 10, 2012

Accidents on I-95, MiamiGardens Drive, I-595

cause delays in Miami-Dade, Broward

Lehigh man, 18, dies frominjuries sustained in car

crash

August 10,2012An 18-year-old Lehigh Acres man has died frominjuries he sustained in a crash on Monday.

John Thomas Simpson was driving west on StateRoad 82 near Rue Labeau Circle when he lost con-trol of his Lincoln Town Car and crossed into thepath of a Toyota Prius heading east.

The driver of the Prius, identified as Clearwater res-ident Deborah Cowans, 57, took evasive action,according to deputies, but was unable to avoid thecollision.

Cowans and her passenger, Bessie Robinson, 68, ofSeminole, were taken to Lee Memorial Hospital withserious but non-life threatening injuries.Simpson died Tuesday.

A Palm Coast woman isfacing charges after anaccident early Saturday

morning on Interstate 95

In Miami-Dade:

• Construction on northbound US-1 and Southwest152nd Street is blocking the left lane.

• A crash on eastbound Flagler Street andSouthwest 87th Avenue is not blocking lanes.

• A crash on Quail Roost Drive and Southwest113th Avenue is not blocking lanes.

• A crash on Krome Avenue and Kendall Drive isnot blocking lanes.

• A crash on Miami Gardens Drive and Northeast6th Avenue is blocking lanes.

• A crash on Bird Road and Southwest 72ndAvenue is not blocking lanes.

• A hit-and-run crash on northbound Interstate 95south of Northwest 79th Street is not blockinglanes.

• A crash with injuries on U.S. 27 and Northwest138th Street is blocking lanes.

• A crash on southbound Interstate 95 and the exitto Northwest 2nd Avenue is causing delays.

• A crash with injuries on eastbound State Road112 and Northwest 22nd Avenue is blocking theright lane.

• A crash on southbound Interstate 75 north ofState Road 826, the Palmetto Expressway, is notblocking lanes.

• A crash on southbound US-1 and Southwest112th Avenue is not blocking lanes.

• A crash on eastbound Miami Gardens Drivesouth of Northwest 138th Street is not blockinglanes.

• A crash on southbound Interstate 75 south ofNorthwest 138th Street is blocking lanes.

• A crash on Northwest 2nd Avenue and Northwest175th Street is not blocking lanes.

• A hit-and-run crash on southbound Interstate 95south of US-441 is not blocking lanes.

• A crash on westbound Miami Gardens Drive andNortheast 12th Avenue is blocking lanes.

• A crash on southbound Interstate 95 south of theGolden Glades Interchange is partially blocking theright lane.

• A crash with injuries on Northwest 215th Streetand Northwest 57th Avenue is blocking lanes.

• A hit-and-run crash on northbound Interstate 95

Lanes open after crash onI-95 near Belvedere Road

All southbound lanes of Interstate-95 nearBelvedere Road have reopened after a vehicle acci-dent this morning.

The Florida Highway Patrol responded to thescene, just south of the Belvedere Road exit ramp,at about 9:04 a.m. According to the FHP, a singlevehicle was involved in the crash.

No information regarding injuries was immedi-ately available

August 11, 2012

A Palm Coast woman is facing charges after anaccident early Saturday morning on Interstate 95that left three tractor-trailers damaged.

The Florida Highway Patrol said 20-year-old KellyFrazier may have fallen asleep at the wheel caus-ing her to run into the back of a semi she was fol-lowing and damaging her Ford Focus to the pointwhere she couldn’t move it out of the roadway.

Investigators said the semi kept going, but Frazierleft her car and called 911 from the side of thehighway.

Another semi tried to avoid hitting the disabled car,but overturned while trying to maneuver around it,according to FHP, and spilled fuel along the shoul-der.

A fourth semi was damaged by debris in the road-way.

The driver and passenger of the overturned semiwere taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

Frazier was also treated for minor injuries.

Troopers said alcohol was not a factor.

Frazier was charged with careless driving, drivingwhile license suspended and operating a vehiclewith no insurance.

August 11, 2012

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google is pay-ing a $22.5 million fine to settle the latest regu-latory case questioning the Internet searchleader's respect for people's privacy and theintegrity of its internal controls.

The penalty announced Thursday by theFederal Trade Commission matches the figurereported by The Associated Press and othermedia outlets last month. It's the most that theFTC has ever fined a company for a civil viola-tion.

The rebuke resolves the FTC's allegationsthat Google Inc. duped millions of Web surferswho use Apple Inc.'s Safari browser.

Google had assured people that it wouldn'tmonitor their online activities, as long as theydidn't change the browser settings to permit thetracking.

Google broke that promise, according to theFTC, by creating a technological loophole thatenabled the company's DoubleClick advertisingnetwork to shadow unwitting Safari users. Thattracking gave DoubleClick a better handle onwhat kinds of marketing pitches to show them.

The FTC concluded that the contradictionbetween Google's stealth tracking and its priva-cy assurances to Safari users violated a vow thatthe company made in another settlement withthe agency in October.

The latest settlement doesn't affect a sepa-rate FTC inquiry over whether Google has beenabusing its dominant position in Internet searchto highlight its own services over rivals anddrive up online advertising prices. The settle-ment also doesn't come with any admissionfrom Google of wrongdoing.

The company has acknowledged thatDoubleClick was tracking Safari users, butinsists the monitoring wasn't by design.

All Google wanted to do, according to thecompany, was create a way for Safari users topress on a button to signal they recommendedan ad. Google said it didn't realize its tinkeringaltered Safari's automatic privacy settings in away that allowed for broader surveillance.

After the circumvention was publicized inFebruary by a graduate student at StanfordUniversity, Google stopped the tracking onSafari. The company says it never collected anypersonal information.

"We set the highest standards of privacy andsecurity for our users," Google said Thursday.

Google's actions, though, have cast doubtsabout the sincerity of its commitment.

The Safari intrusion is the latest privacy

6 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012___________________________________________________________

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stumble at Google, whose dominant Internetsearch engine and popular email service providevaluable peepholes into people's minds.

In 2010, Google set up a social networkingservice called Buzz that exposed people's emailcontacts. Following an FTC investigation,Google agreed to 20 years of oversight and apledge not to mislead consumers about privacyissues. That's the pledge that the FTC saysGoogle broke with Safari.

Google also got in trouble for collecting per-sonal data transmitted over unprotected Wi-Finetworks as Google cars cruised neighborhoodsaround the world taking pictures for the compa-ny's online mapping service.

The FTC didn't take action against Googlefor scooping up the Wi-Fi data, although theFederal Communications Commission fined thecompany $25,000 earlier this year for impedingits investigation into the matter.

As it did with the secret tracking on Safari,Google has framed those privacy breaches asinadvertent slips.

That defense is wearing thin, according toDavid Vladeck, the director of the FTC's bureauof consumer protection.

"In some ways, as a regulator, it's hard toknow which answer is worst: `I didn't know' or`I did it deliberately.' Both are bad," Vladecktold reporters on a Thursday conference call.

The FTC hopes the fine will force Google topay better attention to its practices.

"It's a big company," Vladeck said. "It'sgrown very quickly, but the social contract is ifyou are going to hold on to people's most pri-vate data, you have got to do a better job of hon-oring your privacy commitment."

Those terse remarks underscore Google'sincreasingly tense relationship with regulatorsaround the world. Both the FTC and theEuropean Commission are engaged in broadantitrust investigations of Google. The compa-ny, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., hassubmitted a list of concessions in an attempt tosettle Europe's probe, while the FTC's inquiry

remains open.

Although the $22.5 million fine is a recordfor the FTC, it won't leave much of a financialdent at Google. The company had $43 billion incash at the end of June and generates $22.5 mil-lion in revenue roughly every four hours.

"This record fine will send a signal to a lotof Internet companies, but there's still somequestion whether the FTC has the authority andresources to rein in an entity as big and power-ful as Google," said Carl Tobias, a RichmondUniversity law professor who followed theSafari case.

Bad publicity may be the bigger blow forGoogle, which takes so much pride in its scru-ples that it has adopted "Don't Be Evil" as itscorporate motto.

"This has to sting. They don't want to losetoo much goodwill," said Justin Brookman,director of consumer privacy for the Center forDemocracy & Technology.

The FTC's willingness to settle with Googlewithout an admission of wrongdoing troubledone of the agency's own commissioners, J.Thomas Rosch. He voted against the settlementbecause he didn't believe the agreement was inthe public interest without Google admitting lia-bility.

But the FTC's four other commissionersvoted in favor of the settlement.

"We don't get anything out of an admissionother than a good headline," Vladeck said. "It isnot of any practical value to us."

The fine surpasses a nearly $19 millionpenalty that the FTC slapped in 2010 on a tele-marketer accused of duping people into believ-ing they were donating to charities.

Without providing specifics, the FTC saidthe Google fine represents several times morethan what Google made from the targeted adsthat it distributed through Safari.

Consumer Watchdog, a California groupthat has emerged among Google's most stridentcritics, said it may challenge the settlementunless Google admits it broke the privacy prom-ise made with the Buzz settlement.

"The commission has allowed Google tobuy its way out of trouble for an amount thatprobably is less than the company spends onlunches for its employees and with no admis-sion it did anything wrong," ConsumerWatchdog complained.

News of the FTC's fine didn't faze investorsas Google shares added 12 cents to closeThursday at $642.35. Although it was modest,the gain was still enough to boost Google's mar-ket value by about $39 million, nearly twice theamount of the fine.

6 Legal Street News Monday August 13, 2012___________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government'sconsumer lending watchdog proposed new rulesFriday aimed at protecting homeowners fromunexpected costs and shoddy service by compa-nies that collect their monthly mortgage pay-ments.

Mortgage servicing companies would berequired to provide clear monthly billing state-ments, warn borrowers before interest rate hikesand actively help them avoid foreclosure underthe proposal by the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau. The rules also require com-panies to credit people's payments promptly,swiftly correct errors and keep better internalrecords.

"The major failures in this industry demon-strate that all servicers need to meet basic stan-dards of good customer service," CFPBDirector Richard Cordray said in a call withreporters. He said the proposal reflects "twobasic, common-sense standards - no surprisesand no runarounds."

Mortgage servicers are central players in thenationwide housing crisis because they areresponsible for foreclosing on homes when peo-ple fail to make payments. They have facedwithering criticism for practices includingcharging excessive fees, foreclosing withoutcompleting the required paperwork and failingto help people stay in their homes by changingtheir loan terms.

Under the rules, companies would berequired to provide billing statements thatexplain how much of a payment is going to paydown principal, how much to interest and howmuch to fees. If an interest rate was set to adjust,the borrower would receive an early estimate ofthe new payment amount. That would allowpeople to consider refinancing if they don't likethe new rates.

The rules also help guarantee that borrowersaren't forced to pay excessively premiums onhomeowners' insurance that servicers require

C O N S U M E R

F I N A N C E A G E N C Y

S E T S M O R T G A G E

P R O T E C T I O N S

them to carry. In the past, servicers tacked oninsurance when they believed someone's cover-age had lapsed. The premiums could be severaltimes bigger than on a typical policy.

The rules would require servicers to notifyborrowers twice before charging them for insur-ance. They would have to cancel the insurancewithin 15 days if borrowers proved that theyalready had coverage.

The new agency has focused on mortgageservicers in part because borrowers can't shoparound and choose a mortgage servicer. Instead,servicers buy the right to collect payments fromthe original lenders. Servicing rights can belucrative because they permit servicers to col-lect fees, for example on late payments.

Under the new proposal, companies wouldbe required to connect delinquent borrowerswith staff who are dedicated to helping themavoid foreclosure.

The rules have been a priority for the newagency, which was created under a 2010 lawthat overhauled financial oversight. The samelaw required the CFPB to set new standards formany corners of the mortgage industry.

The proposal is open for public commentuntil Oct. 9. The agency will finalize the rules inJanuary 2013.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Google Inc. isaltering its search results to de-emphasizethe websites of repeat copyright offendersand make it easier to find legitimateproviders of music, movies and other con-tent.

The move is a peace offering toHollywood and the music recording labels.This year, Google joined other SiliconValley heavyweights to help kill legislationthat would have given government and con-tent creators more power to shut down for-eign websites that promote piracy.

The Motion Picture Association ofAmerica issued a lukewarm response, say-ing it was "optimistic" the change wouldhelp steer consumers away from piracy.

"We will be watching this developmentclosely - the devil is always in the details,"MPAA senior executive president MichaelO'Leary said in a statement.

Next week, Google will start using "validcopyright removal notices" to rank itssearch results, according to a Friday blogpost by Google's senior vice president ofengineering, Amit Singhal.

Google typically ranks websites basedon how many other sites link to them, onthe belief that sites that get more links aremore trustworthy and useful. But Googlealso regularly tweaks its formulas to reflectspecial circumstances.

In this case, sites with high numbers ofcopyright-removal notices may get bumpeddown in rankings. In effect, that will helpusers find legitimate sources of contentwithout removing any pages from its resultscompletely. Google did not elaborate onwhat it considers to be valid notices.

Google's icy relationship with contentcreators has thawed slightly.

Last month, Google said it would offer a$50-per-month TV package over a super-fast fiber network in a Kansas City test bed.The package would offer mainstream chan-nels including Viacom Inc.'s Nickelodeon.

Google, which is based in MountainView, Calif., also sells movies and musicthrough its Google Play store on mobiledevices that use its Android operating sys-tem.

But a $1 billion copyright lawsuit filed byViacom against Google's YouTube in 2007was re-instated by a federal appeals courtin April after a lower court threw it out.

And last week, court papers showedthat the Authors Guild is demanding Googlepay $750 for each of the 20 million books ithas scanned in a 7-year-old case.

G O O G L E T OD O W N G R A D EPIRATE SITES INS E A R C HR E S U L T S

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Amass of small volcanic rocks nearly thesize of Belgium has been discovered float-ing off the coast of New Zealand.

The stretch of golf-ball-size pumice rockswas first spotted this week by a NewZealand air force plane about 1,000 kilo-meters (620 miles) northeast of Auckland.The rocks stretch for about 26,000 squarekilometers (10,000 square miles).

A navy ship took scientists to the rocksThursday night. Naval Lt. Tim Oscar saysthe rocks appeared a brilliant white undera spotlight, like a giant ice shelf.

He says it's the "weirdest thing" he's seenin 18 years at sea.

Scientists say the rocks likely spewed upin an eruption by an underwater volcano.They don't believe the eruption is connect-ed to the onshore ash eruption this weekof another volcano, Mount Tongariro.

The Defence Force says the mass ofrocks stretches 250 nautical miles by 30nautical miles.

Pumice is made from lava and water andis very lightweight, so it poses no dangerto ships. Pumice has a variety of uses: asan ingredient in concrete, polishes and

Mass of volcanicrocks floating offN e w Z e a l a n d

Gonorrhea – No one applaudsthe clap, but the disease seems tobe coming back for an encore. TheCenters for Disease Control recent-ly warned that there is now onlyone drug, ceftriaxone, which iseffective as a first treatment for thesexually transmitted gonorrhea,reported Fox News.

Ebola – The intestine-dissolv-ing disease featured in the movies"Outbreak" and "The Hot Zone"struck Uganda in July. So far, 16have died, but the World HealthOrganization claims the disease isnow under control, reported Voiceof America.

BRIEF: Should We VaccinateWild Apes?

Bubonic Plague – The diseasewhich decimated the world's popu-lation during the Middle Ages isstill around. New Mexico is astronghold of the disease. In Julyan Albuquerque man was diag-nosed with the disease after he dis-posed of a dead squirrel, reportedKRQE.

Black Lung Disease –Inhaling coal dust can lead to the dead-ly disease pneumoconiosis, known asblack lung disease. It was once hopedthat safety devices and filters would save miner's lungs, butan investigation by National Public Radio and the Centerfor Public Integrity found that not only are the number ofcases on the rise, but younger miners are being struck downby a faster progression of the disease.

Malaria – Inhaling coal can kill you, but burning itthreatens your life in a more indirect way. As greenhousegases warm the planet, research warns that the mosquitosmay be able to spread malaria further and more easily. Inthe past, malaria affected North America as far north asCanada. Eradication programs largely wiped the disease outin the United States, but a warmer, wetter climate meansmore mosquitos, making it harder to control them.

ANALYSIS: Diseases From WarmerClimates Reach U.S.

Whooping Cough – With nearly 18,000 cases of per-tussis, or whooping cough, reported to the CDC so far thisyear, 2012 has been a bad year for lungs, reported CNN.

"That's more than twice as many as we had at the at thesame time last year," Anne Schuchat, director of theNational Center for Immunization and RespiratoryDiseases at the CDC said on CNN. "We may need to goback to 1959 to find a year with as many cases reported bythis time so far."

Cholera – No matter what Gabriel Garcia Marquezsays, there is no love in the time of cholera, a deadly diar-

rhea spread by contaminatedwater. In the wake of the earth-quake that devastated Port-au-Prince, a cholera outbreak hasbeen raging across Haiti,according to the CDC. Over150,000 cases have beenreported so far.

Tuberculosis –Tuberculosis killed some ofhistory's greats including FranzKafka, George Orwell, EleanorRoosevelt and Henry DavidThoreau. The disease seemedto be on its way out after vac-cines and a sequence of antibi-otics were found to combat thedisease. Unfortunately, drug-resistant strains developed inthe 1980s and then spread.Tuberculosis is now globallythe second largest killer afterHIV/AIDS, when consideringsingle infectious agents,according to the World HealthOrganization. In 2010, 1.4 mil-lion people died from tubercu-losis.

Polio – Tuberculosisshould serve as a warning in thefight against polio. When a dis-

ease is down, don't let it get backup. Four organizations, RotaryInternational, the World Health

Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control andUNICEF, are leading the charge to wipe polio off the plan-et.

Syphilis – Gonorrhea isn't the only venereal disease intown. Syphilis has been making a comeback, particularly inGermany and Australia. The historical bane of those whofrequented the red-light district, syphilis stung famous lib-ertines like Charles Baudelaire, Scott Joplin and ÉdouardManet.

Meningitis – Meningococcal meningitis is rare, but cankill a child in a single day. Vaccination rates for the diseaseare low, but the Voices of Meningitis movement is pushingto increase vaccination rates for children in the U.S. Thedisease spreads through simple contact and can be difficultto diagnose until is it too late.

8 Legal Street News Monday, August 13, 2012

while visiting someone else's profile page.

Under the settlement, Facebook must get explicitconsent - a process known as "opting in" - before makingchanges that override existing privacy preferences. Thecompany also may not make misrepresentations about theprivacy or security of users' personal information - abroad clause that led to Google's fine on Thursday.

Violations will be subject to civil penalties of up to$16,000 per day for each infringement.

The FTC approved the settlement 3-1, with one com-missioner not participating. Commissioner J. ThomasRosch dissented, as he did with the Google deal onThursday, partly because it didn't require an admission ofwrongdoing. He also worried the settlement was toovague on whether it applied to Facebook apps written byoutside parties. The three commissioners who approvedthe deal believe it covers apps.

Facebook had no comment beyond a statement that itis pleased the settlement received final approval.

Facebook's stock gained 80 cents, or 3.8 percent, toclose Friday at $21.81. The company, based in MenloPark, Calif., began trading publicly in mid-May, after thesettlement with the FTC was reached. The stock is nowtrading 43 percent below its initial public offering price of$38.

If wildfires, droughts, scorching heat and devastating storms aren't enough to have you listening for the

hoof beats of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, then consider the resurgence in diseases humans once

thought they had beat.

advertising pitches that both companies aim at users.

Over the years, Facebook has been pushing users tovoluntary share more about themselves. That ultimatelyencourages users and their friends to spend more time onthe site, which in turn allows Facebook to sell more ads.Although Facebook boasts that it gives users a variety ofsoftware settings so they can decide which photos, linksand updates to share with whom, the company changesthose options on a regular basis.

Much of the FTC's complaint against Facebook cen-ters on a series of changes that the company made to itsprivacy controls in late 2009. The revisions automaticallyshared information and pictures about Facebook users,even if they previously programmed their privacy settingsto shield the content. Among other things, people's profilepictures, lists of online friends and political views weresuddenly available for the world to see, the FTC alleged.

The complaint also charges that Facebook shared itsusers' personal information with third-party advertisersfrom September 2008 through May 2010 despite severalpublic assurances from company officials that it wasn'tpassing the data along for marketing purposes.

Facebook believes that happened only in limitedinstances, generally when users clicked on ads thatappeared on their personal profile pages. Most ofFacebook's users click on ads when they are on their"Wall" - a section that highlights their friends' posts - or

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Federal Trade Commissionvoted Friday to finalize its settlement with Facebook,resolving charges that the social network exposed detailsabout users' lives without getting the required legal con-sent.

Facebook Inc. agreed to submit to government auditsof its privacy practices every other year for the next twodecades. The company also committed to getting explicitapproval from users before changing the types of contentit makes public.

The settlement, announced in November, is similar toagreements the FTC reached separately with Google Inc.and Myspace.

The FTC approved the settlement Friday after a pub-lic comment period. It came a day after the FTC finedGoogle $22.5 million to resolve allegations that Googledidn't comply with the earlier settlement.

Facebook didn't admit any wrongdoing in the settle-ment, though CEO Mark Zuckerberg conceded inNovember that the company had made "high-profile mis-takes" on privacy over the years.

Both Facebook and Google have vast amounts ofdata on their users - Facebook through the things peopleshare on the site, and Google through the searches andother things people do. Such information is valuablebecause it can be used to improve the lucrative targeted

F T C F I N A L I Z E S P R I V A C YS E T T L E M E N T W I T H F A C E B O O K

DISEASES THAT JUST WON'T QUIT

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