Depending on the results, regular blogging will remain on hiatus until after either the August 10th Connecticut primary or the November 2nd general election.

While far from an expert on securities liability laws, I’ve recently been made aware of a push by Senator Specter to essentially reverse a Supreme Court decision on the issue.  Since we’re expecting a nominee for retiring Justice Stevens’ spot on the court to be announced this week it seems like an issue that might start getting more scrutiny.

The decision in question is Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta from 2007 where the court ruled that shareholders suing companies guilty of fraud could not target additional third parties that merely had business relationships with those responsible for the fraud.  Apparently, such lawsuits were the result of a legal theory called “scheme liability” and in the Stoneridge case shareholders where trying to sue Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola who were two vendors that had done business with Charter Communications which was accused of issuing a misleading financial statement.

Specter introduced legislation last summer to provide a legislative fix to the Supreme Court decision, but it hasn’t gotten out of committee yet.  Now he’s trying to attach the bill as an amendment to the financial reform bill pending in the Senate.

While some have alleged that Specter’s actions are intended to garner support from trial lawyers for his tough reelection fight, ultimately his motives matter less than the impact this legislation may have.  Widening the scope of securities fraud lawsuits will simply add more uncertainty and risk to the economy at a time when we’re struggling to recover from a damaging recession.

Additionally, it’s important to note that the SEC currently has the authority to seek criminal penalties for those who have aided and abetted fraud.  The legislative change sought by Senator Specter would simply open the floodgates to civil lawsuits.

Deacon Thomas Dietsch and his wife, Dorne (Photo by Mary Chalupsky, Catholic Transcript)

Had intended to mention this weeks ago.

Out of all the tragedy in Haiti there was one story of survival that struck a personal note for me.  Deacon Chuck Dietsch from my family’s parish Sacred Heart Church in Southbury, Conn. narrowly escaped after he and another volunteer became trapped in a mission house they were working at outside Port-au-Prince.  The house collapsed around them.  Thankfully, after ten hours of digging, local volunteers from the mission managed to free them.

What I find most inspiring is Chuck’s determination to return to Haiti to continue the mission work.  As he puts it, “I’m definitely going back.”

The entire story is detailed in the archdiocese’s newspaper The Catholic Transcript.

That about sums it up for me.

Heading to Yankee Stadium tonight for game two of the world series – here’s hoping things go better for the Yankees than they did last night.

Great news for Hartford Whalers fans!  According to Greg Wyshynski at Yahoo Sports, the recent expiration of the ‘Hartford Whalers’ trademark has paved the way for the NHL to allow the creation of new Whalers apparel as part of their ‘Vintage Hockey Program.’

And so I said, "Housing boom?! What Irish housing boom?!"

Leave a comment with a possible caption for this touching moment captured between Vice President Joe Biden and embattled Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd during a recent trip to the nutmeg state.

www.national911memorial.org

Gmail is now a trending topic on Twitter as news of today’s outage spreads.  For a company that aims to “organize the world’s information” I’ve been surprised at their lack of transparency in situations like this in the past.  While I realize they’ve kept Gmail in perpetual ‘beta’ the reality is that people have come to rely on the tools Google provides on a daily basis.

I believe that users can accept delays or outages, but only if they’re respected enough to be kept informed.  That’s why I was glad to see their recent Twitter update announcing the outage with a link to additional information.  Hopefully, this openness is a trend that will continue.

UPDATE: Google has posted a detailed explanation of yesterday’s Gmail outage.