Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD), based in Virginia Beach, Va., has agreed to pay a $900,000 civil penalty and to take corrective actions to reduce alleged sanitary sewer overflows from its collection system and nine sewage treatment plants that have polluted the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

Formosa Plastics Corp., Texas, and Formosa Plastics Corp., Louisiana, will spend more than $10 million on pollution controls to address air, water, and hazardous waste violations at two petrochemical plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, La.

A Florida doctor was charged today by a federal grand jury in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., with allegedly orchestrating a fraudulent political fund raising and lobbying scheme through which he secretly diverted to himself more than $350,000 from contributions to political organizations he controlled.

Daniel Earl Danforth, 30, of Minden, La., has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hate crime violations and obstruction of justice charges stemming from a cross-burning in Athens, La., last year near the home of an interracial couple. Danforth was arrested today following the return of the indictment on Sept. 25, 2009.

Polembros Shipping LTD pleaded guilty today for violating anti-pollution laws, ship safety laws, and making false statements during a U.S. Coast Guard investigation of the M/V Theotokos.

The lawsuit alleging that conditions at the Erie County Holding Center and the Erie County Correctional Facility routinely and systematically deprive inmates of constitutional rights.

The consent decree will resolve the Department’s complaint on behalf of an Indiana National Guardsman alleging that the law firm violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).

The city violated the Fair Housing Act by refusing to grant a nonprofit organization a permit to operate a group home for 11 men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

AGCO Corp., a U.S. corporation based in Duluth, Ga., has agreed to pay a $1.6 million penalty for illegal kickbacks paid to the former government of Iraq.

“Today’s settlement reflects the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to protect the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division.

Theresa Jeanne Baker was sentenced for her participation in two separate bribery conspiracies relating to DOD contracts at Camp Vistory, Iraq.

The Bank will invest more than $600,000, open a new branch in an African-American neighborhood in west central Alabama and take other steps as part of a settlement.

The United States has filed a lawsuit alleging that a bank and two automobile dealerships in Los Angeles violated the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by charging non-Asian-American customers higher interest rate mark-ups for a period of at least two years.

"We at the Department are especially committed to encouraging compliance with the Act and to fulfilling President Obama's goal of making this Administration the most open and transparent in history."

Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson today announced the results of ATF’s Gun Runner Impact Team (GRIT) initiative, a 120-day deployment of ATF resources to the Houston Field Division to disrupt illegal firearms trafficking by Mexican drug cartels

A federal judge today assessed the Southern Union Company $18 million for illegally storing mercury at a company-owned site in Pawtucket.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Cittadini, a retired sales manager for Boeing, failed to report income from bank accounts under his control at UBS AG in Switzerland on his individual income tax returns from 2001 through 2003.

"Talk alone isn’t going to keep crime rates down. Talk alone isn’t going to protect innocent victims. Talk alone isn’t going to stop rival gangs from shooting up our streets, or drug dealers from peddling dope in our schools, or terrorists from attacking our cities. Indeed, we all know that the best ideas in the world are worth little without the resources to implement them."

Travis Dardenne and Jeffery Brown of Plaquemine, La., each pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, La., to a violation of the Lacey Act for knowingly attempting to acquire an American alligator in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act and Louisiana law.

A federal district court in Texas has permanently enjoined Ludivina Salinas of Mission, Texas, from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

James M. Tanksley, 52, pleaded guilty today to receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 80 months in prison.

The United States has asked a federal court in Denver to bar Curtis Morris, an Elizabeth, Colo., tax return preparer, and his business, Numbers & Beyond, from preparing tax returns.

Bruce Lapierre of Pascoag, R.I., was sentenced to 51 months in prison today for tax evasion and conspiracy to defraud the United States

Michael Wildridge, 41, pleaded guilty today to transportation and possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A Moldovan national pleaded guilty today in federal court in Kansas City, Mo., for his role in a forced labor trafficking scheme that victimized workers in 14 states.

A federal grand jury in Oklahoma City returned a superseding indictment against a former manager of a U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contractor in Iraq, charging him with conspiracy to commit bribery, bribery and failing to appear in court.

Bruce Mikulyuk, 50, of Mishawaka, Ind., pleaded guilty today to interfering with the housing rights of a white woman and an African American man by burning a cross in their yard and later returning with a knife and threatening the man if he did not leave.

“A noose is an unmistakable symbol of hatred and violence in our nation, conjuring up images of a despicable period in our history. Mailing a noose to an individual who advocates for racial equality sends a clear threat of violence,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.

Donald Collier, 45, was sentenced today to nine years in prison for mailing child pornography.

Ryan Scott McMonigle, 37, of Ponca City, Okla., was indicted today for his alleged role in a scheme to solicit kickbacks in connection with the award of a security services subcontract to protect U.S. government personnel and contractors in Afghanistan.

As directed by the President’s Jan. 22, 2009 Executive Order, the interagency Guantanamo Review Task Force conducted a comprehensive review of each of these cases. As a result of that review, these detainees were approved for transfer from Guantanamo Bay.

The United States has asked a federal court in Kansas City, Kan., to bar Carlos Cruz, aka Carlos Ruano-Cruz, from preparing tax returns for others.

Three Miami-Dade County, Fla., residents have been indicted in connection with an alleged $2.3 million Medicare fraud scheme operated out of X-Press Center, a Detroit-area clinic that purported to specialize in providing injection and infusion therapies.

"Under the visionary leadership of Secretary General Noble, INTERPOL is already at the forefront of the battle against globalized crime. To highlight just one of the many critical steps he has taken: he has modernized the ‘I-24/7’ network, which is used thousands of times each day and millions of times each year to conduct the cross-border police work necessary to find and arrest wanted persons, and to solve and prevent crimes."

AT&T Missouri (formerly known as Southwestern Bell Telephone L.P.) has agreed to pay the United States $1.4 million as part of a settlement of a civil lawsuit alleging that the company violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program.

The Department will require AT&T Inc. to divest assets in eight areas in Louisiana and Mississippi in order to proceed with its $944 million acquisition of Centennial Communications Corp.

A Louisiana man pleaded guilty today to firing three shots from a shotgun at the home of three Hispanic men and, after they fled, entering the home and setting a fire that burned it to the ground.

Marcel J. Toto-Ngosso of Silver Spring, Md., was sentenced to 70 months in prison today for preparing and filing false tax returns in connection with a scheme to generate fraudulent tax refunds for his clients.

Arctic Glacier International Inc., headquartered in St. Paul, Minn., has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $9 million criminal fine for allocating customers. Three of the company’s former executives pleaded guilty for their roles in the conspiracy.

The United States has reached a settlement with ranchers in a longstanding dispute over livestock trespasses on public lands in Nye and Esmeralda Counties, Nev.

Gunther Wenzek, a German national, pleaded guilty today before District Judge Anna J. Brown, of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, to one count of smuggling coral into the United States at the port of Portland, Ore.

"Listening to the complex needs of the communities, and recognizing their unique responses, is perhaps the most important thing we can do at the Department."

Panagiotis Lekkas, the captain of the cargo ship, M/V Theotokos, was sentenced today in federal court in New Orleans to 10 months confinement.

Roy W. Bradford of Ludlow Falls, Ohio, was indicted on two counts of filing a false tax return and one count of corruptly endeavoring to impede the IRS.

A federal judge in St. George, Utah, has permanently enjoined Kent Bickmore, the founder of a so-called asset-protection business, from helping customers file fraudulent liens and create hidden nominee bank accounts

A federal district court in Richmond, Va., ruled yesterday that Virginia violated the voting rights of American military personnel and other overseas citizens by failing to mail absentee ballots in sufficient time for them to be counted in the Nov. 4, 2008, general election.

David H. Safavian was sentenced today to one year in prison on charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the investigation into the activities of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The Department announced this week that it has filed a lawsuit against TK Properties L.L.C., its officer, Scott Terveen, and two employees, Ann Wagner and Corey Anderson, for violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating on the basis of race.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,” Holder said.

Pine Hills Kiddie Garden of Fort Wayne, Ind., will take necessary steps to ensure that a child’s diabetes care is integrated into the usual routine of its day care center and programs as part of a settlement to resolve allegations that it discriminated on the basis of disability.