SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- In October, a three-judge panel of the Federal Court of Appeals unanimously rejected Apple's request for an injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphones, citing a lack of evidence. Apple had won a $1.5 billion suit against Samsung last year for patent violations. Many analysts see the longstanding feud as a proxy war between Apple and Google. Samsung's popular devices use Google's Android operating system, which Steve Jobs once derided as a "stolen product." Despite the billion-dollar settlement, Apple requested the full court to revisit the October decision and impose a sales ban on Samsung's products. And in a surprise follow up, Apple then requested the panel of judges to ban the sale of any competitor's product.

Photo courtesy AP

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Emerging from the long shadow cast by countless accusations of sexual misconduct in recent months, John Travolta made positive news this week for using Scientology techniques to heal a man who was injured in a traffic accident. Travolta told the Church of Scientology's Celebrity Magazine that he performed a procedure called an "assist" to help the man find relief from the chronic pain he had been suffering since breaking his ankle in a car crash. The Scientology handbook defines an "assist" as the process of helping "the individual to heal himself or be healed by another agency by removing his reasons for precipitating and prolonging his condition and lessening his predisposition to further injure himself or remain in an intolerable condition." Spiritual leaders from various faiths -- long opponents of Scientology, which they label a cult -- responded to Travolta's story as "a bunch of voodoo and hogwash." But eyewitnesses at the encounter, many of whom discount Scientology as a serious religion, said the assist did produce noticeable results, with the injured party telling Travolta, "I feel better," before pulling his pants back on, scurrying away in tears and demanding to speak with security.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- America used to be known as the international peacekeeper, but now seems to be emerging as the world's most beleaguered Human Resources department -- and nobody deals with HR unless they've got a hatchet to bury. Consider BP's recent filing of a legal motion against the White House to release over 21 emails related to cabinet-level discussions about the federal response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster two years ago. A court ruled against the request on June 11, stating that the government's deliberations did nothing to alter the fact that nearly a dozen people died while tons of oil saturated the Gulf due to BP's carelessness. BP countered that the government may have taken action before the oil spill had reached the legal limits warranting sanctions and regulatory intervention, and before the loss of employee life had crossed OSHA's implicit tolerance threshold for looking the other way. Congressional Republicans admitted that BP reasoned a much stronger case than the White House.

"Countries around the world are reshaping themselves into competing business entities and centers of commerce, not nation states. Geopolitical rules are being replaced with business procedures," said Len Waybill, head economist of the Peter Pinguid Society. This trend became more apparent Thursday when al Qaeda agencies in Pakistan filed a series of lawsuits alleging that U.S. workers, particularly employees of SEAL Team Six, had violated labor codes and created a hostile working environment that led to the wrongful termination of several executives.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- One of the two male massage therapists who alleged in a $2 million lawsuit that actor John Travolta exposed himself during a session and then made inappropriate physical advances has dropped his case according to Gloria Allred, the attorney representing the claimant referred to only as John Doe No. 1. Travolta's lawyers initially argued that although their client may have seemingly groped the alleged victim's penis and attempted to touch his anus, those actions were undertaken according to well-intentioned rituals of Scientology, Travolta's religion. "The point of the interaction was not to arouse sexual reciprocation but to help an obviously troubled person clear himself of engrams, which are unwanted emotions or painful traumas not readily available to the conscious mind," Travolta's counsel told reporters on May 8. In response to the allegations that Travolta was propositioning the masseur for gay sex, attorneys for the defense attacked the accusations as "baseless, ridiculous, and opportunistic." John Doe No. 1's withdrawal of his complaint, Travolta's representatives say, vindicates the actor and Scientology.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Actor John Travolta has been accused in a federal lawsuit of assault and sexual battery on two male massage therapists, with the plaintiffs providing lurid details about the unwanted advances. The first incident chronicles Travolta's alleged groping of a masseur in a Beverly Hills bungalow, ending with Travolta masturbating himself. The second victim purports that he faced similar molestation while attending to Travolta in Atlanta. The suit seeks $2 million in damages. Travolta's representatives called the suit "a complete fiction and fabrication" in a statement released Tuesday. Surprisingly, however, the defense says it will fight the accusations by citing Travolta's right to freely exercise his religious beliefs as a Scientologist. The 58-year-old star of "White Man's Burden," "Battlefield Earth," "Wild Hogs," "Michael" and the "Look Who's Talking" franchise also plans to countersue for malicious prosecution.

Key Script Elements for "Game of Thrones" and "Boardwalk Empire" Have Been Pirated and Leaked by Literary and Textbook Publishers

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Home Box Office (HBO), the second largest premium cable television network in America, is known for its innovation and history of firsts. HBO pioneered the creation of original programming in the paid television space, building a storied canon of made-for-cable series that have consistently received wide acclaim for their theatrical quality and artistic excellence. The appeal of HBO's shows has also led the company to lucrative syndication deals. But executives from Time Warner, HBO's parent, have become increasingly concerned about intellectual property theft, copyright infringement, and the protection of their content. "Now, more than ever, it's about anti-piracy and plagiarism," said HBO Films' Junior Assistant Vice President Tom Alena. As a result, HBO attorneys launched a series of lawsuits Friday against publishers whom they accused of stealing their original content -- among them, Bantam Books and educational textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Residents living near the gated Winthrop Manors community adjacent to Bennington Vale no need introduction to Alistair Waldetor. To hear them tell it, the man pioneered the image of the shotgun-wielding curmudgeon who admonishes children, "Get off my lawn!" He abandoned that practice in 1998 when the county passed legislation that restricted the open brandishing of weapons to small firearms only -- a law that remains unpopular and regularly contested. Waldetor now relies on a team of trained military attack dogs, electrified fencing and a "look the other way on registered sex offenders" attitude to keep errant children from his pristine yard.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- As “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”prepares to unveil the final installment of the boy wizard series to moviegoers on July 15, actor Daniel Radcliffe admitted that he “wept like a child” during the last day of filming. But while the cast and crew of the “Harry Potter” franchise lamented the loss of their supernatural salaries, along with a return to the world of Muggle roles, operators of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios Orlando spent the weekend crying over a class action lawsuit that could hobble the park’s summer attendance. According to the plaintiffs in the case, over 54 children sustained serious head injuries at the Hogwart’s Express exhibit on Friday.