Gracias, Blue Cross

      Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island fired two senior bookkeepers with 40 years of tenure between them "because they spoke Spanish at work" in defiance of a manager who forbid it because "another employee might think that they were talking about her," the bookkeepers claim in Providence Federal Court.

Cake Boss

     Masters Software claims it owns the "Cake Boss" trademark for bakery management software, and Discovery Communications and the Learning Channel are violating it in the "Cake Boss" TV show, in Seattle Federal Court.

Tech Patents


     Tivo violates four patents on recording, managing and deleting TV programs, AT&T Intellectual Property claims in San Francisco Federal Court.

Private Prisons

     Corrections Corporation of America guards sexually assaulted an inmate at the Otter Creek prison in Kentucky, another detainee claims in O'ahu Circuit Court, Honolulu.

Embezzlement

     Carpenter's Chapel claims its former pastor, the Rev. Hobart Randalls Tinch, embezzled $347,000 from it and/or its corporate predecessor, the Westside Church of God, in Knox County Court, Tenn.

Environment

     WildEarth Guardians demands that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar do his job and determine whether three rear freshwater springsnails warrant listing under the Endangered Species Act; Salazar is nearly 2 years past his deadline, the group claims in DC Federal Court.

Art

     English-born artist Frederick Phillips sued the Atlas Galleries, of Chicago, in a contract and trademark dispute in Chicago Federal Court.

Copyrighted Ducks


     Craig Frazier Design Studio claims The Zimmerman Agency and the American Family Life Assurance Co. (AFLAC) swiped his copyrighted duck designs for AFLAC's "You Don't Know Quack" commercials, in San Francisco Federal Court.

Bankruptcy

     Vaso Active Pharmaceuticals filed for bankruptcy in Delaware, listing more than $10 million in debts and less than $1 million in assets.