A federal judge in New Orleans ruled that a Chinese company that made defective drywall must pay $2.6 million to fix seven Virginia homes.

U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon today ruled that Taishan Gypsum Co., which didn’t contest the suit, must pay to “remove all drywall in their homes, all items which have suffered corrosion as a result of the Chinese drywall and all items which will be materially damaged in the process of removal.”

More than 2,100 homeowners in the U.S. have filed federal suits claiming their homes were damaged or ruined by defective drywall that gives off noxious odors and chemicals that can corrode wiring, plumbing and heating equipment.

Holy smokes! Can you imagine having drywall corrode your wiring, plumbing pipes and heating ducts?! Geez! Continue reading this article over at Bloomberg.

I watched a bit of Scott Roeder’s sentencing yesterday, and that little bit was more than enough. Even with the judge’s interruptions, Roeder was able to sermonize about the evils of abortion. The defendant also invited a handful of character witnesses to testify about what a sweet, nonviolent killer he is. In the end, he received a Hard 50 sentence, the next best thing to life without parole. And like any good drama queen, he was led screaming from the courtroom.

Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld lost a bid to dismiss a lawsuit by two former U.S. workers for an Iraqi security firm who claimed they were wrongly detained and suffered cruel, inhumane treatment.

U.S. District Judge Wayne Andersen in Chicago ruled yesterday that the men, Donald Vance and Nathan Ertel, can move forward on one of three claims they filed in 2006 against Rumsfeld and the U.S. government.

Vance and Ertel, who worked for Shield Group Security, an Iraqi-owned business in that country, were taken into custody by U.S. forces after reporting what they believed to be suspicious and possibly corrupt activity by agents of their employer, according to a revised complaint filed in 2007.

This is going to be one interesting case to watch play out. Continue reading the rest of this article, including Rumsfeld’s defense, over at BusinessWeek. Turned out to be a bad week for Rumsfeld all around. Here’s this next piece:

Judge orders freedom for alleged 9/11 plotter tortured on Rumsfeld’s orders

A terror war prisoner, once considered of such high value by the Bush administration that former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ordered he be tortured, has taken his first step toward freedom thanks to a federal district court judge, who ordered the government to free him after nearly 10 years of imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay.

Though 39-year-old Mohamedou Slahi, an alleged 9/11 conspirator, won his habeas corpus appeal before U.S. District Judge James Robertson on Monday, he likely does not know it yet. That’s because the judge’s decision was classified, according to published reports.

Not gonna spoil this one here. Hop on over to RawStory to finish reading the details about this case. Unbelievable!