Serving Notice

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The show tonight airs from our home studio in Washington, D.C. If you watched Friday, you know we were in Indianapolis. Also, if you watched Friday you might wonder whether the legal panel will come back tonight or not. Are they mad at me? Here is why: They all disagreed with me about a civil procedure (personal jurisdiction/subject matter jurisdiction) point in the first segment. Since I admit it has been a while since I tried a civil case and thus could be rusty on the rules, I was reluctant to go to blows with them in the first segment of the show.

But, as luck would have it, during the first commercial break a law professor e-mailed me that I was correct (that is lucky!) I could not resist in the second segment reading my e-mailed message telling me I was correct and teasing "the boys!" I was a bit sleep deprived when I did the show (on 3 1/2 hours sleep, plus an hour on the plane) and thus I am not sure how well my teasing of them on air went over. To test the waters later and to see if I was in trouble, I did call Jim Hammer during another segment break, after the panel was finished and he was laughing. Now I just have to hope Ted and Bernie and Geoffrey Fieger laughed or else the legal panel tonight will be me... talking to myself! (If this happens, you will hear a click from of every remote in the country!)

Incidentally, on a more serious note, I have invited the law professor who e-mailed me on our show tonight to explain the personal/subject matter jurisdiction. It will be key to Natalee's parents' lawsuit against Paul and Joran van der Sloot. "Jurisdiction" can be confusing and many lawyers dodge the topic when possible. In law school, some tried to avoid it in courses... and in the bar exam some just picked one of the multiple guess choices and hoped for the best. Here is the problem: it is HUGELY important to the practice of law... just not always that clear. By the way, another topic that was not always clear is "conflicts of law."

E-mail No. 1

Greta,
I think you are thinking of this case: Burnham v Superior Court — Justice Scalia wrote that service of summons upon a nonresident voluntarily inside state borders is sufficient to confer personal jurisdiction even if presence was brief and unrelated to litigation. This was not a majority opinion but all agreed that here there was no violation of due process for Burnham. Specifically regarding service on an airplane — see Grace v MacArthur. You'll need to check the cases to see if they are still good law. You all joked about law school exams, but this is from my outline as a first year student at UNC in 1999: Civil Procedure — Kenneth Broun. Hope this helps.
Josh Royster

E-mail No. 2

I am a Republican and I am furious! We have been betrayed! Arabs already own our CSX terminals. If they get our ports they will be in position to attack! Not only will they have control over the movement of coal and other products in this country, but they will be able to ship several short-range nukes, load them up on trains at the port, ship them all over the country, and detonate them simultaneously. We cannot allow this to happen. We cannot afford to be apathetic or complacent in this matter. Please, put your country before your party! Do not allow this to happen!

E-mail No. 3

Please talk about saving our ports
Taylor Chamberlain
Clearwater, FL

E-mail No. 4

Hi Greta,
I watched your show at 5:00 in the morning in Israel for the past two weeks. I am back home now and happy to be able to watch at a decent hour. Just want to let you know that William Bernhardt has a new novel out now — "Capitol Murder". He is the author whose main character is "Ben Kincaid," who I think is really Bernie Grimm. Your show, Greta, is mentioned on page 15, I am delighted to report.
Love your show!
Patricia Hicks

Here are some articles that caught my attention:

• Soldiers who left Daytona tickets at home get break

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Three soldiers who just returned in Iraq got a big assist from officials so that they could see today's Daytona 500.

The three soldiers had paid more than 11-hundred dollars for four premium seats. But when they were en route from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, they realized they had left the tickets on a bedroom dresser.

At first, Daytona International Speedway officials told them there was no way to verify the purchase and reprint the tickets because they bought them from an online broker.

However, Speedway officials changed their mind and got tickets down the superstretch for captains James Kendall, Jeremy Naslinger, Nathan Hagemeier and his wife, Meighan.

Speedway spokesman David Talley says the men's service in Iraq played a part in the decision to replace their tickets.

• Corps seeks eyewitnesses to understand how New Orleans flooded

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — It's still not clear what happened when New Orleans was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. So, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is seeking the public's help.

Investigators are looking for photographs, video and eyewitness accounts of levees and flood walls that failed or that were topped by storm surge.

The Corps is trying to recreate the sequence of events that led to this city's catastrophic flooding. Investigators hope to do that by gathering data, accounts and evidence of how fast the water rose, how it moved through the city and at what stages it reached different parts of the city.

In the meantime, researchers at the Corps' facilities in Vicksburg, Mississippi, are constructing a model of the 17th Street Canal, which was breached by storm surge. Researchers also will try to recreate Katrina's storm surge dynamics and force in a centrifuge at Vicksburg.

As an aside: If you have video of this, please e-mail me.

• Woman surrenders on adoption scam charges

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — A Caseyville woman has surrendered to authorities on theft charges for allegedly taking more than four thousand dollars from two adoption agencies, and then reneging on her promise to give up her newborn baby.

A spokesman for the Madison County Sheriffs Department says 26-year-old Melissa Sparks turned herself in Friday night and was in custody at the County Jail in Edwardsville.

A judge set her bond at 80 thousand dollars.

Detectives obtained a felony warrant last week charging Sparks with two counts of theft. Authorities say that during her pregnancy, Sparks received various means of monetary support from both agencies. They said the child never was placed for adoption and remained in Sparks' custody.

• Flight returns to Dulles for cabin pressure problem

CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — An Alaska Airlines flight bound for Seattle had to turn around and make an emergency landing early Saturday at Washington Dulles International Airport after the aircraft did not pressurize properly, according to airport officials.

Flight No. 1 took off at 8:03 a.m. from Reagan National Airport just outside the nation's capital, but about six minutes into the flight, the pilot realized there was a problem with the cabin pressure, said Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Caroline Boren.

"The most convenient place to land at that point was Dulles," Boren said.

The jet had only reached an altitude of 5,000 feet when the pilot noticed the problem, so emergency air masks did not have to be deployed, Boren said.

Once the aircraft landed at Dulles, maintenance crews determined a rear door had not been latched properly. They sealed the door, and the jet took off again by 9:15 a.m. without any more problems.

QUESTION: Would you have asked to get off the plane when it landed and not re-board? Or would you have stayed for the flight?

Send your thoughts and comments to: ontherecord@foxnews.com

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