On the cover: With their progressive pilot potentially on the chopping block, the OPD’s Neighborhood Defenders in Park Heights are defending not only their clients but their problem-solving approach. Also, Caryn Tamber talks to University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron about her research into online gender harassment and the law.

In the news: An EPA official says the agency wants more weapons in its arsenal; Maryland’s top court upholds a sex-abuse conviction based on the testimony of a 6-year-old victim; Mike’s Train House is sued for infringement; and an offshoot of the “driving while black” case will be the subject of a rare Court of Special Appeals en banc hearing.

 Also:

• Verdicts & Settlements features the case of an HIV-positive teacher who was fired from his job at a private elementary school in Arnold.

• Before there was “The Power of Nice” or his success as a sports agent, there was the Modern Bar Review Course. In My First/Business, Ron Shapiro reflects on the lessons learned from his initial foray into commerce.

• In Opinion/Commentary, Jack L.B. Gohn weighs in on the narrowing difference between blogs and journalism, while Edward J. Levin points out a key requirement under a Maryland deed of trust: naming an individual as the trustee. 

• Catch up with our Week in Review and the Law Digest, this week with cases from the Maryland Court of Appeals, Court of Special Appeals and the Office of Administrative Hearings.

Before two federal environmental lawyers talked about recent government victories during Friday’s ABA section meeting, Bruce Gelber discussed a recent government loss in the Supreme Court involving Superfund sites.

In May, the high court ruled Shell Oil Co. was not liable as a party that arranged to dispose of hazardous materials under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act at a contaminated California site.

Gelber, chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Enforcement Section, said the ruling will not impact many other Superfund cases due to an “atypical fact pattern, including the contaminant not being waste or byproduct.”

“The rumor of CERCLA’s demise has been greatly exaggerated,” he said. 

 The high court also upheld a ruling that apportioned liability to another company connected to the groundwater contamination. Gelber said the government does not dispute the divisibility rule, only its application here.

The goverment will continue to resist divisibility in Superfund cases where it believes the harm is “not theoretically apportioned,” he said.

Gelber concluded with some advice for the private practice lawyers in the audience.

“Tell your clients to create a paper trail that shows you undertook some steps to show how dangerous it can be to handle your material,” he said.