Settlement

Maryland financial regulators will take part in the effort to make sure the big banks that recently settled allegations of widespread foreclosure misconduct live up to the agreement they signed. Anne Balcer Norton, deputy commissioner of financial regulation at the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, said the agency has been named to the monitoring committee for the nationwide settlement. It's the only state bank regulator on the committee, she said. "I'm pleased that we get a seat at the table," she said, adding that the agency has the "ground-level perspective" of what homeowners are going through.

It turns out wearing sneakers - without exercising - won't get you in shape. Skechers USA has agreed to a $40 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for making that claim. The shoe company had claimed its Shape-ups sneakers would help people lose weight. It also said the shoes would strengthen and tone people buttosk, legs and abs. The government agency said Skechers also made false claims about its Resistance Runner, Toners and Tone-ups shoes.

A Columbia-based health care firm has agreed to a $150 million settlement with the federal government and 43 states to resolve criminal and civil charges that it submitted claims for millions of dollars of work that it did not perform and operated offices that were not properly licensed, officials said Monday. A five-year federal investigation found that Maxim Healthcare Services Inc., one of the country's largest providers of home healthcare services, submitted $61 million in false claims for services to the federal government's Medicaid and Veterans Affairs health programs over an 11-year period from 1998 to 2009.

Baltimore's spending board approved Wednesday three settlements totaling $340,000 in claims made against the city, including a civil suit stemming from a 2007 accident in which a fire truck collided with a car, leaving three people dead. The five member Board of Estimates, which includes Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and City Comptroller Joan Pratt, voted unanimously to approve the three settlements. Relatives of victims in the 2007 crash — a husband, wife and a friend — will split $40,000.

In a settlement with Gov. Martin O'Malley over the proposed buyout of Constellation Energy Group, Exelon Corp. has promised to develop significantly more natural gas, wind and solar power in Maryland, give more money to help low-income customers and provide more protections for Baltimore Gas and Electric. Provisions of the settlement include: •Up to 300 megawatts in new power generation in Maryland within 10 years. That includes: —10 megawatts to 25 megawatts from poultry manure plant, the first in the state.

The $245 million settlement that Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group agreed to pay is the largest of its kind to resolve allegations of market manipulation with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Details of the settlement emerged Monday, the same day Chicago-based Exelon Corp. closed on its $7.9 billion takeover of Constellation. The sale creating the largest non-utility energy provider in the United States ushers Baltimore's last Fortune 500 company out of town. The New York Stock Exchange will de-list Constellation shares Tuesday.

Baltimore International College has reached a legal settlement that will allow it to remain accredited until the end of the year, when officials expect the downtown culinary college to be taken over by Virginia-based Stratford University. Baltimore International College has reached a legal settlement that will allow it to remain accredited until the end of the year, when officials expect the downtown culinary school to be taken over by Virginia-based Stratford University. The settlement ended a court battle between Baltimore International and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, which planned to strip the college of its accreditation at the end of August — a move that could have forced the school to close.

About 3,500 people will have about $10 million in personal debt forgiven by a collection agency, thanks to a settlement in federal court Friday that resolved a lawsuit over the agency's right to sue debtors in Maryland. As part of the settlement in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, an average $2,800 in debt will be erased for all 3,500 plaintiffs. Each of the two lead plaintiffs will receive a $2,000 payment as well. The settlement was reached between two Frederick men who led the class action suit — Jason Hauk and Freddy Velazquez — and LVNV Funding LLC, a Greenville, S.C.-based company that buys consumer debt from companies and often sues debtors to collect payment.

It turns out wearing sneakers - without exercising - won't get you in shape. Skechers USA has agreed to a $40 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for making that claim. The shoe company had claimed its Shape-ups sneakers would help people lose weight. It also said the shoes would strengthen and tone people buttosk, legs and abs. The government agency said Skechers also made false claims about its Resistance Runner, Toners and Tone-ups shoes.

Maryland's consumer protection division announced Monday that it reached a $20,000 settlement with payment processor MAP, LLC for allegedly failing to properly dispose of consumers' personal information. The state claims that the company, formerly doing business as Mid Atlantic Processing, threw out 77 boxes containing consumers' Social Security numbers, cancelled checks and other sensitive information in a dumpsters when closing its Owings Mills office a year ago. State law requires businesses to take reasonable steps, such as shredding, to protect consumers' information when destroying records.

Maryland is slated to receive $1.8 million for its part in a national settlement with Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories over allegations of illegal drug marketing, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler said Monday. Abbott will pay $100 million to 44 states and Washington, where officials had claimed the company marketed Depakote for uses other than those approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. It's considered safe and effective for treating seizure disorders, mania associated with bipolar disorder and migraines.

Internal Fannie Mae documents show the mortgage financier was about to launch a principal reduction program in 2010 after determining that it would save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, a Baltimore congressman says -- contradicting claims by Fannie's regulator that such a move would be costly. U.S. Reps. Elijah E. Cummings of Baltimore and John F. Tierney of Massachusetts, Democrats who sit on the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, sent a joint letter Tuesday to regulator Edward DeMarco demanding more information about why the program was "mysteriously terminated" in July 2010.

Nearly 20 percent of arrests made by Baltimore police for low-level, "quality-of-life" crimes haven't been properly documented, according to a new audit that a civil liberties group says understates the agency's shortcomings in meeting terms of a legal settlement. Independent auditor Charles Wellford, a University of Maryland criminologist, sampled about 1,100 arrests from April to December 2011 and found that 17 percent of reports written by officers did not support a finding of probable cause.

A new trial date has been set for Oct. 9 in an environmental group's lawsuit accusing an Eastern Shore farm couple and Perdue Farms of polluting a Chesapeake Bay tributary. The case brought by the Waterkeeper Alliance was originally scheduled to begin this week in U.S. District Court, but was postponed by Judge William M. Nickerson to encourage the sides to try to reach a settlement. Perdue spokeswoman Julie DeYoung said in an email Wednesday that despite talks, "it does not appear the case will settle.

Anti-abortion advocates will gather at 10 a.m. Monday outside the Maryland State Police Headquarters in Pikesville to publicly discuss a $385,000 settlement involving both parties. The activists and their attorneys will discuss details of the case, which they say include a requirement that all state troopers receive additional training. The activists' federal lawsuit was over the August 2008 arrests of 18 protesters with Baltimore-based Defend Life during a Bel Air rally.

She was dragged, tossed, handcuffed, and, she says, repeatedly called a "bitch," according to news reports. In her own words, she was "brutally abused. " At the time of the incident, Venus Green was also 87 years old. Recently, at age 90, Mrs. Green received an out-of-court settlement for her troubles from Baltimore City for $95,000. The settlement for the indignity is not the point of this commentary; rather, it is the repetition of such indignities and violence on the bodies of people of African descent, and Africana women in particular — not just by people of other ethnic groups but also by members of our own communities.

Maryland will get nearly $10,000 as part of a national settlement involving kickbacks to doctors to encourage them to implant pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators in patients, Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler announced Thursday. Medtronic Inc, the developer of the medical devices, settled with the federal government for $23.5 million. Medtronic paid physicians who agreed to participate in clinical studies or registries involving their pacemakers and ICDs, according to the agreement.

Montana's attorney general announced today a settlement with "Three Cups of Tea" author Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute, ending a probe into allegations of mismanagement of assets. Attorney General Steve Bullock found that the charity's board members failed to fulfill their responsibilities, and that Mortenson failed to fulfill his responsibilities as executive director, officer and director. The bottom line for Mortenson: He has to pay more than $1 million. The AG's report , gives props to Mortenson for a "noble pursuit" -- building schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A federal judge finalized on Thursday a landmark settlement that will bring nearly $1 billion in aid to Maryland homeowners who were victims of deceptive and illegal foreclosure practices. The settlement, for $25 billion in total, was first reached in February and is the largest ever joint state and federal settlement, according to Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. Gansler had joined the federal government and 48 other state attorneys general in complaining about the banks' practices.