WASHINGTON – In her ongoing effort to crack down on scams impacting consumers and protect job opportunities, U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill today introduced legislation that will better equip the nation’s top consumer protection agency with the tools needed to crack down on “patent trolls”-companies that buy patents, but then fail to actually produce goods or services, opting instead to intimidate or sue other small businesses.

McCaskill’s legislation, the Transparency in Assertion of Patents Act would empower the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to help fight back against these deceptive practices by requiring minimum disclosures in letters sent by patent trolls to businesses that allege patent violations and make various demands (commonly referred to as “demand letters”) and allowing the agency to specify for businesses exactly what constitutes a deceptive demand letter.

“Patent trolls are stifling innovation, endangering jobs, and harming businesses and consumers,” said McCaskill, Chairman of the Consumer Protection Subcommittee. “Acting now and giving the FTC the tools it needs to properly address this serious problem will send a message to these bottom-feeders-they will understand that we plan to do whatever it takes to protect American consumers and small businesses from scam artists trying to make a quick buck.”

The legislation follows McCaskill’s recent Senate hearing in the Consumer Protection Subcommittee. Last week, the Obama administration also announced actions to start to address some of the problems small businesses encounter in dealing with patent trolls. Many state legislatures, including Missouri’s, are also considering legislation to combat the problem.

“I’m proud to join Senator McCaskill in this effort to prevent predators from making a quick buck off of small businesses,” said Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and cosponsor of McCaskill’s legislation. “By requiring transparency and basic, common sense disclosures, this bill cracks down on the commercial practice of mailing hundreds, if not thousands, of misleading letters that seek to extort money from small businesses. The bill isn’t about patent law or patent rights; it’s simply about protecting unsuspecting victims from bad actors and their despicable behavior.”

“Patent trolls are costing American businesses tens of billions of dollars a year,” McCaskill said. “That’s money that could be going to hiring new employees or expanding a business. While the administration and some states are taking steps to address the problem, only a federal law can provide the basic transparency small business owners need in these demand letters to determine whether they should be taken seriously, challenged, or simply thrown in the trash.”

Patent trolls, formally known as patent assertion entities (PAEs), are companies that purchase patents and monetize them by demanding licensing fees or settlements-usually under the threat of litigation-from unsuspecting businesses using similar technologies. Unlike some businesses that assert patent rights over patents that they own and use, PAEs do not produce any goods or services with their patents. Until recently, the rampant growth of PAE demands was limited to patents in the technology sector, with PAEs aggressively targeting innovative technology startup companies that could be seen as violating the relevant patent. In a troubling development, PAEs have begun demanding payments from end users-including coffee shops and brick-and-mortar retailers-that use common technologies such as online shopping carts, Wi-Fi, and office scanners.

Most concerning are PAEs that use “demand letters” to unfairly or deceptively target small businesses, which often do not have the resources to engage in protracted and costly patent litigation. To bilk settlements or licensing fees out of small businesses, PAEs will sometimes send thousands of these demand letters-regardless of whether the targeted companies have actually violated any patents-threatening litigation for alleged patent infringement. Despite their threats, these PAEs may have no intention of actually filing a lawsuit, and sometimes misrepresent or obfuscate the patents they own in the demand letters hoping only to intimidate a small business into making a payment for the alleged-but often not real-violation of a patent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A protest group has posted what appears to be the first video of the Supreme Court taken inside the courtroom with the court in session.

The Supreme Court forbids cameras and all other electronic devices, but members of the protest group 99Rise appear to have shot video on two separate occasions since October.

The more recent footage captures a courtroom protest on Wednesday by a man the court identified as Noah Newkirk of Los Angeles. A 99Rise news release posted online says group co-founder Kai Newkirk was the person who called on the court to overturn its 2010 Citizens United decision. Police hustled him out of the courtroom and charged him with disturbing the proceedings.

Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said the court is reviewing the video and security procedures.

(AP) — Legislation passed by the Missouri House would give Social workers more time to complete investigations into child abuse and neglect.

Current law stipulates that those investigations must be completed within 30 days. But the measure passed Thursday would allow the Department of Social Services to take up to 30 business days before submitting a report.

The House voted 151-1 to send the measure to the Senate.

(AP)  U.S. hospitals are coping better with ongoing shortages of hundreds of medications, but a new survey indicates obtaining those drugs from alternate sources is costing them hundreds of millions of dollars.

Premier Inc., the hospital group that did the survey, conservatively estimates that cost at $230 million a year for the country’s 5,000 hospitals. That doesn’t include costs for additional workers or overtime hours for staff searching for scarce drugs, as well as some other extra costs, which come out of hospitals’ already razor-thin profit margins.

Shortages of drugs, particularly generic injectable drugs that had been cheap, have escalated since 2005. While the number of new shortages has declined recently, the total of new and prolonged shortages keeps climbing. Causes include quality problems, recalls and the small number of manufacturers.

(AP) – Roman Catholic Bishop Raymond James Boland, the retired leader of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, has died shortly after returning to his native Ireland.

Diocese spokesman Jack Smith says Boland died Thursday surrounded by family in Cork, Ireland. Smith says Boland “wanted to be buried in the church where he was baptized.”

Boland had recently entered hospice care after being diagnosed with lung cancer. He was 82.

The diocese says Boland was weak from radiation treatment when he left Saturday for Ireland. Smith says Boland’s brother, a retired bishop in Georgia, accompanied his brother.

Boland served as bishop of the diocese from June 1993 until May 2005, when he retired and took the role of bishop emeritus. Before that, he’d been the bishop in Birmingham, Ala., since early 1988.

PECULIAR (AP) – A 29-year-old man has died after being crushed by truck tractor and trailer at a business in western Missouri.

Police say Joshua Anderson of Adrian was helping the driver back the rig in when the accident happened Wednesday at Worldwide Steel Buildings. The Kansas City Star reports Anderson died about 12 hours later at an area hospital.

The incident is under investigation.

Peculiar is a town of about 4,800 resident about 30 miles south of Kansas City.

(AP) – Authorities have revoked the medical license of a former southwest Missouri doctor sentenced to federal prison for illegally distributing prescription painkillers.

Nolan Crisp, of Halfway, was sentenced in October to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in April to illegal distribution and dispensing of a controlled substance. He worked from June 2009 to November 2010 at a clinic in Bolivar providing pain management and other medical services.

The Springfield News-Leader reports the State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts revoked Crisp’s license Wednesday. The terms of the discipline allow Crisp, who is 76, to apply to have his license reinstated in seven years.