Prospects for an immigration overhaul are fizzling this year and some Democratic lawmakers are focusing blame on the pugnacious Democratic operative who works just down the hall from President Obama.

Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff and longtime party strategist, has argued privately that it's a bad time for Democrats to push an immigration bill, a potential landmine in the midst of a crucial mid-term election.

Emanuel's stance, coupled with his long-held wariness about the politics of immigration, is emboldening key Democrats to come forward and ask that he step aside from the issue.

"There's always a sense that no matter how hard we work, to get through the White House, we have to get through Rahm,'' said U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva. "I would like immigration not to be part of the chief of staff's portfolio. It would make our ability to convince and access decision-makers in the White House a lot easier.''

Emanuel has a complicated history with the immigration question, dating back to the 1990s. As a top aide to former President Bill Clinton, he stressed the message that Clinton was hardnosed about policing illegal immigration.

Starbucks Corp has been sued by a customer who allegedly suffered second-degree burns after being served tea that was too hot.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff Zeynep Inanli was served tea that was "unreasonably hot, in containers which were not safe," at a Starbucks store at 685 Third Avenue in Manhattan.

As a result of Starbucks' negligence, the plaintiff suffered "great physical pain and mental anguish," including the burns, the complaint said.

The plaintiff seeks unspecified damages.

Starbucks, based in Seattle, did not immediately return requests for comment. The plaintiff's lawyer did not immediately return a call for comment.

Retailers periodically face lawsuits for serving beverages at temperatures that customers say are too high.

In one well-known case, a jury in 1994 ordered McDonald's Corp to pay $2.86 million to Stella Liebeck, an Albuquerque, New Mexico woman who claimed she scalded herself with the restaurant's coffee. The parties later settled.

WilmerHale announced last week it was relocating its administrative support base to a new campus in Dayton, Ohio, as it seeks to streamline internal business operations across its many offices.

When the business services center opens in September, it will house the majority of the firm's technical support, finance, document services, new business clearance and human resources staff. Firm officials expect the move will affect just over 100 employees who currently work in the firm's Boston, New York or Washington, D.C., offices.

"One of our goals was to try to have all of those functions located near each other rather than spread out among our three East Coast offices," said Co-Managing Partner William J. Perlstein.

In 2004, D.C.-based Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering merged with Boston-based Hale and Dorr to create the 1,100-attorney firm that is now called WilmerHale. The firm is jointly managed by two managing partners, one based in each of the firm's headquarters in Boston and the District. Perlstein said as the combined firm continued to grow, it made economic sense to streamline its support operations.

The court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from San Diego-area Boy Scouts who have traditionally leased Balboa Park camp space.

Federal judges have said the Scouts are a religious organization and the lease violated federal law that prohibits the government promotion of religion.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued San Diego and the Boy Scouts in August 2000 on behalf of a lesbian couple and an agnostic couple, each with scouting-age sons. They filed the lawsuit after the City Council voted to extend the group's 50-year lease for another 25 years.

The Boy Scouts say they have no theology and only hold the position that children should "do duty to God" to become productive citizens.

When the Howrey law firm called its incoming associates into a conference room last June to announce it was breaking from industry custom and changing the role of its entry-level attorneys, there was a fair amount of apprehension. After all, the news came at a time when the economic downturn was forcing other firms to cut salaries or tell associates to delay their start.

But the law firm's move now seems prescient.

"Howrey was a first-mover, not a fast follower, here. And now we're going to see some other firms" doing the same, said William D. Henderson, an Indiana University law professor who studies law firm economics.

Instead of wooing first- and second-year attorneys with ever-higher salaries, Howrey set up a two-year program it called First Tier that offered new attorneys reduced salaries in exchange for more training. First Tier was the final step in a progression toward changing how associates advance at the firm.

In 2001, Howrey replaced its typical summer associate program with a "boot camp" for aspiring litigators. In 2007, it announced it would eliminate "lock-step compensation," in which attorneys are promoted en masse based on graduation year, and replace it with a merit-based system -- a move the firm completed at the beginning of 2009.

Public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans say they don't trust the federal government and have little faith it can solve America's ills, the survey found.

The survey illustrates the ominous situation President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party face as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall's elections. Midterm prospects are typically tough for the party in power. Add a toxic environment like this and lots of incumbent Democrats could be out of work.

The survey found that just 22 percent of those questioned say they can trust Washington almost always or most of the time and just 19 percent say they are basically content with it. Nearly half say the government negatively affects their daily lives, a sentiment that's grown over the past dozen years.

This anti-government feeling has driven the tea party movement, reflected in fierce protests this past week.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein commented Thursday after hearing lawyers argue whether a settlement related to claims of property damages resulting from the terrorist attacks should be public.

A settlement of most of the property claims has been kept secret while Hellerstein decides what should be put on the public record.

Lawyers for insurance companies that have settled have argued for secrecy, saying it was a private deal involving sophisticated commercial plaintiffs.

A lawyer for developer Larry Silverstein, who has not settled property claims, has argued that the settlement be made public.