http://www.mail.com/subjects/7652-national-courts.html Mail.com - the best personalized free web-based Email en en http://sec-s.uicdn.com/mail.com/2.20/img/mailcom_logo_rss.png http://www.mail.com/subjects/7652-national-courts.html http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1764406-man-shoots-inside-ala-federal-courthouse.html BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Authorities say a worker who killed himself inside an Alabama federal courthouse went through an employee entrance to avoid a security check that could have caught the gun. The U.S. Marshals Service says the worker used an access card to enter the Hugo L. Black U.S. Courthouse in Birmingham on Thursday morning. The card system is i... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:59:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1764406-man-shoots-inside-ala-federal-courthouse.html 2012-12-13T18:59:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1763286-chicago-vows-to-fight-concealed-carry-ruling.html CHICAGO (AP) — With parts of the city in the grip of gang warfare and spiking homicide rates, Chicago aldermen urged state officials to appeal an appellate court's decision tossing Illinois' ban on concealed weapons, with some suggesting they might launch their own legal battle. Outside a City Council meeting Wednesday, one alderman after another said the... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 15:49:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1763286-chicago-vows-to-fight-concealed-carry-ruling.html 2012-12-13T15:49:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/world/1763184-aides-chavez-tough-fight-swearing-in.html CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Somber confidants of President Hugo Chavez say he is going through a difficult recovery after cancer surgery in Cuba, and one close ally is warning Venezuelans that their leader may not make it back for his swearing-in next month. Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Wednesday night that Chavez was in "stable condition" and... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:05:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/world/1763184-aides-chavez-tough-fight-swearing-in.html 2012-12-13T06:05:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/world/1761740-government-chavez-well-inauguration.html CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — The government warned Venezuelans on Wednesday that ailing President Hugo Chavez may not be well enough after his fourth cancer-related surgery in Cuba to be inaugurated on Jan. 10. Moving to prepare the public for the possibility of more bad news, Vice President Nicolas Maduro looked grim earlier in the day when he acknowledged ... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:37:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/world/1761740-government-chavez-well-inauguration.html 2012-12-13T01:37:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1760378-court-ruling-ill-gun-ban-sets-stage-fight.html CHICAGO (AP) — Backers of Illinois' ban on concealed weapons vowed Wednesday to fight for continued controls on gun possession, a day after a federal appeals court struck down the nation's last such prohibition as unconstitutional and ordered the state to craft a law allowing it. Chicago aldermen joined gun control advocates in urging state Attorney Gener... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:35:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1760378-court-ruling-ill-gun-ban-sets-stage-fight.html 2012-12-13T01:35:00Z http://www.mail.com/sports/football/1762690-goodell-bounty-players-punished.html IRVING, Texas (AP) — NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said he "fundamentally disagrees" with former league boss Paul Tagliabue's decision not to discipline players in the New Orleans Saints' bounty scandal. Speaking Wednesday after an owners meeting in the Dallas area, Goodell said he respected his predecessor's decision, and believed it backed up the commi... Thu, 13 Dec 2012 01:27:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/sports/football/1762690-goodell-bounty-players-punished.html 2012-12-13T01:27:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1761918-honduran-congress-dismisses-supreme-court-justices.html TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Honduras' political standoff escalated Wednesday as legal officials debated whether a congressional vote to remove four Supreme Court justices violated the constitution. Attorney General Luis Rubi decried the early-morning vote to dismiss the justices after they rejected a plan by President Porfirio Lobo to clean up the corrup... Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:02:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1761918-honduran-congress-dismisses-supreme-court-justices.html 2012-12-12T22:02:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1761802-obama-to-match-fdrs-record-4-swearing-ins.html WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is poised to match Franklin Roosevelt's record of being sworn in as the nation's leader four times. While FDR served four terms, Obama is getting double swearing-in ceremonies for each of his two terms. He's planning a private oath at the White House on Jan. 20, when the Constitution requires that his second term b... Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:43:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1761802-obama-to-match-fdrs-record-4-swearing-ins.html 2012-12-12T17:43:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/us/1759658-americans-finding-dozens-ways-to-mark-12-12-12.html A Michigan sixth-grader will put aside her nerves and get her ears pierced on her 12th birthday. Two law-enforcement officials will exchange wedding vows at 12:12 p.m. in Pittsburgh's federal courthouse. And gamblers can take advantage of promotions some casinos are using to lure in patrons who want to test their luck. With a once-a-century date arriving ... Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:46:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/us/1759658-americans-finding-dozens-ways-to-mark-12-12-12.html 2012-12-12T00:46:00Z http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/1759736-jan-to-rule-bp-45b-plea-deal-spill.html NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge will decide next month whether to accept a plea deal that calls for BP PLC to pay a record $4.5 billion in penalties for its role in a deadly 2010 rig explosion and the massive oil spill it triggered in the Gulf of Mexico. To resolve a Justice Department probe, the London-based oil giant agreed last month to plead guilty... Tue, 11 Dec 2012 22:14:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/1759736-jan-to-rule-bp-45b-plea-deal-spill.html 2012-12-11T22:14:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1757456-ap-exclusive-aclu-seeks-oas-probe-padilla-case.html NEW YORK (AP) — A civil liberties group asked the Organization of American States' human rights commission Tuesday to investigate the U.S. government for what it says are violations of the rights of convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla. The American Civil Liberties Union says the U.S. violated Padilla's rights when it labeled him an "enemy combatant" ... Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:18:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1757456-ap-exclusive-aclu-seeks-oas-probe-padilla-case.html 2012-12-11T19:18:00Z http://www.mail.com/business/economy/1758832-cyprus-court-orders-retrial-plane-crash.html NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a new trial for four former airline officials who had been acquitted of manslaughter and other charges for a 2005 plane crash that killed 121 passengers and crew members. The Helios Airways crash drew international attention because of the unusual circumstances surrounding it. Greek investiga... Tue, 11 Dec 2012 19:03:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/business/economy/1758832-cyprus-court-orders-retrial-plane-crash.html 2012-12-11T19:03:00Z http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1756858-apnewsbreak-sotomayor-book-offers-personal.html WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says in her upcoming memoir that her lifelong battle against diabetes and the fear that she might die early played a big part in her decision not to have children. The 58-year-old Sotomayor says in an unusually personal book for a Supreme Court justice that she feels an occasional tug of regret at no... Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:47:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1756858-apnewsbreak-sotomayor-book-offers-personal.html 2012-12-11T06:47:00Z http://www.mail.com/sports/football/1756910-ap-source-tagliabue-bounty-ruling-coming-tuesday.html Former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue will rule Tuesday afternoon on the latest round of player appeals in the NFL's bounty probe, and any potential punishment will be delayed by a week, a person familiar with the decision said. The delay is designed to give a federal judge in New Orleans the opportunity to rule on pending motions to throw out the suspen... Mon, 10 Dec 2012 23:36:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/sports/football/1756910-ap-source-tagliabue-bounty-ruling-coming-tuesday.html 2012-12-10T23:36:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/us/1755308-famed-architect-6-months-drug-smuggling.html SAN DIEGO (AP) — A highly acclaimed architect was sentenced Monday to six months in prison for trying to enter the U.S. with nearly 13 pounds of cocaine hidden in his minivan's battery. A federal judge ordered the unusually light punishment after Eugenio Velazquez claimed drug traffickers threatened to kill him if he refused to carry drugs for them. Velaz... Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:53:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/us/1755308-famed-architect-6-months-drug-smuggling.html 2012-12-10T21:53:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1755288-minn-gay-couple-71-marriage-case-united.html MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — When Jack Baker proposed to Michael McConnell that they join their lives together as a couple, in March 1967, McConnell accepted with a condition that was utterly radical for its time: that someday they would legally marry. Just a few years later, the U.S. Supreme Court slammed the door on the men's Minnesota lawsuit to be the first sam... Mon, 10 Dec 2012 08:42:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1755288-minn-gay-couple-71-marriage-case-united.html 2012-12-10T08:42:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/world/1754056-hope-fear-gay-marriage-cases-high-court.html WASHINGTON (AP) — Gay marriage supporters see 41 reasons to fret over the Supreme Court's decision to take up the case of California's ban on same-sex unions. While nine states allow same-sex partners to marry, or will soon, 41 states do not. Of those, 30 have written gay marriage bans into their state constitutions. That fact is worrisome to those who fi... Mon, 10 Dec 2012 02:10:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/world/1754056-hope-fear-gay-marriage-cases-high-court.html 2012-12-10T02:10:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1753124-same-sex-weddings-wash-to-sunday.html OLYMPIA, WASH. (AP) — Two retired military women who fought for the rights of gays in the military were among the hundreds of couples who received their marriage licenses this week as Washington state's voter-approved law allowing same-sex marriage took effect. Former Air Force flight nurse Maj. Margaret Witt, of Spokane, and retired nurse, Army Col. Gret... Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:23:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1753124-same-sex-weddings-wash-to-sunday.html 2012-12-08T19:23:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1752574-same-sex-marriage-cases-supreme-court-review.html WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking a potentially historic look at same-sex marriage by agreeing to hear two cases that challenge governments' different treatment of gay Americans. The focus in one case is California's constitutional amendment that forbids same-sex marriage. The other case deals with a federal law that denies to those who can ma... Sat, 08 Dec 2012 07:46:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1752574-same-sex-marriage-cases-supreme-court-review.html 2012-12-08T07:46:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1751668-supreme-court-will-hear-same-sex-marriage-cases.html WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court plunged into the contentious issue of gay marriage Friday when it agreed to take up California's ban on same-sex unions and a separate dispute about federal benefits for legally married gay couples. The court's action gives the justices the chance to say by late June whether gay Americans have the same constitutional ri... Sat, 08 Dec 2012 01:58:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1751668-supreme-court-will-hear-same-sex-marriage-cases.html 2012-12-08T01:58:00Z http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1752074-doctor-20-years-miss-cancer-center-fraud.html JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday sentenced a doctor to 20 years in prison and ordered her to repay nearly $8.2 million for fraud at a former Mississippi cancer center she ran. U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan III said he was "appalled" at how Dr. Meera Sachdeva treated patients at a vulnerable time of their lives. Syringes were re-used ... Sat, 08 Dec 2012 00:03:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1752074-doctor-20-years-miss-cancer-center-fraud.html 2012-12-08T00:03:00Z http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1751694-drug-makers-settlements-high-court-review.html WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will take a close look at payments from brand-name drug makers to manufacturers of generic equivalents to keep the no-name products off the market at an estimated cost of $3.5 billion a year to consumers. The justices said Friday they will consider competing appeals court decisions about whether the practice known as re... Fri, 07 Dec 2012 19:38:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/scitech/health/1751694-drug-makers-settlements-high-court-review.html 2012-12-07T19:38:00Z http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/1750418-judge-aims-to-resolve-apple-samsung-legal-dispute.html SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Urging the world's largest smartphone makers to settle their differences, a federal judge said she will issue rulings aimed at resolving a multifaceted legal battle between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. "I think it's time for global peace," U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told lawyers for the two electronics giants, during a cou... Fri, 07 Dec 2012 08:24:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/1750418-judge-aims-to-resolve-apple-samsung-legal-dispute.html 2012-12-07T08:24:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1749754-judge-trim-apples-1-billion-patent-verdict.html SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday appeared ready to trim millions from a $1.05 billion jury verdict Apple Inc. won over Samsung Electronics this summer as she urged the top two smartphone companies to settle their myriad legal actions around the world. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh said she would issue a series of ruling over the next sev... Fri, 07 Dec 2012 01:41:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1749754-judge-trim-apples-1-billion-patent-verdict.html 2012-12-07T01:41:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/world/1748846-nazi-guard-appeals-to-immigration-board.html FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — A former Nazi concentration camp guard who has lived quietly in western Pennsylvania for more than 50 years took his fight against deportation to the nation's highest immigration court Thursday, arguing that he shouldn't be punished because he served in Hitler's army against his will. The Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Chur... Fri, 07 Dec 2012 00:10:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/world/1748846-nazi-guard-appeals-to-immigration-board.html 2012-12-07T00:10:00Z http://www.mail.com/business/markets/1749698-ri-to-seek-dismissal-challenge-to-pension-law.html PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The high-stakes legal dispute over Rhode Island's public retirement overhaul faces a key court date Friday when attorneys for the state will ask a judge to dismiss a challenge from public-sector unions unhappy with the sweeping pension changes. The unions argue the state is reneging on promised benefits and that lawmakers should ha... Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:34:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/business/markets/1749698-ri-to-seek-dismissal-challenge-to-pension-law.html 2012-12-06T22:34:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/world/1746730-argentina-cablevision-partner-wants-clarin-sale.html BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's government has found an ally in its campaign to force its leading media opponent, Grupo Clarin, to comply with the nation's law against media monopolies. Broadcast media regulator Martin Sabbattella said Wednesday that Clarin's minority partner in its Cablevision TV network wants the media company to sell off its... Thu, 06 Dec 2012 00:11:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/world/1746730-argentina-cablevision-partner-wants-clarin-sale.html 2012-12-06T00:11:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/us/1746368-450-pounds-ohio-killer-fights-execution.html COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At about 450 pounds, Ohio death row inmate Ronald Post is so fat that his executioners won't be able to find veins in his arms or legs for the lethal injection, and he might even break the death chamber gurney, his lawyers say. If the state is forced to use a backup method that involves injecting the drugs directly into muscle, the p... Wed, 05 Dec 2012 21:26:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/us/1746368-450-pounds-ohio-killer-fights-execution.html 2012-12-05T21:26:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1745378-justices-struggle-with-international-custody-law.html WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed to struggle Wednesday to find a middle ground on whether American courts have any further say in an international custody dispute between a U.S. soldier and his now-separated Scottish wife over their daughter. The justices are trying to determine whether Army Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Lee Chafin can appeal a federal... Wed, 05 Dec 2012 17:32:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/politics/1745378-justices-struggle-with-international-custody-law.html 2012-12-05T17:32:00Z http://www.mail.com/news/us/1743596-oklahoma-executes-inmate-1993-shooting-deaths.html McALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma death row inmate whose attorneys had claimed he was mentally unfit to be executed was put to death Tuesday for the 1993 shooting deaths of a couple during a home invasion. In the final moments before he was injected with lethal drugs, George Ochoa maintained he was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder in the shoo... Wed, 05 Dec 2012 00:14:00 GMT http://www.mail.com/news/us/1743596-oklahoma-executes-inmate-1993-shooting-deaths.html 2012-12-05T00:14:00Z