North Carolina
Judge tosses out lawsuit against former Blackwater
RALEIGH - A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit that blamed the security company formerly known as Blackwater for the deaths of four contractors killed in a 2004 ambush on the streets of Iraq.
U.S. District Judge James C. Fox said court-ordered arbitration fell apart because neither side was paying the costs of that process, so he decided to shut the case nearly seven years after the killings.
Insurgents killed the four contractors, then mutilated the bodies, dragged the charred remains through the streets and hanged two of the corpses from a bridge. Images were relayed around the world, and the event triggered a massive U.S. military siege known as the Battle of Fallujah.
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The contractors' survivors say Blackwater, now Xe Services, failed to prepare the men for their mission and didn't give them appropriate equipment, such as a map.
Ohio
Executions to go forward with a substitute drug
COLUMBUS - Ohio is set to become the first state to execute inmates with a surgical sedative sometimes used in assisted suicides, a switch made as the shortage of the drug normally used for executions has worsened.
Beginning in March, the state execution team will use a single, powerful dose of pentobarbital, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Tuesday.
The drug also is used to induce surgical comas and is chemically related to a version of pentobarbital used to euthanize pets. It replaces the anesthetic sodium thiopental, which was already scarce when its only U.S. manufacturer announced last week it would no longer produce it.
Ohio is following the lead of Oklahoma, which switched to pentobarbital last year and has used it three times.
Alabama
Taco Bell replies to suit, says beef has no fillers
MONTGOMERY - Taco Bell officials on Tuesday rejected claims in a lawsuit that the meat in their tacos, burritos and other products is not all beef.
Taco Bell President Greg Creed said in a prepared statement that the lawyers who filed the suit got their facts wrong and that Taco Bell plans to take legal action against those making the allegations.
The class-action lawsuit filed Friday in federal court in California by a Montgomery law firm says the Taco Bell meat mixture contains binders and fillers.
California
'I am an innocent man,' Jackson's doc tells judge
LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's personal physician declared himself innocent in the singer's death Tuesday during a Superior Court appearance in which he also demanded his trial begin quickly.
Asked how he pleaded to a charge of involuntary manslaughter, the sole count to be decided at the trial now set for March 28, Dr. Conrad Murray paused and then said, "Your honor, I am an innocent man - "
"What's your plea?" Judge Michael Pastor interrupted.
"I plead not guilty," Murray said.
Murray's decision to invoke his right to a speedy trial, meaning the case must get under way within 60 business days, surprised many, including the judge. Pastor remarked on its rarity in the busy downtown courthouse where cases often take years to get to trial.
His beard must go, Sikh prison guard told
SACRAMENTO - California's attorney general says religious beliefs aren't enough to trump a Corrections Department ban on prison guards wearing beards - a stance that drew protests Tuesday from civil rights organizations.
Attorney General Kamala Harris argued in a Sacramento County Superior Court filing on Jan. 6 that Trilochan Oberoi can't be properly fitted for a gas mask if he keeps the facial hair required by his Sikh religion.
Wire reports
