An attorney from Kansas faces up to 10 years in federal prison over a $2.5 million Ponzi investment scam in Texas.

Prosecutors say 62-year-old Clifford Roth of Leawood, Kan., pleaded guilty in Beaumont to interstate transportation of money taken by fraud.

No sentencing date was announced Monday for Roth, who remains free on bond.

Prosecutors say Roth in November 2007 traveled to Southeast Texas and solicited investors to purchase bank holding company stock. Roth falsely claimed the money would be used to purchase an Oklahoma bank, which would then open a branch office in Beaumont.

The FBI determined that the investor funds were used for Roth's personal expenses, plus paid previous investors in the Ponzi scheme.

A mayor in Utah says misdemeanor charges against the police chief appear to stem from a dog slaying last summer.

Parowan Mayor Donald Landes tells the Deseret News of Salt Lake City he believes the charges against Chief Preston Griffiths related to the shooting last July.

Griffiths was served Friday with a summons to appear March 22 in 5th District Court in Iron County on official misconduct and obstruction of justice charges. The case is being handled by Millard County prosecutors.

The 43-year-old Griffiths has been police chief since July 2003. The mayor says he's still on the job.

Griffiths hasn't commented on the charges.

Parowan animal control policies have been a hot topic since a resident shot two dogs he said were harassing his sheep in January 2010.

The South Dakota Supreme Court will hold its March sessions at the University of South Dakota Law School.

The high court will hear oral arguments in three cases each day on March 21, 22 and 23.

Justices traditionally hold 1 of their spring terms at the school in Vermillion.

Arguments are open to the public.

Court will open at 9 a.m., and cases will commence on the hour.

The North Carolina Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case that could change how the death penalty is administered.

Lawyers for five death row inmates are preparing to argue Monday that an administrative law judge was right to order state officials to revamp North Carolina's protocol for executions in 2007.

The Council of State has to approve changes to death penalty procedures and argues the judge doesn't have the jurisdiction to make that order. A Superior Court judge sided with the council.

The inmates' lawyers say the council signed off on changes to capital punishment protocol without hearing from advocates for condemned prisoners.

If the Supreme Court agrees, the case will go back to a lower court for review.

The U.S. government claims a one-time billionaire wanted an edge in the trading of stocks for his hedge funds and was willing to break the law to get it.

The trial resumes Monday in Manhattan federal court for Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam (rah-juh-RUHT'-nuhm.)

He's the only one of more than two dozen people charged in the insider trading crackdown to face trial. Nineteen have pleaded guilty.

The government alleges Rajaratnam earned more than $50 million illegally by trading on inside information since 2003.

His lawyer, John Dowd, says Rajaratnam had the best research in the business and did not need to trade illegally. Rajaratnam has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud charges.

A British lawyer who had been fighting extradition to the U.S. on charges he helped a former Halliburton Co. subsidiary bribe Nigerian officials will plead guilty in the case, his attorney said Thursday.

Jeffrey Tesler was on his way to the United States and planned to enter a guilty plea in Houston federal court Friday, said his attorney, Bradley Simon.

Tesler, 62, was arrested in February 2009 on charges he helped steer bribe money from Houston-based Kellogg, Brown & Root LLC to Nigerian government officials to win more than $6 billion in construction contracts. A grand jury had indicted Tesler on 11 counts related to violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Simon declined to comment on what count or counts Tesler would plead guilty to on Friday or why his client decided to plead guilty.

Tesler, a dual British and Israeli citizen, was arrested in London and had been fighting extradition to the U.S. His attorneys had argued that he should not be extradited because the alleged crimes did not have a substantial link to the U.S. and the passage of time might prevent a fair trial.