A federal court jury in Massachusetts will be hearing opening arguments in the trial of a man charged with burning down a predominantly black church in Springfield because he was upset that Barack Obama was elected president.

Opening arguments are set for Monday in the trial of Michael Jacques at U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Jacques was among three white men charged with burning down the Macedonia Church of God in Christ just hours after Obama was elected in November 2008. The under-construction church was destroyed, but a new building is nearing completion.

The other defendants pleaded guilty. Jacques could face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy against civil rights, damage to religious property and other charges. His lawyer says he's innocent.

A judge has denied a court-appointed attorney for a Texas man accused of torturing a woman for two weeks on a device used for skinning deer.

The judge said Monday during Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's initial court appearance that the 58-year-old wasn't indigent because he had listed his net worth as about $200,000.

Maxwell told state District Judge Trey Loftin that he didn't have access to most of his assets and hadn't contacted an attorney. Loftin urged Maxwell to hire one.

Maxwell remains jailed in Parker County on aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault charges.

Authorities say he abducted his former neighbor from her Parker County home and drove some 100 miles to his Corsicana house. He was arrested there March 12 and the woman was rescued.

The Supreme Court won't get involved in a fight between Eminem's former production company and Universal Music Group over downloads of the rapper's songs and ringtones.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Universal Music Group.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said F.B.T. Productions LLC's contract entitled Eminem and his producers to a 50-50 split with Universal for recordings licensed to digital distributors such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

The record label had paid F.B.T. and Eminem 12 percent of sales, the agreed-upon rate for physical albums.

F.B.T. discovered Eminem in 1995 before he signed in 1998 with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records. Universal's Interscope Records distributes Aftermath recordings.

An employee at a yoga clothing shop in Bethesda makes her first court appearance since being charged in the death of a co-worker.

Brittany Norwood was arrested Friday and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 30-year-old Jayna Murray, her co-worker at the Lululemon Athletica shop. She's due in court in Montgomery County on Monday.

Norwood initially told police that two masked men entered the store on the night of March 11 and sexually assaulted her and Murray during a robbery attempt. But police say they've concluded that story was a lie and that Norwood killed Murray during a dispute.

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Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue.

Supporters argue reducing the tax by a dime would make New Hampshire more competitive with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say that even if the state experienced higher sales as a result it still would lose millions of dollars in revenue.

It's very unusual for states to lower the tax, University of Illinois at Chicago economics professor Frank Chaloupka says. The increase in sales isn't enough to offset the drop in state tax revenue, he says.

Instead of lowering the tax, states have enacted 100 increases over the past decade, he says.

"New Hampshire has been going in the same direction as the rest of the country, basically forever," Chaloupka said.

New Hampshire raised its tax repeatedly since Democratic Gov. John Lynch took office in 2006, increasing it from 52 cents per pack in 2005 to $1.78 currently.

That changed Thursday, when the state House passed a bill that would cut the rate 10 cents to $1.68 per pack in hopes of attracting smokers from surrounding states with higher taxes. Rhode Island's bill would cut its tax by $1, to $2.46 per pack. New Jersey last year considered reducing its tax 30 cents, to $2.40 per pack, but hasn't followed through on it.

New Hampshire Senate Finance Chairman Chuck Morse says he believes the Senate will support the cut.