A Superior Court justice has ruled that six Maine counties overcharged a Cumberland businessman who requested public records under the state's Freedom of Access law.

Justice Thomas Warren ruled that fees charged by Androscoggin, Aroostook, Cumberland, Knox, Penobscot and York counties -- in response to a request by John Simpson -- can't be justified.

The Sun Journal of Lewiston says Simpson, owner of MacImage of Maine, filed Freedom of Access requests in 2009 for digital copies of records in the six counties' registries to create his own document database. Among the prices quoted by the counties were $12 million by Cumberland, and $4 million by Penobscot at $1 per page for 4 million pages.

A North Carolina woman indicted on a charge that she kidnapped a newborn from a Harlem hospital more than two decades ago is due for another court appearance in New York.

Ann Pettway is scheduled to enter a plea to a kidnapping charge during an arraignment scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Pettway has been held without bail since she was arrested last month. She was charged with kidnapping Carlina White from Harlem Hospital in August 1987. White is now 23 years old.

The FBI has said in court papers that the Raleigh, N.C., woman took the baby after her own efforts at childbearing failed.

A measure that would bar Iowa county officials from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples faces a bleak future as it sits in a House committee.

Top Republicans on Thursday said they have no plans to debate the issue, viewing it a nod to the party's social conservative wing. Top Democrats argue the measure is unconstitutional and violates a 2009 Iowa Supreme Court decision striking down a state law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.

Backers say introducing the measure is one more opportunity to voice their displeasure with how the marriage issue has been handled.

Republican Rep. Betty De Boef (dee-BUFF') says the issue has been handled badly and that some lawmakers want to take every opportunity to make that point.

A newly released document in a $3 million pot shipping scheme says a California woman placed several calls to check on proceeds from the scheme even after she was jailed.

The updated criminal complaint by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent released Thursday says Lisette Lee made 22 calls from Franklin County Jail in Columbus after she was arrested last June.

Most of the calls were to fellow defendant Christopher Cash, who repeatedly warned Lee to be careful what she talked about because the calls were being recorded.

The DEA complaint says Lee asked several times about paperwork, a term the DEA says is a common expression for drug proceeds.

Lee and Cash have both pleaded guilty to a scheme to fly thousands of pounds of marijuana to Ohio in suitcases.

A village outside New York City has decided to appeal to a federal court ruling that led to an unusual voting system and the election of its first Hispanic trustee.

The Port Chester board of trustees voted 4-2 Tuesday night to hire a law firm to appeal a finding that local elections were unfair to Hispanics.

The board authorized up to $225,000 in taxpayer funds for the appeal, an amount that would grow if the case were retried. The village spent about $1.2 million on the original case.

"We are confident we have a powerful appeal," village spokesman Aldo Vitagliano said Wednesday. He said a recent Supreme Court case has bolstered Port Chester's contention that white support for Hispanic candidates in previous elections was strong enough to satisfy the federal Voting Rights Act.

In a letter to the Journal News of White Plains earlier this month, trustee Joseph Kenner said an appeal could "remove the shameful and unwarranted stigma of the judge's ruling."

The Department of Justice, which brought the case, had no comment, said spokesman Herb Hadad.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to stop the execution of a Houston man scheduled to die for the 2002 fatal shooting of his 19-month-old son after an hours-long standoff with a police tactical squad.

Justices Tuesday rejected arguments from Timothy Wayne Adams' attorneys. The attorney contended that a 2007 Texas court ruling reducing a death sentence to life in prison for a mother convicted of killing her newborn son should apply to him as well because the cases are similar.

The court's denial came about five minutes before Adams' scheduled execution.

The 42-year-old Adams is set for lethal injection in Huntsville for the death of his son, Timothy Jr., who was shot twice at close range by his father after the police standoff at his family's apartment.