The state Supreme Court stepped into a years-long family dispute involving one of the world's largest beef jerky companies Tuesday, when the son of the Wisconsin company's founder asked justices for a better valuation of a South Dakota subsidiary.

Jay Link, a son of Link Snacks Inc. founder Jack Link, contends that a circuit judge undervalued his shares of LSI Inc. when he ruled they were worth $16.55 million.

Attorney Jon Sogn asked the South Dakota Supreme Court on Tuesday to direct that Jay Link's shares of LSI be purchased for $21 million or order a new trial to set the shares' value.

Sogn argued that the circuit judge mistakenly discounted the value because of the risks to an outside buyer. Appraisers had said a third-party buyer would be leery of investing in a privately held company that sells to only one customer, corporate parent Link Snacks.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says sentencing juvenile convicted killers to life in prison without parole is not unreasonably harsh.

Chris Joshua Meadoux was 16 at time of a 2007 double slaying in San Antonio.

A jury sentenced the Hurricane Katrina evacuee to life in prison without parole for his capital murder conviction in the killing of 17-year-old Johnny You and 19-year-old Luis Martinez during a fight.

Meadoux and You were friends in Slidell, La., before their families evacuated after the 2005 hurricane.

The Austin American-Statesman reports an appeals court said Wednesday that juveniles may be less morally culpable, but some actions justify the penalty.

A new report shows the boycott of Arizona in the wake of a controversial immigration law has cost the state more than $140 million.

The analysis commissioned by the Center for American Progress says lost hotel revenue in the first four months after the bill signing was about $45 million. The state also lost $96 million that visitors would have spent during their stays.

The study released on Thursday says meetings and conventions will probably continue to be lost for more than a year. That will multiply the impact of a boycott called by immigrant-rights groups after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the state's new law in April.

The study was paid for by the group, a liberal-leaning think tank, but conducted by the respected Scottsdale-based economic firm Elliott D. Pollack & Co.

A Russian labeled the "Merchant of Death" by those who claim he fueled some of the world's deadly Third World conflicts over the last decade with powerful weapons has arrived in the United States. He faces charges he supported terrorists trying to overthrow the government of Colombia and shared their hatred for Americans.

Viktor Bout arrived late Tuesday at Westchester County Airport, in White Plains, N.Y., before he was brought to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan to await an initial court appearance expected Wednesday afternoon. A news conference with federal prosecutors and officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration was to occur in late morning.

Bout, 43, a former Soviet military officer and air cargo executive, was flown from Bangkok, Thailand, to suburban New York on a chartered U.S. plane just four days before an extradition order would have expired, permitting him to be freed and returned home to his native Moscow.

Instead, he was taken in manacles and a bulletproof vest as Russian diplomats made a final outraged push to persuade Thailand to release him, according to current and former U.S. officials.

A divided Wisconsin appeals court says police did nothing wrong when they found two illegal shotguns after removing other weapons legally in possession of a man taken into protective custody.

Jason Kucik appealed his convictions for possessing the illegal shotguns, arguing St. Francis police had no legal basis for seizing the guns he legally owned.

The 1st District Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled 2-1 against Kucik, saying police could take the legal guns because they were in plain view and police had probable cause to believe they could be evidence in a crime.

Police went to his apartment after Kucik's cousin said he had been attacked by him earlier in the day.

The California Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty sentence for the killer of two Riverside County deputies in 1997.
Timothy Russell was sentenced 11 years ago for the ambush killings of 41-year-old James Lehmann Jr. and 33-year-old Michael Haugen. The deputies had responded to a domestic violence call in a remote desert area east of Cabazon when Russell opened fire with an M-1 carbine.

The Riverside Press-Enterprise says attorney's for Russell, who is now 50, claimed his death sentence should be overturned because the amount of time he was hiding, waiting for the deputies, was not enough duration to indicate he was trying to ambush them.

But the justices any time period of lying in wait was sufficient to warrant a death sentence.