The federal judge who halted the military's ban on openly gay troops is known for working at court well past closing time, typing her own court orders and doting on two terriers who themselves are no strangers to the halls of justice.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips won praise from gays and was derided by critics as an activist judge when she issued an injunction Tuesday ending the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy, saying it violates due process rights, freedom of speech and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances guaranteed by the First Amendment.

The fallout on the polarizing topic has surprised Phillips' friends and colleagues, who said the 53-year-old registered Democrat is much better known in her inner circle for her empathy, her love of Jane Austen novels and her annual walking tours of Europe.

Phillips is popular with her court staff and works harder than anyone to get a case right, said Stephen Larson, a former federal judge in Riverside.

In her tenure as a federal judge, Phillips has handled a wide array of cases, from criminal bank robberies and drug trafficking to civil cases involving the freedoms of religion and speech, police brutality, environmental protections and labor law.

An Innocence Project attorney is questioning the impartiality of the prosecutor leading a Texas science panel's probe of an arson investigation that led to the execution of a Texas man.

Stephen Saloom of the Innocence Project said Friday at a panel meeting in Austin that prosecutor John Bradley shows "a lack of objectivity" in the Cameron Todd Willingham case.

Bradley has publicly called Willingham a "guilty monster."

Bradley is the chairman of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which is investigating whether investigators committed professional misconduct in determining arson caused a 1991 fire that killed Willingham's three daughters. Willingham was executed in 2004.

Both sides of Milwaukee's sick leave ordinance say they're confident they will prevail now that the lawsuit over the ordinance is heading to a state appeals court.

The state Supreme Court deadlocked 3-3 today on whether to uphold a circuit court ruling overturning the ordinance and sent the case to the appeals court for review.

In June 2009, a Milwaukee County judge struck down the ordinance, which was approved by 70 percent of voters. He found the ballot question didn't contain enough information explaining the ordinance, including details such as how much sick leave employers would be required to provide and when the leave could be used. The appeals court asked the justices to take the case directly, saying it was a matter of first impression.

Justices Michael Gableman, David Prosser and Pat Roggensack voted to uphold the lower court ruling tossing the ordinance, while Justices Shirley Abrahamson, Ann Walsh Bradley and Pat Crooks voted to overturn the decision. Justice Annette Ziegler did not participate in the case.
Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) president Tim Sheehy said he was pleased the injunction blocking implementation of the ordinance remains in place.

"While we would have preferred a decision from the Supreme Court, we remain confident in our position that this mandate is in violation of both federal and Wisconsin statutes and the Wisconsin Constitution," he said. "We look forward to making that case persuasively to the Court of Appeals, keeping the injunction in place, and having the threat of this costly burden on Milwaukee employers lifted once and for all.”
The Wisconsin director of 9to5, National Association of Working Women said the group remained confident in its case as it heads back to the appeals court.

"Seventy percent of local voters approved one of the nation’s first paid sick leave ordinances, and now cities and states around the country are pursuing similar policies," Amy Stear said in a statement from the group that led the charge for the 2008 ballot initiative. "We’re confident in our legal case and look forward to the long overdue implementation of the ordinance."

The Obama administration has decided to launch an investigation into various Chinese practices that a major U.S. union says are robbing American workers of jobs in the burgeoning field of clean energy such as solar and wind power.

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in announcing the decision that the administration considered the whole area of green technology as vitally important to America's future economic prospects.

The United Steelworkers union filed a 5,800-page petition last month contending that the Chinese government was giving Chinese companies unfair advantages over U.S. firms through the use of government subsidies that are prohibited under global trade rules.

A federal appeals court has rejected a Dallas-area parent's bid to have "under God" removed from the Texas pledge of allegiance that is recited every day by public schoolchildren.

Attorney General Greg Abbott says Wednesday's ruling is a victory for the constitutionally protected rights and freedoms of all Texans.

The words "under God" were added to the pledge in 2007.

U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade ruled in 2009 that the Texas pledge can reference God because several other state pledges and the national pledge reference God or divine grace.

On Wednesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed.

David Croft had sued, arguing that the words are unconstitutional and violate the separation of church and state.

A Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas has represented himself at a quick hearing in Detroit federal court.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO'-mahr fah-ROOK' ahb-DOOL'-moo-TAH'-lahb) was accompanied at Thursday's 15-minute hearing by standby counsel Anthony Chambers, who can give advice.

The participants briefly discussed schedules, and U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds set the next hearing for Jan. 12.

In September, the 24-year-old suggested he wanted to plead guilty to some charges. There was no talk of that Thursday.

He is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253, an Amsterdam-to-Detroit plane. He's accused of trying to set off explosives hidden in his underwear.