The Spanish judge who became an international hero by going after Augusto Pinochet and Osama bin Laden was suspended Friday for allegedly abusing his authority by investigating what is arguably Spain's own biggest unresolved case: atrocities committed during and after its ruinous Civil War.

The punishment could effectively end Judge Baltasar Garzon's career.

The unanimous decision by a judicial oversight board, the General Council of the Judiciary, was made during an emergency meeting about Garzon, said its spokeswoman, Gabriela Bravo.

Supporters chanted, cheered and clapped later as Garzon emerged from the nearby National Court, where he works. He hugged co-workers and appeared to be holding back tears before getting into a bulletproof limousine and riding away.

Garzon, 54, famous worldwide for his cross-border justice cases, has been removed from his post pending his trial on charges of knowingly going beyond the limits of his jurisdiction in 2008 by investigating the execution or disappearance of more than 100,000 civilians at the hands of supporters of Gen. Francisco Franco during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War or in the early years of the Franco dictatorship.

A federal appeals court on Friday granted Dish Network Corp. a rare, full-court review of a ruling it had earlier lost to TiVo Inc., one that could have resulted in the satellite TV company disabling millions of digital video recorders.

Instead, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington breathed new life into litigation that Dish has consistently lost to TiVo. Dish's decision to seek an "en banc" review was seen as CEO Charlie Ergen's last straw effort as damages mounted. Ergen had even believed that the appeals court was unlikely to grant it.

Shares of DVR pioneer TiVo fell by $6.52, or 37.5 percent, to $10.87 in midday trading. Dish rose by $1.22, or 5.6 percent, to $23.18.

But it's uncertain whether Dish will have eventual victory given that TiVo has prevailed in a series of other court rulings.

TiVo sued Dish in 2004 for patent infringement over a technology that stored and retrieved video on DVRs, which lets viewers pause, rewind and replay live TV. Dish lost the case on appeal, paid TiVo $104.6 million in damages and interest and was barred from using the technology.

A bounced check for $40 tipped off a Chicago law firm to a trusted employee's scheme that, over nearly seven years, drained more than $880,000 from the firm's bank account, Cook County prosecutors said Wednesday.

Joan M. Sanchez, 52, 10445 Linder Ave., Oak Lawn, spent nearly $48,000 of the stolen money on lunches, State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said.

Sanchez had spent 24 years with the downtown firm of Kelly Olson Michod Dehann & Richter, including 21 years as office manager.

"It's a terrible breach of trust," said Stephen Cohen, an attorney with the firm.

Chicago police arrested Sanchez on Tuesday at her home, and Circuit Judge Maria Kuriakos-Ciesil set bail Wednesday at $100,000.

Alvarez said the thefts began in October 2002 and continued through April 2009. During that time, Sanchez wrote 234 unauthorized checks from the firm's business account, Alvarez said.

She said Sanchez forged the signature of one of the firm's partners on the checks, created fake entries in the firm's ledger to make it look as though the checks were issued to legitimate vendors and then voided the checks.

Prosecutors allege that Sanchez wrote 176 checks, totaling $836,500 and made payable to herself, and deposited them in her personal checking account at a Chicago bank.

Another 58 checks totaling $47,799 were written by Sanchez and made payable to a lunch club at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where she often dined with her mother, Alvarez said.

The scheme came to light while Sanchez was vacationing in Hawaii and a $40 reimbursement check drawn on the firm's bank account bounced, even though the ledger showed ample funds in the account, prosecutors said.

Cohen said the firm had little to say about the matter.

"The matter is in the hands of the state's attorney, and our position is they're handling it, and we don't want to do anything to jeopardize their case," he said.

Ohio executed a hitchhiker Thursday who admitted to killing one motorist who gave him a ride and shooting two others during a three-week string of shootings that terrorized the Cincinnati area in 1983.

Michael Beuke, 48, died by lethal injection at 10:53 a.m. EDT at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, about 90 minutes after the Ohio Supreme Court turned down his final appeal.

While on the gurney, Beuke recited the Roman Catholic rosary for 17 minutes before he died, choking back tears as he repeatedly said the Hail Mary. He also expressed his sorrow to the families of his three victims.

Beuke, dubbed by the media as the "homicidal hitchhiker," spend a quarter century on death row, where he said he had a spiritual conversion. He expressed remorse for his crimes and said in an unsuccessful request for clemency that he accepted responsibility and prayed "that God will ease the pain I have caused my victims."

Beuke was emotional as the hour of his death neared, crying frequently in his cell at the Lucasville prison, said Julie Walburn, an Ohio prisons spokeswoman.

He was convicted Oct. 5, 1983, of aggravated murder for the death of Robert Craig, 27, of Cincinnati and was sentenced to death. He also was found guilty of the attempted slayings of Gregory Wahoff of Cincinnati and Bruce Graham, then from West Harrison, Ind.

The top Republican in the Senate demanded assurances on Wednesday that President Barack Obama's solicitor general and friend, Elena Kagan, would be free of White House influence if confirmed as a Supreme Court justice.

"Americans want to know that Ms. Kagan will be independent," Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a Senate speech as Obama's Supreme Court pick began a series of courtesy visits with senators who will decide whether to confirm her.

McConnell noted that when Obama nominated Kagan to the Supreme Court on Monday, he said that "they're friends."

"It's my hope that the Obama administration doesn't think the ideal Supreme Court nominee is someone who would rubber stamp its policies," McConnell said. "But this nomination does raise the question. And it's a question that needs to be answered."

For the past year, Kagan, 50, has been Obama's solicitor general, a post in which she argues cases on behalf of the U.S. government before the Supreme Court. She is widely expected to be approved for a seat on the high court by the Democratic-led Senate before lawmakers' August recess.

Yet with Republicans' conservative base fired up for the November congressional election, McConnell and other Republicans are expected to subject her to tough scrutiny.

Kagan is seen as a moderate, and much of Obama's largely liberal base had been pushing for a more liberal nominee.

Khorrami Pollard & Abir LLP, a national plaintiff-only law firm specializing in class actions and mass torts, has just settled a $2.15 million class action case.

The case was brought before the court on behalf of certain students who attended Modern Technology/Maric College in Northern California, alleging they were mislead regarding their eligibility to sit for the ARRT examination.

More information on Khorrami Pollard & Abir LLP, including the attorneys involved and the firm’s case load, can be found on our website at www.kpalawyers.com.

For additional information please call me at 213.596.6000 or email at bwilson@kpalawyers.com.