Former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona has asked an appeals court to reverse his 2009 conviction for witness tampering.

A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday in Pasadena.

The former sheriff was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison for trying to persuade ex-assistant sheriff Don Haidl to lie during a grand jury probe.

Carona's lawyers argued that prosecutors broke an ethical rule when they arranged for Haidl to secretly record an August 2007 conversation despite knowing Carona had retained a criminal defense attorney.

A federal attorney argued that the government used what he called "permissible decoys."

Carona was acquitted in January of conspiracy, mail fraud and a second witness tampering count in a sweeping public corruption case.

Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler PLLC is joining firms who have filed class-action lawsuits relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A Charleston law firm has joined a consortium of 10 law firms filing lawsuits against British Petroleum relating to a recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The law firm of Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler PLLC is joining firms throughout the country who have filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of people who allege they have been damaged by the spill.

According to a release by the Kennedy Environmental Law Group, or KELG, the oil spill and the inability of BP to contain the spill, has resulted in significant damage to the fishery ecosystem and the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.

The consortium has filed suits in Louisiana, Alabama and Florida.

Ed Hill, an attorney for Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler, said the law firms involved with the cases all have been involved in previous environmental law cases. He said the suits were filed after the firms recognized the enormous environmental disaster occurring in the Gulf of Mexico.

As a scholar, poet and abolitionist, George B. Vashon broke barriers in the 1800s: he was the first black to graduate from Oberlin College, the first black lawyer in New York state and the first black professor at Howard University.

But in his home state of Pennsylvania, where Vashon grew up and studied law, he was twice rejected from practicing law because he was black.

On Tuesday, more than 160 years after Vashon applied to be admitted to the Allegheny County bar, the state Supreme Court ordered that he be posthumously admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania. Vashon's relatives and a Pittsburgh attorney who heard about Vashon's story had asked the court earlier this year to do just that.

"I think it's very important not just as a family matter, it goes far beyond family," said Nolan N. Atkinson Jr., Vashon's great grandson and a lawyer in Philadelphia. "It's very important for all lawyers who are entering this profession to know that there were significant achievements made by African Americans in the 19th century."

Vashon was born in Carlisle in 1824, and his family later moved to Pittsburgh, where he grew up. At 16, he was admitted to Oberlin College and graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1844.

Prosecutors say they will ask a federal appeals court to quickly intervene and stop the release of nine jailed Michigan militia members accused of conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government.

U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade says the conditions set by a judge will not ensure the public's safety. She says the appeals court will be asked to issue an emergency stay Thursday.

The nine were expected to be returned to court to be processed at 11 a.m. EDT before being released. But the appeals court could halt everything.

U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts on Monday said the militia members could be released until trial with electronic monitoring devices. She froze her order until Wednesday night.

They are charged with conspiracy to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the government and the attempted use of weapons of mass destruction.

Former Qwest Communications International Inc. CEO Joe Nacchio is set to appear in federal court in Denver to say whether he wants to waive his right to attend his re-sentencing hearings.

U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger wants to see Nacchio in person Tuesday before allowing him to skip hearings in June where she will recalculate his sentence for insider trading convictions.

An appeals court ruled that Nacchio's original sentence of six years in prison, plus $71 million in fines and forfeitures, was too harsh.

Nacchio has started serving his sentence at a prison in Pennsylvania. Online federal prison records show he was moved to a low-security facility in Englewood, Colo., before the hearing Tuesday.

New Jersey law firm Cole, Schotz, Meisel, Forman & Leonard has hired a trio of Fort Worth bankruptcy attorneys.

Michael Warner, Emily Chou and Rachel Obaldo have joined the firm. The three were formerly with the firm WarnerStevens LLP, which is dissolving.

They will open a new office for Cole Schotz in Fort Worth.

The move is the firm's first expansion into Texas. It also has offices New York, Delaware Maryland and Texas.