About a dozen banks and financial firms must defend allegations of bid rigging, limited competition and price fixing in the municipal derivatives market, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Victor Morrero's written order said the defendants, including Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, UBS AG, Morgan Stanley and others, should prepare for a pretrial conference on April 30.

The case is In Re Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, No. 08-2516.

In 2006, the U.S. Justice Department, Internal Revenue Service and Securities and Exchange Commission launched a sweeping investigation into how the derivatives, known as guaranteed investment contracts, had been priced.

Municipal bond issuers had frequently parked their proceeds from debt sales by buying these contracts, which generate income, until they needed to spend the money.

While the investigation cooled down by early 2009, with information occasionally trickling out in the banks' and insurance companies' SEC filings, it has heated back up in the last few months. At the same time, a number of counties and cities have moved to sue the companies involved.

As lawsuits over Toyota acceleration problems multiply nationwide, more than 150 attorneys gathered Wednesday to sharpen their legal skills on the eve of a major federal court hearing on whether dozens of cases will be consolidated before a single judge.

The main topic at the conference, organized by legal publisher HarrisMartin, was today's scheduled hearing before a panel of federal judges in San Diego who will choose whether to combine more than 100 Toyota lawsuits and where to send them.

Lawyers for people suing Toyota and the company itself have suggested 19 jurisdictions, according to court documents. But the panel is not required to pick from that list.

"You have consumers that have been affected in every state," said Howard Bushman, a Miami attorney whose recent cases included a $24 million settlement for AIDS patients who paid for a drug they didn't need.

Toyota has been hit with an avalanche of lawsuits that could cost it billions of dollars after its recall of 8 million vehicles worldwide, including about 6 million in the U.S., over sudden unexpected acceleration. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked 52 deaths to the accelerator problems, which Toyota has blamed on floor mats that can snag accelerator pedals or on pedals that sometimes stick.

The McLane Law Firm with offices in Manchester, Portsmouth, and Concord, and Woburn, Mass., announced that the firm has absorbed the Colucci Norman Law Firm, of Beverly, Mass.

John Colucci, William Norman, Larry Plavnik, all corporate lawyers and Andrew Botti, a litigator, join McLane's business-focused firm of more than 90 attorneys, 44 of whom actively serve Massachusetts businesses in some capacity.

The addition of these attorneys and associate support staff necessitates the second office space expansion within a year at the TradeCenter, McLane's fourth location.

Days after Florida Republicans assaulted President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the state's Democrats launched a political counter-attack Thursday aimed squarely at the GOP's front-runner for governor: Attorney General Bill McCollum.

First, Senate Democrats tried legislative tactics to slow down McCollum's lawsuit filed Tuesday against the national healthcare law. Then, House and Senate Democrats called on Republican legislative leaders to audit McCollum's office to examine its use of staff time.

And capping it all: A Washington Democratic leader accused McCollum of skirting state law by failing to go through the proper channels before filing his lawsuit, a charge McCollum denied.

Though the efforts to audit McCollum and stop the suit failed Thursday, the Democrats' onslaught signaled the heightened sense of partisanship in an election-year legislative session.

Leading the anti-McCollum charge: Sen. Dan Gelber, a Miami Beach Democrat running for attorney general who said the incumbent's ``frivolous'' lawsuit is an ``ideological escapade'' that won't survive in the courts. ``This is nothing other than a political frolic,'' he said. ``We have incredible challenges in our state. . . . We want our chief law-enforcement officer spending his time protecting our citizens.''

Lawyers for Billy Joe Magwood want to argue that Alabama law was changed to make Magwood's crime a capital offense after it had already been committed.

Defendants aren't allowed to appeal using arguments that could have been brought in the original case, but Magwood's lawyers say that since he was sentenced to die a second time, he should be able to use a new argument in his second round of appeals.

"If it's the second time around, then it's just barred," Justice Anthony Kennedy said.

"Well, it shouldn't be barred. Because it's a new judgment, the defendant should be able to get relief the second time around," said Jeffrey L. Fisher, Magwood's lawyer.

Magwood, 58, has been on Death Row since 1981 for the shooting death of Coffee County Sheriff Neil Grantham in 1979. He got that death sentence thrown out, but then was resentenced to death.

The state was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana use, with voters passing it in 1996. Since then, 14 states have followed California's lead, even though marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

"This is a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to end failed marijuana prohibition in this country," said Stephen Gutwillig, California director for the Drug Policy Alliance. "We really can't overstate the significance of Californians being the first to have the opportunity to end this public policy disaster."

California is not alone in the push to expand legal use of marijuana. Legislators in Rhode Island, another state hit hard by the economic downturn, are considering a plan to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less by anyone 18 or older.

A proposal to legalize the sale and use of marijuana in Washington was recently defeated in that state's legislature, though lawmakers there did expand the pool of medical professionals that could prescribe the drug for medicinal use.

And a group in Nevada is pushing an initiative that marks the state's fourth attempt in a decade to legalize the drug.

The California secretary of state's office certified the initiative for the general election ballot Wednesday after it was determined that supporters had gathered enough valid signatures.