A federal appeals court is reviewing whether the imprisoned founder of Adelphia Communications Corp. and his son can face a second federal fraud trial.

A full 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel in Philadelphia will hear defense arguments that a second trial in Pennsylvania amounts to double jeopardy for John Rigas and his son, Timothy.

John Rigas is serving a 12-year term and Timothy Rigas a 17-year term after convictions in New York for defrauding their now-defunct cable television giant, which was based in Coudersport, Pa. Prosecutors say they used the company like a piggy bank.

A 3rd Circuit panel had sided 2-1 with the Rigases' double-jeopardy claims and ordered a lower-court review. The full panel is rehearing the issue at prosecutors' request.

Court papers filed Tuesday indicate a 29-year-old Anchorage man has acknowledged that he killed his neighbor and another woman for whose murder he was acquitted.

The plea agreement is between federal prosecutors and Joshua Alan Wade, who is charged with the 2007 torture killing of his neighbor, Mindy Schloss.

In the filing, Wade also said he killed another Anchorage woman, Della Brown, in 2000. A jury acquitted Wade of that crime.

Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty in the Schloss killing, which would make it the first capital punishment case in Alaska since before statehood. But the plea agreement calls for a 99-year sentence without parole.

Wade is expected to change his plea Wednesday in federal court and be sentenced.

At the law firm of Adorno & Yoss, diversity is not an afterthought, nor is it a marketing ploy to gain new business.

No, diversity -- doing business with and hiring minorities -- is front and center at Adorno & Yoss, the largest minority-owned law firm in the nation. With about 300 lawyers in 20 offices around the country, and a Fortune 200 client list, the Florida-based law firm has emerged as one of the premier law offices in the nation. The company, which has two offices in Latin America, is also a member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

"We are seeing what is happening with the population in this country," said Florida-based Henry Adorno, CEO and co-founder of Adorno & Yoss. "Being able to understand that and being able to communicate with our clients gives us the competitive advantage."

The U.S. government argued on Friday that it should be allowed access to people's cell-phone records to help track suspected criminals.

A Justice Department attorney urged a federal appeals court in Philadelphia to overturn lower court rulings denying it the right to seek information from communications companies about the call activity of specific numbers that authorities believe are associated with criminal activity.

But civil rights lawyers argued that providing information such as dates, times and call duration, and which cell towers the calls used, would be an invasion of privacy and a violation of constitutional protections against unjustified arrest.

Smith & Nephew Plc, Europe’s largest maker of shoulder and knee implants, was awarded $4.7 million in a patent-infringement trial against smaller rival Arthrex Inc. over a device to fix a graft to a bone.

Arthrex said in a statement it will appeal the Feb. 12 jury decision and is “confident the verdict will be overturned on appeal.” It said it doesn’t expect the verdict will interrupt sales of its RetroButton ACL graft fixation product. Smith & Nephew said it will seek a court order to halt sales of some devices.

The dispute is over the attachment of the grafts used to replace the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in the knee that connects the femur bone in the thigh with the tibia bone in the shin. It’s one of the most commonly injured ligaments during athletic activity. The grafts are ligaments taken from other parts of the body, typically the hamstring, patella or Achilles region, said Smith & Nephew spokesman Joe Metzger.

“Smith & Nephew has a long and proud history of providing medical devices that help surgeons to deliver positive patient outcomes,” Mike Frazzette, president of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy, said in a statement. “As a result, we will vigorously protect our intellectual property rights against Arthrex and other companies that infringe our patents.”

The man accused of strangling his ex-girlfriend - defense attorney Margaret Allen - and killing a witness in the case will make his first court appearance at 2 p.m. today in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

Calvin McKelton, 32, will be arraigned on an 11-count indictment charging him with aggravated murder, murder, two counts of felonious assault, abuse of a corpse, intimidation of a witness, tampering with evidence, aggravated robbery, aggravated arson and two charges of domestic violence.
Allen’s body was found at Schmidt Field in Cincinnati’s East End in July 2008.

Prosecutors are expected to release more details about the case today, including information about the dead witness.

McKelton was arrested Friday afternoon near Lexington Avenue and Reading Road in Avondale by the U.S. Marshals’ Southern Ohio Fugitive Apprehension Strike Team. He faces the death penalty if convicted.