Two studies conducted for the NHL set a potential relocation fee of $101 million to $195 million to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario.

The figures are listed in a lengthy brief filed over the weekend in the bitter fight in U.S. Bankruptcy Court over ownership of the franchise.

The potential fees are in stark contrast to the $11.2 million to $12.9 million cited by economics professor Andrew Zimbalist in a study conducted for Canadian billionaire James Balsillie. Balsillie, co-CEO of the company that makes the Blackberry, wants to buy the franchise for $212.5 million, contingent on moving it to Hamilton.

The NHL made a last-minute bid of $140 million to purchase the team and keep it in Arizona.

The team is to be sold at auction on Thursday, but many legal issues have yet to be resolved.

The league, in determining a potential relocation fee, cited studies conducted for the NHL by the Barrett Sports Group and Sports Value Consulting.

The Barrett study concludes that the franchise in Hamilton would be worth $261.8 million to $279.8 million. Sports Value's figure was a whopping $315 million.

Meanwhile, Barrett said the Coyotes in Glendale would be worth $163 million to $176 million and Sports Value places the figure at $120 million.

The NHL refuses to consider the possible relocation of the franchise, however, because its board of governors voted 26-0 with three abstentions against Balsillie as an owner.

President Barack Obama's policies on secrecy get higher grades for openness than those of President George W. Bush, yet there's still room for improvement, says a coalition of public interest groups.

In a report issued Tuesday, the coalition says the new administration has made major strides toward more disclosure, including the recent release of Justice Department memos on Bush administration interrogation policies and Obama's embrace of greater openness under the Freedom of Information Act.

The report noted, however, that the government has resisted release of photos from Army interrogation investigations; has not backed away from occasional use of the state secrets privilege; and has argued in court for secrecy regarding the role of former Vice President Dick Cheney in the Valerie Plame affair.

The country elected a president who promises the most open, transparent and accountable executive branch in history and "the record to date is mixed," says the report by OpenTheGovernment.org, a group of 75 public interest groups.

Open government advocates are concerned that much of the Obama administration's review of disclosure issues is taking place in secret.

For example, an interagency government task force is delving into the issue of unclassified information that the government nonetheless keeps under wraps by designating it as "controlled unclassified information," or CUI.

Consumers, confronting job losses and weak income growth, likely cut back on their borrowing for a sixth consecutive month in July.

Consumer borrowing likely fell by $4.5 billion at an annual rate in July, according to economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters. The Federal Reserve is scheduled to release the report at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

In June, consumers slashed their borrowing at a rate of $10.3 billion, marking another month where households cut back sharply on their use of credit cards and other types of loans amid the longest recession since World War II.

In April, consumers trimmed borrowing at a rate of $17.4 billion, the largest amount on records that date to 1943.

Widespread job losses, declining home values and shrunken stock portfolios have contributed to Americans' more thrifty mood.

The Labor Department reported last week that the unemployment rate jumped almost a half a point to 9.7 percent in August, the highest since 1983. Many economists believe the rate will hit 10 percent before the end of this year and will remain elevated levels for some time.

A Sudanese woman who wore pants in public was fined the equivalent of $200 but spared a whipping Monday when a court found her guilty of violating Sudan's decency laws.

Arriving at court Monday, Lubna Hussein wore the same pants that had led to her arrest for indecency. A defiant Lubna Hussein said she would not pay the fine and would take a month in prison instead to protest Sudan's draconian morality laws.

The 34-year-old journalist has set out to challenge the police and courts since her arrest in July by insisting the case go to trial, aiming to embarrass the Khartoum government with the publicity. Her prosecution – and the prospect that she could get the full sentence of 40 lashes – drew an international outcry.

Hussein vowed to appeal the sentence and even walked into the court wearing the same pair of loose-fitting green slacks that she was arrested in.

The U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit says Microsoft Corp. can keep selling its Word desktop software as it appeals an unfavorable patent ruling.

In May, a Texas district court said some versions of Microsoft's word processing software infringe on a Canadian technology company's patent. The dispute is over the way Word 2003 and Word 2007 let users customize document encoding.

The Texas judge had ordered Microsoft to pay Toronto-based i4i LLP $290 million and stop selling infringing versions of Word by the middle of October.

Redmond-based Microsoft has appealed the ruling and is set to present arguments on Sept. 23.

The Schwarzenegger administration on Tuesday asked the federal courts to delay an order requiring California to reduce its inmate population over the next two years.

Last month, a special three-judge panel gave California 45 days to decide how it will cut the number of inmates in its 33 adult prisons by more than 40,000, bringing the population to about 110,000. They found that reducing the number of inmates in California's 33 adult prisons was the only way to improve medical and mental health care, which the courts previously ruled was so poor it violated inmates' civil rights.

The administration maintains that the courts cannot order the state to release prisoners and plans to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the administration wants the three-judge panel to stay its decision ordering the prisoner release. That motion was filed Tuesday with federal courts in Sacramento and San Francisco.

If the three California-based federal judges will not delay their order, Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said the administration will seek a stay from the nation's high court.