Attorneys in U.S. District Court in Boston gave opening statements Tuesday in the recording industry's lawsuit against 25-year-old Joel Tenenbaum of Providence, R.I.

Tenenbaum, represented by Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson, is accused of downloading and distributing thousands of songs, though the case focuses on 30.

Recording industry lawyer Tim Reynolds says song swappers such as Tenenbaum seriously damage music labels.

Tenenbaum is only the second music-downloading defendant to go to trial. Last month, a federal jury ruled a Minnesota woman must pay $1.92 million for copyright infringement.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday upheld a federal judge's decision to block the hourly employees from filing a class action lawsuit.

The judge had ruled that the court inquiries into each employee's individual situation would "swamp" any of the group's common issues.

The employees contend that FedEx has engaged in a "pervasive and long-standing policy" of failing to pay hourly employees for all time worked.

FedEx hourly employees are required to manually enter their scheduled start, end and break times into a hand-held tracker. But employees also use time cards as a backup tracking method.

The group claims they frequently worked during unpaid breaks. They also say they weren't paid for the gap periods between punching in or out on a time clock and when they actually started or finished work.

For example, if an employee punched in at 7:45 a.m. but entered a start time of 8 a.m. into the tracker, there would be a 15-minute gap for which the employee would not be paid.

A spokesman for FedEx wasn't immediately able to comment on the ruling Monday.

Attorney David Houston said Francis, his client, was targeted by the FBI after Washoe County Sheriff Mike Haley told federal agents that his internal probe turned up allegations of misconduct at the end of 2007.

Francis was awaiting trial for nearly a year on U.S. tax evasion charges in Reno in 2007.

Prosecutors accuse Francis associate Aaron Weinstein, a video and marketing executive, of bribing the law enforcement officials, including former deputy Michon Mills, with money and gifts that included a Cartier watch and Oakland Raiders tickets in exchange for preferential treatment for Francis.

Prosecutors said California State University, Chico student Kelsey Michael Mudd was more than three times over the legal alcohol limit on the day of the June 27 accident. They have yet to spell out their case in court, but the murder charge suggests they believe Mudd caused the accident.

The South China Morning Post newspaper reported earlier that Mudd was arguing with his driver before the crash.

Mudd's lawyer, Ian Polson, argued in court that the crash "always was and is a traffic accident," arguing there was no evidence that Mudd, 22, was behind the wheel during the accident that killed the driver.

"It's been blown all out of proportion," Polson told Acting Principal Magistrate Bina Chainrai.

Polson told reporters after Monday's brief hearing that the alcohol test results are irrelevant because there is no evidence that Mudd was driving.

Mudd, who has not entered a plea, appeared in court with his hair shortly cropped and wearing a dark blue suit jacket over a checkered dress shirt and khaki pants. He did not show any emotion, but briefly glanced to the back of the courtroom, where his parents and friends were seated.

He was remanded into custody after Chainrai adjourned his case to Aug. 28 to allow more time for prosecutors to investigate. Polson said he plans to file a bail application in the coming weeks.

Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions says he doesn't think Sotomayor has the convictions to resist the pull of judicial activism once she becomes a justice.

His decision comes the day before the Judiciary panel is to vote on President Barack Obama's first high court nominee. Sotomayor is virtually certain to be confirmed by a vote of the full Senate by the end of next week, becoming the first Hispanic justice.

Most conservative Republicans are lining up against Sotomayor, but a handful of GOP senators are siding with majority Democrats to back her.

He'll have to listen repeatedly to the horrific details of the crimes against his wife, who was strangled, and two daughters, who were tied to their beds. All three died of smoke inhalation from a fire police say the intruders set as they fled Petit's house after holding the family hostage for hours. Petit, a prominent physician who was beaten during the ordeal, will sit feet away from the defendants as they assert their rights and file appeal after appeal.

Attorneys for defendants Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky said this week in court that their offer to plead guilty on exchange for life in prison could have ended it all. But defense attorneys said prosecutors refused because they want to win death sentences.