The justices will hear arguments later this year over the convictions of Black, the former chairman and chief executive of the Hollinger International media company, and two other former executives in connection with payments of $5.5 million they received from a Hollinger subsidiary.

The men argued that they did not commit fraud because they did no harm to the company.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld the convictions, but the nation's appeals courts are divided on the central issue undergirding their convictions.

At issue is the reach of a federal fraud statute that was originally aimed at prosecuting public officials.

Black and former executives John A. Boultbee and Mark S. Kipnis argue that the $5.5 million actually represented management fees that the subsidiary owed to the executives.

Hollinger once owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Daily Telegraph of London, the Jerusalem Post and hundreds of community papers across the United States and Canada.

All of Hollinger's big papers except the Sun-Times have now been sold and the company that emerged changed its name to Sun-Times Media Group.

Black, a member of the British House of Lords, has so far served more than a year of his sentence at the federal prison in Coleman, Fla. He had asked President George W. Bush for a pardon before Bush left office in January.

The justices declined Monday to get involved in a dispute between the Canadian Pacific Railway and residents of Minot, ND. The Minot residents want to sue the railroad over a 2002 derailment that sent a cloud of toxic anhydrous ammonia farm fertilizer over the city. One man died trying to escape the fumes and others were treated at hospitals for eye and lung problems.

In 2006, a U.S. district judge ruled that federal law protected Canadian Pacific from claims stemming from the derailment. After Congress changed the law the same year, the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the claims could be pursued.

The court said Monday it won't disturb a ruling by the federal appeals court in New York that the rights belong to Penguin Group Inc., and the heirs of John Steinbeck's widow, Elaine. Author John Steinbeck died in 1968; his wife in 2003. The heirs include her sister, four children and grandchildren.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge misapplied copyright law in awarding the rights in 2006 to the son, Thomas Steinbeck, and granddaughter Blake Smyle. Both already receive a portion of the proceeds of sales.

The decision issued Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington doesn't address the main issue in the 17-year-old case of whether the trademark is racist. It upholds the lower court's decision in favor of the football team on a legal technicality.

The court agreed that the seven Native Americans who challenged the trademark waited too long to sue over the trademark issued in 1967.

An administration official says the Democratic governor is coming to the White House for an event unrelated to the Supreme Court. It is not clear whether Granholm will be meeting with Obama about the upcoming vacancy on the court.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because details of Tuesday's event have not been announced.

Granholm is among more than six people Obama is considering for the seat on the court now held by Justice David Souter, who is retiring this summer.

The 50-year-old Granholm is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general.

As Congress and the president talk about ending so-called abuses in the credit card industry like sudden rate hikes and late fees, Brady Dougan is in Connecticut courts fighting claims that he owes his ex-wife nearly $1 million for being 12 days tardy with a $7.5 million divorce-related payment.

The 49-year-old chief executive, who lives in Greenwich, suffered a blow in his legal case Wednesday, when the state Appellate Court ruled 2-1 that he must abide by the late payment penalty terms in his 2005 divorce agreement with Tomoko Hamada Dougan.

Retired state Supreme Court Justice David Borden, sitting on the Appellate Court for Dougan v. Dougan, wrote that Brady Dougan is a "highly educated and financially sophisticated" person who "wants to avoid the obligation that he knowingly undertook."

Supreme Court Justice C. Ian McLachlan, appointed to the high court in January, voted with Borden in the appellate ruling. He noted that at the time of the divorce agreement, Brady Dougan's estate was worth nearly $80 million and it appeared he could have made the $7.5 million payment soon after signing the deal.

The Appellate Court overturned a Superior Court decision and sent the case back to the lower court to decide how much Dougan should pay his ex-wife.

It was not clear if Dougan planned to appeal to the state Supreme Court. A message was left Thursday with his attorney, Gary Cohen.