President Barack Obama plans to announce new fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks for the model years 2017 through 2025 at an event Friday in Washington.

The administration has been in negotiations with automakers on boosting fuel economy.

Officials familiar with the talks told The Associated Press this week that recent changes to the standards for light trucks have reduced the proposal to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The administration's initial target for cars and light trucks was 56.2 miles per gallon last month.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that this new round of standards will save consumers money, reduce oil consumption, cut pollution and create jobs.

In 2009, automakers agreed to raise fuel economy standards to 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

An Oregon sheriff who lost a state legal battle to deny a concealed handgun license for a medical marijuana patient has decided to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters has argued that issuing the license would violate federal law, specifically the Gun Control Act of 1968.

That argument was rejected by a trial court, the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court in rulings that say state law on concealed handgun permits does not pre-empt federal law, the Mail Tribune reported Wednesday.

Cynthia Willis of Gold Hill acknowledged using medical marijuana when she filed her permit application with Winters in 2008, setting off the legal battle. She was issued a concealed handgun license after the sheriff lost in the Oregon Court of Appeals.

"I was hoping that it was over, but apparently it is not," Willis said. "I'm just so surprised that there would be a further use of tax dollars in this way."

So far, the case has cost the county $13,000 in outside legal fees plus the equivalent of $20,000 in time spent by the county's internal legal team.

Washington County, which lost a similar case, also has decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Ryan Kirchoff, an attorney for Jackson County, said the Gun Control Act is designed to keep guns out of the hands of people Congress considered potentially dangerous or irresponsible, such as those who use a controlled substance.

A federal appeals court is set to hear arguments over a law giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco advertising and marketing.

The three-judge panel from the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday will hear a challenge from tobacco companies who say the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act illegally restricts their free speech rights.

In January 2010, U.S. District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr. in Bowling Green, Ky., rejected much of the first major challenge to the law brought by tobacco companies. McKinley upheld most of the marketing restrictions in the law, including a ban on tobacco companies sponsoring athletic, social and cultural events or offering free samples or branded merchandise. The judge also upheld a requirement that warning labels cover half the packaging on each tobacco product.

The judge threw out a ban on color and graphics on most tobacco advertising.

The act, signed into law in June 2009, lets the FDA limit but not ban nicotine. It also lets the agency ban candy flavorings and marketing claims such "low tar" and "light," require warnings be emblazoned over carton images, regulate what goes into tobacco products and publicize those ingredients.

Joining R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes, and Lorillard Inc., which sells Newport menthols, were National Tobacco Co., Discount Tobacco City & Lottery Inc., and Kentucky-based Commonwealth Brands, which is owned by Britain's Imperial Tobacco Group PLC.

From New Jersey to California, police, courthouse officials and real estate agents are being confronted with a baffling new problem: bogus legal documents filed by people claiming to follow an obscure religion called Moorish Science. Their motives range from financial gain to simply causing a nuisance.

No one is more exasperated by the phenomenon than the leaders of the century-old Moorish Science Temple of America, who say the growing crop of "paperwork terrorists" has nothing to do with their faith or its teachings.

"It's just distressing that some individuals would take something as pure and righteous as this organization and try to tarnish it," said Christopher Bennett-Bey, grand sheikh of the group's temple in Charlotte, one of more than 30 located around the country.

It's not clear why the flimflam artists are invoking the group. But one expert said divisions dating back to the death of the sect's founder have resulted in small pockets of people who claim to be followers but have little understanding of the faith.

The bad filings include deeds, liens and other documents, often written in confusing pseudo-legal jargon and making outlandish claims about being exempt from U.S. law. In some cases, filers have actually moved into foreclosed houses and changed the locks. Other times, people seeking to slip their mortgages have used bogus documents to waste the time and money of their banks. Fake liens have also been maliciously filed to target enemies.