Britain's former deputy prime minister won the right Monday to a legal review of the way London's Metropolitan Police handled the wide-ranging phone hacking campaign mounted by a British tabloid newspaper.

John Prescott — who was the deputy of former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair — claimed police breached his human rights by not informing him that people working for the scandal-hungry News of The World may have listened to his voice mails.

High Court judge David Foskett granted Prescott and three other people — lawmaker Chris Bryant, journalist Brendan Montague and former senior police officer Brian Paddick — the right to seek a judicial review of the way the Metropolitan Police dealt with their cases.

Their lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson, said the men believed police became aware of the phone hacking in 2006, but failed to inform them they were victims, did not respond adequately to their requests for information and failed to carry out an effective investigation at the time.

James Lewis, the lawyer acting for the Metropolitan Police, argued that a judicial review is not necessary because police are now carrying out their own investigation into the phone hacking scandal.

Lawyers for The Hartford Courant say in recently filed court documents that a $7.5 million plagiarism lawsuit filed by a competing newspaper should be dismissed because no copyright laws were broken.

The motion to dismiss filed on May 4 in Hartford federal court comes nearly two years after Courant CEO and Publisher Richard Graziano acknowledged that the newspaper had plagiarized competitors, but not intentionally.

The Journal Inquirer of Manchester first filed the lawsuit in state court in 2009, but withdrew it for technical reasons. The paper refiled the lawsuit in federal court in February, saying the Courant plagiarized at least 10 Journal Inquirer stories in violation of copyright laws.

The Courant says in the new court documents that there was no "substantial similarity" between the Courant and Journal Inquirer stories.

The district attorney's office says 68-year-old Donna Joy Henderson pleaded guilty on Monday to one felony count of grand theft by embezzlement.

Henderson joined Tustin law firm, Rinos & Martin, LLP, in 2000 and oversaw the firm's financial accounts.

Prosecutors say that, between 2003 and 2009, Henderson wrote 122 company checks to herself, to cash, personal credit cards, relatives or fictitious businesses, then deposited them into personal bank accounts.

She allegedly spent the money on timeshare properties, vacations, home improvements and room additions, jewelry, pampered pet day spa visits, and gambling.

President Barack Obama says he will travel to Missouri on Sunday to meet with people affected by the devastating tornadoes there.

The president said Tuesday he wants Midwesterners whose lives were upended by the deadly storms last weekend to know that the federal government will use all the resources at its disposal to help them recover and rebuild.

Obama is in the midst of a six-day Europe trip, but the White House wants to make clear he's staying on top of the tragedy at home, where more than 100 people were killed in the Missouri town of Joplin when a monster twister hit Sunday. A hospital and countless homes and businesses were destroyed, and more storms, possibly strong ones, are on the horizon.

"I want everybody in Joplin, everybody in Missouri, everybody in Minnesota, everybody across the Midwest to know that we are here for you," the president said in London on day two of his four-country tour.

"The American people are by your side. We're going to stay there until every home is repaired, until every neighborhood is rebuilt, until every business is back on its feet."

The president phoned Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon again Tuesday to get an update on the destruction in the state, and spoke with Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate, the White House said.