But in the end, Superior Court Judge Henry Hall ruled Wednesday that none of that counted. What mattered, the judge said, was that the six had illegally raised their salaries to 20 times above what state law allows and would have to stand trial on nearly two dozen felony counts of misappropriation of public funds. He ordered them to return to court March 2 for arraignment.

In a lengthy, strongly worded statement from the bench that several defense attorneys said caught them by surprise, Hall suggested the six could have been charged with even more crimes. He also ordered that they stay 100 yards away from City Hall and not engage in any government activity involving Bell.

"I find this is a matter of grave public safety to the people of Bell," he said in issuing his stay-away order. He added that he had considered putting five of the six who are free on bail back in jail to ensure compliance, but decided not to go that far.

When told by Mayor Oscar Hernandez's attorney that his order would effectively shut down Bell's city government, Hall replied that Hernandez and other officials had been skipping City Council meetings for months since the Bell salary scandal broke, preventing the council from having enough members to meet anyway.

The 5 Browns are a piano group from Utah that features the three sisters and their two brothers. The Juilliard-trained siblings' CDs have topped the Billboard classical music charts and their concerts often sellout in all 50 states and in Japan, Germany, France, Korea, Mexico and England.

Their critical and popular acclaim has led to appearances on "Oprah," "The View" and other shows, and a profile by "60 Minutes."

The family patriarch, Keith Brown, survived the crash and faces one first-degree felony count of sodomy on a child and two second-degree felony counts of sexual abuse of a child, according to Fourth District Court records obtained Wednesday.

The records filed Feb. 10 in the abuse case don't identify any victim by name or indicate the relationship between Keith Brown and the alleged victims.

Obama told a news conference, meanwhile, that the budget he sent Congress will help meet his goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term and said he hoped to find common ground with Republicans. He also defended his decision to avoid overhauls in entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, saying the two parties need to work together to find compromise.

"There's going to be a lot of ups and downs in the coming months as we get to that solution," the president said. "I'm confident that we can get this done."

House Republicans, though, were eager to launch a weeklong debate on their own package of deep cuts in domestic spending for the current fiscal year.

White House budget director Jacob Lew kicked off the administration's defense of its proposed 2012 budget on Capitol Hill with an appearance before the House Budget Committee. Rep. Mike Simpson spoke for most of the Republicans on the panel in saying he doesn't view the proposal — which mostly ignores the recommendations of Obama's fiscal commission — as a serious one.

The Mississippi Supreme Court has asked parties in a federal lawsuit to file briefs by Feb. 28 on whether a state law that limits non-economic damages in civil cases is constitutional.

The issue was raised by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans in January. The 5th Circuit asked the Supreme Court about the constitutionality of the law before it rules in a case involving a traffic accident.

The law on non-economic caps puts a $1 million limit on what juries can award someone for such things as pain and suffering. The limits on damages were adopted by Mississippi lawmakers after years of contentious wrangling over tort reform.

A Southern California nursery has gone to court in a bid to grow medical marijuana.

Route 66 Nursery, which has been denied an Upland business license because the city zoning ordinance doesn't allow medical marijuana dispensaries, filed a Superior Court petition on Feb. 4 in its attempt to operate the pot growing facility.

Nursery operator Van Ton's license request describes the business activity as "plants, flowers, gardening, supplies and Proposition 215."

The San Bernardino County Sun says the nursery claims it's not a pot dispensary, but rather a private plant nursery where qualified medical marijuana patients can obtain a plot of land to grow the weed.

Route 66 Nursery wants a court injunction preventing the city from enforcing its ordinance.

Documents filed Monday night in Houston claim Kevin Lacy, BP's former senior vice president for drilling operations for the Gulf of Mexico, reached a mutual agreement with the company to resign in December 2009 because he believed the company was not adequately committed to improving safety protocols in offshore drilling operations to the level of its industry peers. The Deepwater Horizon rig explosion occurred on April 20, 2010, killing 11 workers and causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The claims come in an amended version of the lawsuit, originally filed last year, that alleges BP inflated its stock price by hiding information and making false and misleading statements about its safety practices before the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. BP's stock value dropped roughly in half following the oil rig explosion and spill.