Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and several state Supreme Court justices are planning a nationwide push during next year's state legislative sessions to end the practice of electing judges. Nevada already has such a proposal before voters on the 2010 ballot.

Many judges and the American Bar Association argue the legal system is tainted by judges seeking campaign donations.

"It doesn't support the fundamental principle of judges acting fairly and impartially," Ohio Chief Justice Tom Moyer told The Associated Press.

A judicial think tank at the University of Denver has assembled a group of prominent judges, including O'Connor, to push for the abolition of directly elected judges in the 33 states that have them.

They want state commissions made up mostly of non-lawyers to pick judges. Governors would appoint judges the commissions select, and voters would decide in future elections whether the judges keep their jobs.

Senators trying to craft bipartisan climate legislation offered a revised proposal Thursday that would add incentives for building nuclear power plants and open the way for expanded oil and gas drilling off the nation's coastlines in hopes of attracting wider support.

The new framework for a Senate climate bill would ease back requirements for early reductions of greenhouse gases. It calls for cuts in the range of 17 percent by 2020, instead of 20 percent, similar to reductions already approved by the House and what Obama will call for at an international climate conference in Copenhagen.

"We would like to underscore the fact that the framework we are releasing today is a starting point for our negotiations going forward," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

The framework provided only a broad view of what a compromise bill would include with details to emerge early next year. But it reflects a widespread view that the climate bill that advanced out of committee in early November would need to be significantly revised for any hope of getting bipartisan support from at least 60 senators.

When it comes to peddling porn, Larry Flynt wants you to know his videos of people having sex are a cut above other smut on the rack.

So when a pair of nephews Flynt personally groomed for the porn business decided to launch their own company last year and use the family name, the creator of "Barely Legal," "Busty Beauties" and "Daddy Gets Lucky" wasted no time suing the upstarts for trademark infringement.

Flynt accused his brother Jimmy Flynt's sons in federal court of tarnishing his image by launching Flynt Media Corp. and producing a series of videos he says are nothing but cheap knockoffs.

"The junk they publish hurts my reputation, which in turn hurts my revenue," the gruff, gravelly voiced porn king testified in U.S. District Court this week, where a Flynt family feud is playing out before a stone-faced jury and a no-nonsense judge.

The four women and four men of the mostly middle-aged jury stoically viewed photos of some of the nephews' DVD boxes. Images of naked, well-endowed women on the front and people in all sorts of contortions on the back, were flashed on a giant-screen TV right next to them.

A federal appeals court overturned a lower court Thursday and ruled against an Oregon lawyer once wrongly suspected in a terrorist bombing.

Brandon Mayfield was arrested in 2004 and held for two weeks after his Portland home and office were searched and bugged. The FBI relied on a fingerprint from the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

It turned out the fingerprint didn't belong to Mayfield, who got an apology and $2 million from the federal government.

Mayfield wants to overturn two parts of the USA Patriot Act passed after 9/11 that ensnared him.

A district judge sided with him in 2007. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Mayfield can't challenge the act because the settlement limited his legal options.

The pouty-lipped Bratz dolls can strut their stuff a little longer.

A federal appeals court panel in Pasadena on Wednesday suspended an order that MGA Entertainment stop selling Bratz products this year, recall remaining toys and give ownership of the brand to rival Mattel Inc.

Mattel won $100 million last year in a lawsuit that claimed copyright infringement and breach of contract because the dolls' designer was under contract to Mattel when he developed the Bratz concept.

MGA was ordered to transition its Bratz line to Mattel by 2010, but the U.S. 9th Circuit appellate panel stayed the order until it can rule on MGA's appeal.

MGA Chief Executive Isaac Larian says the order is a victory for fair competition.

Mattel says it can't comment until the appeals process is over.

A court approved chicken producer Pilgrim's Pride Corp. plan for reorganization on Thursday, and the company said it expects to emerge from bankruptcy court protection this month.

Pilgrim's Pride filed for Chapter 11 protection last year facing high debt related to its buyout of rival Gold Kist Inc. in 2007 and rising feed costs that left much of the industry in a slump.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Northern District of Texas approved the reorganization plan Thursday, the company, based in Pittsburg, Texas, said in a news release.

The plan includes selling a majority stake worth $800 million to Brazilian beef giant JBS. The transaction includes paying off Pilgrim's Pride's creditors in full and distributing new shares to current holders.

The deal, which was announced in September, is unusual for a company in a bankruptcy case; more typically, creditors aren't repaid. The entire deal is valued at $2.8 billion.

Along with a deal to buy Bertin SA, one of Latin America's largest producers and exporters of milk products, beef and leather, buying Pilgrim's Pride would make JBS the world's biggest meat producer. The purchase of Gold Kist, worth more than $1 billion, had made Pilgrim's Pride the largest chicken producer in the U.S., with about 23 percent of the market before it filed for bankruptcy protection last year.