Alston & Bird LLP is putting its mark on California, with plans to absorb in September the Los Angeles law firm Weston Benshoof Rochefort Rubalcava & MacCuish LLP and its 83 attorneys. Weston Benshoof is known for its environmental and land use practices, but it also litigates in real estate, construction, and water resources issues.

Atlanta-based Alston & Bird also said Wednesday it has opened a 12-attorney office in Palo Alto. The addition of the new lawyers in California will bring the total number of attorneys at Alston & Bird to more than 900.

"Alston & Bird's continued growth is the result of our increasing national and international client base for whom our strategic approach is simple -- We will be where our clients are and need us to be," said Richard R. Hays, Alston & Bird's managing partner, in a prepared statement. "While Alston & Bird has been representing clients on the West Coast for years, teaming up with some of the best talent in Los Angeles and Silicon Valley gives us stronger footing in a number of key practice areas that will benefit our clients and better serve their needs."

Twenty-seven years later, Morton Grove has repealed its law, bowing to a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that affirmed homeowners' right to keep guns for self-defense.

It's one of several Illinois communities — reluctant to spend money on legal fights — rushing to repeal their gun bans after the court struck down a Washington, D.C., ban, even as cities such as Chicago and San Francisco stand firm.

Mayor Richard Krier acknowledges Morton Grove's place in history, but said that didn't affect the village board's 5-1 decision Monday to amend its ordinance to allow the possession of handguns. The village still bans the sale of guns.

"There hasn't been any pressure" to keep the ban, Krier said, noting that the village's ordinance has been under scrutiny since the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Washington case. He also pointed out that the mostly residential village has never had a big problem with gun crime.

Though Morton Grove's gun ban is five years younger than Washington's, it's considered the first in the country because the village is a municipality, whereas D.C. is a federal district.

Gun rights advocates hailed the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision affirming that individuals have a right to own guns and keep them in their homes for self-defense.

The state Senate voted to repeal the law earlier this month and Gov. Deval Patrick has said he will sign it.

Opponents say repealing the ban will attract many out-of-state gay couples to Massachusetts for marriages.

Some proponents say that would be an economic boon for the state, and would allow Massachusetts to compete with California.

A California Supreme Court ruling recently made gay marriage legal there with no residency requirement.

Former Beaufort County Magistrate George Peter Lamb, who is white, agreed to the punishment and resigned before the order was issued. The court's order included no other details about the comment.

The justices' ruling outlined problems with Lamb that included behavior toward female employees that the high court said could have been considered inappropriate and the judge incorrectly telling a defendant at a bond hearing the penalty he could face if convicted.

Lamb's lawyer referred questions to the former judge, who did not immediately respond to telephone messages left on his cell phone and at his home.

Lamb is a lawyer who served on Beaufort County Council until 2006, when Republican Gov. Mark Sanford appointed him a part-time magistrate.

Lamb was publicly reprimanded by the state Supreme Court, which said it was the harshest punishment it could issue since he had resigned as judge. Lamb agreed to not seek any judicial position in the state without first getting written permission from the state's high court, effectively banning him from the bench.

In the lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, the American Trucking Associations said it does not oppose efforts to clean up the air but is concerned that other measures in the plans violate federal laws by unfairly regulating prices, routes and services.

The lawsuit claims the regulations favor bigger trucking companies over independent truckers and limit the number of trucks allowed to enter the ports, reducing market competition.

Truckers must agree to the plans to retain access to the ports after Oct. 1.

"It's a barrier to entry," said Curtis Whalen of the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference, an affiliate of the 37,000-member association. "We don't think the ports have the legal ability to do that."

The association wants the court to permanently restrict the plans from being implemented.

Defendants named in the lawsuit include the cities of Los Angeles and Long Beach along with their harbor departments and commissions.

"We feel that the program is legally defensible and we see no problem in continuing to move forward with this plan," said Lee Peterson, a spokesman for the Port of Long Beach.

Both cities passed plans earlier this year aimed at reducing truck pollution at the ports by as much as 80 percent. The plans would require trucks to meet tougher 2007 federal emissions standards by Jan. 12, 2012, along with a $35 cargo fee to pay for the newer, cleaner-running trucks.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Monday upheld most of the convictions against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean.

The appeals court vacated their convictions for tampering with an official proceeding, but the three-judge panel refused to reverse the convictions that resulted in their lengthy sentences.

Ramos and Compean were convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively. Both men claimed they shot at Osvaldo Aldrete Davila, an illegal immigrant and admitted drug smuggler, in self defense.