Euless officials say the sacrifices would violate ordinances against animal cruelty, keeping livestock and disposal of animal waste.

The background

In May 2006, Merced and 10 other church members were at his house a day before a planned ceremony when a Euless police officer and an animal control officer knocked on his door.

A resident had tipped off police that Merced, president of Templo Yoruba Omo Orisha Texas, and his group would sacrifice goats, according to police reports and court documents.

The officer did not see any goats, and Merced said he would not sacrifice any animals.

A month later, Merced and a priest from Puerto Rico met with Euless officials, who told him that the city would not issue a permit for their ceremonies. Merced sued in December 2006.

In 2007, the city offered Merced a compromise to help settle the lawsuit -- he could kill chickens, which city law allows, but not goats. The city would still enforce its animal cruelty ordinance and its ban against killing livestock. Merced declined.

Christy Toler of Jeff Davis County was struck by a car March 7, 2005, and sought treatment at the Brown Arrowhead Chiropractic Clinic in Brunswick.

Before she arrived at the clinic, she was met by a paralegal for attorney John E. King and signed a contract for representation.

Those were the basic elements included in a 2006 suit filed by Toler and three Savannahians against Arrowhead Clinic, King and several others.

Now Chatham County State Court Judge Hermann Coolidge has certified the case as a class action.

That means attorneys for Toler and the others named in the original suit can pursue a class of others who fit similar experiences.

The class, which will include plaintiffs statewide, could number as many as 3,500 individuals, said Stanley Karsman, one of several defense lawyers in the case.

That would include anyone in similar circumstances to Toler between Jan. 1, 2004, and Monday, the date of the order.

Coolidge directed the parties in the case to confer and submit a proposed notice to class members within 30 days.

Class certifications in Georgia may be appealed directly to the state Court of Appeals, said attorney Patrick O'Connor, one of several defense lawyers in the case.

O'Connor said he will appeal Coolidge's ruling, an action that could take "from a few months to as much as a year" for the appeals court to rule.

The original suit, filed by Karsman and attorneys Brent Savage and Steven Scheer, contended the defendants used their chiropractic centers to encourage incoming accident victims to use King to handle legal aspects of their accident claims.

They made no disclosure of any relationship between the defendants, the suit alleged.

The suit did not specify a damage sum.

The typical arrangement was for the patient, King and the clinic to each receive one-third of any money recovered from insurance companies, the suit contended.

In addition to Arrowhead clinics in Savannah and Brunswick and King and/or John E. King and Associates, defendants include Arrowhead Management Inc.; H. Brown Management Co.; Harry W. Brown, a chiropractor and sole owner of Arrowhead Management Inc.; and Harry W. Brown Jr.

It alleged professional negligence, fraud, negligence and breach of trust duties to the plaintiffs.

According to the suit, the defendants placed a profit motive "over and above the interest of the patient."

They also are accused of engaging in "unauthorized disclosure of private information and ... the over-utilization of chiropractic services."

For the second straight month, nervous employers got rid of jobs nationwide. In February, they sliced payrolls by 63,000, even deeper than the 22,000 cut in January, the Labor Department reported Friday.

The grim snapshot of the country's employment climate underscored the heavy toll the housing and credit debacles are taking on companies, jobseekers and the economy as a whole.

"It sounds like the recession bell is ringing for the U.S. economy, although it is still faint," said Stuart Hoffman, chief economist at PNC Financial Services Group.

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to halt sales of the only "morning-after" contraceptive pill available in the United States without a prescription.

The suit was filed against U.S. health regulators over their decision to allow non-prescription sales of Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc's Plan B pill.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Barr were sued by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and other groups seeking to overturn the FDA decision.

The pill can reduce the risk of pregnancy when taken within three days of intercourse.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the FDA's and Barr's motion to dismiss the suit, saying the plaintiffs had failed "to identify a single individual who has been harmed by Plan B's OTC (over-the-counter) availability," according to the ruling.

Backers of reproductive rights applauded the decision.

"They still don't have any evidence in terms of why they think it is harmful," said Janet Crepps, deputy director for domestic programs at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "This is the right decision for women."

Plan B was approved in 1999. The FDA broadened the approval in 2006 to allow sale to adults without a prescription.

The pills must be kept behind pharmacy counters and can be sold to girls under the age of 18 years only with a doctor's order.

The declaration by the winners of Feb. 18 elections immediately heightened expectations that the unpopular, U.S.-allied president could be on the way out. "Moment of Truth for President Musharraf," read a headline in the respected Dawn newspaper.

But the parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and another ex-premier, Nawaz Sharif, still lack the two-thirds parliamentary majority needed to impeach the president. It was also unclear exactly how they could reinstate the sacked justices.

Tariq Azim, a former minister and a Musharraf ally, predicted the victorious parties would ease their rhetoric against the president as they settle into government.

"They will have to first stabilize themselves. In the process of stabilizing themselves, they will deal with the president and maybe the long-running rift between them and the president gets a thaw," Azim told The Associated Press.

By agreeing to send their ministers to be sworn in by Musharraf, the politicians have "faced the reality that there is a president and he is not going anywhere," Azim said.

Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup and turned Pakistan into a close U.S. ally after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He has faced mounting pressure to resign since his supporters were routed in the elections last month. Bhutto and Sharif's parties finished first and second.