But that strategy may also falter when the Senate votes next week on the $193 billion economic stimulus bill that has been expanded over what already was approved by the House. Both President Bush and Senate GOP leaders have warned against adding to the House-passed bill.

But as it emerged this week from the Senate Finance Committee, among the items added was a string of energy tax credits aimed at helping people lower their heating and cooling costs and give a boost to wind and solar energy industries.

The efficiency measures — including tax credits for retrofitting homes with more energy efficient windows, insulation and furnaces — expired in December. The other tax breaks are set to die out at the end of this year. The economic package would extend all of the credits to the end of 2009.

Wind and solar industry lobbyists and energy efficiency advocates have pushed for the tax extensions, which have bipartisan support, but efforts to get them into the energy bill enacted just before Christmas failed because of an unrelated dispute over taxing large oil companies.

With lawmakers facing political pressure to respond to the threats of an economic recession, the stimulus package was seen as a way to prolong the energy tax breaks.

"The stimulus package should underscore the nation's commitment to energy efficiency and alternative energy," said Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, arguing for including the tax incentives, despite GOP leaders' opposition to adding to the $161 billion House bill.

Although the energy tax provisions would be extended only to the end of 2009, if they were to continue over 10 years the cost to the government would be $5.75 billion, according to the Finance Committee.

"Investors need certainty. They won't put their money out for a wind energy facility unless there's a reasonable expectation that tax incentives will continue into the future," said Grassley.

The bill includes incentives to spur production of wind farms, biomass energy plants and investments in solar energy plants. It also includes a tax break for making the most efficient appliances and for ultra-energy efficient residential and commercial buildings.

It also would provide tax credits up to $500 to reduce the cost of installing insulation, more efficient furnaces and windows in homes. Approved by Congress in 2005, these credits expired at the end of December just as consumers faced huge increases in fuel costs for winter heating.

The efficiency tax breaks, which would be reinstated for two years, can help to "combat spiraling home energy costs that are expected to average roughly $2,200 this year," said Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, an advocacy group.

Separate provisions aimed at manufacturers and builders would extend tax credits intended to develop the next generation of energy efficient appliances including clothes washers and refrigerators, and for constructing ultra-energy efficient commercial and residential buildings.

Renewable energy industries — wind, biomass and solar — have argued that longer term tax credits are essential to provide assurance to investors in wind turbines or biomass. The bill would extend tax credits for such electricity sources through 2009.

Wind energy grew by 45 percent last year, but continued growth has been jeopardized by the uncertainties over the production tax credit, said Greg Wetstone of the American Wind Energy Association.

"Investors are reluctant to make commitments until they know what the tax policy will be next year," said Wetstone, adding that enactment of the tax extension is "pivotal for one of the fastest growing sectors of the American economy."

The solar energy industry also has argued that certainty on tax policy is key to attracting investors.

"While the solar industry will continue to press for longer extensions (of tax breaks) for commercial and residential projects, this is a win for solar energy and for our economy," said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.

In a startlingly swift resolution to the case, Gary Michael Hilton was immediately sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. The judge said she signed off on the deal because the 61-year-old likely would have died in prison anyway before the state had a chance to execute him.

Hilton was indicted Thursday morning by a specially called Dawson County grand jury that accused him of bludgeoning Meredith Emerson on Jan. 4, three days after he was seen with her on a trail in the mountains of northern Georgia.

Hilton told investigators he abducted the physically fit woman in a plan to steal cash from her bank accounts, Dawson County District Attorney Lee Darragh said.

"The sole purpose was to acquire (bank) cards and PIN numbers," Darragh said. "He mentioned at one point that he knew eventually he would take her life."

But Emerson gave him false PINs, and Hilton finally took a tire iron to her head, the prosecutor said. Hilton decapitated her to make it harder for authorities to identify the body, said John Cagle, a special agent in charge with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Authorities have said they are looking at whether Hilton had a hand in the October disappearance of an 80-year-old hiker and his 84-year-old wife in western North Carolina, and in two other killings in Florida. Cagle and Darragh declined to say what effect, if any, Hilton's plea deal might have on those investigations.

The Oregon Supreme Court for a third time has allowed a $79.5 million punitive-damages judgment against Philip Morris, an award twice struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which suggested it was excessive.

The award was for the family of Jesse Williams, a former Portland janitor who started smoking during a 1950s Army hitch and died in 1997 six months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. A jury in Portland made the award in 1999.

The Oregon Supreme Court said in Thursday's ruling that Philip Morris and the tobacco industry worked during the 1950s on a "program of disinformation" to create doubt about the dangers of smoking. Williams "learned from watching television that smoking did not cause lung cancer," but, once he came down with it, said the "cigarette people" had lied to him.

Thursday's ruling followed a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court last year to send the case back to Oregon.

The state Supreme Court was told to reconsider the award based on its decision about instructions for the trial jury that Philip Morris had proposed and the trial judge rejected.

The Oregon high court on Thursday said there were other defects in the instructions, violating Oregon law, that justified the trial judge's decision.

The Oregon court said that, for example, the instructions Philip Morris suggested would have forbidden the jury to consider the profits the tobacco company made through misconduct that was not illegal.

The Oregon Supreme court decision Thursday didn't take issue with the U.S. Supreme Court on another point it raised -- that Oregon courts couldn't allow jurors to use punitive damages to punish a defendant for harm done to anybody who wasn't part of the suit.

The instructions about punitive damages have been at the center of the legal battle over the suit brought by Williams' widow, Mayola.

Philip Morris will appeal Thursday's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, the tobacco maker said. Business groups have watched the case closely as a precedent setter for large jury awards in product liability suits.

The Oregon high court made its first decision in 2002, refusing to hear an appeal from Philip Morris.

"This compact, as it stands before you, is unconstitutional. It exceeds the governor's power," Mills told the justices. Attorneys for the governor and the tribe said Crist was only acting on existing state and federal law.

"You take the law as you find it, you interpret it to the best of your ability, and you apply it," said Christopher Kise, a lawyer representing the governor. "But that doesn't mean that you rewrote the law."

Mills also said any agreement made by the governor should be approved by the Legislature. Kise, however, says Crist was under a federal order to negotiate with the tribe. Had Crist needed approval from the Legislature to reach a deal with the tribe, those negotiations would not have been in good faith, he said.

The federal law regulating Indian gaming requires any game permitted anywhere in a state must also be allowed by Indian casinos. Broward County pari-mutuels already have Vegas-style slots, and Miami-Dade County voters decided on Tuesday that they want slots at their jai-alai fronton and horse and dog tracks.

But Mills said the compact goes too far in allowing "banked" card games, like blackjack and baccarat, and granting the tribe exclusive rights to those games.

As part of the compact, Florida has already received a $50 million payment from the tribe and is guaranteed $100 million in the first year. The state's share is set to increase to up to $150 million by the third year of the agreement, and after that will be based on revenue. Many expect the state's share to quickly add up to billions of dollars.

If the compact between the state and the tribe is invalidated by the court, the U.S. Department of Interior will give the tribe permission to move forward with the Vegas-style slots, said Barry Richard, an attorney for the tribe. The casinos wouldn't be allowed to add the card games, but then the state wouldn't be entitled to the payments or any regulation of the gaming.

Under the compact, about 800 Vegas-style just began operating Monday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Broward County. The high court has no timetable for a ruling.

A court of appeal in October ruled that a jury should determine if Brian Reid has evidence that Google routinely paid smaller bonuses and gave poorer performance reviews to older managers.

On Wednesday, the state high court said it would review that decision.

The Mountain View-based company has denied Reid's allegations but also refuses to say why he was fired. In court documents, the company said Reid was fired when the program he managed was canceled.

Reid sued Google in July 2004, five months after he lost his job as its director of operations.