The Supreme Court won't stop Utah from enacting a tax that hits only adult-oriented businesses.

The high court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from Denali, LLC, which wanted to overturn a decision by the Utah Supreme Court.

That court upheld a 2004 decision by the Utah Legislature to enact a 10 percent tax on sexually explicit businesses in an effort to pay for sex offender treatment. The tax covered everything a sexually explicitly business sold — admission, T-shirts and hamburgers included.

A group of strip clubs challenged the constitutionality of the law, saying it was overly broad and violated their First Amendment rights. But the state's Supreme Court upheld the tax.

The Utah Supreme Court ruled that the Sexually Explicit Business and Escort Services tax is not a violation of First Amendment rights.

Denali runs an exotic club featuring full frontal nudity, while another company, American Bush, Inc., wants to introduce nudity into its performances.

Other states have been waiting to see the outcome of this case before trying to enact their own taxes.

A former engineer for a New York commuter railroad has pleaded guilty to official misconduct after admitting he allowed a passenger into the control booth.

Ronald Cabrera entered the guilty plea Tuesday in Nassau County Court. He was fined $500 and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

The Long Island Rail Road fired Cabrera.

Officials say he allowed passenger William Kutsch drive a train carrying nearly 400 riders during rush hour in July 2009.

Cabrera was initially charged with reckless endangerment. His lawyer tells Newsday his client only admitted to the misconduct charge and does not concede that he let the passenger get behind the controls.

The Supreme Court will decide whether an anti-terrorism law should have been used to prosecute a jealous woman who tried to harm her husband's mistress with deadly chemicals.

The high court on Tuesday agreed to hear an appeal from Carol Anne Bond of Lansdale, Pa. She was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to trying to harm her husband's mistress, Myrlinda Haynes, with toxic chemicals that she stole from her workplace.

Bond has been in prison since her arrest in June 2007.

Prosecutors charged her with a federal chemical weapons violation, a law that Bond's lawyers said was intended to deal with rogue states and terrorists, not a woman in a love triangle. They want the court to throw out her conviction, saying Bond should have been prosecuted under state law instead of in federal court.

Bond, a laboratory technician, had stolen the chemical potassium dichromate — which is potentially deadly if ingested — from the company where she worked. Bond said she put the chemicals on Haynes' door handle and in the tailpipe of Haynes' car.

Haynes was not injured.

Bond's husband, Clifford, had a child with Haynes while married to Bond. Haynes had contacted police and postal authorities after finding the chemicals at her home.

A Pittsburgh woman has pleaded guilty to allegations she defrauded advertisers and exhibitors out of thousands of dollars with a fake bridal show in Boston.

Prosecutors are recommending a five-year prison sentence for Karen Tucker, who pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in U.S. District court in Boston. The defense is seeking a three-year prison term.

Tucker and an uncharged coconspirator allegedly posed as representatives of a business known as The Boston 411, which promoted a nonexistent home and bridal show at the Hynes Convention Center in March.

Tucker told a judge that she served in the Marines in the 1980s and has been treated for schizophrenia and a "social disorder."

Her attorney says she has taken responsibility for her actions.

State and federal agencies asked a federal judge Wednesday to approve a new cleanup schedule for the Hanford nuclear reservation, the nation's most polluted nuclear weapons site.

The motion filed by the U.S. Department of Energy and the state Department of Ecology would govern the complicated cleanup of underground storage tanks for the next four decades and allow federal courts to ensure the work is completed.

"This will ensure our continued progress as we work to meet our commitments to the state of Washington to protect the environment, the public and the Columbia River," U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

A watchdog group opposed the decree, saying it delays cleanup work for too long.

Hanford stores over 53 million gallons of radioactive and chemical waste in 177 underground tanks, many of which have leaked. The material is left over from the production of plutonium for nuclear weapons, and Hanford workers have already spent two decades on cleanup.

The new schedule envisions four more decades of work, which provides thousands of good-paying jobs in the Tri-Cities area of Richland, Kennewick and Pasco.

A California appeals court ruled Thursday that psychiatric and other confidential records of Franciscan friars accused of sex abuse should be made public.

The ruling from the 2nd District Court of Appeal is significant for clergy abuse victims who have been fighting for the public disclosure of records that the Roman Catholic church kept of abusive clergy.

The ruling arose from lawsuits filed against the Franciscan Friars of California Inc. by 25 plaintiffs alleging sexual abuse at the hands of friars.

Those plaintiffs settled for $28 million in 2006, but the settlement agreement also sought the release of records on six of the friars.

The trial judge found the social interests of protecting children from molestation outweighed the privacy rights of the friars, who then appealed the decision to make their psychiatric, medical and other records public.

An attorney representing the friars said Thursday's ruling robs the church — or any other organization dealing with children — of a way to find out if abuse is taking place without threatening the suspected abuser.

Priests or other employees who are molesting children may no longer discuss their crimes with a therapist or doctor because those records could now be made public, said Robert Howie, who represents the individual friars.