The 6-0 decision limits the potential liability of companies that made components of lead paint for decades and are now facing dozens of lawsuits by Milwaukee children who ingested paint chips.

The lawsuits, including about 30 that are pending, will still move forward claiming the companies failed to warn consumers of the risks and created a market for a dangerous product, said Milwaukee attorney Peter Earle, who represents the children. But the plaintiffs now cannot add claims of defective product design, which could have been easier to prove.

The case at issue involved a boy who sustained lead poisoning after ingesting paint chips while living in a Milwaukee apartment in 1998, when he was 1. The boy, now 12, suffered learning disabilities as a result, Earle said.

Writing for the majority, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said the boy and other plaintiffs cannot claim manufacturers of white lead carbonate products used as a pigment in residential paints were responsible for a design defect.

U.S. District Judge David Hittner issued an order saying he will allow the "thousands of potential victims throughout the world" to speak to the court or submit written statements before he accepts a plea agreement in the case between prosecutors and James M. Davis, the ex-chief financial officer of Houston-based Stanford Financial Group.

Davis pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday to conspiracy to commit mail, wire and securities fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to obstruct a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.

But his attorney has said the former Stanford finance chief will plead guilty to these charges during a court hearing Aug. 6.

Davis was charged last month as part of the federal government's criminal case against Stanford and executives Laura Pendergest-Holt, Gilberto Lopez and Mark Kuhrt.

James M. Davis, accused of helping financier R. Allen Stanford swindle investors in a $7 billion fraud, pleaded not guilty to criminal charges in a U.S. court and was released on bail.

Davis, 60, who was chief financial officer at Stanford Group Co., one of the companies implicated in the alleged plot, will change his plea to guilty at a hearing before U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston within the next two weeks, his lawyer said.

“We don’t have an agreed sentence,” David Finn, Davis’s attorney, said after today’s arraignment. “It’s going to be completely the judge’s call.”

Davis, who prosecutors said faces as many as 30 years in prison, was released by U.S. Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley on $500,000 bond with a $5,000 cash deposit, with his in-laws and son as co-signers. Finn entered today’s plea on Davis’s behalf, repeating his intention to change the plea after the government has time to notify victims, as required by federal law.

Stanford and four other people were indicted by a Houston federal grand jury for their roles in an alleged scheme that included the sales of certificates of deposit through Antigua- based Stanford International Bank Ltd. Stanford has denied all charges of wrongdoing.

Davis, the second-highest ranking executive in the Stanford Financial Group of Companies, was charged separately from the other defendants and waived indictment. During most of today’s proceeding, Davis rocked back and forth on his heels with his hands clasped before him, appearing somber in a black business suit. He left the courthouse holding hands with his wife, Lori, without speaking to reporters.

A fundraiser at an upstate university has sued two senior athletic department officials, accusing them of using her as a "plaything" and trying to make her ply big donors with her sexuality.

The plaintiff, Elizabeth Williams, is represented by the lawyer who won a highly publicized sexual harassment case against former New York Knicks coach Isiah Thomas two years ago.

Williams' lawsuit, filed late Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that after she took the fundraising position late last year in the Binghamton University athletic department, she "discovered that her new bosses viewed women as playthings and expected women in the department to raise money by exploiting their sexuality."

A spokeswoman for the university, which has about 15,000 undergraduate and graduate students, said it "has zero tolerance" for harassment or discrimination and was "dismayed" by the allegations against athletic department officials Jason Siegel and Chris Lewis.

NASCAR has asked an appeals court to overturn the injunction that lifted Jeremy Mayfield's indefinite suspension for a failing a random drug test.

NASCAR made its request Wednesday to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In the filing, NASCAR argues allowing Mayfield on the track presents potentially fatal consequences to other drivers, teams and fans.

The filing claims U.S. District Court Judge Graham Mullen relied on incorrect information when he lifted the suspension last week.

NASCAR has said Mayfield tested positive for methamphetamine, but the driver has denied using the illegal drug. His lawyers contend NASCAR's drug policy is flawed because it does not meet federal guidelines.

Six employees of Wall Street retail brokerage Sky Capital Holdings Ltd surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday on charges of a $140 million investment fraud and stock manipulation in the United States and Britain, officials said.

The firm's founder, President and Chief Executive Officer Ross Mandell and five others were charged in a criminal indictment announced by U.S. prosecutors and parallel civil case by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The six were charged in a two-count indictment to commit securities, wire and mail fraud for a purported scheme to defraud investors between 1998 and 2006.

Calls to phone numbers listed for the New York brokerage went unanswered or were busy.

A published overview of the company said that Sky Capital Holdings, through subsidiaries such as Sky Capital LLC, provided financial services and products for international clients. It has another subsidiary Sky Capital UK Ltd.

Until late 2006, Sky Capital's shares were traded on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.

"Investor funds were substantially used to enrich the defendants and others; to pay excessive undisclosed commissions to brokers and to pay off victims who had lost money through prior purported investment opportunities," the Office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan said in a statement.

Apart from Mandell, other principals and employees Stephen Shea, Adam Harrington, Arn Wilson, Robert Grabowski and Michael Passaro surrendered to the FBI on Wednesday morning, FBI spokesman Jim Margolin said.

They were expected to appear in Manhattan federal court later in the day.