"We're very pleased he came forward and accepted responsibility for his actions," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tate London.

Nickels, who smiled after the hearing and accepted hugs from well-wishers, declined to comment. He is scheduled to be sentenced before U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour on Dec. 14.

Nickels' attorney, Jeffery Robinson, said Nickels had expressed a desire to plead guilty since he was charged.

Nickels, who had worked his way up from dealer to pit boss at the Nooksack Tribe's casino, was accused of accepting $5,000 to introduce one of the ring's alleged co-conspirators to two of his friends who were dealers at the casino, according to a federal indictment unsealed in May.

Nickels was charged at that time with one count of conspiracy and four counts of theft of funds from a gaming establishment on Indian lands.

Federal prosecutors agreed to drop the four theft charges in exchange for his guilty plea on the conspiracy charge.

The mayor said in a statement that the case has proved to be "a difficult time for our family.

"Jake today is taking an important step in accepting responsibility for his actions. Although this brings us closer to resolution, it's not over. We love him and will stand by him throughout."

Yahoo yesterday asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing the Internet giant of abetting torture and abuse of pro-democracy writers in China.

Yahoo acknowledged releasing personal user information about the writers to the Chinese government, but said it had to comply with the country's lawful request and therefore cannot be held liable. Its 40-page response was filed yesterday in U.S. District Court for Northern California.

Advocacy groups view the suit as an important test case because it asks U.S. courts to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad. Internet companies such as Yahoo entering the booming Chinese market have had to alter user policies or allow censorship in order to comply with the country's laws.

The lawsuit was filed this spring by The World Organization for Human Rights USA on behalf of the imprisoned writers.

Two Chinese writers who used Yahoo's e-mail service to distribute their work are serving 10-year prison sentences. Shi Tao, a reporter and editor at Contemporary Business News in China, was arrested in November 2004 for publishing a document that the Chinese government considered a state secret and pleaded guilty. Wang Xiaoning, an author and editor of pro-democracy publications, was arrested in September 2002 and convicted for "incitement to subvert state power." Both are believed to have been abused and tortured while in custody, according to the lawsuit.

In its response, Yahoo argued that it did not "willfully" provide information about the online activities of the writers.

"Defendants cannot be expected, let alone ordered to violate another nation's laws," the company said in its filing. Chinese law requires anyone who receives a request for information as part of an investigation to comply and prohibits challenging such a request in the Chinese courts, Yahoo said in its filing.

Morton Sklar, the human rights organization's executive director, questioned whether the Chinese government's request for information was lawful. "But even if it was lawful in China, that does not take away from Yahoo's obligation to follow not just Chinese law, but U.S. law and international legal standards as well, when they do business abroad," Sklar said in a statement.

Yahoo spokeswoman Kelley Benander said in a statement that the company supported freedom of expression around the world and would continue to work with human rights organizations "on a global framework for technology companies operating in countries that restrict free expression and privacy."

"The real issue here is the plaintiffs' outrage at the behavior and laws of the Chinese government," she said. "The U.S. court system is not the forum for addressing these political concerns."

Berkley's widow, Monique Berkley, 27, and Canty's friend, Latwon Johnson, 20, also are charged with first-degree murder in Paul Berkley's death.

Investigators accused Monique Berkley of luring her husband to a park on Dec. 18, 2005, so Canty and Johnson could shoot him and the three could share money from Paul Berkley's insurance policy.

Paul Berkley had just returned from a tour of duty in the Middle East. Investigators said he had learned his wife was having an affair and told his daughter he planned to seek a divorce.

Nowak's lawyer, Don Lykkebak, is asking 9th Circuit Court Judge Marc L. Lubet to side with his client on three motions, including the request to remove the GPS monitor. Nowak was ordered to wear it on February 6 as part of her pretrial release.

Shipman also testified in court Friday and told Lubet that she was still afraid of Nowak and felt safe knowing the monitor was in place.

When Lubet asked her, "Do you want her taken off the ankle monitor?" Shipman answered, "Absolutely not."

Nowak argued that the device is expensive and she has paid more than $3,000 for it since it was put on.

Lykkebak also is asking the judge to throw out Nowak's statements to police and suppress evidence collected from her car after the alleged incident.

The monitor, which Nowak said causes abrasions and is not waterproof, is intended to keep her from traveling to Brevard County, Florida, where Shipman lives.

Asked by her lawyer if she can assure the court she won't go near Shipman, Nowak said, "I can absolutely say that I won't go to Brevard County.

"I will abide by all the court orders ... and any additional ones they wish to put on."

Under cross-examination, Nowak admitted that she could take some form of exercise and bathe herself, and find other methods for getting around the drawbacks of the device.

Nowak said she has had to pull over twice on the highway because the battery was low. When that happens, there is a buzzing vibration, then a siren goes off, she said.

Orlando police officer William Becton testified Friday that he read former astronaut Lisa Nowak her rights.

Becton, who was with the airport's investigative unit at the time of the alleged crime, said Nowak was asked before her police interview if she wanted an attorney, and she declined.

The officer said Nowak never told him she no longer wanted to talk.

NASA ended Nowak's assignment as an astronaut in March after she allegedly assaulted Shipman, who was dating Nowak's former boyfriend Navy Cmdr. Bill Oefelein.

Nowak, a captain in the U.S. Navy, allegedly drove nearly 900 miles from Houston, Texas, to Orlando -- wearing toddler diapers to cut down on the number of stops she needed to make -- in order to confront Shipman, according to an initial police report. Her lawyer has since denied that she was wearing any type of diaper.

She was arrested in the parking lot at Orlando International Airport after Shipman claimed Nowak attacked her. Airport surveillance tapes show Nowak donning a disguise while waiting for Shipman to arrive, then following her, police said.

Shipman told police that Nowak approached her car in the airport parking lot and asked her for help with a dead battery.

"I cracked my window open about two inches and told her I'd send someone to help her," Shipman said. "She said, 'Please help me,' and then started spraying something from a skinny black can into my window.'"

Police said the can held pepper spray.

Nowak pleaded not guilty March 22 to charges of attempted kidnapping with intent to inflict bodily harm, battery and burglary of a vehicle using a weapon. The trial is to begin next month.

If convicted of the February 5 incidents, Nowak could face a sentence of up to life in prison.

Police contend Nowak gave them permission to search her car, which was parked away from the airport.

From it they seized weapons and photos inside a duffel bag, a steel mallet, a 4-inch buck knife and a loaded BB gun. They also found an alleged "plan," which was written on paper and included flight information and directions.

Police said they also found a large plastic trash bag.

"Inside the bag I saw two used diapers. I asked Ms. Nowak if the diapers were used. She said that the diapers were used," an officer said. "I then asked Mrs. Nowak why she had the baby diapers. Mrs. Nowak said that she did not want to stop and use the restroom, so, she used the diapers to collect her urine."

According to the Orange County Attorney's Office, Nowak -- while in a jail cell -- explained to authorities: "I just wanted to sit there and talk to her, and she said she wouldn't talk to me and she walked away."

"My rights are mine, and I am entitled to waive them just as is any other defendant," Chapman wrote.

His lawyers argued that his wish to waive appeals showed he was not competent. But the court ruled Thursday that "our review of the record in this case ... shows that Chapman's plea was competently, knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made."

The Supreme Court ruling, written by Justice John D. Minton Jr., rejected the argument made by Chapman's defense attorneys that his guilty plea amounted to state-assisted suicide.

"Furthermore, the death penalty is not a disproportionately sentence for Chapman's heinous offenses," Minton wrote. "So Chapman's plea is not an impermissible 'suicide by court.'"

Chief Justice Joseph Lambert said Chapman's "volunteerism" played no part in his decision to uphold the death sentence.

"The wishes of a defendant, whether motivated by sincere remorse, desire to escape life imprisonment or to assert control should play no part in a death penalty determination," Lambert wrote in a concurring opinion.

Chapman admitted to killing 6-year-old Cody Sharon and 7-year-old Chelbi Sharon, and attacking their mother, Carolyn Marksberry, and their sister, Courtney Sharon. Chapman said he deserved to die for the Aug. 23, 2002 attack at Marksberry's home in Gallatin County.

The trial judge, Tony Frohlich, said at the time that he could find no legal reason not to grant Chapman's request.

Despite his request to be put to death, Chapman's court-appointed attorneys, Donna Boyce and Randall Wheeler, appealed the sentence. They argued before the Supreme Court that Frohlich shouldn't have gone along with Chapman's request for a death sentence, saying a defendant who seeks the death penalty is inherently incompetent. For that reason, the attorneys said, Chapman's guilty plea should be set aside and he should be treated for depression before a new plea hearing is held.

Chapman said in the affidavit that sending his case back to the trial court would invalidate his rights, as well as the rights of other inmates who choose to plead guilty.

The Supreme Court, in Thursday's ruling, reaffirmed that the death penalty is constitutional and that neither lethal injection nor electrocution are cruel and unusual punishments.

Despite the ruling, it could be years before an execution date is scheduled, said Allison Connelly, a University of Kentucky law professor. Defense attorneys still could appeal the case to the federal level, even asking the U.S. Supreme Court for review, she said.

Connelly said the state attorney general's office typically won't ask for an execution date until all appeals are exhausted.

The defense lawyers declined to comment, as did the attorney general's office.

Volunteering for a death sentence is not new. Since 1977, when Gary Mark Gilmore waived his appeals and was killed by firing squad in Utah, 124 inmates in 26 of the 38 states with a death penalty law have waived appeals and asked to die, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

A second Kentucky Death Row inmate, Shawn Windsor, is also attempting to expedite his own execution. Windsor pleaded guilty in 2006 to killing his wife and son. He is on Kentucky's Death Row, but Chapman's case is further along in the automatic appeals process granted in death penalty cases.

The Supreme Court on Thursday also upheld the death sentences of Leif Halvorsen and Mitchell Willoughby who were convicted in 1983 of murdering three people in a Lexington apartment, and Fred Furnish who was convicted of murdering a Kenton County woman during a burglary in 1998.

The suit is similar to one filed in 2004 by California gasoline station owners. That case was dismissed last year by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Plaintiffs' attorney Joseph M. Alioto of San Francisco said the top U.S. court rejected the former case because it sought to prove only that the three corporations agreed to fix prices. This time, Alioto said, he and his fellow attorneys will attempt to prove unfair competition laws were broken.

"All of this started at the Masters Golf Tournament," Alioto told Reuters on Wednesday. "The guy from Shell got a brainstorm while he was watching the pros hit those pebbled balls around and called the CEO of Texaco."

Heads of Shell Oil, Texaco and Saudi Refining began meeting monthly in 1996, the lawsuit says.

By late 1997, Shell and Texaco were ready to form an alliance but the Saudi representative was not, Alioto said, so Shell and Texaco in January 1998 formed Equilon to refine crude oil and to sell gasoline in 32 states, mainly in the U.S. West and Midwest.

By mid-1998, Alioto claims, the Saudis joined with Shell and Texaco and the three formed Motiva for refining crude and selling gasoline in 27 states, mainly in the U.S. Gulf Coast region and the eastern U.S.

The suit asks for class-action status. Some stations lost $10,000 or more a month because of what he alleged were practices that raised prices by cutting competition.

On Wednesday, Shell Oil representative Sarah Andreani said that Shell, Equilon and Motiva were "carefully and extensively reviewed by the (U.S.) Federal Trade Commission and by several state attorneys general prior to their formation -- and earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision that neither Shell nor the joint ventures violated any antitrust law."

In 1998, at a time when U.S. crude oil prices dipped to $10 a barrel -- they are near $70 now -- gasoline prices at Texaco and Shell stations rose.

"With inflation taken into account, in 1998, oil prices were at their lowest since The Depression," said Alioto. "Both Shell and Texaco (by their U.S. alliance) had substantially reduced their costs.

"In the face of these economic factors, they agreed to raise the prices" for gasoline, Alioto said.