McGlone is accused of illegally distributing human growth hormone and steroids to body builders in several states, and allegedly got some of the drugs from a Florida-based pharmaceutical company charged by New York authorities in a larger steroid case.

Prosecutors say McGlone advertised in bodybuilder publications and recommended the drugs for anti-aging and weight-loss purposes. Federal law restricts the use or distribution of human growth hormone to specified medical uses, such as wasting disease associated with AIDS.

McGlone took orders over the phone and paid two New York doctors to write prescriptions for the drugs even though they never met or examined the patients, according to prosecutors.

He made more than $860,000 through the scheme between April 2004 and August 2006, prosecutors said. Authorities seized more than $125,000 and two Dodge Vipers from McGlone, according to federal court documents.

McGlone sent the prescriptions to pharmacies, including Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Pharmacy, according to prosecutors. The company is not charged in the Rhode Island case.

One doctor pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy and illegal drug distribution charges. The other doctor had initially agreed to plead guilty, then declined to do so at a court hearing last month.

In a March ruling, the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board said Webcasters raised the current $.0012 fee Internet broadcasters must pay per stream to $.0008 for 2006, $.0011 for 2007, $.0014 for 2008, $.0018 for 2009 and $.0019 for 2010.

Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association, which represents large Internet radio stations including Yahoo, RealNetworks, Live365 and Pandora, said the court loss would force Webcasters "to make very difficult decisions about what music, if any, they are able to offer," according to the report.

Potter still holds out a possible compromise from SoundExchange, the organization collecting royalty fees. Two previous attempts, including capping the fees and freezing royalties at 1998 levels, failed.

Washington could also intervene and either set aside the Royalty Boar's ruling or cap total royalties at a percentage of their revenue.

Ruiz was condemned for the July 14, 1992, fatal shooting of 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez, killed in the garage at her home as she was getting out of her car and with her husband, Michael, and his brother, Mark, at the scene.

"I didn't think I was going to get a stay," Ruiz told prison officials. "I guess you could say I'm happy."

Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman Michelle Lyons, who described Ruiz as "genuinely at a loss for words," said the prisoner "didn't seem like he had processed it yet.

"He apparently was expecting to go. He expected his execution to be carried out," she said.

Ruiz, who had a history of alcohol and drug dependency, implicated the brothers for hiring him for what authorities said was their plan to collect more than $250,000 in Theresa's life insurance.

The Rodriguez brothers eventually agreed to a plea deal, accepting life prison terms. But Michael Rodriguez later joined Ruiz on death row as one of the notorious Texas Seven, a group of inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in 2000 and killed a Dallas-area police officer during a Christmas Eve sporting goods store holdup. He's awaiting execution and recently asked that all his appeals be dropped, but has no date for his lethal injection.

Ruiz's lawyers argued that a state-appointed lawyer in earlier appeals failed to identify Ruiz's substance abuse and poor childhood as mitigating evidence jurors should have been allowed to consider before they decided on a death sentence. A three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit court, in a 2-1 vote, said in granting the stay that it needed more time to review the case.

The Ruiz case illustrated what lawyers Morris Moon and Chris Gober contended was the state's "knowing and deliberate indifference to a system" that failed to permit a proper review of death row convictions.

The arguments focusing on what they argued was shoddy legal help during crucial initial appeals failed to convince the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year refused to review his case.

"He's got rights but nobody ever talks about the victim and her rights because she's dead," said a disappointed Yolanda Dolmolin, the slaying victim's sister. "And all that's gotten lost in the last 15 years."

She and another sister and brother were among witnesses who had been waiting for several hours to see Ruiz die.

The shooting at the Rodriguez home in San Antonio came after Ruiz made two earlier unsuccessful attempts. After shooting her once in the head with a .357-caliber Magnum pistol, he ran to a car waiting for him on the street and drove off. Mark Rodriguez already had paid him $1,000, then gave him another $1,000 after the job was finished.

Joe Ramon, now 34, who accompanied Ruiz the night of the shooting, and Robert Silva, also 34, identified as the intermediary who put the Rodriguez brothers in touch with Ruiz, also wound up with life prison sentences.

Ruiz was arrested after a telephone tip to authorities and after Theresa Rodriguez's employer, the insurance firm USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for information about her slaying.

While in the Bexar County Jail awaiting trial, authorities believe Ruiz joined the Texas Syndicate, a notorious prison gang, and was involved in several disturbances resulting in assaults on officers and other inmates.

Scheduled to die next is Lonnie Johnson, 44, set for lethal injection July 24 for the shooting deaths of two Harris County teenagers and theft of their truck almost 17 years ago.

Milberg Weiss is one of the best-known law firms that bring class actions on behalf of shareholders and customers against large companies. The firm boasts that it has recovered more than $45 billion (£22.3 billion) on behalf of clients in cases connected with financial fraud.

David Bershad, a 67-year-old former managing partner at the law firm, yesterday agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to obstruct justice and make false statements under oath. Those charges could attract a sentence of up to five years in prison. Mr Bershad has agreed to return $7.75 million, pay a $250,000 fine and cooperate with the US Attorney’s office in Los Angeles.

For the past seven years, federal prosecutors have been investigating whether Milberg Weiss, the firm, Mr Bershad and his former partner Steven Schulman took part in a scheme to pay millions of dollars in illegal kickbacks to shareholders so that they would serve as lead plaintiffs in class action fraud cases.

The prosecutors were trying to ascertain whether, once a case was settled, some of the legal fees due to the firm were paid to the lead plaintiffs. Such payments are illegal because lead plaintiffs have to represent other members of the class action and have to declare that their interests are in line with the others’.

Mr Bershad was indicted last year by a Los Angeles grand jury along with Mr Schulman for making such payments in cases where the firm was paid $216 million. Milberg Weiss and Mr Schulman, who has since retired, pleaded not guilty. The trial is to due to start in January.

In a statement, Milberg Weiss & Bershad said: “We understand David Bershad will plead guilty today to conspiracy to obstruct justice. Mr Bershad had been on a leave of absence since May 2006 and his relationship with Milberg Weiss LLP has been terminated. We remain confident that his actions will have no effect on the firm’s commitment to its clients and its ongoing work to protect public shareholders and consumers.”

Federal investigators finally got lucky in the long-running inquiry in May last year. Los Angeles prosecutors secured a guilty plea from Howard Vogel, who admitted that he and his family had received $2.5 million in illegal payments from the law firm in return for becoming lead plaintiffs in a number of class actions. Mr Vogel named four partners at Milberg Weiss and also agreed to cooperate with the investigation.

Mr Bershad had responsibility for overseeing the finances and accounting processes of Milberg Weiss, according to court papers.

City spokesman Matt Allen declined to comment, telling The Detroit News the city does not normally comment on litigation or personnel issues.

McBride, who joined the planning department in 2000, says problems started a year ago when the co-worker, who isn't identified in the lawsuit, transferred into her department.

"This employee not only wore a strong scent, but also plugged in a scented room deodorizer," the lawsuit states. "Ms. McBride was overcome by the smell almost instantly, causing her to go home sick."

The co-worker later agreed to stop using the room deodorizer, but kept using perfume, the lawsuit states.

Attorneys representing the shareholders of Tyco International Ltd. said Friday PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has agreed to pay $225 million to settle a class action lawsuit.

Tyco (nyse: TYC - news - people ) shareholders pursuing the lawsuit had claimed that as Tyco's independent auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers failed to uncover fraud in an accounting scandal at the conglomerate. Tyco's chief executive and chief financial officer were convicted in the scandal.

In May, Tyco agreed to pay nearly $3 billion to shareholders in association with the case. Investors who purchased or acquired Tyco securities from December 13, 1999 to June 7, 2002 are covered by the settlement. Calls to PricewaterhouseCoopers were not immediately returned. Shares of Tyco International rose 7 cents to close at $53.17.