Having declared that Wisconsin's divisive union law isn't really a law yet, a judge was set to return to one of the underlying questions dogging the measure — whether Republicans violated the state's open meetings law during the frenzied run-up to passage.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker's administration reluctantly suspended efforts to enact the law Thursday after Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi unexpectedly declared the measure hadn't been properly published. The move marked another round in a messy legal fight over the law, which requires most public workers to pay more for their benefits and strips away most of their collective bargaining rights.

Democrats and unions have filed three lawsuits challenging the law. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne's action has taken center stage so far; he alleges Republicans didn't provide the proper public notice when it convened a special committee to amend the plan before its passage.

Sumi earlier issued an emergency restraining order blocking the secretary of state from publishing of the bill while she considered the case, but Republicans persuaded another state office to publish it, raising questions of whether the law was in effect. Sumi settled that unequivocally with her declaration early Thursday morning: No.

The judge is scheduled to take more testimony on the open meetings allegations on Friday. It's unclear when Ozanne may rule, but any decision almost certainly will trigger a storm of appeals that could stretch to the state Supreme Court.

A lawyer for four men who claim they were molested by a priest at their Northern California parish says he has temporarily withdrawn his clients' lawsuits against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa.
Attorney Joseph George said Wednesday that he is working with a Minnesota lawyer with an international clergy abuse practice to expand the scope of the suits involving former priest Patrick Joseph McCabe.

McCabe is awaiting extradition to his native Ireland to face charges that he sexually abused young boys there in the 1970s and early '80s.

George says the Minnesota lawyer, Jeff Anderson, is traveling to Ireland this weekend to try to gather information showing that church officials in Dublin knew McCabe was a pedophile when they allowed him to transfer to St. Bernard's Parish in Eureka.

McCabe served in the parish from 1983 to 1985. He has denied abusing any children.

A Morgantown woman has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $140,000 from the law firm where she worked.

Forty-year-old Lisa Buttermore pleaded to three counts Wednesday in Monongalia County Circuit Court.

Each embezzlement charge carries a possible sentence of one to 10 years.

Assistant Prosecutor Stephen Fitz says he'll recommend five years of probation instead.

The Dominion Post reports that Buttermore also must make monthly restitution payments and forfeit money in her retirement account.

Buttermore didn't tell the court why she stole the money from Gianola, Barnum, Wigal & London between 2008 and 2010. She declined comment after the proceeding.

The Indiana Supreme Court will decide whether southern Indiana officials should be held liable for a dog that bit a 6-year-old Evansville boy.

The court heard oral arguments in the case Wednesday.

Misty Davis sued the city of Evansville on behalf of her son, Shawn. Her suit argues that animal control officials knew that the Rottweiler that attacked him was dangerous but failed to sanction its owner under the city's dangerous animal ordinance, making the attack possible

A trial judge agreed with officials' argument that they were immune, but the state Court of Appeals in August voted 2-1 to reverse that ruling.

An appeals court has thrown out a verdict that awarded $5 million to a former New York City police officer who accidentally shot himself in the knee.

Anderson Alexander had sued the city, claiming he accidentally shot himself in 2002 while leaning back in a faulty chair in Brooklyn's 73rd Precinct. He retired from the force after undergoing several surgeries.

A jury in 2008 awarded him $5 million in damages. It found the city was negligent despite testimony that nothing broke on the chair.

A Supreme Court justice declined to throw out the verdict. But last week, the Appellate Division overruled the judge, saying there was no evidence to show the city knew the chair was defective.

Alexander's lawyer, Matthew Naparty, said his client is evaluating his options.

The Supreme Court will decide whether a teacher at a church-run school is a religious or secular worker when it comes to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The high court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal from Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School of Redford, Mich.

Cheryl Perich, a teacher and commissioned minister, got sick in 2004 but tried to return to work from disability leave despite being diagnosed with narcolepsy. She taught third and fourth graders

The school said she couldn't return because they had hired a substitute for that year. They fired her after she showed up anyway and threatened to sue to get her job back.

Perich complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which sued the church.

The church wanted the case thrown out. Courts have recognized a "ministerial exception" to the ADA which prevents government involvement in the employee-employer relationship between churches and ministerial employees.

But the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati said Perich's job as a teacher was secular, not religious, so the exception blocking the lawsuit didn't count. The church wants that decision overturned.