The U.S. Supreme Court refused to insulate the drug industry from having to pay overtime to thousands of sales representatives, turning away appeals from units of Novartis AG and Merck & Co.

The companies sought to overturn a federal appeals court’s conclusion that their salespeople are covered by a federal wage- and-hour law. The decision against the Novartis unit leaves the company with claims of as much as $100 million on behalf of 2,500 past and current employees.

Drugmakers are facing a wave of suits by sales representatives for overtime pay. More than a dozen suits have been filed, including cases against Johnson & Johnson, Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. and a GlaxoSmithKline Plc unit. Drug companies have long treated sales representatives as exempt from the overtime requirements, according to court papers filed by an industry trade group.

The lower court ruling “threatens untold costs in unforeseen liability,” the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America argued in the Novartis case.

The rulings by the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came in two separate

The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that West Virginia courts aren't the place to challenge most decisions the Secondary School Activities Commission makes about high school sports, from calls on the field to the application of rules.

The SSAC's powers are clearly spelled out in state law, and as long as disputes fall within those powers, they "are not subject to judicial review," Justice Thomas McHugh said in his opinion for the court.

The ruling elaborates on a decision the court rendered last fall in a dispute over the Class AAA high school football championship game and is clearly intended to dissuade similar lawsuits.

A North Carolina woman indicted on a charge that she kidnapped a newborn from a Harlem hospital more than two decades ago is due for another court appearance in New York.

Ann Pettway is scheduled to enter a plea to a kidnapping charge during an arraignment scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Pettway has been held without bail since she was arrested last month. She was charged with kidnapping Carlina White from Harlem Hospital in August 1987. White is now 23 years old.

The FBI has said in court papers that the Raleigh, N.C., woman took the baby after her own efforts at childbearing failed.

A newly released document in a $3 million pot shipping scheme says a California woman placed several calls to check on proceeds from the scheme even after she was jailed.

The updated criminal complaint by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent released Thursday says Lisette Lee made 22 calls from Franklin County Jail in Columbus after she was arrested last June.

Most of the calls were to fellow defendant Christopher Cash, who repeatedly warned Lee to be careful what she talked about because the calls were being recorded.

The DEA complaint says Lee asked several times about paperwork, a term the DEA says is a common expression for drug proceeds.

Lee and Cash have both pleaded guilty to a scheme to fly thousands of pounds of marijuana to Ohio in suitcases.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to stop the execution of a Houston man scheduled to die for the 2002 fatal shooting of his 19-month-old son after an hours-long standoff with a police tactical squad.

Justices Tuesday rejected arguments from Timothy Wayne Adams' attorneys. The attorney contended that a 2007 Texas court ruling reducing a death sentence to life in prison for a mother convicted of killing her newborn son should apply to him as well because the cases are similar.

The court's denial came about five minutes before Adams' scheduled execution.

The 42-year-old Adams is set for lethal injection in Huntsville for the death of his son, Timothy Jr., who was shot twice at close range by his father after the police standoff at his family's apartment.

Uma Thurman's convicted stalker is trying to work out a plea deal after a Manhattan court refused to toss out or pare down charges that he flouted a court order by trying to contact her again.

A judge said Wednesday there was enough evidence to support the new contempt, stalking and other charges against Jack Jordan.

Jordan's lawyer and prosecutors say they're discussing the possibility of a plea deal but haven't reached any agreement.

Jordan was convicted in 2008 of stalking and harassing the "Pulp Fiction" actress. He was sentenced to three years' probation and told not to try to contact her for five years.

Prosecutors say he called some of Thurman's phone lines and demanded to speak to her twice in October.