The Michigan Supreme Court says it will decide if judges can order a sewer system when septic tanks fail and spoil a lake.

The court says Thursday it will take an appeal in a case involving Worth Township along Lake Huron in Michigan's Thumb region. State regulators want the township to install a sewer system, but an appeals court said local government isn't responsible for the problems of private property owners.

Some septic systems are failing on a five-mile stretch between M-25 and Lake Huron in Sanilac County. Waste is being discharged into Lake Huron and its tributaries.

Worth Township says it can't build a sewer system without financial help from the state.

The Supreme Court appears unlikely to rule that delinquent parents must be given a lawyer before judges can jail them for not paying child support.

Several justices said Wednesday they were troubled by the case of a South Carolina father who was repeatedly jailed even though he insisted he could not afford payments of $50 a week. But the court sounded reluctant about extending the right to a taxpayer-provided lawyer that exists in criminal cases to civil proceedings where a person faces jail time.

Justice Elena Kagan was among those who wondered whether there are procedures short of a court-appointed lawyer that would give a "person in this situation a fair shake at this."

A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an earlier ruling by three of its members that a law making it illegal to lie about being a military hero violates free speech.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision strikes down the so-called Stolen Valor Act passed by Congress in 2006.

It also vacates a judgment and fines leveled against Xavier Alvarez, of Pomona, Calif., a water district board member who said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration. Alvarez had never served in Marines or in any other branch of the armed forces, according to the court ruling.

Alvarez was indicted in 2007. He pleaded guilty on condition that he would be allowed to appeal on First Amendment grounds. He was sentenced under the Stolen Valor Act to more than 400 hours of community service at a veterans hospital and fined $5,000.

Making lies of that sort would implicate "the JDater who falsely claims he's Jewish or the dentist who assures you it won't hurt a bit," Chief Judge Alex Kozinski wrote. "Phrases such as 'I'm working late tonight, hunny,' 'I got stuck in traffic' and 'I didn't inhale' could all be made into crimes," Kozinski wrote in denying a full-court re-hearing of the case.

The Supreme Court won't get involved in a fight between Eminem's former production company and Universal Music Group over downloads of the rapper's songs and ringtones.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Universal Music Group.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said F.B.T. Productions LLC's contract entitled Eminem and his producers to a 50-50 split with Universal for recordings licensed to digital distributors such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes.

The record label had paid F.B.T. and Eminem 12 percent of sales, the agreed-upon rate for physical albums.

F.B.T. discovered Eminem in 1995 before he signed in 1998 with Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records. Universal's Interscope Records distributes Aftermath recordings.

The issue of whether a teen accused of stabbing his teacher to death in 2009 can stand trial as an adult will again be considered in court.

A hearing was scheduled Wednesday in Tyler for the youth, who's now 17. He is accused in the deadly attack on special education teacher Todd Henry in a classroom at John Tyler High School.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled last October that the question of the teen's competency for trial can't be determined until a mental health evaluation is completed.

His court-appointed attorney, Jim Huggler, declined comment Tuesday except to say the hearing involves further mental health issues stemming from the case.

The teen was returned to juvenile detention in Tyler in February after spending three months at the Vernon State Hospital.

An attorney from Kansas faces up to 10 years in federal prison over a $2.5 million Ponzi investment scam in Texas.

Prosecutors say 62-year-old Clifford Roth of Leawood, Kan., pleaded guilty in Beaumont to interstate transportation of money taken by fraud.

No sentencing date was announced Monday for Roth, who remains free on bond.

Prosecutors say Roth in November 2007 traveled to Southeast Texas and solicited investors to purchase bank holding company stock. Roth falsely claimed the money would be used to purchase an Oklahoma bank, which would then open a branch office in Beaumont.

The FBI determined that the investor funds were used for Roth's personal expenses, plus paid previous investors in the Ponzi scheme.