Wisconsin has focused on the Green Bay Packers and Gov. Scott Walker for the last month, but another fight with perhaps just as much impact on the state is about to take center stage -- the state Supreme Court primary.

Justice David Prosser faces three challengers. Voters on Tuesday will choose two survivors who will face off in April's general election. The winner gets a 10-year term on the court.

The primary has played out in the background as the Packers charged to a Super Bowl title and Walker proposed doing away with state workers' unions. But the general election could ultimately tilt the ideological balance of the court for years to come.

State election officials expect about 10 percent of the state's voters will venture to the polls Tuesday.

A Maine judge has upheld a jury verdict that awarded $7.3 million in damages for emotional distress to a businessman who contended he was double-crossed by a law firm he hired.

A Cumberland County jury last summer said the Portland law firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer and Nelson worked against Peter Redman's interests in a dispute with his brother over control of the now-defunct Northern Mattress and Furniture Co. In a 37-page ruling, Superior Court Justice Thomas Humphrey denied the law firm's motion seeking a new trial.

Redman, of Old Orchard Beach, was banned from the family business' headquarters over a sexual harassment claim he contended was orchestrated by his brother to wrest control of the business. Redman said the firm failed to defend him against the accusations.

Daniel Patrick Boyd developed a following in his local Muslim community as believers learned about his time waging war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and he used that stature to tell young followers about the need for violent jihad, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Boyd has now acknowledged his involvement in supporting and plotting terrorism, pleading guilty in federal court to a pair of charges as prosecutors laid out new details of his activities. The plea provided the government with a crucial conviction against what they have described as a ringleader who guided a Raleigh-area group that sought to wage war against nonbelievers.

Prosecutors said the case illustrated the growing concern of homegrown terrorism.

"The radicalization of Muslims here in our country is a very serious threat," U.S. attorney George Holding said.

More than a half-dozen others have been charged in the case, and most of them were younger than 25 when they were indicted in July 2009, including two of Boyd's sons — Zakariya and Dylan. A trial is scheduled for September. Prosecutors said Boyd is cooperating in the case.

With his once-flowing beard shaven clean and hair slicked back, Boyd tearfully answered a judge's yes-or-no questions before finalizing his guilty plea. He smiled at a few family members in the audience. They declined to comment after the hearing, though his wife has said in the past that he was not involved in terrorism.

Court records say the supervisor of a renovation project in Des Moines' Equitable Building has agreed to plead guilty to asbestos-removal charges.

The Des Moines Register says Russell Coco's lawyer confirmed Tuesday that Coco will plead guilty to violating the Clean Air Act and conspiracy to impede and impair EPA asbestos-removal procedures.

Coco and his boss, developer Bob Knapp, are accused of illegally removing asbestos from 2005 to 2008.

The indictment says asbestos from the building was put in open bins, then dumped in a landfill. Asbestos can cause lung illnesses and cancer. Coco and Knapp were scheduled to begin trial on Feb. 28.

A state appeals court says San Francisco cannot be held responsible for the deaths of a father and two sons allegedly killed by a man who had been protected by the city's sanctuary policy.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the court ruled Monday that the city isn't liable for crimes committed by the alleged gunman, Edwin Ramos, who is a suspected illegal immigrant from El Salvador. The decision upholds a February 2010 court decision.

Police believe Ramos mistook Tony Bologna and his sons, Michael and Matthew, for gang members and then fatally shot them near their San Francisco home in June 2008.

Relatives say the victims might be alive if Ramos had been turned over to immigration authorities after earlier arrests when he was a juvenile.

A former Connecticut securities broker faces sentencing for stealing more than $1.35 million from his clients.

Gregory Buchholz of Bridgewater is scheduled to be sentenced Monday in federal court in Bridgeport. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

Prosecutors say the 45-year-old Buchholz liquidated clients' annuities and mutual funds and kept the proceeds while working at Raymond James Financial Services.

They say he forged clients' names, claimed he was reinvesting their money or told other lies to placate them.

Attorney Thomas Seigel has said Buchholz deeply regrets his actions. Seigel and prosecutors emphasized that Raymond James was not implicated, immediately fired Buchholz and is reimbursing investors.