A California appeals court rejected music producer Phil Spector's bid to overturn his murder conviction on Monday, saying it was permissible for prosecutors to call a parade of women who said Spector had threatened them with guns in the past.

A three-member panel of the state 2nd District Court of Appeal affirmed Spector's conviction in a strongly worded, 81-page decision rejecting a number of claims made by defense attorney Dennis Riordan.

The judges also dismissed the contention that actress Lana Clarkson was despondent and might have killed herself with a gun at Spector's home. In making that ruling, the panel pointed to evidence from her mother that suggested Clarkson was hopeful about the future.

The panel also concluded the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence to prove "Clarkson did not die by her own hand."

In addition, the judges found there was neither judicial nor prosecutorial misconduct at the trial, and that the testimony of five women who claimed Spector threatened them with guns was properly admitted, even though some of the incidents dated back 30 years.

Spector was never charged in those instances. Still, the judges said the testimony showed a pattern of gun-related behavior.

A former Bush administration official charged with trying to kill his wife at their Connecticut home is headed toward a trial after plea negotiations with prosecutors failed.

The Connecticut Post reports the attempted murder case of John Michael Farren was put on the trial list at Stamford Superior Court on Thursday during a brief hearing. A date for jury selection wasn't set.

The 58-year-old Farren was deputy White House counsel during President George W. Bush's second term. He also served as undersecretary for international trade under Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush.

Farren has pleaded not guilty. He is accused of beating his wife with a flashlight and choking her at their New Canaan home after she served him with divorce papers. He's free on bail but under house arrest.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a new sentencing hearing for convicted police killer and death-row activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, finding for a second time that the death-penalty instructions given to the jury at his 1982 trial were potentially misleading.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told prosecutors to conduct the new sentencing hearing within six months or agree to a life sentence. Abu-Jamal's first-degree murder conviction still stands in the fatal shooting of Officer Daniel Faulkner.

District Attorney Seth Williams said he would consider mounting another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Defense lawyers for the former Black Panther, meanwhile, said the ruling addresses "an unfortunate chapter in Pennsylvania history."

"Pennsylvania long ago abandoned the confusing and misleading instructions and verdict slip that were relied on in Mr. Abu-Jamal's trial in order to prevent unfair and unjust death sentences," said Widener University law professor Judith Ritter, who argued the most recent appeal in November. "Mr. Abu-Jamal is entitled to no less constitutional protection."

A federal appeals court in New York has agreed that Connecticut school officials acted reasonably and constitutionally when they disciplined a student for an Internet posting she wrote off school grounds.

The 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan sided with Burlington, Conn., school officials. They punished Avery Doninger by preventing her from serving as class secretary as a senior.

The court said administrators at Lewis B. Mills High School acted reasonably after she made the 2007 posting criticizing administrators for canceling a popular school activity.

Doninger sued the administrators, alleging violation of free speech and equal protection rights. A lower judge also said school officials were entitled to immunity.

A lawyer has pleaded guilty to an insider trading charge in New York City, raising to 20 the number of defendants who've done so in what authorities call the largest hedge fund insider trading case ever.

Jason Goldfarb told a Manhattan federal court judge Thursday he made a "horrible mistake" by agreeing to accept money and arrange for secrets about mergers and acquisitions to be passed to a securities trader.

Goldfarb was among more than two dozen people charged. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud. Sentencing is Aug. 19.

Goldfarb's 2009 arrest came as part of the Galleon Group hedge fund prosecution.

Galleon founder Raj Rajaratnam (rahj rah-juh-RUHT'-nuhm) is on trial now. Prosecutors say the Sri Lanka-born Wall Street heavyweight used "corporate spies" to get rich off inside trades. He insists he was merely a savvy investor.

An appeals court on Friday resurrected the case against four Blackwater Worldwide guards involved in a 2007 shooting in a Baghdad public square that killed 17 Iraqi citizens.

A federal trial judge in Washington, Ricardo Urbina, threw out the case on New Year's Eve 2009 after he found the Justice Department mishandled evidence and violated the guards' constitutional rights.

But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Friday that Urbina wrongly interpreted the law. It ordered that he reconsider whether there was any tainted evidence against four of the five defendants —former Marines Evan Liberty of Rochester, N.H.; Donald Ball of West Valley City, Utah; and Dustin Heard of Knoxville, Tenn.; and Army veteran Paul Slough from Keller, Texas.

The Justice Department has dismissed charges against the fifth defendant, Nick Slatten, a former U.S. Army sergeant from Sparta, Tenn.

Blackwater security contractors were guarding U.S. diplomats when the guards opened fire in Nisoor Square, a crowded Baghdad intersection, on Sept. 16, 2007. Seventeen people were killed, including women and children, and 20 others wounded in a shooting that inflamed anti-American sentiment in Iraq.