An Iowa couple cannot have access to their adult child's physical and mental health records after being denied visitation with their grandson, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The court issued its ruling in the Plymouth County case between Jerry and Susan Ashenfelter and their daughter, Amy Mulligan. The Ashenfelters sought their daughter's records after she decided it was in her 6-year-old son's best interest not to have contact with them.

A district court ordered Mulligan to produce her physical and mental health records to her parents, because the Ashenfelters had to prove their daughter was unfit to make a decision regarding grandparent visitation.

Mulligan appealed and the Supreme Court reversed the district court's decision, deciding that the records were protected by Mulligan's constitutional right to privacy.

"The district court abused its discretion in ordering Amy to produce her medical and mental health records to the Ashenfelters," the court wrote.

The high court's ruling refers to the Ashenfelters' request for a 2008 commitment court file, notes, records and reports from counseling sessions at a sexual assault and domestic violence center but does not elaborate. But no commitment file existed because Mulligan was hospitalized voluntarily, the court said.

The city's campaign to scare smokers with grotesque images of decaying teeth or a diseased lung wherever tobacco products are sold was struck down Wednesday by a federal judge who concluded that only the federal government can dictate warnings that must accompany the promotion of cigarettes.

U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff handed a victory to the nation's three largest tobacco manufacturers and the retailers who sell their products when he ruled on the legality of a 2009 city Board of Health code change requiring the display of smoking cessation signs where tobacco products are sold.

"Even merchants of morbidity are entitled to the full protection of the law, for our sake as well as theirs," Rakoff said. He released the written decision just days before an agreement among the parties to delay enforcement of the rule was to expire on Saturday.

He said the federal Labeling Act, first enacted in 1965, sought to balance public and commercial interests with a comprehensive federal program to deal with cigarette labeling and advertising. He said it was created in part to prevent "diverse, nonuniform and confusing cigarette labeling and advertising regulations." Part of the law dictated that no state law could impose a requirement or prohibition with respect to advertising or promotion of cigarettes, he noted.

The University of Georgia is hosting a screening of a documentary about the lawyer who helped the first two black students gain admission in the early 1960s.

"Donald L. Hollowell: Foot Soldier for Equal Justice" will premiere Jan. 10 at 8 p.m. in Masters Hall at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel. Hollowell was lead counsel in the landmark case that saw Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Hamilton Holmes become students at UGA five decades ago.

The documentary was produced by two UGA faculty members and administrators. It is narrated by Hunter-Gault, who graduated from UGA in 1963 and went on to become an award-winning journalist.

The screening is one of the opening events for UGA's celebration honoring the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of the campus.

A new state law that will take effect on New Year's Day requires pet stores to give potential buyers the details of every animal's health history.

The Illinois Department of Agriculture says the new law will require that stores provide an animal's vaccination history and other details about its health. Stores also will have to disclose the name of the breeder as well as the animal's date of birth, breed and other details.

The department says stores now must disclose such information only if it is requested and sometimes don't provide it until a sale is final.

The law makes allowances for animal shelters and animal control facilities that often don't know an animal's history.

A Corpus Christi-area man has pleaded guilty to two weapons charges and will forfeit a grenade launcher and more than 11,000 rounds of ammunition.

Jeremy Charles Davenport of Odem will be sentenced March 9, 2011, and faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.

Davenport on Tuesday pleaded guilty to being in possession of an improvised explosive device when he was arrested Sept. 29 by Corpus Christi police in a domestic disturbance investigation. Davenport also pleaded guilty to being a drug user in possession of 19 firearms, including a machine gun.

Federal law bars the possession of firearms while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance. Davenport, who says he was using cocaine at the time of the incident, remains in custody.

The U.S. Justice Department is reportedly considering whether to file espionage charges against the WikiLeaks Web site and its founder Julian Assange. The case has raised broad legal questions about how the government will protect the freedom of information and an open Internet, while also protecting privacy and national security.

It has been a big year for Internet freedom in the United States. In January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made freedom of expression on the Web a top foreign policy concern.

"This freedom is no longer defined solely by whether citizens can go into the town square and criticize their government without fear of retribution," Clinton said. "Blogs, emails, social networks, and text messages have opened up new forums for exchanging ideas, and created new targets for censorship."