National Roundup

New York Wife of pharmacy suspect pleads not guilty RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) -- A New York woman accused of driving the getaway car after a pharmacy massacre has pleaded not guilty to robbery. Four people died in the Father's Day prescription drug robbery in Medford on Long Island. Melinda Brady now faces a first-degree robbery charge, which carries up to 25 years in prison if she's convicted. She had previously been charged with third-degree robbery. The judge ordered her held without bail on Tuesday. She'd been jailed on $750,000 bail since she and her husband were arrested last month. Brady said in a police statement that she and her husband, David Laffer, plotted the robbery, but she did not know the plan involved killing. Laffer faces first-degree murder charges. New York Judge hearing Google book case grows impatient NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York judge has tried to pressure Google and the book industry into deciding whether they can reach an agreement in negotiations to establish a massive online library. Federal Circuit Judge Denny Chin told lawyers for Google and authors and publishers Tuesday that if a deal isn't reached soon, he plans to decide whether offering snippets of books online can be considered a fair use of published materials. Chin made the remarks after a lawyer for authors and publishers said it was doubtful they'd know until summer's end whether a deal could be reached. The lawyers started talks after Chin rejected their earlier settlement in March, citing antitrust concerns. The judge asked both sides to meet again before him on Sept. 15. New York Student pleads guilty in Columbia Univ. drug case NEW YORK (AP) -- A Columbia University student has admitted selling cocaine as part of what authorities called a major takedown of drug dealing on the Ivy League campus in New York City. Harrison David pleaded guilty Tuesday to a drug sale charge. He's expected to get six months in jail and five years' probation at an Aug. 30 sentencing. He acknowledged selling cocaine to an undercover officer. The engineering major faced the most serious charges among five students arrested in the case. The rest have pleaded not guilty. They are asking to get drug-abuse treatment under a program that could get the charges dismissed if they succeed. Vermont Lesbian couple says resort barred them MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- A lesbian couple who say a Vermont inn refused to host their wedding reception because of the owners' anti-gay bias are now suing, alleging discrimination under the state's public accommodations law. Kate Baker and Ming Linsley, of New York, say they were turned away by the Wildflower Inn, a 24-room inn in Lyndonville, when they told the inn the wedding would have two brides but no groom. A woman who answered the telephone at the Wildflower Inn said the owners weren't taking calls on the case. The American Civil Liberties Union's Vermont chapter, which filed the suit Tuesday in Caledonia Superior Court, says the inn violated the state Fair Housing and Public Accommodations Act, which bars public accommodations from denying services to people based on sexual orientation. West Virginia Lang, WVU settle 2009 academic misconduct case MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- Former Provost Gerald Lang has settled a lawsuit against West Virginia University over academic misconduct charges he claims were wrongly filed against him after a master's degree scandal involving a former governor's daughter. Monongalia County Circuit Judge Susan Tucker dismissed Lang's 2009 case with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled. The Dominion Post reports that her order said only that the claims had been resolved by mutual agreement. Neither Lang nor WVU officials immediately commented on the terms of the settlement Tuesday. The case stems from WVU's 2007 decision to retroactively award an executive master's of business administration degree to Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch, daughter of then-Gov. Joe Manchin and a longtime friend of then-WVU President Mike Garrison. An independent investigation later revealed that Bresch hadn't earned the degree and that administrators added courses and grades to her transcript. The investigators ruled that Lang, former business school dean Steve Sears, former associate dean Cyril Logar and others "showed seriously flawed judgment." Though they concluded Bresch did nothing wrong in trying to establish whether she'd earned the degree, the ensuing scandal led to the resignation of Garrison, Lang and others. The investigators cited a failure of leadership at high levels in the administration and suggested there was pressure from Lang and "representatives of the president's office" to accommodate Bresch. After WVU's Office of Academic Integrity initiated misconduct proceedings against him, Lang sued the Board of Governors, the acting president, staff attorneys, the academic integrity officer and others, claiming they had conflicts of interest that denied him due process. Tucker agreed last December, ruling WVU had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Even if they weren't deliberate, she said, the conflicts created the appearance of impropriety. She stopped the hearing for Lang, who now works for WVU Research Corp., and allowed his case against the university to proceed. Similar claims by Sears and Logar remain alive in a separate lawsuit in U.S. District Court, accusing the university of violating their civil rights and destroying their reputations. Sears, who stepped down as dean in 2008, now works at Texas A&M International University in Laredo. Logar remains a professor of marketing. Their lawsuit contends they were coerced into awarding the degree, then hung out to dry by various members of the general counsel's office, who first participated in the decision to help Bresch, then investigated them for misconduct. Published: Wed, Jul 20, 2011