Texas
Halliburton OKS $1.1 billion oil spill settlement
HOUSTON (AP) - Halliburton says it has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle a substantial portion of plaintiff claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The settlement, which is subject to court approval, will be paid into a trust until appeals are resolved over the next two years.
Halliburton was BP PLC's cement contractor on the drilling rig that exploded in the Gulf in April 2010, killing 11 workers and triggering the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
The deal will settle claims assigned to Halliburton as a result of BP's settlement in 2012 and punitive damages from the loss of property or commercial fishing activity resulting from the oil spill.
Pennsylvania
Groom, 2 others charged after wedding brawl
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A western Pennsylvania groom spent his wedding night in the back of a police car after allegedly harassing a waitress at the reception then resisting arrest after an altercation with the pregnant woman's boyfriend.
A criminal complaint says groom Mark Williams touched the waitress several times during the wedding cruise and tried to pour alcohol down her throat. Police say he then scuffled with the woman's boyfriend after the boat docked early Monday morning.
Williams faces charges including riot, harassment and resisting arrest. He declined comment to reporters outside court Monday.
Authorities say Williams' off-duty state trooper brother assaulted two Pittsburgh police officers who were called to the scene. A state police spokeswoman confirmed a trooper was arrested during the incident.
A third man also faces charges.
New York
NYC police boss defends response in custody death
NEW YORK (AP) - It appears police officers behaved appropriately when they put a protective body wrap on a drug user who later died in custody, New York City's police commissioner said Monday.
Ronald Singleton's death was ruled a homicide on Friday by the city medical examiner's office, which cited physical restraint by police as a factor, along with severe intoxication from the hallucinogenic drug PCP, heart disease and obesity.
Singleton, 45, was acting erratically in a taxi July 13 when police were called to the scene. Police Commissioner William Bratton said the taxi driver was "scared to death" and the officers were trying to protect Singleton from hurting himself and others. He stressed the term "homicide" is a medical definition and doesn't mean an officer did something wrong.
Singleton, who was not placed under arrest, was on his way to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation when he went into cardiac arrest, authorities said.
Prosecutors are investigating, which is standard protocol involving a police death.
Singleton's death came four days before Eric Garner died on Staten Island after an officer placed him in a chokehold. The 43-year-old asthmatic father of six could be heard on an amateur video shouting "I can't breathe!" as an officer placed him in a chokehold during an arrest on suspicion of selling untaxed cigarettes. The officer was stripped of his gun and badge after Garner's death.
The Staten Island district attorney is assembling a special grand jury next month to hear evidence in the Garner case.
New Mexico
Fed. prosecutors widen case against sheriff
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a northern New Mexico sheriff indicted for beating a motorist also made another questionable traffic stop.
Court papers filed last week say Rio Arriba County Sheriff Thomas Rodella tailgated a 52-year-old woman two months before he allegedly roughed up a driver during an off-duty traffic case.
Documents say Rodella tailgated Yvette Maes at night without his emergency lights on. When he turned on his lights and she pulled over, court papers say Rodella demanded to know why she didn't stop sooner because he was headed to an emergency.
But after Maes questioned why Rodella didn't just pass her, documents say he threatened to take her to jail.
Court papers say Rodella then left.
A lawyer for Rodella says he has not reviewed the new filing.
Ohio
Court upholds death sentence for woman's killer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of a man condemned to die for shooting a woman at a Cleveland laundry mat.
The court's 6-1 ruling came in the case of Jeremiah Jackson, convicted of killing Tracy Pickryl in 2009 at the end of a crime spree in Cleveland, Sandusky and Lorain.
The court's decision Tuesday rejected defense arguments that the judge showed bias against Jackson by holding an unsolicited hearing to determine if Jackson had a mental disability.
Justice Terrence O'Donnell, writing for the majority, said the judge wanted to ensure that Jackson, who an expert determined is not mentally disabled, received a fair trial.
Dissenting justice William O'Neill said the hearing shouldn't have been held after Jackson's attorneys chose not to raise the issue.
New York
State AG: Bank didn't lend to blacks in Buffalo
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's attorney general is accusing a mortgage lender of refusing to offer financing to African-Americans living in Buffalo.
Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday alleging that Evans Bank intentionally excluded predominantly African-American neighborhoods on the city's east side from its lending area.
In a statement, bank President David Nasca says Evans will "vigorously" defend itself against meritless accusations.
Schneiderman says the lawsuit is part of a wider investigation by his office into the illegal practice of redlining, in which a lender denies access to mortgages or charges more in certain neighborhoods based on race.
The lawsuit alleges that more than 75 percent of Buffalo's African-American population was denied access to the bank's mortgage products.
Evans Bank has 13 branches in western New York.
