Fall showdown set on gay marriage ban
DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge says he’ll hear arguments October 1 on the legality of Michigan’s ban on gay marriage and adoption by same-sex couples.
U.S. District Court Judge Bernard Friedman set the date Wednesday in what could be a ground-breaking lawsuit filed by two Detroit-area nurses who are lesbians.
Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer and three adopted children live under one roof in Hazel Park. But Michigan law bars the women from jointly adopting each other’s kids.
At the judge’s suggestion, the lawsuit was expanded last year to also challenge a 2004 constitutional amendment that recognizes marriage in Michigan as only between a man and a woman. Rowse and DeBoer say the amendment and the adoption law violate their rights.
Friedman recently turned down the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit.
Judge orders computers taken during probe to be returned
DETROIT (AP) — A judge has ordered that three computers taken during the investigation into the slaying of a suburban Detroit woman should be returned.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny made the ruling recently in the case of Robert Bashara. Officials say the computers were taken from an acquaintance of Bashara.
Jane Bashara’s body was found in her Mercedes-Benz, which was left in a Detroit alley in January 2012, a few miles from the couple’s home in Grosse Pointe Park.
Handyman Joseph Gentz pleaded guilty to strangling her, saying he did so under orders from her husband.
Robert Bashara is charged with first-degree murder.
He’s already serving up to 20 years after pleading guilty to trying to hire someone to kill Gentz.
Judge: Apple conspired to raise e-book prices
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple Inc. conspired with publishers to raise electronic book prices, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, saying the evidence left no doubt that the computer maker broke antitrust laws.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said Apple knew that no publisher could risk acting alone to try to eliminate Amazon.com’s $9.99 price for the most popular e-books so it “created a mechanism and environment that enabled them to act together in a matter of weeks to eliminate all retail price competition for their e-books.”
She said damages could be determined at a later point.
The lawsuit was filed last year against Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple and major publishers. The government previously reached settlements with five publishers.
Trial set for woman accused in cattle theft
ASHDOWN, Ark. (AP) — A trial is set this week for an Oklahoma woman accused of stealing cattle in southwest Arkansas.
Wendi Cox last week waived her right to a trial by jury.
Cox is already serving a 60-year prison sentence after she was convicted in March of stealing five rodeo team horses and equipment from Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia.
In the new case, prosecutors accuse Cox of stealing 15 heifers worth more than $10,000 from a ranch in October 2011. The animals were later sold at stockyards in Idabel, Okla.
Cox has said she’s innocent of the cattle theft charges.
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