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Judge approves request to delay Bonds proceedings until August

June 23, 2011

A federal judge in San Francisco today granted prosecutors’ request to delay their decision on a possible perjury retrial for home-run champion Barry Bonds until at least late August.

Bonds, 46, is accused of lying before a grand jury in 2003 when he denied having knowingly taken steroids or human growth hormone or having received any kind of injection from his trainer, Greg Anderson.

A jury in Judge Susan Illston’s court in April convicted him of one count of obstructing justice by giving evasive testimony, but deadlocked on three perjury counts.

Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they plan to retry the former San Francisco Giants outfielder on the three perjury counts.

Bonds argued
in papers filed Wednesday that the U.S. Speedy Trial Act requires a retrial to begin by late July, if he is retried at all.

Article: MercuryNews.com

Lindsay Lohan avoids jail, but judge bans parties during house arrest

Los Angeles (CNN) — Lindsay Lohan’s failed alcohol test last week will not be held against her because of an apparent technical error by a previous judge, a Los Angeles judge ruled Thursday.

The requirements that her supervised probation include random alcohol and drug testing expired in February when she was arrested on a necklace theft charge and transferred from a Beverly Hill court to the Los Angeles airport branch, Judge Stephanie Saunter said.

“Lindsay has done nothing wrong,” defense attorney Shawn Holley said after the hearing.

The judge told Lohan she was guilty of “extremely poor judgement” by having roof parties while on home confinement, “but poor judgment is not a violation of your probation.”

Article: CNN

Supreme Court rules against Anna Nicole Smith estate

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday against Anna Nicole Smith’s estate, bringing to an apparent end a long legal battle the former Playboy model, who died in 2007, had waged to get part of the fortune left by her late Texas oil baron husband.

It marked the second time the U.S. high court has ruled in the dispute involving the former topless dancer and Texas billionaire J. Howard Marshall, whom Smith married in 1994 when she was 26 and he was 89.

The Supreme Court in 2006 gave Smith another chance to try to collect the hundreds of millions of dollars she said that her late husband had promised her before his death after 14 months of marriage.

Smith’s 4-year-old daughter and sole heir, Dannielynn Birkhead, would have benefited if the latest ruling had gone the other way.

Article: REUTERS

Hacker pleads guilty over AT&T-iPad breach

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A computer hacker pleaded guilty to helping write malicious code that allowed him to breach AT&T Inc servers and steal personal data belonging to 120,000 Apple Inc iPad subscribers, U.S. prosecutors said.

Daniel Spitler, 26, admitted to one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers and one count of identity theft at a Thursday hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton in Newark, New Jersey federal court.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, the office of U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said. Sentencing was set for September 28.

Article: REUTERS

Oil dives to 4-month low as emergency stocks unleashed

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil prices tumbled 6 percent on Thursday after the world’s biggest consumers released emergency oil reserves for the third time ever, a surprise intervention to aid the struggling global economy.

Oil briefly hit the lowest since February after the International Energy Agency said it would inject 60 million barrels of government-held stocks in the global market, immediately increasing world supply by some 2.5 percent for the next month.

The move — only the third in history — shocked traders who had been expecting the IEA to give top exporter Saudi Arabia more time to make up for the supply shortfall following OPEC’s failed meeting on June 8, when other members blocked Gulf efforts to hike output.

Article: REUTERS