The more than $30 million Jefferson County has paid lawyers since 2006 doesn’t come close to telling the full story of how much the county has been — and continues to be — a gravy train for lawyers.

Human trafficking is an ugly crime that is happening in our backyard, Alabama and federal prosecutors said today.

Lawyers for the Alabama Democratic Party chairman filed an official objection Thursday to a Luverne man’s request for a black Jefferson County judge to step down from his lawsuit challenging President Obama’s candidacy.

Alabama’s attorney general expects the state will fare well in the upcoming trial over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but said he would still welcome a settlement provided it is “fair.”

More than 100 workers in courthouse clerks’ offices across Alabama soon could face layoffs.

An attorney for a Waldron woman who was injured during a procedure at a Fort Smith hospital asked the state Supreme Court today to strike down part of the Arkansas tort reform law.

The Arizona Legislature is considering a bill — spurred by the Florida death of Caylee Anthony — that creates a penalty for failing to report missing children. The requirements also could have been applied to the Glendale disappearance of Jhessye Shockley.

It’s already illegal in Arizona to sell or give cigarettes, cigars or tobacco to a minor.

A proposed referendum would ask voters to amend the Arizona Constitution to delete the partial immunity from arrest that is now granted to state legislators during and right before sessions.

The lawsuit over California’s approval of a controversial pesticide might hinge on a seemingly straightforward question: Did regulators ever ask themselves what would happen if they didn’t approve methyl iodide?

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. broke numerous state and federal safety laws leading up to the San Bruno gas-pipeline disaster, including failing to inspect the line for flaws after twice spiking the pipe’s gas level beyond the legal limit, state regulators said Thursday.

A Republican lawmaker who opposes shifting supervision of many felons from the state to counties voiced concern Wednesday over the arrest of a Sacramento man this week on sexual assault charges a month after he was released from state prison.

The Senate is expected to approve legislation today that would permanently ban the sale and possession of the designer drug known as “bath salts.”

There will be no bail for Jermaine Wright, who has been incarcerated on death row for nearly 20 years.

Last July, at the start of the fiscal year, the Delaware Board of Parole was in a precarious position. After an odd series of legislative events, the panel lost all state funding but managed to retain its statutory authority to decide if parole-eligible inmates should be released from prison.

The real-life impact of Gov. Rick Scott’s proposed budget cuts is hitting home as the state targets seven prisons for extinction, including all-women lockups in Broward and Hillsborough counties.

The wall separating church and state has two sides: It prevents government from underwriting religion, but it also shields religion from government interference.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an opinion Thursday that could lead the state to reject proposals for slot machines at pari-mutuel facilities outside Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

A Miami federal judge on Thursday commended Gov. Rick Scott for stepping in with a proposal to bust open a legal logjam that for two decades has hampered efforts to stem the flow of pollution into the Everglades.

Last summer, Rep. Dana Young heard about the two Bulgarian women who found hidden cameras inside their west Hillsborough apartment. The part that surprised her most: Video voyeurism is only a misdemeanor.

Gov. Rick Scott’s cost-saving measures in his budget proposal includes shutting six prisons because of a drop in the inmate population.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor will spend a week at the University of Hawaii at Manoa at the end of the month, university officials said Wednesday.

Iowa taxpayers could spend $325 an hour – more than four times the going state rate – for attorneys to defend Gov. Terry Branstad and his staff against a claim of sexual discrimination, extortion, defamation and harassment.

A Republican lawmaker has introduced a proposed state constitutional amendment that would outlaw traffic cameras used to catch speeders and red-light runners, but the proposal could run into trouble in the Senate.

Iowa’s workers’ compensation commissioner today filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging defamation, harassment, sexual discrimination and extortion after Gov. Terry Branstad cut his pay by almost $36,000 last year.

Key lawmakers said Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady made a strong case Wednesday for putting more money into the court system.

Indiana Chief Justice Randall Shepard is set to deliver his 25th and final speech to legislators on the state of the state’s court system.

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt says he wants to improve the state’s efforts to fight human trafficking.

If Kentucky wants to stop methamphetamine production in its cities and towns, it needs to start requiring a prescription for some over-the-counter cold medicines, according to several speakers at a legislative hearing Thursday on the issue.

Jefferson Family Court Judge Paula Sherlock said she sees no need to debate disclosure of records after a child dies from abuse or neglect.

Treatment for meth-related illnesses and reports of clandestine meth labs have increased since 2008, the year Kentucky began electronic tracking of the sale of a key ingredient in the drug meant to curb its use, researchers said Thursday.

Recent court filings drew back the curtain on behind-the-scenes friction between Gov. Bobby Jindal and Attorney General Buddy Caldwell over the billions of dollars that could be reaped from the BP oil spill.

The state’s highest court today confirmed a little-known judicial power to ignore prosecutors and shorten criminal sentences in plea deals if the judge believes “justice may not have been done.”

QUINCY, Mass. – One recent morning, hundreds of police officers arrived at homes in suburbs south of Boston. In less than three hours, 63 people in 15 cities and towns, in both affluent communities and working-class neighborhoods, were arrested for passing off fake prescriptions to illegally obtain oxycodone, a highly addictive painkiller, from local pharmacies. Two more were arrested later.

Gov. Paul LePage is proposing legislation to close a loophole in ethics laws that has allowed high-level state officials not to report millions in state payments to organizations run by themselves or their spouses.

State Rep. Sharon Treat says she’s joining 50 other Maine Democrats and hundreds of legislators across the country in filing a “friend of the court” brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the national health care law.

The Michigan Supreme Court sought Thursday to clarify a murky state law that allows medical marijuana under some circumstances, hearing the appeals of two people charged with drug crimes since voters approved the program in 2008.

A judge has sentenced the former political director of the Oakland County Democratic Party to probation for forging documents and fraudulently entering candidates under a third party.

The Michigan Court of Appeals lifted this afternoon a lower court order which had temporarily blocked implementation of new time limits on the receipt of state welfare benefits.

Caregivers who intentionally neglect the elderly or other vulnerable adults could face felony prosecution for the first time in Minnesota under a legislative proposal unveiled Thursday that would close what proponents say is a gaping hole in state law.

The Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in three lawsuits challenging the new boundaries for state Senate and U.S. House districts.

A state lawmaker is proposing a pilot project to help women in Missouri prisons have more contact with their children. The legislation would require the departments of corrections and social services to start a two-year test program to provide transportation for children and a caretaker to visit their mothers in prison.

The legality of last-minute clemency decisions by outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour appears to hinge on whether the recipients gave sufficient public notice of their intent to seek release. The state’s attorney-general, Jim Hood, has said there was not proper notice.

Gov. Phil Bryant supports a constitutional amendment to reduce gubernatorial clemency powers “to very narrow guidelines” on which the public would vote.

In his way out the door of the Governor’s Mansion, Haley Barbour caused a firestorm of citizen anger by pardoning more than 200 convicted felons.

We’re finally starting to get a preview of legislation that could come up during this session.

Outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour says the state parole board had already approved release of 90 percent of the some 200 convicts he pardoned. But a judge blocked 21 of the pardons, citing the state’s constitution.

Twenty-one inmates who received pardons or other reprieves from former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour remain in custody until a court battle is resolved over whether Barbour properly handled their orders to go free.

Two sisters released from a Mississippi prison last year on condition that one donate a kidney to the other were saddened and disappointed they weren’t among dozens receiving full pardons from the governor, one of the women said Thursday.

Terrance Winters of Yazoo City, Miss., voted for Haley Barbour in the past, and while he gives the ex-governor a mixed grade these days, particularly on economic matters, he’s always given Barbour points for political shrewdness.

Attorney General Jim Hood has asked the Mississippi Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Edwin Hart Turner.

When John Dedousis heard that the woman who caused his sister’s death wouldn’t serve her full sentence because she behaved well in prison, he almost laughed.

Former Gov. Haley Barbour will join a Mississippi-based law firm in addition to returning to his Washington, D.C., lobbying firm.

Some inmates expecting to be freed from prison on a gubernatorial pardon will remain behind bars, and others others already out could go back.

A judge on Wednesday blocked the pardons made by outgoing Gov. Haley Barbour, citing issues raised by Attorney General Jim Hood of possible constitutional violations.

District Judge Laurie McKinnon, who lives north of Choteau, said she is running for the Montana Supreme Court.

Opponents of a plan to relocate 68 wild bison filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to stop the transfer of the animals to two American Indian Reservations in Montana.

A district judge has upheld an eminent domain law passed by the 2011 Legislature, overruling objections from landowners who argued it was special legislation granting a Canadian company condemnation authority for a transmission line between Great Falls and Lethbridge, Alberta.

Attorneys defending new North Carolina political boundaries that favor Republicans asked a panel of judges Thursday to throw out lawsuits challenging them on grounds of racial gerrymandering, arguing while the boundaries could be different, they comply with the new rules of redistricting.

A law in effect for less than two weeks has already blocked more than 1,600 questionable purchases of products that contain the main ingredient for methamphetamine, Attorney General Roy Cooper said Thursday.

The legal fight over North Carolina’s new boundaries for General Assembly and congressional districts returns to court as attorneys for the state attempt to persuade judges that challenges to the maps should be thrown out.

The initiated measure to abolish property taxes “is the most important measure we’ve seen in North Dakota in a long time,” says state Rep. Lonny Winrich, the Grand Forks Democrat who convened a public meeting on it Wednesday.

Lincoln Sen. Colby Coash wants to change a state law that says the pension of a former Nebraska State Patrol trooper in prison for sexually assaulting a girl cannot be tapped to pay a $325,000 civil judgment against him stemming from the crime.

The New Hampshire League of Women Voters Thursday called on the state Attorney General’s Office for a full-scale prosecution of “out-of-state con artists” for allegedly falsely claiming to be recently deceased New Hampshire residents to obtain their ballots during Tuesday’s presidential primary.

Videos that show men obtaining ballots in Tuesday’s primary by using the names of deceased residents raise two central questions: Why were the names of dead voters on the rolls to begin with? And is it a crime to videotape local election officials without their knowledge?

Videos that appear to show people using the names of deceased New Hampshire residents to obtain ballots in Tuesday’s primary are being investigated by the attorney general’s office and renewing calls for photo identification to be required at the polls.

Dismissing a ruling by the state Supreme Court, the House is again demanding the state join a lawsuit opposing federal health care reform. The bill passed 211-83, not far off from last year’s vote of 267-103.

The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a court to rule on its lawsuit that would force the Secretary of State’s Office to turn over the names of foreigners who registered to vote in New Mexico.

Seven suspects have been arrested in an identity theft scheme that netted more than $1 million in products and gift cards by tapping consumer charge accounts in four states, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Thursday.

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — The state Racing and Wagering Board on Thursday said it has opened an investigation into whether the New York Racing Association has been improperly letting people bet on credit.

The addition of petit larceny to a list of crimes requiring DNA samples from convicted offenders has helped solve 51 murders, 222 sexual assaults, 117 robberies and 407 burglaries over the past 51/2 years, state authorities say. Now the Cuomo administration wants to expand the statewide DNA databank to include all misdemeanor convictions under the penal code, plus all felony convictions under other statutes such as traffic and business laws.

WASHINGTON — Ohio’s governor, attorney general and most state Republican elected officials have deep problems with the Affordable Care Act, especially its mandate that nearly all Americans must get health insurance by 2014.

A proposal to spend our criminal justice dollars in Oklahoma differently than we have for years is one that should be taken seriously by lawmakers during the 2012 session.

Oklahoma County prosecutors have turned to the state’s multicounty grand jury for help in the investigation of the homicide of an Edmond baby.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an injunction against an Oklahoma referendum banning the use of Islamic Sharia law in courts and said there’s no evidence of such influence on US courts.

Six years later, Oklahoma has yet to comply with a law Congress passed in an effort to keep closer track of sex offenders.

Unless lawmakers take action, thousands of people will continue being released from prison with no form of supervision, the state’s high violent crime rate will remain unchanged and state spending on prisons will increase by more than $250 million over the next 10 years, according to a report released Wednesday.

Katherine Heekin may not have experience as a prosecutor, but the Portland attorney points to her 17-year history of investigating fraud, pressing civil suits and providing evidence to law enforcement in criminal cases.

Oregon’s former top federal prosecutor will run for state attorney general, adding to a growing field of Democrats.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Investigators with the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office are re-interviewing current and former employees of Penn State University’s athletic department as part of the criminal case against Jerry Sandusky, a person familiar with the case said today.

Just as Watergate was not a third-rate burglary but a scandal that hinted at a connection with the highest office in the land, the alleged political work done by two Orie sisters on state time has hinted at a link with one of the highest judicial posts in Pennsylvania — the state Supreme Court seat won by their sister, Joan Orie Melvin, in 2009.

Calls for state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin to step down took on new significance on Wednesday when an appeal of the Legislature’s redistricting plan for state House and Senate seats landed in the high court.

Lawyers and experts on child abuse were among those named Tuesday to a new panel established to study Pennsylvania’s child abuse laws and propose changes.

Appeals of Pennsylvania’s legislative redistricting plan poured into the offices of the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, the filing deadline.

The judge presiding over the case against Jerry Sandusky has issued deadlines for attorneys to file their pre-trial motions.

A former U.S. representative running for Pennsylvania attorney general never took the state bar examination and has not tried a case in the state’s courts.

A Rhode Island lawmaker whose sexual-assault case has been dismissed after his accuser’s death says he expected to be exonerated. Rep. John Carnevale, D-Providence, said Thursday that he did not commit a crime and called the allegations against him false.

The high school student who sought the removal of a prayer mural from the auditorium at Cranston High School West has won her suit in federal court.

Top officials with the S.C. State Election Commission joined the call for an investigation into allegations of voter fraud after another state official estimated more than 900 people who were recorded as having voted actually were dead.

Opponents of a proposed $10 billion oil refinery urged a judge Thursday to strike down a state permit that would allow the project to be built in southeastern South Dakota.

South Dakota trails all other states in creating courts aimed at keeping drug and alcohol offenders out of prison, but work is being done to set up more of the special programs, Supreme Court Chief Justice David Gilbertson said Wednesday.

Responding to an investigation into allegations that a psychiatrist at Austin State Hospital abused eight boys in his care over two decades, the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services said Thursday that it would begin keeping its abuse investigation files for 20 years.

Cameras are everywhere, thanks to today’s cellphones.

A hotly debated Texas law that grants college tuition breaks to illegal immigrants might get some teeth this month.

The US Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to create a new constitutional rule that would have required judges to test the reliability of eyewitness testimony whenever the witness’s observations were made under suggestive circumstances.

The legal fight between the University of Virginia and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli over Cuccinelli’s inquiry into grant money used by former U.Va. climate scientist Michael Mann is in the hands of the Virginia Supreme Court.

The Virginia Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s demand for documents related to a former University of Virginia climate-change researcher’s work.

The Vermont Department of Taxes said Wednesday it has identified all parties who were able to access residents’ social security numbers inadvertently posted online.

Pierce County made national headlines last year when a convicted child pornographer was allowed to watch videos depicting child sex while he was in jail preparing for his next trial.

Lawyers hired by the Legislature who were scolded by a three-judge panel last week must pay nearly $17,500 for filing frivolous motions, according to a bill filed with the court Tuesday.

A Democratic state lawmaker circulated a resolution Wednesday calling for the ouster of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman because he presided over cases involving a law firm that had represented him without charging legal fees.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin isn’t budgeting for any state employee pay raises or new prisons next year as the state digs in to shore up a more than $300 million gap in funding for Medicaid.

The retiring clerk at the Wyoming Supreme Court had a special salute to her bosses as she called the court to order for its last session of arguments under her tenure.