A judge removed a juror from a trial in suburban Detroit after the young woman wrote on Facebook that the defendant was guilty. The problem? The trial wasn't over. Hadley Jons, of Warren just north of Detroit, could be found in contempt when she returns to the Macomb County circuit court Thursday.

Jons, 20, was a juror in a case of resisting arrest. On Aug. 11, a day off from the trial and before the prosecution finished its case, she wrote on Facebook that it was "gonna be fun to tell the defendant they're guilty."

The post was discovered by defense lawyer Saleema Sheikh's son.

Circuit Judge Diane Druzinski confronted Jons the next day and replaced her with an alternate.

"You don't know how disturbing this is," Druzinski said, according to The Macomb Daily.

A message seeking comment was left for Jons on Monday.

"I would like to see her get some jail time, nothing major, a few hours or overnight," Sheikh said. "This is the jury system. People need to know how important it is."

Sheikh's son, Jaxon Goodman, discovered the comment while checking jurors' names on the Internet. He works in his mother's law office.

Deere & Co. will sell its wind energy business to a subsidiary of Exelon for $900 million, the company said Tuesday, potentially signaling an active merger and acquisition period ahead for the power industry.

With energy prices persistently low due to a grinding economic recovery, stakes in the power industry have begun to shift.

Earlier this month, Blackstone Group paid $542.7 million to take Houston's Dynegy Inc. private. In a three-way deal, Dynegy also sold four power plants to NRG Energy Inc. for $1.36 billion in cash.

Deere said in February it was reviewing options for John Deere Renewables. It saw the wind business as an extention of its agricultural work, with projects located in rural areas.

Deere was involved in project management and financing, buying much of the hardware used in the wind projects from India's Suzlon Energy, one of the biggest suppliers in the world. Deere invested $1 billion over the past five years in the financing, development and ownership of wind energy projects.

On Tuesday, Deere said the sale will allow it to get back to what it does best, which is manufacturing farm equipment.

Wal-Mart has petitioned the US Supreme Court to reconsider a decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirming class action certification in a gender discrimination case, notes a Jurist report.

The company has asked the court to examine whether the Appeals Court's April ruling was proper under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Due Process Clause, the Seventh Amendment and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 (FRCP). Wal-Mart's position is that the class is overbroad and that the Ninth Circuit's decision is inconsistent with certification standards in multiple circuits.

Wal-Mart also contends that claims for monetary relief cannot be certified under FRCP 23, which it says only applies to claims to injunctive relief. The report states that the case was filed in 2001 by female Wal-Mart employees who contend that Wal-Mart's nationwide policies result in lower pay for women than men in comparable positions and longer waits for management promotions than men.

A mixed picture of U.S. banks emerged Tuesday as the industry posted its highest quarterly earnings in nearly three years while the number of troubled institutions grew by more than 50.

Banks overall made $21.6 billion in net income in the April-to-June quarter, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. It was the highest quarterly level since 2007 and was led by the largest institutions. The industry lost $4.4 billion in the second quarter of 2009.

But the number of banks on the FDIC's confidential "problem" list increased by 54 in the quarter -- growing to 829 from 775 in the first quarter. Most of the banks that have failed this year have been smaller or regional banks.

The decline in bank lending stemming from the financial crisis showed signs of leveling off, the data show. Total lending declined by $107.5 billion, or 1.4 percent from the first quarter. It posted the steepest drop since World War II -- 7.5 percent -- in 2009 from the year before.

Lawyers for Indian tribes are in federal court today to make a last-ditch effort to stop legislation taxing reservation cigarette sales to non-Indian customers.

This comes after a state judge yesterday refused to block New York State from enforcing a $4.35 per pack tax starting tomorrow.

Seneca Indian Nation officials had argued that the state circumvented procedures by adopting the regulations on an emergency basis.

The tax is expected to generate an estimated $200 million a year in revenues for the state.

Tribes argue the plan infringes on their sovereignty and could damage their economies.

The parents of a Cleveland boy have pleaded guilty to hog-tying and duct-taping him to a coffee table on a nightly basis for months.

Thirty-seven-year-old Andreia Huffman and 32-year-old Jason Dunikowski of Cleveland pleaded guilty Monday to a 196-count indictment. Charges include 180 kidnapping counts, child endangering and, against the mother, felonious assault.

The prosecutor has recommended a 17-year sentence for the mother and 15 years for the father.

Along with the nightly confinement, the couple admitted punishing the 8-year-old boy for six months by forcing him to stand all day facing a wall and smacking the back of his head until his nose broke.

His 15-year-old brother called police in April.

Messages seeking comment were left Monday with the couple's attorneys.

The voice of Charles Thomas O'Reilly is the last one about 140 people Texas death row inmates have heard over the past six years.

O'Reilly has been the warden of the state prison simply called the Huntsville Unit, where he presided over more lethal injections than any other warden. O'Reilly retired Monday after more than 33 years with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

He said he leaves with no reservations, no nightmares, having "always been a proponent of capital punishment."

He said that before the lethal drugs were administered, he would ask inmates if they wanted to make a statement. He said he tried to avoid using the words "last" or "final."