A former New Hampshire high school teacher has pleaded guilty to a charge she e-mailed nude photographs of herself to a 15-year-old student.

Forty-one-year-old Melinda Dennehy of Hampstead entered the plea Monday to a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

As part of a plea agreement, Dennehy was given a suspended jail sentence on the condition that she remain on good behavior and have no contact with the child or go to the high school.

In court, Dennehy apologized for her actions and poor judgment. She told the court she's continuing counseling and hopes to lead a productive life.

Dennehy was arrested in March after the photos were found circulating around the high school. She resigned three weeks later.

A South Texas man accused of beheading his common-law wife's three children was found guilty of capital murder Monday at his second trial.

A state appeals court had overturned John Allen Rubio's previous conviction and death sentence in 2007, saying the children's mother had wrongly been allowed to testify. A second jury deliberated for about three hours before convicting him again.

Rubio, 29, of Brownsville, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and his defense attorneys had argued that the sheer brutality of the crime showed he was not in his right mind. Defense attorney Nat Perez described it during his closing argument as "overkill."

Evidence showed Rubio made increasingly ferocious attempts to kill the children, strangling and stabbing them, then finally cutting off their heads. Rubio initially said he killed the children, all under age 4, because they were possessed.

Police discovered the bodies of 3-year-old Julissa Quesada, 14-month-old John E. Rubio and 2-month-old Mary Jane Rubio on March 11, 2003, in a squalid Brownsville apartment.

Rubio was convicted on four counts of capital murder. Each death was covered by one count, and the fourth count included all of them.

The trial will now move to a punishment phase, in which prosecutors plan to again seek the death penalty.

A federal appeals court in Virginia has reversed a judge's ruling requiring the nation's largest public utility to promptly install upgraded emission controls at four coal-fired power plants.

Three of the Tennessee Valley Authority plants are in Tennessee, and the other is in Alabama.

U.S. District Judge Lacy Thornburg had ordered the accelerated cleanup at the TVA plants, ruling that emissions affecting air quality in North Carolina's scenic western mountains were a "public nuisance."

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond overturned that ruling Monday. Appeals court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote that allowing the ruling to stand would undermine the nation's carefully created regulatory scheme.

US Airways has asked a federal judge to resolve a seniority dispute involving its pilots.

Executives with the Tempe, Ariz.-based carrier said Monday's legal action in U.S. District Court in Phoenix is called a complaint for declaratory relief. They say the dispute has significantly stalled efforts to negotiate a joint contract covering the 4,000 pilots joined together by the merger of America West and US Airways five years ago.

The airline's pilots union says it will vigorously oppose the company's move. The US Airline Pilots Association says the court has no jurisdiction in labor contract negotiations.

Seniority is important to pilots and flight attendants because it dictates their schedules, pay, vacations and promotions.

A lawyer was accused of burglarizing the home of a client who filed a complaint against him with the Florida Bar. Albert Ford II was being held on charges of burglary to a structure causing damage, grand theft, criminal mischief and burglary to an occupied dwelling. The 43-year-old Longwood environmental and land use lawyer was arrested Thursday. He has his first court appearance Friday afternoon.

A person who answered the phone at Ford's law office declined to comment.

Lake Mary police said Ford went to the client's home, threw something into the pool and removed a tank and filter near the pool. He also took a flag from the front of the house.

A former New Hampshire high school teacher charged with e-mailing nude photographs of herself to a 15-year-old student faces a court hearing.

Forty-one-year-old Melinda Dennehy of Hampstead is scheduled to appear Monday in Derry District Court on a felony charge of indecent exposure. She was arrested in March after the photos were found circulating around Londonderry High School. She resigned three weeks later.

Police also allege Dennehy also text-messaged the student, offering sex.

Many Americans could be hit with a big tax increase in the next two or three years despite President Barack Obama's repeated promises to shield the middle class from higher rates.

Democrats are hedging about making Obama's pledge stick for more than a year or two, setting up a major battle on a super-sensitive subject just before the November elections.

With the most sweeping tax cuts in a generation due to expire in January, the Democrats are divided over whether the government can afford to make any of them permanent — especially with voters increasingly upset over the fast-rising federal budget deficit.

Party lines are clear on part of the issue: Most Republicans want to permanently extend all the tax cuts enacted during George W. Bush's presidency, nearly $3 trillion worth over the next decade. Democratic leaders want to let the cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire.

The Democrats want to extend them for everyone else, but perhaps only temporarily, out of concern for the rising red ink. That's where Democratic lawmakers are struggling to find agreement.