A federal judge has ordered a one-month delay in the Enron-related May retrial of a former Merrill Lynch executive.

U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein Jr. agreed to delay Robert S. Furst's retrial to June 1 to accommodate plea negotiations. Prosecutors and defense attorneys told Werlein during a hearing Friday that they are close to a deal that would resolve the case.

Furst and two other executives were convicted in 2004 of helping push through Enron's sham sale to Merrill Lynch of three power barges moored off the Nigerian coast in 1999. The deal was struck to make the Enron energy division's earnings appear larger.

But an appeals court threw out their fraud and conspiracy convictions in 2006 after finding fault with the prosecution's legal theory.

Supreme Court justices on Tuesday sharply questioned a lower court's decision that has prohibited biotech giant Monsanto Co. from selling genetically engineered alfalfa seeds, possibly paving the way for the company to distribute the seeds for the first time since 2007.

The case has been closely watched by environmentalists and agribusiness. A federal judge in San Francisco barred the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa nationwide until the government could adequately study the crop's potential impact on organic and conventional varieties.

St. Louis-based Monsanto is arguing that the ban was too broad and was based on the assumption that their products were harmful. Opponents of the use of genetically engineered seeds say they can contaminate conventional crops, but Monsanto says such cross-pollination is unlikely.

Organic groups and farmers exporting to Europe, where genetically modified crops are unpopular, have staunchly opposed the development of such seeds.

Environmentalists are concerned with the case's effect on a federal law that requires the government to review a product's effect on the environment before approving it. The U.S. Agriculture Department earlier approved the seeds, but courts in California and Oregon said USDA did not look hard enough at whether the seeds would eventually share their genes with other crops.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is fighting to clear its name, but not in a court of law.

Goldman has hit back hard against civil fraud charges with a public relations blitz aimed at poking holes in the Securities and Exchange Commission's case and repairing the bank's reputation. Every time the SEC has punched, Goldman has quickly counterpunched.

Public relations consultants say it's too early to know if the strategy is working for Wall Street's most powerful bank. Some big Goldman clients are publicly backing the firm, yet its stock has yet to recover from the double-digit nosedive that followed the SEC lawsuit on April 16.

To help its cause, Goldman has hired Mark Fabiani, a big player in the PR world with strong ties to top Democrats. Fabiani earned the nickname "Master of Disaster" for his handling of crises during the Clinton administration. He now works as a media consultant specializing in corporate crisis management. Goldman has also brought in top corporate attorneys. And its executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, have been out in public, not hunkering down.

The damage control efforts will be on display Tuesday when Blankfein and Fabrice Tourre, the employee named in the SEC fraud charges, are questioned by a Senate subcommittee probing the bank's role in the financial crisis.

Goldman's PR campaign, which runs counter to its long history of secrecy, is a bold yet risky move. Some analysts say a poor performance on Capitol Hill could worsen the bank's image problems and make it harder for it to attract and retain lucrative clients. If the strategy fails, analysts say, it could cost Blankfein and other Goldman executives their jobs.

But the company got a boost last week when several big clients including the investment firm Blackstone Group and Ford Motor Co. said they're sticking by the bank. More support came from Warren Buffett, whose company, Berkshire Hathaway, has a big Goldman stake. Berkshire Hathaway has said Buffett isn't concerned about his investment in the bank.

Lanny J. Davis, former special counsel to President Clinton, said last week that he is organizing his own law firm, Lanny J. Davis & Associates, to market his services to other law firms and to do work for communications and political strategists on either side of the political aisle.

In a release, Davis said he will remain closely associated with his former law firm, McDermott Will & Emery, continuing to service its clients and working with its attorneys. He said the new arrangement would allow him to pursue media crisis and public policy work with a variety of firms, including prominent Republican firms. He noted that he once served as a member of President George W. Bush's privacy and civil liberties oversight board.

"In today's Washington, there is usually no clear 'red' solution or 'blue' solution -- almost always, the best solution is a 'purple' or bipartisan solution," Davis said in a statement. "Similarly, there are often no purely legal solutions to legal problems either."

Davis is well known around town, and said he will continue to contribute to the "Legal Crisis Strategies" blog that he started in 2009 with his former colleague at McDermott, attorney Eileen M. O'Connor.

An international law firm says it will bring 187 jobs to a business services center it's establishing in southwest Ohio.

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP made the announcement Monday at the Miami Valley Research Park in Kettering. The law firm with headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Boston has 1,000 lawyers in 12 cities in the United States, Europe and Asia.

The company will renovate a building to house current and new staff in finance, human resources, information technology and other areas to support the company's offices worldwide.

A grant application says the site is expected to have an annual payroll of $9.1 million.

The city anticipates about $103,000 in annual income tax revenue in the half of a 10-year-lease and $206,000 thereafter.

The Supreme Court says investors who lost millions when Merck & Co. pulled its blockbuster drug Vioxx off the market can go ahead with a lawsuit against the pharmaceutical giant.

The high court on Tuesday agreed with a federal appeals court's decision to allow a class-action securities lawsuit. The lawsuit was related to the tens of billions of dollars in shareholder value lost overnight after Merck pulled Vioxx off the market.

The U.S. Supreme Court decided Monday not to get involved in a dispute over how to prevent invasive Asian carp from making their way into the Great Lakes.

The justices turned down a new request from Michigan to consider ordering closure of Chicago-area shipping locks to prevent the fish from threatening the Great Lakes. The locks could provide a pathway to Lake Michigan for the unwanted carp.

The court had previously declined twice to order the locks closed on an emergency basis while it considered whether to hear the case. This time, the court rejected a proposal by Michigan and six other states to use a long-standing case involving water diversion from Lake Michigan as a vehicle for seeking to permanently sever a man-made linkage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin.

Michigan has led the legal fight to close the locks, arguing that the ravenous carp, weighing up to 100 pounds, could decimate the lakes' $7 billion fishing industry by starving out competitors such as salmon and walleye.