In January, 24-year-old Christina Coronado admitted she had stolen more than $30,000 from her former employer, Zimmerman Law Firm in Waco. She claimed the money was spent on her children and bills payments.

In April 2008, Coronado embezzled the money while handling the payments and deposits of the law firm. Police say when she was caught, she quit her job and claimed to be moving away.

Coronado is now on probation for the next 10 years and will be forced to pay back about $31,000.

Connecticut's Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a lawsuit that could lead to major changes in the state's education system and how it is funded.

The decision released Monday says the state constitution promises an education that prepares students for a job or higher education.

The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding had sued, saying achievement gaps between rich and poor towns showed some students are not receiving an adequate education to prepare them for jobs and adult life.

The decision could force a review of the state's 22-year-old formula for funding schools, which the group says has drastically hurt some towns and their students.

Two women who claimed they were forced to have gynecological exams and others strip-searched in city jails have settled a class-action lawsuit with the city for $33 million.

The suit was filed on behalf of people arrested on misdemeanor drug and weapons charges and strip-searched at Rikers Island and other jails.

Under the agreement, class members can receive between $1,800 and $2,900 each, depending on how many people respond. The plaintiffs who claimed they were forced into gynecological exams are entitled to $20,000 each for their alleged injury and suffering, according to the decision reached last week and finalized Monday.

The case included people arrested, but not convicted, between July 15, 1999 and Oct. 4, 2007. The court has already ruled that the practice violated the prisoners' constitutional rights.

A state appeals court says a 15-year-old boy whose Web site was flooded with anti-gay slurs and threats can sue a schoolmate who admitted posting a menacing message but described it as a joke.

In a 2-1 ruling Monday, the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said the violent language of the message - threatening to "rip out your ... heart and feed it to you" and to "pound your head in with an ice pick" - conveyed a harmful intent that is not protected by the right of free speech.

The dissenting justice, Frances Rothschild, said no one who read all the messages posted on the Web site - in which youths tried to outdo the others in outrageous insults - would interpret any of them as a serious threat.

The case is one of the first in California to examine the boundaries between free expression and so-called cyber-bullying. The court majority said a message that threatens physical harm, even if it wasn't meant to be serious, loses its First Amendment protection and can be grounds for a lawsuit.

The plaintiff, identified only as D.C., set up a Web site in 2005 to promote an entertainment career after recording an album and starring in a film. Believing - wrongly, the court said - that he was gay, some fellow students at a Los Angeles high school posted comments that mocked him, feigned sexual interest or threatened violence.

The boy's father said he withdrew D.C. from the school, at the suggestion of Los Angeles police, and moved the family to an undisclosed spot in Northern California. D.C. sued six students and their parents, claiming hate crimes, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

The ruling involved a claim by one defendant, a 16-year-old identified as R.R., that the suit interfered with his freedom of speech. In a court filing, R.R. said he didn't know D.C. personally but was offended by the Web site's self-promotional tone and "decided to add my own message to the Internet graffiti contest," posing as a parent who was so offended by D.C.'s singing that he wanted to kill him.

Six couples plus the surviving partner from a seventh filed a motion Thursday claiming the state continues to discriminate against them even though it offers civil unions to same-sex couples.

The original suit, filed in 2002, resulted in a 2006 New Jersey Supreme Court decision that came one vote short of requiring the state to legalize gay matrimony. After an effort to get lawmakers to legalize gay marriage, the effort fizzled out.

Opponents say that there's no constitutional right for gay couples to wed and that civil unions are working.

Gay marriage is legal in Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.

President Barack Obama said on Friday he expected a tough vote this weekend, but Democrats were poised to make history when the House of Representatives votes on his healthcare overhaul bill.

"Right now we are at the point where we are going to do something historic this weekend," Obama told a raucous audience at George Mason University, as Democratic congressional leaders scrambled to round up support for the plan to revamp the $2.5 trillion medical industry.

"If this vote fails, the insurance industry will continue to run amok. They will continue to deny people coverage. They will continue to deny people care. They will continue to jack up premiums 40 percent or 50 percent or 60 percent as they have in the last few weeks," he told the rally.

"That's why they're pouring millions of dollars into negative ads. That's why they're doing everything they can to kill this bill," Obama said in a fiery speech.

"The time for reform is now," he said.

After more than a year of intense debate, the House is expected to vote on Sunday on the sweeping healthcare overhaul, intended to extend insurance coverage to 32 million uninsured Americans.

The bill has faced solid Republican opposition, and Obama and his fellow Democrats were struggling to ensure enough votes from Democrats, who hold a majority of seats in both houses of Congress, to ensure its passage.

Portillo does not face imminent extradition, however. Under Guatemalan law, he must first be tried at home in a separate corruption case before facing charges abroad.

Portillo vows to appeal Wednesday's ruling, saying: "This is not finished yet."

He is charged in a New York federal court with embezzling $1.5 million in foreign donations intended to buy school library books in Guatemala. He allegedly endorsed checks drawn from a New York bank and deposited them in a Miami account.

Portillo was president from 2000 to 2004. He was arrested Jan. 26 on the U.S. extradition request. He denies the charges.