Lawyers for Merck & Co. told the Supreme Court Monday that investors waited too late and didn't do all of the necessary investigations to sue the drug maker over whether it properly warned about the risks of its blockbuster painkiller Vioxx.

Whether the high court agrees with the drug maker will help clarify the legal standards for determining exactly when the clock starts running for the two-year window to sue a company accused of defrauding investors.

Merck wants the high court to overturn a decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that will let proceed a class-action securities lawsuit related to the tens of billions of dollars in shareholder value lost overnight after Merck pulled Vioxx off the market.

The Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based company withdrew the drug from the market on Sept. 30, 2004, because it doubled the risks of heart attack, stroke and death.

Investors had accused Merck of providing misleading information or omitting information about the risks of Vioxx. After a widely publicized study comparing Vioxx to naproxen, another pain reliever, found about five times more heart attacks in the patient group taking Vioxx, Merck officials argued repeatedly that was because naproxen protected the heart.

The Supreme Court won't revive a student's lawsuit against a school that punished her for talking about her religion during her high school graduation speech.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Erica Corder. She was punished for her 2006 speech at the Lewis-Palmer High School commencement in Monument, Colo.

School officials screened Corder's speech in advance but she changed her text, urging the audience to consider the Christian faith.

The principal made her to write a letter acknowledging the remarks were her personal views before she was given her diploma.

Corder sued, but federal courts threw out her lawsuit. Judges say the school didn't violate her rights because her remarks were school-sponsored, rather than private speech.

Former NBA All-Star Antoine Walker is promising to pay more than $900,000 to settle bad check charges with three Las Vegas casinos and avoid felony criminal charges.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson approved a deal Monday letting Walker pay almost $13,000 a month over five years.

Restitution and penalties would total $905,050, including $135,000 cash bail already posted following Walker's arrest in July at a Lake Tahoe hotel.

That would settle casino debts incurred between July 2008 and January 2009 at Caesars Palace, Planet Hollywood and the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas.

Walker wasn't in court. His lawyer, Jonathan Powell, says the 6-foot-9 Walker hopes sign with a team in the U.S. or Europe this season.

A dispute over a beach renourishment project along a 6.9-mile stretch in the Florida Panhandle has become the latest property rights case taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The question comes down to who has rights when a state adds tons of sand to a beach that is rapidly eroding away: the adjacent property owners or the government.

The state of Florida, backed by 26 other states and the nation's cities and counties, contends the new sand is public land for everyone's enjoyment.

The Florida property owners say their rights should extend until the beach touches the ocean.

The high court holds oral arguments Wednesday in Washington.

A federal court proceeding is under way in Salt Lake City to determine if the man charged in the 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart is mentally competent to stand trial.

The hearing for Brian David Mitchell started Monday in U.S. District Court and is expected to last 10 days.

A ruling from Judge Dale Kimball is not immediately expected. But the decision will direct how the case moves forward — either to a trial or toward treatment that could restore Mitchell's competency.

Federal prosecutors contend the 56-year-old former street preacher is competent.

Defense attorneys counter that Mitchell is unable to defend himself against charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor.

Smart was 14 on June 5, 2002, when she was taken from her home at knifepoint. She was found in March 2003.

Federal authorities are seizing two Rhode Island mansions and a New York City apartment from a Florida lawyer accused of masterminding a $1 billion fraud scheme.

An amended forfeiture complaint against attorney Scott Rothstein lists two adjacent multimillion-dollar homes on Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay. The complaint filed last week also lists a $6 million Manhattan apartment and a $7.2 million home in Boca Raton.

The FBI says Rothstein orchestrated a $1 billion fraud scheme involving investments in fake legal settlements.

No criminal charges have been filed, but prosecutors have moved to seize Rothstein's numerous properties, luxury cars, boats and other assets. Investors have filed lawsuits against Rothstein and others.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has ruled a Washington County man convicted of shaking his 6-month-old daughter to death must be resentenced.

Jared York was found guilty of child endangerment with bodily injury and involuntary manslaughter. He was sentenced in 2005 to the maximum on both counts for a total of 10 years in prison.

Under Iowa law, a defendant can be convicted of either a public offense or a lesser offense, but not both. The public offense in York's case was child endangerment. The court ruled it was impossible to commit the greater offense without also committing the lesser offense.

The court said the two offenses would merge and there's no clear indication the Legislature intended cumulative punishments, as were given to York.