A powerful business group that spent millions of dollars to help elect two Wisconsin Supreme Court justices is proposing a rule that would allow them to hear its cases.

The court will consider the rule proposed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce during a public hearing Wednesday. Under the proposal, judges would not be required to step aside from cases involving groups or individuals no matter how much they spent to help their campaigns.

The rule would have immediate ramifications for two justices, Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman, who were backed by WMC when elected to the court in 2007 and 2008. The group spent an estimated $2.2 million advocating for Ziegler and $1.76 million for Gableman, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign spending.

The proposal comes as the state high court is considering whether to write specific rules for when judges must recuse themselves in cases involving campaign supporters. Current rules are silent on the issue but advise judges to step aside when a reasonable observer would question their impartiality.

An al-Qaida sleeper agent is expected in federal court in Illinois for a sentencing hearing that could have far-reaching effects.

Ali al-Marri, a 44-year-old native of Qatar, pleaded guilty in May to one count of conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

His two-day sentencing hearing begins Wednesday in Peoria.

His attorneys say the judge should consider the five years al-Marri spent locked up without charge, much of it in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina. Prosecutors have recommended 15 years behind bars.

The U.S. still holds more than 200 people without charge at Guantanamo Bay. If convicted, they also could argue that their time as detainees should be considered at sentencing.

Michigan's bipartisan State Board of Education urged Gov. Jennifer Granholm and lawmakers to find money to reduce cuts in public education and buy time for a long-term funding solution.

The 8-0 vote on Monday came after a series of blows delivered to public schools last week.

Democratic governor signed an education budget that contains a cut of $165 per student. But she also vetoed $51 million in extra funds for 39 wealthier districts and ordered another $127 per-pupil cut for all districts because of falling tax revenue.

The reductions will take effect unless more money is raised within a month.

The board heard from superintendents, former legislators and others in the public. Yet it was the testimony of three economic experts that prompted optimism that money for schools could be found if the political will existed.

The experts, who have different political backgrounds, agreed Michigan should lower its 6 percent sales tax but tax services that are exempt now — such as entertainment and landscaping, for example. Business-to-business services such as accounting and engineering would not be taxed.

A Jordanian man accused of trying to blow up a Dallas skyscraper with what he thought was a car bomb pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Monday.

Hosam Maher Smadi, 19, told the judge "I'm not guilty on both counts" before she formally asked for his plea on one count of attempting to use of a weapon of mass destruction and one count of bombing a public place.

U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn set a trial date of Dec. 7. But Smadi's court-appointed attorneys said they plan to ask that the trial begin sometime after March.

During the hearing, a court interpreter stood next to Smadi, speaking softly in Arabic. The teenager told the judge he studied English while attending a Baptist school in Jordan and understood some of what was said in court. Smadi, who wore an orange prison-issued jumpsuit, also said he had an 11th-grade education.

Authorities arrested Smadi on Sept. 24 after he allegedly parked a truck in a garage beneath the 60-story Fountain Place office building in downtown Dallas. Once he was at a safe distance, Smadi dialed a cell phone he thought would ignite a bomb in the vehicle — but the device was actually a decoy provided by FBI agents posing as al-Qaida operatives, according to the FBI.

The FBI says it had been keeping tabs on Smadi after discovering him on an extremist Web site earlier this year. Investigators have said the teenager acted alone and was not affiliated with any terrorist organizations.

China Mobile Communications Corp., owner of the world’s biggest phone company by subscribers, settled a lawsuit filed by a customer alleging the carrier abused its market position to charge users fees.

Zhou Ze, a lawyer with the Beijing Wentian Law Firm who sued China Mobile under the nation’s new anti-monopoly law, said today the company agreed to pay him 1,000 yuan ($146). He had originally asked for 1,200 yuan for the two years worth of 50 yuan monthly fees he was charged.

China Mobile’s lawyer, Xue Junfu, of the Beijing Jinde Law Firm said the payment was acknowledging the company’s gratitude for Zhou’s suggestions, not a reimbursement. The settlement agreement and Zhou’s withdrawal of his lawsuit was announced by Beijing’s No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court Oct. 23.

Rainie Lei, Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for China Mobile Ltd., the company’s mobile-phone unit, declined to comment on the case.

China Mobile, which had 508.4 million subscribers at the end of September, cut call fees and raised handset subsidies to attract 15.24 million users in the third quarter as it expands in lower-income rural areas to fend off mounting competition from China Telecom Corp. and China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.

In a separate case on Oct. 23, Shanghai’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court dismissed an abuse of dominance case filed by Beijing Sursen Electronic Technology Co. Ltd. against Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. and Shanghai Xuanting Entertainment Information Technology Ltd., according to London-based law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.

An appeals court has upheld the conviction of British lawyer David Mills for accepting a bribe to lie in court to protect Silvio Berlusconi.

The decision Tuesday is a potential embarrassment for the Italian premier, whose trial in the same corruption case is expected to restart soon following an Italian high court's ruling that a law granting immunity to Italy's highest public officials is unconstitutional.

A lower court found Mills guilty of corruption in May and sentenced him to 4 1/2 years.

The judges ruled that Mills received $600,000 to give false testimony in two 1990s trials to shield Berlusconi and his Fininvest holding company from charges relating to the purchase of U.S. film rights.

A man who sneaked a bag of his feces into a San Diego courtroom during his home-invasion robbery trial, smeared it on his lawyer and threw it at jurors has been sentenced to 31 years in prison.

Superior Court Judge Frank Brown on Monday sentenced Weusi McGowan for robbery, burglary and two assault charges stemming from the feces-flinging incident during his January trial.

McGowan, who attorneys say suffers from mental illness, had asked for a mistrial because he believed jurors had seen him in restraints when he entered the courtroom.

Several days after his request was denied, McGowan pulled out a bag of excrement he had hidden in his clothing, rubbed it on his lawyer and tossed it at the jury, hitting one juror's computer case.