The Flint Journal reports 42-year-old Thomas Frazier was jailed Thursday. Court records say he hasn't made a support payment in six years.

The newspaper says the unemployed man could be held for 90 days if he doesn't pay $27,900.

Frazier says he thinks he fathered only three of the children and that it's unrealistic for authorities to expect him to pay child support that was $3,000 a month at one point.

Frazier remains held at the Genesee County Jail. It wasn't immediately clear if he had a lawyer who could speak for him.

The court will hear arguments April 29 about whether federal oversight of election procedures should continue in 16 states, mainly in the South, with a history of preventing blacks, Hispanics and other minorities from voting.

In 2006, as Republicans sought to improve their standing with minorities in advance of congressional elections, the GOP-controlled Congress extended for 25 years the Voting Rights Act provision that says the Justice Department must approve any changes in how elections are conducted. Republican President George W. Bush signed the extension into law.

But some Republicans said the extension was not merited and that some states were being punished for their racist past. A legal challenge has made its way to the high court.

GOP Govs. Sonny Perdue of Georgia and Bob Riley of Alabama have asserted in court filings that the continued obligation of their states to get advance approval for all changes involving elections is unnecessary and expensive in view of significant progress they have made to overcome blatant and often brutal discrimination against blacks.

Perdue pointed out that President Barack Obama did better in Georgia than did Democratic nominees John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.

A Barry County judge has ruled that Michigan regulators must stop their practice of denying auto and home insurance rate filings that are based in part on credit scoring.

Friday's ruling by Circuit Judge James Fisher is a victory for the insurance industry in an ongoing dispute with the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation. But it may just be temporary because the overall case likely is headed to the Michigan Supreme Court.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration implemented rules to ban the use of credit scores in rate setting in 2005. Insurance companies sued to keep those rules from taking effect.

Insurers and regulators have been fighting in court since.

The 13th Court of Appeals ruled last week that Wackenhut Corrections Corp., now known as The GEO Group, and Warden David Forrest have to pay $42.5 million to the family of Gregorio de la Rosa Jr.

The company was accused of allowing two inmates to beat de la Rosa with padlocks stuffed in socks. He died in 2001, four days before his expected release from a facility in Raymondville.

A Willacy County jury had ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a 2006 civil judgment. The Brownsville Herald reports that the appeals court reduced the judgment because a family member had died.

Gay marriage supporters are particularly interested in the Iowa Supreme Court's ruling, which they hope will sway the California Supreme Court to overturn the ballot measure voters passed with 52 percent of the vote in November.

But opponents say the Iowa decision should have no bearing on the essential issue before the high court: Whether voters have the right to amend California's constitution at the polls.

California's Proposition 8, similar to laws in 29 other states that ban gay marriage, was the most expensive ballot measure in the nation, with $83 million poured into campaigns on either side.

The measure was introduced largely as a reaction to the California Supreme Court's decision in May to legalize same-sex unions. That ruling was extensively cited by Iowa justices in their decision released Friday.

California's highly anticipated ruling on Proposition 8 could come any time before June 3. Some 18,000 gay and lesbian couples were wed in the 4 1/2 months it was legal to do so in California.

Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, who led the challenge to Proposition 8 in oral arguments before the California court last month, was jubilant Tuesday after Vermont joined Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa as the fourth state to allow gay marriage.

The SEC made the statement in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhatan. The commission said some investors who fear otherwise want to force Madoff personally into bankruptcy court to recover assets.

The SEC said bankruptcy proceedings brought about by investors who lost billions of dollars to Madoff would create unnecessary confusion and cause costly and potentially wasteful litigation.

The commission said it believes the court should continue its order prohibiting the filing of a personal bankruptcy case against Madoff.

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed a judge to examine the Wilkes-Barre newspaper's claim that corruption was involved in the handling of the lawsuit against it by a businessman and one of his companies. The court wants the judge to recommend whether a new trial is warranted.

The court's order says the newspaper has offered new evidence suggesting irregularities in how the case was handled because of the involvement of former Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella (shiv-uh-REL'-uh) and Michael Conahan.

Ciavarella and Conahan have pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges. Prosecutors say they took kickbacks from private juvenile detention centers.