Susan Markel, chief accountant in the agency's division of enforcement, is taking a job in the corporate investigations practice of AlixPartners LLP, a business advisory firm. Markel has been at the SEC since 1994, working on the agency's inquiries into Xerox Corp., Cendant, WorldCom and Cardinal Health Inc.

The SEC has come under fire for failing to heed warnings about Wall Street money manager Bernard L. Madoff, whose alleged fraud may end up costing investors $50 billion.

The Financial Services Committee will question the SEC's internal watchdog Monday, as lawmakers try to learn why the regulatory agency failed to detect an alleged $50 billion investment fraud by Madoff.

Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme will be a case study for a planned overhaul of laws regulating financial markets, said Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., who will chair the hearing.

Witnesses include H. David Kotz, the SEC inspector general. He's already is looking into the agency's failure to uncover the fraud despite several warnings.

Kotz previously said he will examine the relationship between a former SEC attorney and Madoff's niece, who are now married.

Bell was being treated for complications due to pancreatic cancer, and suffered from kidney disease for years.

A spokesman for Bell's law firm, Les Zucke, says Bell died at 9:40 a.m. Monday. Bell's firm, King & Spalding, is based in Atlanta.

Carter's choice of Bell, a longtime friend, as attorney general was considered the most controversial of his Cabinet picks after the 1976 election.

At the time, the NAACP and other civil rights groups complained Bell, as a federal judge, didn't force Southern schools to integrate quickly enough. But Carter called Bell's civil rights record superb, and many black Georgians came forward to support him.

Attorney Timothy Wright also tells the Chicago Tribune he plans to go to court if the Senate refuses to seat Roland Burris.

Blagojevich's action has draw criticism because he faces corruption charges that accuse him of trying to profit from the appointment. He denies that.

Wright's letter was dated Friday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has said that anyone picked by Blagojevich will be turned away.

Burris also has asked the Illinois Supreme Court to force Secretary of State Jesse White to certify the appointment.

Judge James Conlogue found the boy guilty after a hearing Friday in Cochise County Superior Court in the southern Arizona town of Bisbee. The boy is not being identified because he was charged as a juvenile.

Conlogue ruled that prosecutors had proved the boy acted intentionally and with premeditation when he shot Sara Madrid, 34, eight times on Aug. 1. The shooting happened after the boy had argued with his mother over his chores.

Madrid had left the family home after the argument, and the boy got a .22-caliber pistol from her bedroom closet, waited for her to return and then repeatedly shot her, according to court testimony.

Madrid's live-in boyfriend of 10 years, Alfonso Munoz, witnessed the shooting and said the boy gave him the empty gun afterward.

Munoz, who helped raise the boy, said he had taught the child how to use the weapon for emergencies and self-defense.

The boy's lawyer, Sanford Edleman, had argued that the boy did not intend to kill his mother but only wanted to get back at her for abusing him.

U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt ruled that a batch of lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of plaintiffs against the federal government and several trailer manufacturers can't be handled as a class action because each person's claim is unique and must be examined individually.

Government tests found elevated levels of formaldehyde in many of the trailers that housed victims of Katrina and Rita after those powerful hurricanes clobbered the Gulf Coast in 2005. Formaldehyde is a preservative that can cause breathing problems and is classified as a carcinogen.

Lawyers for the storm victims accuse trailer makers of using shoddy materials and building methods in a rush to meet the government's demand for emergency housing for the displaced. The attorneys had argued that a class-action lawsuit would efficiently resolve all the cases from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama that Engelhardt is presiding over in New Orleans.

But the judge said the cases involve hundreds of trailer models made by dozens of companies and occupied by people with varying medical histories and symptoms.

"Each plaintiffs' claims and alleged injuries will require an examination of individual evidence," Engelhardt wrote in a 50-page ruling.

Tony Buzbee, one of the lead lawyers for plaintiffs, said he respects the judge's decision but hasn't ruled out an appeal.