During a sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Jerome Simandle also ordered Levy to repay the $25,000 in extra benefits he received as a result of the lies.

Known as the "missing mayor" because he dropped out of sight for two weeks last fall, Levy later admitted to lying about what he did in the war in order to obtain the extra veteran's benefits.

He stepped down as mayor last October, after admitting his two-week absence was to attend a clinic for treatment of substance abuse and mental health issues.

During Friday's hearing, Simandle said Levy unquestionably suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"This case is ultimately a sad case of human failure that was provoked and promoted by being asked as a 17-year-old to do some very difficult and dangerous duty on behalf of their country," Simandle said.

The judge said Levy continues to exaggerate his military service, specifically by saying he did work for a special operations unit called "the pathfinders," which set up drop zones during the war and made other combat preparations behind enemy lines.

Levy insisted he had done several missions with the unit even though he was not a member of it.

"I wasn't no hero, running around like Rambo," Levy said. "I was scared to death. I was running around with a radio on my back, doing the best I can."

But Simandle noted that officials with the Veteran's Administration interviewed commanders and members of the special unit Levy claimed to have served with, and none remembered him.

Ultimately, the judge said Levy continues having trouble determining what is real and what is not.

"What he went through was a crisis," the judge said. "He didn't come out of it well."

A federal appeals court ruling that a Christian university in Colorado can receive state scholarship money is the latest in a string of legal victories for religious schools seeking public dollars.

The most recent case involved Colorado Christian University, a college of 2,000 students in suburban Denver where most students must attend chapel weekly and sign a promise to emulate the life of Jesus and biblical teachings.

Colorado Christian faculty must sign a statement that that the Bible is the "infallible Word of God."

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled Wednesday that the state of Colorado overstepped its bounds with a system allowing students to use state scholarship dollars at some religious colleges, but not those dubbed "pervasively sectarian" — a judgment that required bureaucrats to investigate such tricky criteria as whether religion courses amounted to neutral study or proselytizing.

Colorado had allowed students to use their scholarships at Methodist and Roman Catholic universities in the state, but not at a Buddhist university or at Colorado Christian, which is nondenominational.

The ruling is the latest in a series of potentially fatal blows to three decades of legal doctrine that had distinguished between religiously connected colleges that were nonetheless in the mainstream of American higher education, and those with a religious outlook that permeates every aspect of the education they offer.

If confirmed by the Senate, Diamond, a federal district judge in eastern Pennsylvania since 2004, would fill one of two open seats on the federal appellate bench, which covers Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and the Virgin Islands.

Bush withdrew his nomination of Gene E.K. Pratter after she was opposed by some lawmakers for her conservative judicial views.

If Diamond succeeds in being elevated to the appellate court, that will leave a total of four vacancies on the Eastern District of the Pennsylvania bench.

To fill those, Bush nominated Bucks County Common Pleas Judge Mitchell Goldberg, Philadelphia Common Pleas President Judge C. Darnell Jones II, Philadelphia attorney Carolyn Short and Philadelphia criminal defense attorney Joel H. Slomsky.

Diamond, 55, is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. He went to Columbia University in the 1970s and earned his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1977.

He has worked as a former assistant district attorney, a law clerk at the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, a partner in two law firms and as an adjunct professor at Temple University's Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia.

The Tokyo High Court rejected Horie's appeal of a lower court conviction of securities laws violations. He was found guilty in March last year of masterminding a network of decoy investment funds to manipulate earnings at his Net services startup Livedoor Co.

Horie, 35, who has repeatedly said he is innocent, will take his case to the Japanese Supreme Court, his lawyer Yasuyuki Takai said after the ruling.

"We definitely cannot accept this decision," he said on nationally televised NHK news. "It is incomprehensible."

Also upheld Friday was the Tokyo District Court decision that sentenced Horie to 2-1/2 years in prison. In Japan, it is still quite rare for an executive to get a prison sentence for white collar crimes. Horie is out on bail.

At the time of the lower court ruling, the judge had said Horie and Livedoor had caused great damage to investors. The Tokyo company's false earnings reports had grave social consequences in wreaking havoc on Tokyo markets, the judge said.

The appeals court said it agreed with that ruling, arguing that Horie as chief executive played a key role in the dubious funds set up for stock swaps and other schemes to pad Livedoor books, according to Japanese media reports.

Christopher Scott Emmett, 36, was pronounced dead at 9:07 p.m. He was convicted of beating a co-worker to death with a brass lamp in 2001 so he could steal the man's money to buy crack cocaine.

Emmett's appeal was the first to require a federal appeals court to interpret a U.S. Supreme Court decision in April that upheld Kentucky's three-drug method of lethal injection and apply it to another state's procedures.

Gov. Tim Kaine declined to intervene with the sentence being carried out.

"Tell my family and friends I love them, tell the governor he just lost my vote," Emmett said in the chamber before he died. "Y'all hurry this along, I'm dying to get out of here."

The lethal injection appeared to go as planned. Emmett was pronounced dead about five minutes after he was first sedated.

His attorneys claimed that Virginia's use of lethal injection amounted to cruel and unusual punishment because of the possibility that paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs could be administered before inmates are rendered unconscious by another drug.

Unlike Kentucky, Virginia does not allow for a second dose of sodium thiopental, which results in a deep, coma-like unconsciousness, even when a second round of the other drugs is required. Virginia also administers the three drugs more quickly than Kentucky.

In 10 of the 70 lethal injections performed in Virginia before this year, a second dose of the last two drugs was given because the inmate did not die within a few minutes after the heart-stopping drug was administered, according to court papers.

Earlier this month, a divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond ruled that Virginia's protocol was similar enough to Kentucky's that it would not cause inmates excruciating pain. Emmett's attorneys had asked the full court to review the case, but justices voted 6-4 against the full hearing.

Judge Roger Gregory, writing in favor of the full court hearing Emmett's appeal, said that the Supreme Court found the sodium thiopental "essential to the humanity of Kentucky's procedure," and that Virginia did not offer safeguards comparable to those used in Kentucky to ensure that inmates didn't experience excruciating pain.

Emmett was the 102nd inmate executed in Virginia since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Only Texas has executed more prisoners.

Officer Chadd Stensgaard, who parked his patrol car illegally while making a dinner-break stop at a Japanese restaurant, must pay a $35 fine, Traffic Court Judge Terry Hannon ruled Wednesday.

The infraction came to light thanks to Eric Bryant, who was at the restaurant with friends when Stensgaard parked in a curbside no-parking zone. Bryant, an attorney, filed a citizen complaint against the officer in March.

About five minutes after the officer arrived, Bryant walked up to him and told him he was parked illegally. "He told me he was allowed to do so," Bryant testified. "I responded, 'No, you're not.' I told him he was an officer of the law. He's not supposed to break the law. He's supposed to enforce the law."

Oregon law allows emergency responders to park in no-parking zones when responding to emergencies or chasing suspects. The law says nothing about sushi.

Stensgaard testified that he needed to park his car close by in case he had to respond to an emergency call. He declined to comment after his defeat.

Portland police leaders say they plan to ask city commissioners to make it legal for officers to park in no-parking zones when ordering food or stopping for a restroom break.

Bryant, meanwhile, saw the ruling as a victory for those who don't carry a badge.

"I tried to represent the best interests of Oregonians," Bryant said. "And I believe that Oregonians believe police don't get to ignore the law."