Georgia is poised to become the first state in the nation to execute an inmate since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in September to review Kentucky inmates' claims that lethal injection is unconstitutional. The court ruled last month that Kentucky's method of executing inmates, also used by about three dozen other states, is constitutional.

The last execution in the U.S. was Michael Richard of Texas on Sept. 25, 2007.

These are some of the executions that have been scheduled since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month:

GEORGIA: William Earl Lynd, 53, scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Tuesday. He was convicted of kidnapping and killing his live-in girlfriend, 26-year-old Ginger Moore, and shooting her three times in the face and head nearly 20 years ago.

MISSISSIPPI: Earl Wesley Berry, 49, on May 21, for the 1987 slaying of Mary Bounds. Berry was convicted of kidnapping Bounds from the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Houston, Miss., and beating her to death.

OKLAHOMA: Terry Lyn Short, 47, on June 17, for throwing a homemade explosive into an Oklahoma City apartment building in 1995, resulting in the death of 22-year-old Ken Yamamoto.

TEXAS: Jose Medellin, 33, on Aug. 5, for his participation in the gang rape and strangulation deaths of two teenage girls 15 years ago in Houston.

Jim and Dina Matos McGreevey's divorce trial, which starts Tuesday, means the end of their 3 1/2-year separation that has lasted nearly as long as their marriage.

The trial will feature the usual squabbles — the ex-governor wants equal custody of their 6-year-old daughter, and alimony and child support are at issue as well. But the proceedings figure to be particularly salacious because of the question everybody has asked at least once: Did she know he was gay?

Matos McGreevey, 41, claims she was duped into marriage by a closeted gay man who needed the cover of a wife to advance his political career. McGreevey says he gave her a child and the coattails she rode to the governor's mansion, thus fulfilling the marriage contract.

Matos McGreevey seeks $600,000 as compensation for the time she would have lived at the governor's mansion in Princeton had her soon-to-be-ex not resigned in disgrace. Perks enjoyed by a sitting governor's spouse include household servants, access to a state police helicopter and a state-owned beach house.

The gay former governor and his estranged wife will sit at adjacent legal tables, fewer than 5 feet apart, in the Union County Courthouse in Elizabeth as their high-priced lawyers lay bare the pair's sex lives and finances. Only issues concerning custody of their kindergartner are expected to be decided away from the glare of tabloid reporters and Court TV.

Shares in the Silicon Valley group sank more than 16 percent in late morning trade, while Microsoft saw a rally of more than two percent.

On Saturday, Microsoft yanked its proposal, saying the struggling Internet pioneer refused to budge despite the software giant upping its offer to nearly 50 billion dollars.

Talks aimed at resolving corporate dueling that began with Microsoft's offer on February 1 to buy Yahoo for 31 dollars per share ended with the two firms unable to close a multibillion-dollar gap in price expectations.

Jeffrey Ham, analyst at Briefing.com, said Yahoo shares were under pressure "as confounded investors try to assess the company's muddled future."

Ham added: "Without a merger or distinct strategic alternatives, Yahoo will most likely continue to lag a more innovative and faster growing Google."

Yahoo chief executive Jerry Yang said the company can move forward without the distraction of a takeover bid.

"With Microsoft's withdrawal, we'll be better able to focus our energy on growing our industry leadership and maximizing value for stockholders," Yang said in a blog on Yahoo's website.

Robert Stevens died Oct. 5, 2001 after being exposed to the deadly substance. It was in an envelope mailed to the offices of American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, Sun and Globe newspapers.

His wife sued the federal government and a private laboratory, claiming they both had a duty to protect the public from anthrax. The court is hearing arguments on Monday in the case.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles convened Monday to hear the case of William Earl Lynd, who is scheduled to die Tuesday for fatally shooting his live-in girlfriend, Ginger Moore, two days before Christmas in 1988.

Lynd's attorney, Tom Dunn, is seeking a 90-day stay of execution as well as a commutation of his sentence.

The U.S. Supreme Court in April upheld Kentucky's lethal injection protocol, clearing the way for executions to resume in the roughly three dozen states that use that method.

Kreuscher (CROY'-shir) says the new name would symbolize the help God gave him through tough times.

The 57-year-old man also told the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald he's worried that atheists may succeed in removing the phrase "In God We Trust" from U.S. currency.

He recalls that the phrase "God Reigns" was removed from the Zion city seal in 1992 after courts deemed it unconstitutional. Zion was founded as a theocracy — by a sect that believed the Earth was flat.

The school bus driver and amateur artist in the northern Chicago suburb says he has filed a petition to change his name in Lake County Circuit Court.