Louis Eppolito, currently in federal custody, faces sentencing May 9 in U.S. District Court here. The maximum penalty in the case is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Greg Brower, U.S. attorney for Nevada, said that according to a plea agreement, Eppolito and his wife, Frances, filed a tax return for 2000 that reported income of just over $127,000 when their actual income was more than double that amount.

Brower said Eppolito also failed to declare $175,000 in income from screenplay writing in 2001 and 2002.

Eppolito and another former New York detective, Stephen Caracappa, were accused of participating in at least eight mob-related killings while working for the Luchese crime family. The two detectives retired in the early 1990s and moved to Las Vegas, where they were arrested in March 2005.

In 2006, a New York jury found the pair guilty of a racketeering conspiracy responsible for multiple murders and other crimes. Two months later a federal judge dismissed that case after determining that the statute of limitations had expired for the racketeering charges, which allegedly occurred from 1986 and 1990. The judge's decision is under appeal.

The men still face drug and money laundering charges.

Eppolito's 1992 autobiography, "Mafia Cop: The Story of an Honest Cop Whose Family Was the Mob," details his police career and his Mafia connections.

In a 36-page opinion, US District Judge Florence Marie Cooper said the Navy must now abide by a previous order which outlawed the use of submarine-hunting sonar in areas off the coast of California known to be populated by whales.

Environmental groups say the equipment is potentially harmful to marine mammals, citing cases in the Bahamas and Canary Islands where sonar has been linked to mass deaths of whales.

Last month Bush granted an exemption to the Navy over use of sonar, arguing it was vital for military preparedness exercises which were in the "paramount interest of the United States."

The decision allowed the Navy to ignore a January 3 injunction requiring it to "monitor for and avoid marine mammals while operating high-intensity, mid-frequency sonar during ... naval exercises."

In her ruling, Cooper suggested Bush's attempt to skirt the earlier court order was "constitutionally suspect."

She also dismissed the argument put forward by the Navy that the lives of its sailors depended on being properly skilled in hunting submarines from hostile nations.

"The Navy's current 'emergency' is simply a creature of its own making, i.e., its failure to prepare adequate environmental documentation in a timely fashion," Cooper wrote.

It would take an act of Congress to get more drinking water out of Lake Lanier for metro Atlanta, a federal appellate court ruled Tuesday.

Alabama and Florida immediately declared a major victory in the 18-year, tri-state water war, with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley calling it "one of the most important" legal decisions in his state's history.

"The ruling invalidates the massive water grab that Georgia tried to pull off," Riley said in a statement.

The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit comes at a critical juncture, with the three states rushing toward a Feb. 15 deadline to reach a long-term, water-sharing agreement.

Observers say it gives Alabama and Florida leverage in the negotiations and belies metro Atlanta's assumption that it can count on Lanier to continue fueling its growth. Water from Lanier, the largest federal reservoir on the Chattahoochee River, forms Georgia and Alabama's southern border and winds up in Gulf of Mexico.

Lanier is the main water source for more than three million metro Atlantans. But it also supports multiple downstream users, from a nuclear power plant near Dothan, Ala., to oystermen in Florida's Apalachicola Bay.

"The big loser here is metro Atlanta," said George William Sherk, an expert in water law at the Colorado School of Mines who once represented the city of LaGrange and Troup County in tri-state water matters. "The logical response for metro Atlanta right now is no new building permits unless the applicant can demonstrate a long-term water supply.

Lawyers for Vasily Aleksanian, a former lawyer for jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and a former vice president of Yukos, had asked the court to allow him to be treated in a hospital. The Simonovsky District Court ruled that Aleksanian should be treated in a Moscow jail because he could flee or pressure witnesses if released.

Authorities' refusal to allow hospital treatment for Aleksanian has sparked criticism that the company and some of its former executives are the victims of a Kremlin revenge campaign.

Khodorkovsky was sentenced to eight years in prison for fraud and tax evasion, a sentence widely seen as the Kremlin's revenge for his political ambitions and funding of opposition parties. Yukos, once Russia's largest oil producer and regarded as one of the country's best-run companies, was sold off in auctions ordered by the state to pay off billions of dollars in back tax claims.

Aleksanian is charged with embezzling funds and shares in Yukos subsidiary Tomskneft worth $490 million, charges he denies.

Khodorkovsky accused officials of trying to extract incriminating, false confessions from Aleksanian and denying him treatment until he cooperates. Khodorkovsky launched a hunger strike on Jan. 30 to protest authorities' refusal to give Aleksanian proper AIDS medication.

The prosecution had raised no objections to suspending Aleksanian's trial, but insisted Aleksanian must remain in custody.

Aleksanian who looked tired and haggard, was visibly angry when he heard the court's verdict.

His lawyer, Yelena Lvova, said he could not get proper treatment in custody and the Moscow-based group For Human Rights denounced the ruling as a "demonstration of the government's inexorable cruelty."

"There is a sense of complacency in the meat industry that believes, `Hey, we solved that problem and we don't have to watch it so much,'" says Marler, whose career has proved otherwise.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that food poisoning each year afflicts some 76 million Americans; 300,000 require hospitalization and 5,000 die.

Many victims end up hiring Marler, who took his first food poisoning case in 1993, during the Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak in the Pacific Northwest that sickened hundreds and killed four children.

"Bill was certainly at the right place at the right time entering the field of food safety litigation," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, who is in charge of food safety at the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington. "I see him in kind of a private attorney general role."

Marler, 50, operates three dozen Web sites dedicated to food-borne illnesses. He is a tireless blogger on all things food safety and appears in front of federal and state lawmakers and regulatory boards. The license plate on his wife's Volkswagen reads ECOLI.

In all these cases, Marler has gone to trial just once, winning a $4.6 million verdict against a Washington state school district where 11 children got E. coli poisoning in the cafeteria.

Instead, he adroitly uses his sympathetic clients — and the media — to shame food producers into settling.

"I don't apologize for that," he says. "The publicity helps generate change."

The past year has been a busy one for Marler's six-lawyer firm, which has about 1,000 active cases in all 50 states. The clients typically pay their lawyers 25 to 35 percent of their settlements.

The targets of Marler's lawsuits include the Topps Meat Co., which recalled 21.7 million pounds of its hamburger patties in September — the second-biggest U.S. beef recall ever — then went out of business. When Cargill Inc. recalled 840,000 pounds of beef patties the following month, it brought more lawsuits by Marler.

He is also suing ConaAgra Foods Inc., which recalled its Banquet chicken pot pies and Peter Pan peanut butter last year after they were found to be contaminated with salmonella.

"He's a good lawyer and he does a fine job for his clients," says Leo Knowles, ConAgra's top lawyer. "He's passionate about food safety. At times he's a little bit overly dramatic, but I think he's genuine."

Marler continually implores the food industry to "put me out of business" by adopting more stringent safety procedures. He sent the lettuce industry a letter in 2006 in which he called on growers to stop using irrigation water contaminated with cattle and human feces, to wash fruits and vegetables more thoroughly, and to provide field hands with bathrooms.

"These steps will help make our food supply safer and will enable us to keep our most vulnerable citizens — kids and seniors — out of harm's way," he wrote. "And, with a little luck, it will force one damn trial lawyer to find another line of work."

Marler holds degrees from Washington State University and the Seattle University School of Law. He has no formal scientific training but has immersed himself in microbiology and DNA tracing, and his firm has a scientist on staff on whom he relies.

Marler handled about 150 cases from the deadly 2006 E. coli outbreak involving California spinach, settling roughly half those cases so far with companies such as Dole Foods. Among the clients whose cases are still unresolved is 3-year-old Ashley Armstrong of Indianapolis, whose kidneys were so damaged she will have to take medication for the rest of her life and will probably need a transplant, according to her mother.

He also has been settling dozens of cases against Taco Bell stemming from a 2006 E. coli outbreak that sickened 71 people in five states.

Marler fell into food safety litigation almost by accident.

Brianne Kiner, 9, of Seattle was the first among hundreds who fell ill in the Jack in the Box outbreak. Six lawyers trekked to her bedside during the six months she spent in the hospital, hoping to represent the family. The Kiners hired Marler, a young associate at a mid-size law firm who had never worked on a food case.

"I wanted a young, hungry lion," recalls Suzanne Kiner, Brianne's mother. "He was also the only one who looked at her and teared up."

Against all odds, Brianne survived and lives in a house bought with some of the $15.6 million Marler extracted from the restaurant chain for the Kiners. But Brianne, now 25, still suffers from high blood pressure and immune system damage that makes her prone to colds and flu.

"I call him Uncle Bill," the young woman says. "I think it's incredible what he did, and I'm very thankful that he helped me."

Marler says: "When I started doing the Jack in the Box case in 1993, I never dreamed that I would be doing this in 2008. Unfortunately, it never seems to slow down."

Michael pleaded guilty to using his Long Island, N.Y., mortgage company, Coastal Capital, to hide a half million dollars in bribes to Cunningham paid by Brent Wilkes, a Poway businessman. He also admitted to lying to the grand jury about how the financial transaction was structured.

Michael, 36, is the last person in the case to have his case resolved.

Wilkes was convicted Nov. 5 on 13 counts of bribery, conspiracy and wire fraud. Prosecutors said he paid Cunningham at least $625,000 in bribes, including meals, trips and gifts.

Cunningham, who in return steered millions in federal contracts to Wilkes' company, ADCS Inc. of Poway, is serving an eight-year prison term after pleading guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion.

Michael's uncle, New York financier Thomas Kontogiannis, pleaded guilty a year ago, and is awaiting sentencing.