The Internal Revenue Service has settled a claim against the founders of Houston's Kid-Care for about $1,000 — a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott claimed the couple had stolen from the charity.

The agreement, dated Nov. 7, says Carol Porter owes $938.93 in unpaid taxes from 2001 and 2002, while her husband, Hurt Porter, owes $37 from 2002. The document stipulates that the Porters have not acknowledged any improper expenditures.

In a lawsuit filed in April 2003, Abbott said the Porters had used some of the charity's funds for personal expenses such as airline trips and lavish meals.

Abbott settled the case with the Porters' insurance company for $495,000 in August 2004.

Abbott's investigation identified almost $500,000 in questionable expenses the Porters billed to Kid-Care's credit cards from 1999 through 2002. The IRS case involves the Porters' tax returns from 2001, 2002 and 2003.

"The expenses laid out by the attorney general seemed to be the same expenses that the IRS was questioning," said Juan Vasquez, a tax attorney who represented the Porters.

New Jersey Nets star Jason Kidd is being sued by a 23-year-old model who accused him of groping and threatening her at a Manhattan nightclub two months ago.

An attorney for Kidd called the allegations "false" and "defamatory" and the lawsuit an attempt to get money from the All-Star guard, who earns almost $20 million a year.

The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan's state Supreme Court, says Kidd "battered and assaulted" the woman in the Lower West Side club Tenjune on Oct. 10 when he "grabbed her buttocks and crotch on multiple occasions."

"He kept staring at her and then went over and grabbed her butt," the woman's lawyer, Russell S. Adler, said yesterday. He said, "She told him 'Get off me! Get away from me!'" before bouncers pulled Kidd away.

Words were exchanged and Kidd grabbed the woman again, pushing her against a wall and putting his hand under her dress, Adler said.

A spokesman for the New York City Police Department confirmed Oct. 17 that the woman had filed a criminal complaint against Kidd, accusing him of the acts alleged in the lawsuit that was filed Thursday.

But Adler said officials from the district attorney's office told him late yesterday that prosecutors would not pursue charges against Kidd.

The woman is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Kidd's lawyer Paul Grand said, "This lawsuit is nothing more than a brazen and defamatory search for a payout."

A Nets spokesman said the team had no comment because the claims involve a pending legal matter.

DoubleClick and the FTC have denied that Jones Day has represented the company before the FTC.

But on Thursday, EPIC and CDD filed a second complaint with the FTC, showing a cached Web page claiming that Jones Day is advising DoubleClick "on the international and U.S. antitrust and competition law aspects of its planned $3.1 billion acquisition by Google Inc." The Jones Day Web page was later changed, the groups said.

EPIC and CDD said Thursday they were filing a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all records on the relationship between Jones Day and DoubleClick.

One conclusion to draw is that "Jones Day has sought to conceal the nature, scope, and duration of the relationship with its client DoubleClick by altering web pages," said a letter signed by executive directors of both organizations. FTC spokespeople who denied the relationship were "either misinformed or willfully misled the public," the letter says.

An FTC spokeswoman declined to comment on the new complaint. Representatives of Jones Day and DoubleClick weren't immediately available for comment.

The FTC and DoubleClick downplayed the connection Wednesday, saying Jones Day has not advised DoubleClick on matters before the FTC. Instead, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett has been DoubleClick's outside counsel since July of 2005 and has advised it in matters before the FTC, DoubleClick said in a statement.

"Jones Day was not engaged to represent, and has not represented DoubleClick before the Federal Trade Commission or appeared before the commission on DoubleClick’s behalf," the company said.

In April, EPIC, CDD, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (US PIRG) asked the FTC to block Google's acquisition of DoubleClick unless the combined company made changes to its privacy practices. The combined company would hold a vast amount of private information on Web users, the groups said.

The two former Touro College undergraduates were among 10 people indicted by a grand jury in July in a scheme to use the city college's computer system to change grades and create fake degrees in exchange for money.

Azizov admitted during his plea that in January he paid a Touro official to change his grades. Prosecutors said when Azizov was arrested his grade point average had jumped to 3.63 from 1.23 because of the transcript changes.

Yakubov admitted he paid a college official in February to falsify his records. Prosecutors said when Yakubov was arrested that he bought a fake transcript showing he had earned a master's degree from Touro's Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said in announcing the indictments that the defendants included Touro's former director of admissions, the former director of the school's computer center and three public school teachers.

The indicted school officials created or altered records for at least 50 people since January 2007, Morgenthau said, charging fees of $3,000 to $25,000 for better or deleted grades and for bachelor's and master's degrees. Cases involving those defendants are pending.

Lawyers for Azizov and Yakubov said that they had no comment as they left court Thursday.

Connors and Harrison argued violently before she stabbed him in their Manhattan apartment, police said. A neighbor called police after hearing the ruckus, they said.

Connors initially was charged with second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree assault. She faced a sentence of 25 years to life in prison if she had been convicted after trial.

Published reports quoted Harrison's former wife, Eileen Cavallaro, of Kings Park, N.Y., as saying he had managed Simon's "Graceland" and "Rhythm of the Saints" tours and was in charge of Joel's "Glass Houses" tour.

Jon Koppenhaver, known as “War Machine” from Spike TV's reality series “The Ultimate Fighter,” pleaded guilty Thursday in Superior Court to a felony assault charge.
The professional cage-fighter choked a Las Vegas man unconscious and hit him in the face outside San Diego's Undisputed fitness and training center early Sept. 2.

Koppenhaver also faced a battery charge, but that was dismissed as part of a plea agreement reached during the preliminary hearing Thursday afternoon.
The victim, Darren Zatkow, testified during the hearing that he was visiting San Diego with his then-girlfriend when he was assaulted outside the fitness club after a night of drinks on the town.

Zatkow said he made a joke as he walked out with friends, calling a group of men standing outside the club without shirts “tough guys” while holding his hands up to his shoulders with palms open before he was surrounded by the men. “I cracked a joke and I got hit for it,” Zatkow said.

Zatkow said he was grabbed from behind in a carotid choke and dragged a few feet by one of the men. Zatkow said he did not see who grabbed him.

Zatkow, who practices martial arts but has never competed in tournaments, said he became unconscious 10 seconds after he was choked and came to moments later. Friends of Zatkow's who testified said he was punched in the face while he lay unconscious on the ground.

San Diego Police Detective Fernando Ramirez said a Las Vegas doctor who saw Zatkow days after the assault determined that the facial blow caused four fractures to his left eye socket. The injuries could cause temporary or permanent nerve damage, Ramirez said. The extent of the injury is not yet known because Zatkow is still recovering, he said.

Koppenhaver, 26, of Simi Valley, is skilled in mixed martial arts, according to his profile on the Ultimate Fighting Championship Web site, and also is a resident trainer for San Diego's Undisputed club.

Last week, he won with a technical knockout against Jared Rollins in the third round of Spike TV's Ultimate Fighter Finale held in Nevada.

Judge Frank Brown said the change in plea could result in a misdemeanor punishment. Zatkow told the court he thought a reduced punishment was OK because he believed a felony conviction would destroy Koppenhaver's career.

“I'm not interested in destroying somebody's life,” Zatkow said, noting that fighting should stay in the ring.

In only the third time the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has publicly released a ruling, it turned back a request to reveal documents that would shed light on the government's program to spy on the communications of terror suspects without first obtaining warrants.

FISC's ruling argued that its role as a unique court dealing with national security issues necessarily meant its case documents and decisions would be classified, and that US constitutional provisions did not require it to release case materials.

It also said that even first deleting sensitive material from the papers sought by the American Civil Liberties Union -- secret documents related to the legality of the surveillance programs -- risked accidentally damaging the country's security.

"That possibility itself may be a price too high to pay," the court said in rejecting the ACLU request.

Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project, called the decision disappointing.

"A federal court's interpretation of federal law should not be kept secret from the American public," Jaffer said.

"The Bush administration is seeking expanded surveillance powers from Congress because of the rulings issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court earlier this year. Under this decision, those rulings may remain secret forever."

In August the ACLU sought access to FISC rulings and orders made earlier this year that were cited in a new law, the Protect America Act, which expanded the government's powers to spy on the international communications of US citizens without first seeking a warrant.

The civil liberties advocates argued that the public had a right to know the content of those rulings and orders as they were used by the government to widen the parameters of its surveillance powers.

In the decision signed by FISC judge John Bates, the court said that, even if the court first removed justifiably secret materials to oblige the ACLU request, it still "might err by releasing information that in fact should remain classified (and) damage to national security would result."