Freedom Communications asked a bankruptcy judge on Tuesday to approve the sale of the East Valley Tribune and several other Phoenix-area publications for about $2 million.

Irvine, Calif.-based Freedom Communications Holdings Inc. put the Tribune up for sale shortly after it filed for bankruptcy protection in September. The company said it planned to close the paper Dec. 31 if no buyer emerged and estimated that shutting it down would cost $1.5 million.

Thirteenth Street Media, a Boulder, Colo.-based company owned by Randy Miller, made an offer for the Tribune in November. Miller expanded his bid in January to include the Daily News-Sun in Sun City, the Ahwatukee Foothills News, Glendale/Peoria Today, Surprise Today, and the Clipper direct-mail coupon magazine.

Because Freedom is under bankruptcy protection, a judge must approve the sale, which is contingent on no better offers being made. The motion filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware said Freedom would accept offers until March 5.

Freedom will continue to publish the papers pending court approval of the sale. Freedom will remain the owner of its other paper in Arizona, The Sun in Yuma.

Smith & Nephew Plc, Europe’s largest maker of shoulder and knee implants, was awarded $4.7 million in a patent-infringement trial against smaller rival Arthrex Inc. over a device to fix a graft to a bone.

Arthrex said in a statement it will appeal the Feb. 12 jury decision and is “confident the verdict will be overturned on appeal.” It said it doesn’t expect the verdict will interrupt sales of its RetroButton ACL graft fixation product. Smith & Nephew said it will seek a court order to halt sales of some devices.

The dispute is over the attachment of the grafts used to replace the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, in the knee that connects the femur bone in the thigh with the tibia bone in the shin. It’s one of the most commonly injured ligaments during athletic activity. The grafts are ligaments taken from other parts of the body, typically the hamstring, patella or Achilles region, said Smith & Nephew spokesman Joe Metzger.

“Smith & Nephew has a long and proud history of providing medical devices that help surgeons to deliver positive patient outcomes,” Mike Frazzette, president of Smith & Nephew Endoscopy, said in a statement. “As a result, we will vigorously protect our intellectual property rights against Arthrex and other companies that infringe our patents.”

Commercial law firm Carson McDowell has promoted four associates to partners of the firm, reflecting the growth of the business.

The firm, which has over 100 people working in its Belfast office, made Emma Cooper a partner in its property practice, Stuart Murphy a partner in construction, Dawn McKnight a partner in corporate and commerical and Leigh Linton a partner in litigation.

Senior partner Alan Reilly said “These promotions reflect the growth which we are still experiencing within the firm.

A grand jury has indicted a Salisbury woman for embezzling more than $140,000 from a local attorney.

The Rowan County grand jury meeting Monday indicted Kimberly "Kim" Osborne on the charge of felony embezzlement.

The indictment charges that she took $142,414 from James T. Oxendine between Jan. 1, 2007, and Jan. 1, 2008.

She was an employee of Oxendine's during that time.

Osborne was at the time married to Terry Osborne, currently manager of the Rowan-Kannapolis ABC system.

Kim Osborne previously worked for the Clerk of Court's office when Terry Osborne was Rowan County Clerk of Superior Court.

Terry Osborne petitioned for a divorce, which was granted in August 2009.

Salisbury Police investigated the case, with assistance from the SBI.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is heading to court to answer revised charges that he schemed to sell or trade President Barack Obama's old Senate seat and swap official favors for campaign money.

Marshals have warned they will not tolerate the kind of swirling crowd at Blagojevich's arraignment Wednesday that swallowed the former governor last time he was in court.

Curiosity about Blagojevich is guaranteed to bring out a heavy media contingent, but defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky says the arraignment is likely to be routine — a simple not guilty plea.

While the indictment against Blagojevich has been revised, the allegations of misconduct on his part are no different that the ones in the old version.

As the Supreme Court nears the midpoint of its annual term and prepares to hear several momentous cases, one question looms: Will the justices' split decision reversing past rulings and allowing new corporate spending in political races set the tone for the term, or will Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission be an exception?

"Is this a turning point?" asks Pamela Harris, director of Georgetown Law's Supreme Court Institute. Harris notes that Chief Justice John Roberts' concurring opinion in the campaign-finance case defended reversing past rulings that have been, as Roberts wrote, "so hotly contested that (they) cannot reliably function as a basis for decision in future cases."

"That is an incredibly muscular vision of when you would overrule precedent," which usually guides justices in new cases, Harris says. "That makes it look like this is a court that's ready to go."

Several pending cases — some that already have been argued, some that will be argued in upcoming weeks — are likely to show the reach of the Roberts Court and its boldness.

Temple University law professor David Kairys expects the Citizens United to distinguish the Roberts Court for years. "I think it will actually define more than this particular term," he says. "It might define the Roberts Court."

Lawyers in the Proposition 8 trial are keeping an eye on Washington as they draft papers for the federal judge in San Francisco.

The two sides in the legal battle over California's ban on same sex marriage have two more weeks to tell Judge Vaughn Walker exactly how they'd like him to rule and why. As it is expected the federal lawsuit challenging the 2008 ballot initiative to ultimately be decided by the US Supreme court, attorneys are trying to ensure that they've built a case that will satisfy the nation's highest legal authority two years down the line.

The way to get those judges' support, said Boies, is to build as strong a case as possible at the lower level. That's why one of his clients, plaintiff Jeff Zarrillo, feels it's so important to win this trial.