The Colorado parents who reported their 6-year-old son floated away aboard a helium balloon will plead guilty to some charges and serve probation so that the family can stay together, the attorney for the boy's father said Thursday.

Richard Heene will plead guilty in the alleged Oct. 15 hoax to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, his attorney David Lane said. Mayumi Heene — a Japanese citizen who could have been deported if convicted of more serious charges — will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a misdemeanor, he said.

Prosecutors haven't announced whether they've filed charges in the case and didn't immediately return a call Thursday seeking comment on the plea agreement.

The saga gripped a global audience, first with fear for the safety of 6-year-old Falcon Heene and then with anger at his parents when authorities accused them of perpetrating a hoax.

After the boy was found safe at home, sheriff's officials contacted social workers to make sure the children were in a healthy environment.

Lane didn't address whether the pleas would include monitoring of the couple. Mayumi Heene's attorney, Lee Christian, did not return a call, and the Heenes didn't answer when an Associated Press reporter knocked on their door Thursday morning.

As part of the plea deal, Lane said prosecutors have agreed to let both parents serve probation sentences. The most serious of the charges recommended by Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden would have carried a maximum sentence of six years in prison.

Attorney General Bill Mims will join a powerful law and lobbying firm after his 11-month stint in office ends in January.

Mims will become a partner in the Hunton & Williams firm in its administrative law and government relations practice after Ken Cuccinelli is sworn in as attorney general on Jan. 16.

The General Assembly appointed Mims in February to serve the remainder Bob McDonnell's term. McDonnell resigned as attorney general last winter to run his successful Republican campaign for governor.

The 52-year-old Mims is a former state senator from Loudoun County. He served as chief deputy attorney general under McDonnell.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday backed the judge who ruled against the NFL and let quarterback Michael Vick keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday affirmed Judge David Doty's order saying Vick had already earned the bonuses before his dogfighting conviction, so the money wasn't subject to forfeiture.

Vick served 18 months in prison and is now with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Doty has long handled matters arising from the NFL's collective bargaining agreement. After Doty ruled in the Vick bonus case, the NFL accused him of bias and sought to end his oversight of its contract with the players union.

The appeals court said the contract should remain under Doty's oversight.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello did not say whether the league planned a further appeal, but he said the 8th Circuit upheld Doty's ruling on Vick's bonuses in large part because it found the contract's forfeiture language ambiguous.

"That is something that we will seek to change at the bargaining table to ensure that bonus payments are paid to players who comply with their contracts and perform on the field," Aiello said.

Vick, a former Atlanta Falcons star, was released from federal custody July 20 after serving 18 months of a 23-month sentence for running a dogfighting ring in Surry County, Va. The Eagles signed Vick to a $1.6 million contract for 2009, with a team option for the second year at $5.2 million, but he has not played much.

Federal prosecutors accused a high-profile South Florida attorney of concocting a Ponzi scheme that lured millions of dollars from investors with promises of big payoffs from legal settlements that never existed, according to court documents filed Monday.

The civil complaint, seeking forfeiture of eight pieces of property owned by lawyer Scott Rothstein, marks the first time prosecutors have leveled fraud allegations at him_ even though criminal charges have yet to be announced. It was filed the same day FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents seized luxury cars, boats, bank accounts and other possessions of the once high-flying Rothstein. The forfeiture complaint put the value of the real estate at more than $18 million.

In the complaint, prosecutors claim that Rothstein operated the Ponzi scheme since 2005 using his law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. Investors were promised fat profits of 20 percent or more by paying lump sums to people who had won legal settlements that would supposedly pay out larger amounts over a longer period.

It was all a lie, the complaint contends. Like all Ponzi schemes, new investor money was used to pay earlier investors to keep up an illusion of success, backed up by false documents showing bank accounts containing fictional large sums.

South Carolina's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an ethics investigation into Gov. Mark Sanford's travel must be made public, clearing the way for lawmakers considering impeachment to review a report on the probe.

Sanford's lawyers had tried keep a report on a criminal investigation by the State Ethics Commission from being released to the House of Representatives as leaders there decide whether to move forward with impeachment efforts.

The commission's investigation was launched after Sanford returned from a five-day rendezvous with an Argentine lover in June that prompted investigations by The Associated Press into his travel practices. The AP found Sanford used state airplanes for personal and political purposes; used pricey commercial travel despite a state low-cost travel requirement; and didn't report private plane trips given by friends and donors.

Sanford's spokesman and lawyers, as well as Ethics Commission Director Herb Hayden, did not immediately respond to questions.

The governor said shortly after the investigation began that he would waive confidentiality rights, but his lawyers later argued he only intended to allow the scope of the investigation to be released. Attorneys wanted Sanford to have a chance to respond to the report before lawmakers saw it.

South Carolina's Supreme Court ruled Thursday that an ethics investigation into Gov. Mark Sanford's travel must be made public, clearing the way for lawmakers considering impeachment to review a report on the probe.

Sanford's lawyers had tried keep a report on a criminal investigation by the State Ethics Commission from being released to the House of Representatives as leaders there decide whether to move forward with impeachment efforts.

The commission's investigation was launched after Sanford returned from a five-day rendezvous with an Argentine lover in June that prompted investigations by The Associated Press into his travel practices. The AP found Sanford used state airplanes for personal and political purposes; used pricey commercial travel despite a state low-cost travel requirement; and didn't report private plane trips given by friends and donors.

Sanford's spokesman and lawyers, as well as Ethics Commission Director Herb Hayden, did not immediately respond to questions.

The governor said shortly after the investigation began that he would waive confidentiality rights, but his lawyers later argued he only intended to allow the scope of the investigation to be released. Attorneys wanted Sanford to have a chance to respond to the report before lawmakers saw it.

Attorneys for John Allen Muhammad released a May 2008 letter on Wednesday in which the mastermind of the deadly 2002 sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area proclaims his innocence.

The rambling, handwritten letter was made available because of requests for a statement from Muhammad, his attorneys wrote on the Web page of their law firm. The letter was filed in federal court in connection with Muhammad's unsuccessful attempt to block his execution, the attorneys said.

Muhammad, 48, is scheduled to die by injection on Nov. 10 at a Virginia prison.

In the letter dated May 8, 2008, and rife with misspellings, Muhammad writes of discussions with a new team of attorneys and of assurances that "exculpatory evidence" that he claims was withheld from his trial "will prove my innocent and what really happen ...."

The letter adds: "So all you police and prosecutors can stand-down-'rushing' to murder this innocent black man for something he nor his son (Lee) had nothing to do with ...."

Lee Boyd Malvo was Muhammad's teenage accomplice, who is serving a life sentence. Muhammad fostered a father-son relationship with Malvo but the two were not related.