A federal appeals court on Monday dealt another body blow to Delaware's plans for a new sports betting lottery, saying it must be limited to parlay bets on professional football games.

A three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared last week that Delaware's sports betting plan, which included single-game bets and wagering on a variety of professional and collegiate sports, violated federal law but it did not expressly say why.

On Monday, the panel outlined its reasoning in a 23-page opinion. The court said it interpreted language that exempted Delaware from a 1992 federal ban on sports gambling — known as the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act — as precluding any type of betting beyond what it had offered in a failed National Football League lottery in 1976.

That lottery allowed only parlay bets, which means bettors had to pick the winners of at least three separate NFL games in a single wager.

"Thus, any effort by Delaware to allow wagering on athletic contests involving sports beyond the NFL would violate PASPA," Judge Thomas Hardiman wrote for the court. "It is also undisputed that no single-game betting was 'conducted' by Delaware in 1976, or at any other time during the time period that triggers the PASPA exception."

Nathaniel Nicholson pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Jim Nicholson was the highest-ranking CIA official ever convicted of espionage when he pleaded guilty in 1997 to a conspiracy charge that sent him to prison for more than 23 years. He had been accused of selling information to the Russians about the CIA agents he trained and passing along other secrets.

Both Nicholsons were indicted in January on new charges of conspiracy, money laundering and acting as an agent of a foreign government. Jim Nicholson was accused of sending his son back to his Russian handlers from 2006 to 2008 to squeeze more money out of them.

Under the plea agreement, the 25-year-old Nicholson admitted taking money from the Russians and promised to testify, if required, against his father in the new case. In return, federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence that could result only in probation.

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, Nathaniel Nicholson admitted traveling to San Francisco, Mexico City, Lima, Peru and Nicosia, Cyprus, to meet with agents of the Russian Federation on behalf of his father.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the cap, imposed by the Federal Communications Commission, was "arbitrary and capricious," and threw out the restriction.

Fearing a cable monopoly, Congress in 1992 directed the FCC to set limits on how many customers cable TV operators could reach nationwide.

The FCC set the 30 percent limit, but that was thrown out twice before by the courts. Two years ago the cap was reinstated, prompting the new challenge from Comcast.

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell said he had disagreed with the commission's decision to re-impose the cap in 2007 because he felt the rule was vulnerable to a challenge given that it was already overturned in 2001. He said that the commission's cap was based on "aging data and questionable assumptions" that didn't adequately reflect the entry of new competitors to cable operators.

Recently released court records show the claims also cover a miner who narrowly avoided a crushing death only to commit suicide months later. The money will support two children of Brian Keith Pritt, who was haunted by survivor's guilt and shot himself in the head, according to a family lawyer.

"He lost many of his close friends," Fred Silvester said Wednesday.

While judges have signed off on trust funds for children of miners and rescuers who died in the disaster at Crandall Canyon, many details remain confidential. Only the payouts for children under 18 require a judge's approval.

The settlement, announced May 12, was characterized as the largest in Utah mining history. Case files at 3rd District Court in Salt Lake City are packed with sealed envelopes holding confidential payout terms approved Aug. 13. Other settlements for minor children are pending in 7th District Court in Price, near Crandall Canyon.

The lawsuits were filed against Pepper Pike, Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. and three of its subsidiaries or affiliates; engineering consultants Agapito Associates Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo.; mine co-owner Intermountain Power Agency and its partner in a coal-fired Utah power station, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Attorneys for parent Martin Gill and his two children argued Wednesday in Miami that there's no rational basis to exclude gay people. Gill and his partner have adopted two young brothers.

State lawyers contend the Legislature should make such decisions. They claim the judge wrongly legislated from the bench in striking down the law last year.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Gill, calls Florida's gay adoption ban the broadest such law in the nation.

It will likely be months before the appeals court issues a ruling, which could then be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court.

The court will hear arguments Monday over a judge's denial of an injunction that would have stopped betting from beginning next month.

Attorneys for Delaware say the leagues have not met the requirements for an injunction. A trial on whether the betting would violate federal law or the state constitution is to begin in December.

Delaware is exempt from a federal ban on sports betting because it ran a sports lottery in 1976. But the leagues argue that the exemption doesn't allow Delaware to offer bets on single games or on sports other than professional football.

A federal judge has ruled that Bank of America Corp cannot have a lawsuit by investors seeking to force it to buy back mortgages heard in federal court, saying he lacks jurisdiction to decide the case.


Tuesday's ruling by Judge Richard Holwell of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan means the case will move to state court. Holwell did not decide the merits of the case.

"Congress passed two statutes within a year of each other to address the mortgage crisis," the judge wrote. "In neither of these statutes did Congress federalize the case."

The ruling is a win for investors, to the extent that Holwell rejected a claim by the bank's Countrywide Financial Corp unit that new federal laws to encourage loan modifications to help struggling borrowers stay in their homes govern this case.