The six-person Broward County jury must decide whether Stuart Hess was addicted to cigarette nicotine before he got lung cancer and died. If so, the jury would later decide any damages against the Philip Morris tobacco company.

The lawsuit by widow Elaine Hess is the first to go to trial since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action jury award, ruling that each case had to be proven individually.

Hess' lawyers said Thursday he was hopelessly addicted to nicotine. The lawyer for Philip Morris said Hess chose not to quit despite known health risks.

The judges in the cases said the evidence was overwhelmingly contrary to the parents' claims — and backed years of science that found no risk.

"It was abundantly clear that petitioners' theories of causation were speculative and unpersuasive," the court concluded in one of a trio of cases ruled on Thursday.

The ruling, which was anxiously awaited by health authorities, was a blow to families who have filed more than 5,000 claims for compensation through the government's Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The claims are reviewed by special masters serving on the U.S. Court of Claims.

To win, the families' attorneys had to show that it was more likely than not that the autism symptoms in the children were directly related to a combination of the measles-mumps-rubella shots and other shots that at the time carried a mercury-containing preservative called thimerosal.

But the court concluded that "the weight of scientific research and authority" was "simply more persuasive on nearly every point in contention."

The court still has to rule on separate claims from other families who contend that rather than a specific vaccine combination, the lone culprit could be thimserosal, a preservative that is no longer in most routine children's vaccines. But in Thursday's rulings, the court may have sent a signal on those cases, too:

"The petitioners have failed to demonstrate that thimerosal-containing vaccines can contribute to causing immune dysfunction," a judge wrote about one theory that the families proposed to explain how autism might be linked.

Most juvenile offenders are released when they turn 18, but the extended commitment law allowed the Department of Youth Services to retain custody up to age 21 if a youth posed physical danger.

In unanimously striking down the law, the Supreme Judicial Court said it was unconstitutional because the law "contains no indication of the nature and degree of dangerousness that would justify continued commitment."

The court noted that the Legislature in 1990 had removed language that the danger a youth posed be due to a mental condition.

"The court said we don't lock people up based on an allegation of dangerousness when we don't know what that means," said attorney Barbara Kaban, deputy director of the Children's Law Center of Massachusetts.

She represented the three youths who challenged the law. Kaban said the three had been charged with crimes that included larceny and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

All were turned over to the department's custody when they were 16. Each was initially placed on probation, then sent back to a juvenile detention facility after violating the terms of probation at least once. The department filed applications for extended commitment orders for all three shortly before they turned 18.

Jennifer Kritz, a spokeswoman for the Department of Youth Services, said the department is reviewing the court's ruling and expects to be ordered to release about 12 youths being held under the law.

The pink-eyed giant rat appears at union protests around the state. The case has pitted a local of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers against a central New Jersey town, and a ruling is expected Thursday.

Lawrence Township fined the union for using the rat in a 2005 protest. The township says the union violated an ordinance against balloons and other inflatable signs.

Union lawyers argue the law violates their right to free expression and suppresses protest.

The township claims the union's use of the rat is a form of commercial speech and is less deserving of First Amendment protections.

Now he faces another charge.

Police say the 19-year-old showed up at the Johnson County Jail on Tuesday to serve his three-day sentence and officials smelled alcohol on his breath.

Court records say tests showed the man had a blood-alcohol content of 0.101 percent when he arrived at the jail.

A court date on the new charge hasn't been set.

Court records say the man pleaded guilty to public intoxication in May 2008 and was convicted of public intoxication second-offense last December.

A federal appeals court says a Jamaican immigrant whose American husband died in the 2003 Staten Island ferry crash can't stay in the United States.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia says Osserritta Robinson was no longer eligible for a green card because the Mahwah, N.J., resident had been married less than two years.

The Justice Department had argued the two-year rule was designed to prevent sham marriages.

Robinson's attorney, Jeffrey Feinbloom, says his client is very upset. Feinbloom says he'll ask the entire court of 21 judges to rehear the case and turn to the U.S. Supreme Court if that fails.

A district court judge in Newark in 2007 ruled that immigration officials were wrong to terminate Robinson's green card application.

In papers filed in U.S. District Court, they argued Mark Brener earned "substantial punishment" with his role in the business and should receive the two to two and a half years in prison that was included in his plea agreement.

Brener pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit a prostitution offense and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He's scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

Prosecutors cited his position as head of Emperors Club VIP and criticized his contrition, saying it didn't seem sincere.

"That the defendant continues to insist upon his moral rectitude and his legitimate intentions with respect to the Emperors Club raises a serious concern about the defendant's potential recidivism," prosecutors wrote.

Brener lawyer Murray Richman noted his client is 63 and said "time alone will prohibit the likelihood of him doing this again."

"In no way does Mr. Brener try to avoid his responsibility," Richman said. "He recognizes he did wrong."

The lawyer noted that his client has been in prison since his arrest last March, when Spitzer resigned after it was revealed he had met one of the Emperors Club's prostitutes at a Washington, D.C., hotel weeks earlier.

Prosecutors said in November they would not charge Spitzer after investigators found no evidence that he misused public or campaign funds for prostitution. The federal government typically does not prosecute clients of prostitution rings.

The manager of the escort service was sentenced to six months in prison last week. A booking agent received a year of probation and a second booking agent is awaiting sentencing.