A court has ruled that the government of California is within its rights to prohibit Adidas from selling kangaroo-hide soccer shoes in the state.

U.S. law does not pre-empt a state law banning importation and sale of kangaroo products in California, the California State Supreme Court ruled Monday. It reversed two lower-court decisions that sided with Adidas's argument that the California law could not foreclose U.S. provisions that allow the use of the Australian kangaroo hides.

Adidas recently began one of its largest U.S. advertising campaigns. The promotions feature David Beckham, who recently joined the Los Angeles Galaxy soccer team.

"Although Adidas makes some shoes using kangaroo leather, a common practice in our industry, Adidas does not make shoes from any endangered or threatened kangaroo species," a company spokeswoman, Andrea Corso, said in a statement. "We are confident that we will prevail in this matter."

Beckham's soccer shoe is made with a synthetic leather upper, Corso said.

The United States lifted a ban in 1981 on imports of leather from the three kangaroo species that Adidas uses for the shoes. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995 took those species off its endangered or threatened species list, effectively ending the U.S. government's involvement in the matter, the California court said.

The case was brought by Viva, the Vegetarian International Voice for Animals. The California Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court to decide whether Viva had standing to bring the case under California law and whether the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution prohibited California from trying to regulate kangaroo imports, said an Adidas lawyer, Martin Fineman.

A skeptical Alameda County judge ordered garbage hauler Waste Management on Tuesday to return to court next week to prove it is abiding by his order to collect all the trash in Oakland or face big fines for scores of missed pickups.

Superior Court Judge Richard Keller, at a hearing in his Fremont courtroom, said Oakland officials provided evidence that as many as 300 customers a day have not been receiving garbage service despite his order last week that the company truck away all the city's trash.

"That's more than ... just a matter of a couple of missed pickups," Keller said to Waste Management lawyers who told him the company is covering all of its routes. "All I'm saying is there's a certain amount of common sense that comes into play here in all this, and then there's gilding the lily."

Keller scheduled a hearing for Aug. 3 to determine whether the company should be held in contempt of his July 19 order -- which could subject the firm to fines of $2,500 per day for each of the hundreds of pickups the city says have been missed since then.

Meanwhile, representatives from Waste Management and the Teamsters union, along with Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and a federal mediator, spent 10 hours Tuesday trying to work out a deal and planned to resume negotiations at 11 a.m. today in Oakland. A contract agreement would end the company's lockout of nearly 500 union garbage haulers that began July 2.

Dellums said the two sides made progress in their talks Tuesday.

"We have reached agreement on several of the outstanding issues,'' he said Tuesday night, declining to provide details. "I'm actually feeling very good because there was substantial progress. I believe the remaining issues can be resolved -- that's not to say they're not difficult issues."

Since July 19, city officials said they have received 3,000 complaints about spotty trash, recycling and yard waste pickups, while Waste Management officials have said they resumed regular weekly pickups in Oakland and other East Bay areas affected by the lockout.

"Each day it goes on, it becomes more and more frustrating," said Dellums, who described the negotiations as tedious and difficult. Waste Management has hired hundreds of temporary workers to pick up trash in Oakland and other East Bay communities and has added extra drivers and trucks to East Bay routes since Keller's order last week, Waste Management attorney John Lynn Smith said at Tuesday's hearing.

Smith said the company has 117 drivers on routes in Oakland, a number equal to the number of Teamster drivers in the city before the lockout, which came three days after the union's contract with the company expired.

"We'll continue to move forward to make sure people get service," Waste Management spokeswoman Monica Devincenzi said after the hearing, adding that on Saturday temporary drivers will go back over routes to gather any missed pickups from the week. "We truly apologize for any inconvenience we've caused our customers. We're trying our best to get it done."

But Deputy Oakland City Attorney Kandis Westmore said the city has received 200 to 300 complaints about missed pickups each day since the judge's order -- evidence, she said, that the company is not abiding by the order.

The city will have to prove in court that Waste Management has willfully failed to pick up garbage, Keller said. The city's efforts could be undermined, he said, by company claims that Teamster picketers at the firm's office in East Oakland have delayed replacement drivers on their routes by up to three hours.

Keller acknowledged that the potential fines, while substantial, might not motivate the multimillion-dollar corporation. "It's like swatting a gnat off the back of an elephant," he said.

City Attorney John Russo has said the city could hire another hauler to pick up trash in Oakland, but a spokeswoman for City Administrator Deborah Edgerly said Tuesday that city officials will continue efforts to compel Waste Management to comply with the terms of its franchise agreement.

"The performance standards are clearly spelled out -- pick up the trash," Karen Boyd said.

The company's contract with Teamsters Local 70 expired June 30, and Waste Management locked out its drivers in what company officials described as a pre-emptive move against a rumored Teamsters strike.

Union officials said their members did not intend to strike and planned to work while union and company officials negotiated a new contract.

Oakland, Emeryville, Albany, Hayward, Newark and part of San Leandro, along with unincorporated areas of Alameda County, including Castro Valley and San Lorenzo, are affected by the lockout.

Shannon Houchin, a former police officer with the Crittenden County Sheriff’s Office in West Memphis, Ark., pleaded guilty today in federal court in Little Rock to a felony civil rights charge.

During his guilty plea, Houchin admitted that he abused his authority as a police officer when, in May 2006, he unnecessarily assaulted an arrestee while at the Crittenden County Detention Facility.

Houchin faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000.

“It is unacceptable for law enforcement officials to willfully abuse those committed to their custody,” said Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The overwhelming majority of correctional officers dispatch their difficult duties with honor and professionalism. The Justice Department will aggressively prosecute those who cross the line and violate federal law.”

The Civil Rights Division is committed to the vigorous enforcement of every federal criminal civil rights statute, such as laws that prohibit the willful use of excessive force or other acts of misconduct by law enforcement officials. In fiscal year 2006, nearly 50 percent of the cases brought by the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division involved such prosecutions. Since fiscal year 2001, the Division has convicted 50 percent more defendants for excessive force and official misconduct than in the preceding six years.

Today’s plea resulted from the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Civil Rights Division attorneys Christine Dunn and Karen Ruckert handled the case for the Justice Department.

The justices are considering two appeals in the case.

Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker is appealing a Monroe County Superior Court judge's decision to reduce Wilson's felony conviction to a misdemeanor and free him from prison. Baker said the judge overstepped his authority when he granted Wilson's motion last month.

Following the Monroe County judge's decision, Wilson's attorneys requested he be released on bond pending Baker's appeal, but on June 27, the trial court in Douglas County denied the request. Wilson's attorneys have appealed that decision.

B.J. Bernstein, Wilson's attorney, addressed the bond issue first at Friday's hearing, arguing for 10 minutes that her client should be granted bond while his case is under appeal.

"Every day that a defendant spends in jail is a precious day in their life," Bernstein told the justices. Bernstein said that in the past 10 days, "two clients of mine died in prison."

Bernstein argued that the trial court, in refusing bond, improperly applied the criminal appeal bond statute when it should have applied the habeas bond statute, since the Monroe County judge had ruled on a writ of habeas corpus, determining that Wilson had the right to make a claim of cruel and unusual punishment.

However, Douglas County District Attorney David McDade, the original prosecutor on Wilson's case, countered in his time before the justices that state law is clear that "no appeal bond shall be granted to any person who is convicted of a list of crimes, and aggravated child molestation is included in that list."

"It's not vague. It's not gray. It's not subject to interpretation," McDade said. "It is the plain letter of the law that applies in this case."

In its appeal of the reduction of the felony conviction to a misdemeanor, the state has argued that the ruling could open the door for many other sexual criminals to have their sentences reduced.

Wilson's attorneys argued that such fears are invalid and do not justify maintaining such a harsh sentence for consensual teen sex.

Video cameras and still photographers lined the walls well before the arguments began. Outside, satellite trucks and Georgia State Patrol cars were parked all along the street, and security was high. Officers were posted all around the building and on the floor where the Supreme Court meets.

Former state Rep. Matthew Towery, the author of the 1995 law Wilson was charged with violating, submitted a friend of the court brief supporting his release.

"The General Assembly never intended for the Child Protection Act's harsh felony sentences designed to punish adults who prey on children to be used to punish consensual sexual acts between teenagers close in age," Towery's brief said.

The state Legislature in 2006 changed the law, making oral sex between teens close in age a misdemeanor. The state Court of Appeals ruled that the new law could not be applied retroactively and the state Supreme Court upheld that ruling.

Bernstein argued in her legal brief that the move by state lawmakers to change the law marked a "tectonic shift in how Georgia views voluntary consensual teen sex and its punishment."

"The new reality is that teen sexual experimentation is commonplace in an era where the media bombards teens with sexual imagery," she wrote.

Bernstein said it is extremely rare in Georgia for lawmakers to pass legislation softening punishment, especially for an emotionally charged crime like child molestation.

But the state countered that it is well established that criminals are subject to the penalty that is in place when they violate the law. To begin to apply legislative changes retroactively would invite chaos and have a far-reaching effect throughout the criminal justice system, Baker argued.

The class action lawsuit hinges on shareholder complaints concerning upper-management communications between August, 2005 and May, 2006 and insider trades made in December, 2005 and January, 2006.

The plaintiff in the case, Stephan Dennis, alleges that top executives at Midway knew of a primary investor’s intentions to relenquish ownership of the company and sold out before the stock price took a hit.

Dennis and other shareholders are joining with at least nine other law firms around the country in response to the millions of dollars lost by investors as Midway’s stock plummeted 75 percent to $6 per share recently.  Stock prices were around $22 per share at the time of the alleged insider trading.

Media tycoon Sumner Redstone, the beneficial owner of more than 89 percent of Midway Games, Inc, turned over majority control and almost 33 million shares of the company to his daughter, Shari Redstone, on December 28, 2005.

“Insiders knew [Mr. Redstone’s involvement] was the only thing propping up the stock,” said Kenneth Vianale, a lawyer with Florida-based Vianale & Vianale LLP. Vianale’s firm joined the class action suit on Monday.

The case against the videogame company alleges that insiders knew Redstone was planning to give control over to National Amusements Inc., a Massachusetts-based movie theater company controlled by his daughter.

Ms. Redstone is the president of both National Amusements, Inc. and Sumco, Inc. Together, these two companies control almost 75 percent of Midway.

But less than two weeks before Mr. Redstone relinquished his direct control, the President and CEO of Midway Games, David Zucker, began to unload 550,000 of his own Midway shares.  At the time, Midway stock was trading at a six year high, reaching a peak of $23.26 per share in mid-December.  By January 6, he had pocketed more than $9 million before taxes.  Zucker had never before sold Midway stock.

Mr. Zucker was not alone. Thomas Powell, Executive Vice President and CFO of Midway, sold 40,500 shares on December 20, just eight days before Redstone’s deal. The same day, Miguel Iribarren, Midway’s vice president of finance sold 15,000 shares.  Assistant Treasurer James Boyle sold 15,000 shares the next day.  Chief Marketing Officer Steven Allison sold 21,250 the day after that.  These five men are the defendants in the class action suit.

Two months after the Redstone deal went into effect, stock prices for Midway had dropped more than 50 percent to $9.91 per share.

In order to be successful, attorneys for the plaintiffs will have to prove Midway executives intentionally withheld knowledge of the Redstone deal and knew that executing trades on that knowledge was illegal, said Mitch Herr, a former chief trial council for the southeast region of the U.S. for the SEC.

Plaintiffs must also show that withholding information about the Redstone deal constituted an omission or misrepresentation of the company's financial prospects, and that they have been damaged. 

At this time there is no reason to believe the Redstone family was a part of the allegedly illegal activity, Vianale says.

A spokesperson for Midway Games, Inc. was not available for comment.

Shares of Midway Games, Inc. were up 7 cents to $6.07 per share in afternoon trading Wednesday.  Midway shares are down nearly 29 percent from a year ago.

Reta was sentenced to 40 years in prison by Judge Joe Lopez immediately after he entered the plea, which could have brought a sentence of up to 99 years.

Reta's attorney, Eduardo Pena, said the American teen, who was born in Houston but grew up in Laredo, decided to plead guilty — with the right to appeal — after a statement he signed was admitted into evidence over Pena's objections. In the statement, he admitted being the driver of the car used in the murder of Noe Flores.

"Under the circumstances, it was the best we could do," Pena said of the plea.

A witness testified Wednesday that Rosalio "Bart" Reta was among three men in an organized cell paid $15,000 to kill Flores in January 2006.

Prosecutors say Reta and two other accused hit men were actually supposed to kill the half brother of Flores but mistakenly killed Flores instead. Flores was shot at least seven times from the back while standing in front of a Laredo home.

Reta, a baby-faced teen with dimples, was only facing charges in Flores' death this week, but he is separately charged in another Laredo killing, also allegedly carried out on the orders of the cartel.

Assistant District Attorney Jesse Guillen said that trial would likely start soon and would give authorities another chance to add time to the teen's sentence. Laredo investigators believe Reta began killing for the cartel in Mexico and was moved to Laredo when the cartel began placing operations on the U.S. side.

Despite Reta's youth and his 5-foot-2 stature, "he's a cold-blooded killer," Guillen said. "There's no doubt about it."

During testimony Wednesday, Laredo police Detective Robert Garcia laid out a pattern of phone records that connected Reta to two other members of his cartel-controlled group and suppliers of the car and guns used in the Flores killing.

The accused ring leader in the Flores killing, Jesus "Jesse" Gonzales, fled to Mexico after making bail. The third member of the group, Gabriel Cardona, pleaded guilty and is serving an 80-year sentence.