County school board members have said the books are good tools to encourage children to read and to spark creativity and imagination.

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, published by London-based Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (other-otc: BLOOMSBURY.PK - news - people ), tell stories of children with magic powers. They have been challenged numerous times since 2000, making them the most challenged texts of the 21st century, according to the American Library Association.

At Tuesday's hearing, Mallory argued in part that witchcraft is a religion practiced by some people and, therefore, the books should be banned because reading them in school violates the constitutional separation of church and state.

"I have a dream that God will be welcomed back in our schools again," Mallory said. "I think we need him."

A former Casper Youth Baseball official has pleaded guilty to one count of embezzling money from the organization.

As part of a plea agreement, four other embezzlement charges against Keith Hood were dropped, Assistant Natrona County District Attorney Dan Itzen said Friday.

Hood was accused of writing $6,600 worth of checks to himself from the organization's bank account.

He faces a two- to three-year prison sentence that will be suspended, provided he completes three years of supervised probation and makes restitution, Itzen said.

Hood said in Natrona County District Court on Friday that he has already paid back $4,500 to the league, which serves about 700 children. pervised probation and makes restitution, Itzen said.

John Rigas, 82, was sentenced in June 2005 to 15 years in prison, and Timothy Rigas, 51, the company's former finance chief, was sentenced to 20 years. Both men have remained free on bail while they pursued their appeals.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand in Manhattan admonished the elder Rigas for his lack of remorse and said he would have imposed a lengthier prison term if not for Rigas' age and ill health.

The Adelphia case was one of the biggest corporate fraud prosecutions in recent years. The father and son were accused of looting the company to pay for personal land deals and vacation homes.

In its decision Thursday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said the defendants needed to show substantial errors by the district court for a reversal of the jury verdict.

"Given the weight of evidence supporting the jury's verdict on each charge, we conclude that they have not done so," the judges said.

Attorneys for the Rigases had no immediate comment on the ruling, nor did the U.S. attorney's office in New York, which prosecuted the case.

Adelphia filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2002. Its cable assets have been sold to Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc.

Prosecutors are recommending that Pope be placed on probation while Brown gets at least two and a-half years in prison. Both will be sentenced in July. Investigators say the girl wasn't threatened but she felt coerced into complying.

Prosecutors are in plea discussions with attorneys for the three other defendants.

A jury in Beaumont convicted her of capital murder and sentenced her to death.

The appeals court upheld her conviction but ruled that Jefferson County prosecutors misstated the special issue presented to jurors regarding Berry's likelihood of being a future danger to society.

In a Tarrant County case, the appeals court upheld the conviction and sentence of Sheldon Ward, 27, condemned for killing Nyanuer "Mary" Pal five years ago in Fort Worth. Ward's attorneys had raised 13 points of error from his trial.

An Exxon spokesman said the Irving-based company, which still sees the award as excessive, would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
 

Coleman and Rhoades admitted that from early September through Nov. 17, 2006, they had participated in a conspiracy to defraud Fieldstone Mortgage Corp., according to a release from John Wood, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri. Coleman also pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud.

On May 14, co-defendant Jeremy A. Plagman, 29, of Lee's Summit, pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy. Plagman, an appraiser doing business as JET Appraisals in Lee's Summit, provided an inflated appraisal of $1.2 million for property at 5034 Sunset Drive in Kansas City.

Coleman's role in the conspiracy was to prepare and provide a number of fraudulent letters for co-conspirators attesting to their creditworthiness, Wood said in the release. These letters and the inflated appraisal were submitted to Fieldstone Mortgage as part of the loan application to buy the property. Rhoades' role in the conspiracy was to assist a co-defendant in obtaining documents needed for the transaction, to prepare and submit false documents as needed and to contact co-conspirators as needed, Wood said.

Co-conspirators hoped to obtain loan proceeds in excess of the property's actual sale price by falsely representing to the mortgage lender that the stated sale price was greater than the actual sale price, Wood said.

Coleman also admitted that on three separate occasions in October and November 2006, he had committed wire fraud by transmitting faxes of fraudulent documents in furtherance of the conspiracy. He also admitted to wire fraud by acknowledging his responsibility for a fax transmission to Fieldstone Mortgage of signed closing documents related to the sale and purchase of the property, Wood said.

Each co-defendant could be subject to a sentence of as long as five years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine of as much as $250,000 and an order of restitution on the conspiracy charge. Coleman also could be subject to a sentence of as long as 20 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine of as much as $250,000 on each wire fraud charge.

Sentencing hearings will be scheduled after the completion of presentence investigations by the U.S. Probation Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Linda Parker Marshall and Senior Litigation Counsel Gene Porter are prosecuting the case, which the FBI investigated.