Weight Watchers International Inc. settled a lawsuit in which it accused rival Jenny Craig Inc. of running a misleading ad campaign.

“Jenny Craig has permanently agreed to terminate its advertising campaign,” Weight Watchers said today in a statement that didn’t mention money damages. Jenny Craig said it paid no damages or costs and admitted no wrongdoing.

In advertisements featuring the actress Valerie Bertinelli, Jenny Craig falsely claimed that independent clinical trials showed its clients on average lost twice as much as customers on “the largest weight loss program,” New York-based Weight Watchers said last month in a federal court complaint in New York. A judge on Jan. 20 issued a temporary court order blocking the ads.

An appeals court says an Orange County family can proceed with a lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol over graphic crash photos that were leaked by the agency.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana on Monday reversed a lower court's dismissal of the lawsuit against the CHP and two of its employees for leaking the photos of a decapitated teenager that ended up on the Internet.

In the ruling, the court said the family of Nicole "Nikki" Catsouras can pursue damages for negligence, invasion of privacy and infliction of emotional distress.

The CHP admitted that two employees e-mailed nine photos of Nikki's body to friends and family for apparent shock value on Halloween day in 2006.

An attorney for one of the employees says he is considering an appeal.

The undercover officer who obtained a search warrant for a planned raid at the Country Crossing gambling hall in Dothan, Ala., said its electronic machines aren't bingo because they can be played blindfolded.

In papers filed in federal court Monday, Lt. Mike Reese of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board said he is the officer who obtained search warrants for a successful raid of a gambling hall in White Hall on March 19 and for a raid at Country Crossing on Jan. 6 that was blocked by a judge.

Reese, a member of Gov. Bob Riley's Task Force on Illegal Gambling, told the court the Country Crossing games don't meet any of the standards for player interaction that the Alabama Supreme Court laid out in the White Hall case, including marking numbers and recognizing a winning card.

"In fact, once money is inserted, the game can be played blindfolded or with the eyes closed by simply pressing the button three times, and can be played without ever looking at the bingo card," Reese said in an affidavit presented to U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson.

Reese's search warrant for the Jan. 6 raid expired without ever being used. The task force is now fighting in court with Country Crossing's attorneys over whether the task force can stage a new raid on the gambling hall's 1,700 machines. A planned raid last Friday was called off when a judge sought more information before issuing a new search warrant.

Delaware's death penalty was upheld as constitutional on Monday, paving the way for executions -- on hold since May 2006 -- to resume.

Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said Monday he was pleased the court ruled that Delaware is meeting its constitutional obligations and that his office will be working with Superior Court to begin "scheduling executions as appropriate."

Biden said the three-year delay "caused uncertainty, and I'm glad this has resolved that uncertainty
."
In its 47-page opinion, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals warned Delaware about "the worrisome course it appears to have taken at times" in executions.

"The record before us reflects an occasional blitheness on Delaware's part that, while perhaps not unconstitutional, gives us great pause. We remind Delaware not only of its constitutional obligation ... but also of its moral obligation to carry out executions with the degree of seriousness and respect that the state-administered termination of human life demands," Circuit Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote on behalf of the panel.

Attorney Michael Wiseman of the Federal Community Defender's office in Philadelphia -- which represents Delaware's 18 death-row inmates in the class-action lawsuit -- declined to comment Monday, saying he was still reviewing the opinion.

In court papers, attorneys for Delaware's condemned inmates detailed problems during executions, including inadequate qualifications and training of execution team members, improper dosages of the lethal injection drugs and odd procedures such as the execution team mixing drugs in the dark.

Attorneys for Delaware inmates essentially charged that because of the state's history of mistakes and because it didn't follow its own rules in past executions, there was significant doubt that the state could properly follow new court-approved rules to execute inmates without unnecessary suffering.

A man who authorities say had a cache of weapons and a map of an Army base in a New Jersey motel room is due in court on Friday.

Lloyd Woodson was arrested Monday after a convenience store clerk in Branchburg called police to report he was acting strangely.

Police say Woodson was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying an assault rifle. Officers found weapons including a grenade launcher and a map of New York's Fort Drum in his motel room.

Woodson is charged with state and federal weapons violations.

Authorities have not said whether they think he was planning an attack. The FBI said Woodson has no known terrorist connections.

The wife of a former high-ranked Bush administration lawyer who was charged earlier this month with her attempted murder has brought a civil suit against him for $30 million.

As previously reported, John Michael Farren is accused of flying into a rage after his wife served him with divorce papers on January 6, beating her unconscious with a metal flashlight, and then attempting to strangle her. She fled to a neighbor's house with their seven-year-old and four-month-old after triggering an alarm which brought the police to arrest Mr. Farren.

In her affidavit, Mary Farren makes some unusual arguments for why she not only needs $30 million but needs it right now, prior to any judgment in her case and before her husband can use any of the couple's assets to post his $2 million bond.

The Missouri Supreme Court overturned a death penalty sentence for man who is mentally retarded. Andrew Lyons, 52, was convicted of first-degree murder in 1996 and sentenced to death for the 1992 killing of his estranged girlfriend.

Lyons filed a petition in mandamus, claiming to be mentally retarded and therefore ineligible to be executed.

A court-appointed master supported Lyons' claims. The master concluded that Lyons' IQ was in a range of 61 to 70, that Lyons had continual extensive related deficits in two adaptive behaviors, and that the symptoms were present and documented before Lyons had turned 18.

"Although there is evidence, as noted earlier, that Lyons manifested these conditions before age 18, the state contends there was insufficient documentation of these conditions," the court wrote in a unanimous opinion.

"The state vigorously notes the lack of an IQ test result from prior to age 18 and the scant school records and other evidence with respect to the adaptive behaviors.