A 34-year-old Clearwater woman is accused of stealing at least $175,000 from her employer over several years and spending it on vacations, trips to the hair salon, personal bills and student loan payments.

Kerry Sue McCallister-Higgins was arrested Monday night on a felony charge of grand theft.

According to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, McCallister-Higgins had check-signing privileges as an office manager and bookkeeper at Golson Law Firm, which used to be at 601 Cleveland St. N.

Over the course of six years or longer, McCallister-Higgins wrote "multiple, unauthorized" checks to herself, an arrest report shows.

She used others to pay for credit card purchases at grocery stores, movie theaters, drugstores and various other shops. Others paid bills for hotels, hair-dos, rental cars, student loans and a cell phone, said Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Cecilia Barreda.

At the time of her arrest, Detective David Kavanagh with the Sheriff's Office economic crimes unit had identified $175,939 in missing funds. But that amount may rise as detectives continue to investigate, Barreda said.

Former Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell pleaded not guilty to a charge of illegal drug possession Tuesday in Alabama.

Russell, 24, is a former LSU star who was released by Oakland after being the No. 1 draft choice in 2007. He entered the plea in court in Mobile. He is charged with felony possession of a controlled substance, codeine syrup.

Authorities have said that he did not have a prescription for the drug and that he was arrested July 5 at his home as part of an undercover investigation.

His attorney, Donald Briskman, said in a phone interview that there were about nine or 10 people in the house and that he believes once all the evidence is known, Russell will be exonerated.

Russell, a prep star in Mobile, had no comment after his court appearance. He has been free on $2,500 bond.

Briskman said he asked for an early hearing in order for Russell to get the case behind him and renew his effort to play professional football. A hearing in his case is set for Aug. 11 to determine if there is enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury.

One of the NFL's biggest No. 1 draft busts, Russell completed just 52.1 percent of his passes in his career, with 18 touchdowns, 23 interceptions and 15 lost fumbles. He won only seven of 25 starts.

Another person accused of viewing President Barack Obama's student loan records at a U.S. Department of Education contractor in Iowa has pleaded guilty.

Patrick Roan pleaded guilty last week to a misdemeanor. The Iowa City man is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 12.

He was one of nine people indicted on charges of accessing Obama's student loan records while they were employed at Vangent Inc. in Coralville.

A telephone message left for Roan's attorney wasn't immediately returned. Court records did not indicate what sentence Roan could receive. A telephone message left for a U.S. attorney spokesman wasn't immediately returned.

Two others pleaded guilty last month.

Trial for one woman is set for Aug. 24. Trial for the remaining five defendants is set for Sept. 7.

A Pakistani man detained on an immigration violation in Maine while authorities investigated the attempted Times Square car bombing will continue to be held in jail because an immigration judge revoked his bail.

Mohammad Shafiq Rahman's family rounded up the $10,000 to secure his release only to learn the judge had revoked bail at the urging of immigration officials, said Barry Hoffman, Pakistan's consul general in Boston.

Rahman's attorney is seeking another bail hearing, Hoffman said. Rahman, a computer specialist who overstayed his visa, continues to be held in the Cumberland County Jail.

It was unclear why immigration officials urged the judge to reverse the June 30 decision to set bond.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement "has determined it is most appropriate he remain in custody," spokesman Richard Rocha said.

But Hoffman said it appeared ICE was spending too much of its resources going after someone like Rahman. "I'm sure there are real terrorists out there. Spending all their resources on this case has me mystified," he said.

A man accused of shooting and wounding two eighth-graders outside their middle school pleaded not guilty Monday by reason of insanity.

Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, 32, entered his plea in Jefferson County District Court, and was ordered to undergo a mental evaluation at the state Mental Health Institute in Pueblo. The evaluation would take at least 45 days.

Eastwood faces 15 charges, including attempted first-degree murder in the Feb. 23 shootings outside Deer Creek Middle School in south suburban Denver. Teachers tackled and restrained Eastwood until deputies arrived.

He faces decades in prison if convicted of the charges or an indefinite amount of time in a mental health institute if found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Before Eastwood accepted the plea, District Judge Christopher Munch told him that "commitment could be the rest of your life." Eastwood nodded that he understood.

Prosecutors are seeking access to observations of Eastwood's actions in jail and conversations between Eastwood and a psychologist made on a jail phone.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Jensen said during Monday's court hearing that because Eastwood is making his mental health an issue in the case, Eastwood's private medical records are no longer private.

A Phoenix man accused of trying to use the government's Cash for Clunkers program to ditch his BMW after a fatal hit-and-run crash last year has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Maricopa County prosecutors say 24-year-old Timothy M. Kissida was driving his luxury car shortly after midnight Aug. 8 when he hit a bicyclist. Phoenix police say 52-year-old Charles Waldrop's bike had lights and reflectors.

Later that day, Kissida allegedly tried to use the Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, to trade in his car. Police say he told a dealer his BMW was damaged when he hit a javelina, a pig-like desert mammal.

Kissida was arrested after a tip to police.

He also pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaving the scene of an accident and tampering with evidence. A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.

Davontae Sanford was just 14 when he told police he killed four people in a drug den, drawing their bodies like stick figures to show where the victims died — on the floor, a couch, a chair.

Sanford was sentenced to at least 38 years in prison for the 2007 slayings, which police say were planned as a robbery.

But now he insists his confession was a lie. A veteran homicide investigator agrees that the young man's statements were unreliable. And his attorney is seeking help from an unlikely ally: A hit man convicted in no fewer than eight other murders.

"It's our hope that he will testify for us," defense attorney Kim McGinnis said of Vincent Smothers, who has told police he took part in the slayings.

For more than a year, a judge has been hearing testimony on the teen's request to take back his 2008 guilty plea and seek a new trial. Prosecutors stand behind their case against the teenager, but at least two officers who interrogated Smothers say he took responsibility for the same murders.