Echols said her three children excelled in school. In fact, she had attended two awards ceremonies for two of her children days before deputies came knocking on her door.

"The very next day, May 18, I was arrested, and I sat in jail for over five hours. I had never seen the inside of a jail," said Echols.

But in closing statements, prosecutors said Echols signed legal documents seven times saying her family lived at addresses in the city when in fact the family did not.

"Ladies and gentlemen, a lie is a lie, and our law says when you lie to the government, you have committed a crime," said assistant district attorney Grady Moore.

Echols' defense attorney, however, called the 16 felony charges overkill. They asked jurors to send a message that prosecutors had gone too far.

"She wanted her children to get a good quality education in a situation where they would not be latch-key children, where they would not have to come home alone, where they would not have to have a baby sitter, where they would not have to have day care, where their family would be responsible and take care of them," said attorney Vic Reynolds.

The sex scandal surfaced last year, shortly after Kutun was sworn in as North Miami's city attorney.

Kutun admittedly signed an affidavit in October 2006 detailing the meetings with a 16-year-old prostituted but claimed the girl pretended to be 18. The affidavit was drawn up in response to an extortion attempt against Kutun, his attorney said.

Kutun claimed the affidavit became public after it was stolen from his desk. He was briefly suspended from office and later fired. "I'm not a criminal here," he said when the allegations surfaced. Kutun was arrested in May 2006. He was charged in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with having sex with a minor.Sharpstein said those charges shouldn't have been filed.

"There was no victim. The girl's underage, but she was also performing acts of prostitution," he said. The Hollywood madam who set up Kutun's liaisons pleaded guilty to her role in the case. Roberta Orenbuch received probation.

Kutun will also receive five years of probation, which could end earlier if he continues undergoing sex-offender treatment and marital counseling.

Kutun, who wouldn't comment about his guilty plea, still faces charges in Broward County. Kutun's attorney said he is hoping for a similar plea deal there.

"Mr. Kutun believes it's in his best interests to get this over with -- the public spectacle and all the humiliation he's had to deal with," Sharpstein said.

The law offices of Peter Polischuk and Robert Dreher have filed suit on behalf of a class of plaintiffs alleging that Apple made "false claims" about the superior display capabilities of the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Class participants purport that the following marketing claims were made by Apple: "a nuanced view simply unavailable on other portables; "TFT display with support for millions of colors;" Aperture as "the ultimate photographer's workstation" Those claims are, at least in part, constituent of deception and misrepresentation, according to the plaintiffs, who claim that instead of adhering to the aforementioned degree of refinement, MacBook and MacBook Pro displays have been prone to flaws like "grainy" or "sparkly" quality, banding in gradients, and distracting lines of distortion.

The lawsuit even directly references a MacNN forum thread in which users note a distinct "grainy" quality of the MacBook Pro display that is extant regardless of booted operating system (Windows XP or Mac OS X) and non-extant on externally connected displays. The platform independence of this issue, as noted in the thread, is directly referenced as a key proponent of the lawsuit's claim.

Posters to that thread also identified a small LCD test application that dramatically exhibits the "sparkle" effect when run on afflicted systems. Another poster to the thread took several pictures of the "grainy" effect.

To showcase the defects, the lawsuit claims that Apple's mechanisms for dealing with users experiencing these issues was less than cordial, with class litigants complaining of Apple employees denying requests for exchange or refund on the basis that machines were "within spec" or that users were "imagining" the problems. In addition, the lawsuit claims that Apple routinely corralled discussion of the problems on its own message boards, deleting grievances voiced by users.

A temporary guest worker program would also be implemented once the borders are declared secure, and the worker identification program is enacted. Finally, up to 1.5 million migrant farm-workers could obtain legal status through an "AgJobs" measure, supported by Senator Diana Feinstein (D-CA) and Senator Larry Craig (R-ID). AgJobs would be a five year pilot program that would grant legal status to those would have worked in US farms for at least 150 days in the last two years.

Today's action by the California Supreme Court is a victory for our state because potentially life-saving science can continue without a shadow of legal doubt. This decision reaffirms voters' will to keep California on the forefront of embryonic stem cell research. California's leadership gives the best promise of finding a cure for deadly and debilitating diseases.

The research program, known as Proposition 71, was approved in a 2004 state referendum by a 59 percent margin.

The lawsuit against the program was brought by the California Family Bioethics Council and two anti-tax organizations - the People's Advocate and the National Tax Limitation Foundation. The trial court determined that the stem cell program was being administered with sufficient state control and did not violate ballot initiative or conflicts of interest rules.

The men were first indicted Feb. 9 on 20 counts of first-degree murder. Firefighters discovered the bodies inside the family's rented home after it was reported on fire Jan. 19.

Authorities have said Serrano and Gilleo were partners with Manuel Morey in a small drug dealing operation.

Police said Serrano and Gilleo went to the family's home to attempt to steal illegal drugs, and during the robbery Tony Morey and his wife were shot and the three boys were stabbed. Attorneys for Serrano and Gilleo could not be reached late Thursday.

The new murder charges include five counts of intentional murder and six counts of felony murder causing someone's death while committing another felony.

Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. The first-degree murder charges are punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole. Both men are being held without bail.

The former mayor of the eastern Iowa town of Wilton has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiracy to deliver marijuana.

Dick Summy was charged last September with distributing and manufacturing about 100 marijuana plants. He entered his plea Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Davenport, but the judge said he'll take a few days to decide whether to accept the plea.

At issue is a law that prohibits someone from being prosecuted for the same crime twice.

The prosecutor is concerned that because Summy pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, he could not be tried for conspiracy to manufacture.

Summy's attorney said Summy believes he conspired to distribute marijuana but did not conspire to manufacture the drug.