A mother who drunkenly drove a station wagon full of children into a New York City highway wreck that killed one of them has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a case that spurred a state law.

Carmen Huertas wiped her eyes as she entered her guilty plea Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom packed with her relatives and victims' families.

The October crash occurred as Huertas drove to a slumber party. It killed 11-year-old Leandra Rosado and injured the other six children, including Huertas' daughter. It prompted Leandra's Law, which makes drunken driving a felony if a child is in the vehicle.

Huertas' sentencing is set for Oct. 1. A judge has promised her more than the minimum range of one to three years in prison but less than the maximum range of five to 15 years.

A former Denver-area postal worker has pleaded guilty to stealing DVDs, CDs, and iPods that he sold for over $85,000 over two years.

Former Highlands Ranch U.S. postal worker David Schmauder pleaded guilty Monday to two federal counts of theft by mail. He faces up to five years in prison for each count when he's sentenced Nov. 30.

Schmauder didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Authorities say the 48-year-old Schmauder was arrested in January after postal special agents saw him open mail, put it in a plastic bag and then in his car. Officials say records show that a store in Littleton paid him a total of $85,174 for nearly 12,000 items. He also stole some items from Victoria's Secret which he gave to his wife.

Costa Rica's top court has blocked the electoral tribunal from holding a referendum that would have let voters decide if same-sex civil unions should be allowed in the Central American country.

The Constitutional Court's 5-2 decision released Tuesday says such a referendum would put a minority at a disadvantage in a largely Roman Catholic country. It also says gay civil unions is a legislative issue and not an electoral one.

The court says it considers homosexuals a group that is at a disadvantage and the target for discrimination, requiring government authorities to protect their rights.

The electoral tribunal had planned to hold the referendum Dec. 5, when Costa Rica also is holding municipal elections.

A former B-2 bomber engineer who marketed and sold his stealth expertise to China is facing life in a federal prison following his conviction for bartering U.S. military secrets.

Noshir Gowadia, 66, was found guilty Monday on charges that he designed a cruise missile component for China and pocketed at least $110,000, which he allegedly used to help pay a $15,000-a-month mortgage on a multimillion-dollar oceanview home he built on Maui's north shore.

Prosecutors said Gowadia revealed classified information to foreign powers at least twice: during a PowerPoint presentation on his cruise missile technology, and when he showed the technology's effectiveness by comparing it to American air-to-air missiles.

"This case was unique in that we litigated know-how, the very concept of exporting your knowledge base that you derive, in whole or in part, from your activities working in United States classified programs," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ken Sorenson said. "If you can take that and go sell it or market yourself on an international stage in secrecy to other governments and not suffer criminal sanctions for it, then we're in trouble."

Gowadia's defense attorneys argued during the nearly four-month trial that while it's true he gave China the design for the cruise missile part, he based his work on unclassified, publicly available information. Gowadia plans to appeal.

Victoryland casino closed voluntarily Monday as a court ruling loomed that could allow a raid of Alabama's largest electronic bingo operation, the last non-Indian casino doing business in the state.

Victoryland owner Milton McGregor said the casino was be closing temporarily due to the "legal shenanigans and threats" from Gov. Bob Riley and his gambling task force commander, John Tyson Jr.

Riley and Tyson contend the casino is an illegal slots operation and court rulings in Alabama have made that clear. But McGregor said no court has ruled specifically that Victoryland's machines are in violation of a constitutional amendment allowing bingo that Macon County voters approved.

"The system of government in our state has broken down," McGregor said in a statement.

Macon County's district attorney and sheriff have contended the casino is legal. Their attorneys had a Monday afternoon deadline from the Alabama Supreme Court to respond to Tyson's request to raid Victoryland and confiscate its 6,000 bingo machines.

The families of two Hungarian tourists killed in a duck boat accident on the Delaware River last month have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Philadelphia.

Sixteen-year-old Dora Schwendtner and 20-year-old Szabolcs Prem were killed July 7 when a barge being pushed by a tug slammed into the stalled duck boat. The boat capsized and sank.

Lawyers for the victims' families say the suit was filed Tuesday, naming tour boat operator Ride the Ducks of Norcross, Ga., and others.

The suit seeks punitive damages and claims the deaths were senseless and preventable.

Ride The Ducks spokesman Bob Salmon says the company is always focused on safety.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by descendants of the Apache warrior Geronimo, who claimed some of his remains were stolen in 1918 by a student society at Yale University.

The lawsuit was filed last year in Washington by 20 descendants who want to rebury Geronimo near his New Mexico birthplace.

It claimed Skull and Bones members took some remains from a burial plot at Fort Sill, Okla., where Geronimo died in 1909.

Judge Richard Roberts last month granted a Justice Department motion to dismiss, saying the plaintiffs didn't establish the government had waived its right not to be sued without its consent.

He also dismissed the lawsuit against Yale and the society, saying the plaintiffs cited a law that applies only to Native American cultural items excavated or discovered after 1990.

Skull and Bones is not officially affiliated with Yale.