A woman accused of laundering some of the $10 million her husband allegedly embezzled from a Tennessee company is scheduled to stand trial in federal court Feb. 1.

Federal court records say Danielle J. Williams withdrew more than $300,000 from accounts where her husband allegedly put the stolen money.

She pleaded not guilty Dec. 10. He trial will be held in U.S. District Court in Oxford.

Walter Thomas Williams III, also known as Thom W. Williams, was indicted in November on wire fraud charges for allegedly embezzling from his employer, Verso Paper Corp. in Memphis, Tenn.

Thom Williams, of Hernando, Miss., was a financial analyst for Verso.

A judge is hearing a request by Alabama Gov. Bob Riley to dismiss a lawsuit filed by legislators challenging a computer contract issued by Riley's administration.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tom King is conducting the hearing Thursday morning in Montgomery. King got the case after all of Montgomery's circuit judges stepped aside.

Members of the Legislature's Contract Review Committee filed the suit over the Riley administration's contract with Paragon Source. They want the unbid contract canceled. Officials in the Riley administration say Paragon is the only company that can do the work.

The Illinois Supreme Court is not yet issuing an opinion on whether the state's medical malpractice law is constitutional.

The court announced earlier this week it could rule Thursday on whether damage awards in medical mistakes may be capped.

But no opinion was released. Justices traditionally give no reason for the timing of their decisions.

The General Assembly adopted caps in 2005 as a way to keep doctors from fleeing the state because of rising insurance rates.

It limited what victims could collect for non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals.

A Cook County judge ruled in 2007 that caps interfered with juries' power to award appropriate damage awards for medical errors.

A woman accused of hiding her elderly mother's corpse for seven months in the family's North Carolina home asked Thursday for a court-appointed defense attorney.

Amy Stewart made her first court appearance before a district court judge in Wilmington.

The 47-year-old did not enter a plea. She was charged Wednesday with concealing a dead body, a felony. Stewart posted bond and was released from jail.

Police responded to the family's home Tuesday after receiving a 911 call and found the body of Stewart's 87-year-old mother, Blanche Matilda Roth, in a bedroom. Police estimate Roth died in May.

In the 911 recording an unidentified male caller told an operator, "We have an ... elderly lady in the house who has died and we need her taken to the morgue."

When asked how long ago the woman had passed away, the caller replied, "I don't know, I'm going to say a month." The caller confirmed that the woman died a month ago and was still in the house.

The 57-year-old was arrested after gunning down the 42-year-old mother of two young children at the district courthouse in Hollabrunn, a town about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Vienna, Austria's capital, said Leopold Etz of the Lower Austrian criminal police force.

Wilhelm Tschugguel, an official who oversees the Hollabrunn court, told The Associated Press that the alleged killer was unhappy with the outcome of his divorce proceedings and had entered the court in Hollabrunn to find the judge who had handled the case.

Tschugguel said the man started screaming when he couldn't find the judge and shot the victim when she tried to calm him down.

The gunman had repeatedly complained about his divorce case, and on Tuesday had called the Justice Ministry to complain about it but "at no point in time were there any indications of a threat," Tschugguel said.

Franz Polzer, head of the Lower Austrian Bureau of Criminal Affairs, said the man was drunk at the time of the shooting and admitted to police that he wanted to kill the judge. He shot the victim in the head and then fled, losing his pistol on the way out, Polzer said. Police arrested him when he returned to the courthouse several minutes later.

Vermont's highest court is being asked to decide what a dog's love is worth.

The state Supreme Court on Thursday began hearing a case that started in July 2003, when Denis and Sarah Scheele, who were visiting relatives, let their mixed-breed dog wander into Lewis Dustin's yard and he fatally shot it.

Now the Scheeles, of Annapolis, Md., are asking the court to carve out a new legal doctrine that a dog's owners can sue for emotional distress and loss of companionship, just like parents can when they lose children.

"It's so important for people to really recognize the relationship between the families and their companion animals," said Sarah Scheele, 58, who attended Thursday's court hearing.

The Scheeles' attorney argued that a family dog is worth more than a piece of property, saying dogs "love you back."

Under the current law, losing a dog is "treated the same way as the loss of an end table," David Putter said after the hearing.

"That's not what the relationship between humans and dogs is anymore. They're a member of the family and when they're lost you can't just go out to the local store and buy a new one. That doesn't fix it."

Dustin's lawyer, David Blythe, questioned how the court could draw a distinction between a dog and other personal property.

"Can you effectively create a special rule just for dogs? Why not cats? Why not horses?" Blythe said.

The court isn't expected to make a ruling before spring.