National Roundup

Washington @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:Tobacco groups sue FDA to block guidelines WASHINGTON (AP) - The nation's largest tobacco companies are suing the Food and Drug Administration over recent guidelines that they claim overstep the agency's authority over packaging for cigarettes and other tobacco products. Units of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Altria Group Inc. and Lorillard Tobacco filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming the FDA's guidance infringes on commercial speech. The FDA gained authority to regulate tobacco in 2009, including the power to review new tobacco products before they can be sold if they are significantly different from products on the market. Last month the agency issued guidelines on how manufacturers can determine if their products require FDA review. But the tobacco makers allege that the FDA is asserting overly broad authority to review labeling and packaging. Maryland 20 years for mother in fatal child abuse case FREDERICK, Md. (AP) - A young mother wept as a judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison Tuesday for failing to prevent her husband from killing their 21-month-old daughter in a case that prompted state child-welfare reform legislation. "If I knew my daughter needed help that day, I would have gotten her help," Stephanie Ramirez Williams, 22, told the court. "Not a day goes by that I don't punish myself." But Frederick County Circuit Judge Scott Rolle said he was swayed by the state's evidence that as Anayah lay fatally injured from a man-sized punch to the belly, her mother worked on the family's income taxes and sold a decorative pillow on Craigslist. "I just cannot justify a mother not helping her child," Rolle said. He suspended another 20 years and acceded to a defense request to recommend Williams for the Patuxent Institution, a state prison focused on mental-health treatment. Defense attorney Sun Choi said Williams, a nursing home aide, didn't report her suspicions that her husband, Frankie, was abusing Anayah because of a pathological need to believe she could create a perfect home without assistance - a notion that Choi said was rooted in Williams' tortured childhood as a sexual abuse victim whose pleas for help were ignored. "She was being controlled by Mr. Williams. She didn't have a voice," Choi said. Assistant State's Attorney Lindell Angel countered that Williams could have spoken up at any time from Sept. 2, 2013, when Anayah suffered a skull fracture that left her with cerebral palsy, to March 15, 2014, when she died from injuries inflicted the night before. Angel said Williams made a conscious decision to protect her husband, not her child. Anayah had been returned to her parents a few weeks earlier after 18 months in foster care despite the indications of earlier abuse. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan has said he will sign a bill known as Anayah's Law, passed by this year's General Assembly. The legislation gives the Department of Social Services more flexibility in deciding whether to recommend family reunification. Williams was convicted last week in a plea deal of first-degree child abuse resulting in death. She is divorcing her husband and putting a younger daughter up for adoption, Choi said. Police say Frankie Williams has acknowledged beating the girl. He is charged with first-degree murder. He has pleaded "not criminally responsible," a type of insanity defense, and is scheduled for trial May 27. Ohio @ROUND UP Briefs Headline:Dad charged in toddler's death pleads not guilty CINCINNATI (AP) - The father of a 2-year-old girl who weighed 13 pounds when she died of starvation and blunt-force injury has pleaded not guilty in Ohio to murder charges. Court documents show 32-year-old Glen Bates entered the plea Monday in Hamilton County to aggravated murder and child endangerment in Glenara Bates' March 29 death. Bates was ordered jailed without bail. His attorney says he's still in the early stages of investigating and evaluating his client's case. The child's mother is charged with the same counts. Twenty-eight-year-old Andrea Bradley's arraignment is scheduled for Wednesday. Prosecutor Joe Deters says the child had been badly beaten and had bruises, belt marks and bite marks, among other injuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average 2-year-old girl weighs twice what Glenara did. Illinois Drew Peterson to stand trial in July in murder-for-hire CHESTER, Ill. (AP) - Drew Peterson, the former suburban Chicago police officer charged with trying to kill the prosecutor who helped put him in prison for his third wife's death, will stand trial in southern Illinois this summer. A Randolph County judge on Tuesday set a July 6 jury trial for Peterson. The ex-Bolingbrook police sergeant is accused of enlisting another prison inmate whose identity has not been disclosed in a murder-for-hire plot to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow. Peterson pleaded not guilty in March. Peterson, 61, is serving a 38-year sentence at the Menard Correctional Center in Chester after his 2012 conviction in Kathleen Savio's death eight years earlier. He's also suspected in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife, whose father and sister attended the brief hearing. Circuit Judge Richard Brown also approved a request by prosecutors to keep the taped prison conversations between Peterson and the unidentified informant under seal before the trial to avoid influencing potential jurors. Defense attorney Lucas Liefer didn't oppose the request. "I just don't feel that it's in the interest of justice that that come out any sooner than it has to," said Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker. "We're not trying to purposely frustrate the public's rights. But there's a greater importance in making sure we aren't prejudicial to Mr. Peterson's rights." Peterson, who is charged with solicitation of murder for hire and one count of solicitation of murder, attended the hearing but did not speak. Both felonies carry maximum sentences of 30 years. Brown set a hearing for late May to consider three motions submitted by Walker. One asks the court to allow prosecutors to cross-examine Peterson about his first-degree murder conviction should he choose to testify. Another seeks permission to discuss a 2003 attempt by Peterson to pay someone $25,000 to "take care of" Savio. The third seeks to limit discussion at trial about the details of the confidential informant's own first-degree murder conviction. Brown has already barred the defense and prosecutors from publicly revealing evidence to protect the informant. Peterson did not testify at his first trial but blamed prosecutors after he was convicted for "the largest railroad job ever." He challenged Glasgow to look him in the eye and then told him to "never forget what you've done here." Published: Wed, Apr 15, 2015