Nebraska
Woman convicted of killing Dobe puppy at airport
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - A July sentencing has been scheduled for a 57-year-old Florida woman convicted of drowning a puppy in a Nebraska airport restroom.
Cynthia Anderson, of Edgewater, pleaded no contest on Thursday and was convicted of cruel neglect of an animal resulting in its death. She faces up to five years in prison on the felony charge. Her sentencing is set for July 30.
On Jan. 23, Anderson was barred from boarding a flight at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island because the puppy was so young and not properly contained.
Authorities say Anderson then was seen entering the restroom. Another woman soon reported finding a dead Doberman puppy in a toilet.
Oklahoma
Woman accused of removing dead rival's body parts
TULSA, Okla. (AP) - An Oklahoma woman charged with slashing the corpse of her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend is accused of removing body parts too.
Shaynna Sims was charged with illegal dissection earlier this month after police say she cut the woman's corpse during a viewing at a funeral home. Authorities now say she also removed both breasts and a toe.
Prosecutors plan to argue Friday that the 26-year-old Sims' bond should be increased after she was charged a day earlier with removal of a deceased person's body part.
Sims was arrested at the dead woman's home after she attended the viewing. Police say she stole the dead woman's shoes and was carrying a knife with the woman's hair attached to it.
California
Pandora to appeal court's ruling BMI case
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Pandora Media Inc. lost a court hearing Thursday in a dispute with music publishing rights group BMI over royalty rates, but the Internet streaming leader said it will appeal.
Pandora said it's confident it can win later since the appeals court - the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York - last week ruled in its favor in a case against the other major publishing group known as ASCAP.
Thursday's ruling would force Pandora to pay 2.5 percent of its revenue to songwriters and music publishers, up from 1.75 percent. Last week's appeals court ruling allowed Pandora's 1.85 percent rate to ASCAP to stay intact.
If the appeal fails, Pandora says its costs could rise by 0.8 percent of revenue, which would have amounted to about $1.7 million last quarter.
BMI called the ruling a victory for the more than 650,000 songwriters, composers and publishers it represents.
"This is an important step forward in valuing music in the digital age," BMI said in a statement.
New York
Suit over sports TV granted class-action status
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge in New York says a lawsuit challenging all-or-nothing sports TV packages that require purchasing all professional hockey or baseball games can proceed as a class action.
Judge Shira Scheindlin ruled Thursday. She says all fans with some appetite for watching hockey and baseball broadcasts are affected by league policies requiring consumers to buy all league games rather than just the games of one team or a few teams. Her written decision follows a three-day hearing in March.
Lawyers for the leagues have said fans who brought lawsuits against Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League had failed to show common injuries warranting a class.
The judge ruled last summer that baseball's antitrust exemption didn't shield it from the litigation.
New York
Man stole 454 markers from veterans' graves
BATAVIA, N.Y. (AP) - A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to weekends in jail and must pay restitution to cover the cost of 454 bronze markers and flag-holders he stole from the graves of veterans in western New York.
Joseph Kuzma, of Byron, pleaded guilty in March to attempted grand larceny. The Daily News of Batavia reports members of veterans' groups turned out for his sentencing Thursday in Genesee County Court.
Prosecutors say Kuzma stole 192 markers and 262 flag-holders from eight cemeteries in the neighboring towns of Bergen and Byron during nighttime thefts last year. He sold the items at a Rochester scrap yard to pay for his drug habit.
Kuzma was sentenced to spend weekends in jail for four months and to pay more than $17,000 to replace the stolen items.
California
Appeals court sides with fruit farm in labor case
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - A California appeals court has sided with one of the largest fruit farms in the country in its fight with state regulators and a union over a labor contract for its workers.
The 5th District Court of Appeal said Thursday that state officials should have given Gerawan Farming a chance to argue that the United Farm Workers had abandoned the company's workers before ordering the parties into mediation over the contract.
The court reversed the state's order.
UFW National Vice President Armando Elenes told the Fresno Bee the union would appeal the decision.
The union won the right to represent Gerawan's workers in 1992, but the two sides only met once without agreeing to a contract. The appeals court said UFW then disappeared for nearly two decades before renewing negotiations. Gerawan argued that the union had abandoned the workers.
Ohio
Driver not guilty by reason of insanity in crash
FREMONT, Ohio (AP) - A man accused of driving more than 125 mph and causing a crash that killed an elderly couple on the Ohio Turnpike has been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
A Sandusky County judge ruled Thursday that Andrew Gans doesn't understand his actions and found him not guilty by reason of insanity on two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. An attorney says the 26-year-old from Kent has mostly been in a psychiatric hospital since the crash on Thanksgiving in 2013.
Gans was charged in the deaths of Wilbur and Margaret McCoy of Toledo. Both were 77. Authorities said Gans struck the couple's minivan near Fremont.
Gans' attorney says a judge will determine where his client will be sent.
Published: Mon, May 18, 2015
