At a Glance ...

October trial set in school stabbing of rival

MOUNT CLEMENS (AP) — An October trial is scheduled for a young woman accused of fatally stabbing a classmate at their Detroit-area school in an alleged dispute over a boy.

The Macomb Daily reports Macomb County Circuit Court Judge Kathryn Viviano on Monday set the Oct. 22 trial date for 18-year-old Tanaya Lewis. She’s charged with first-degree premeditated murder in the death of 16-year-old Danyna Gibson in a classroom at Warren Fitzgerald High School last September.

Investigators say the attack occurred in front of a teacher and about 20 students, and that Lewis was laughing as she chased Gibson and stabbed her in the chest and back.

Lewis, who was 17 at the time of the attack, was found competent to stand trial in December. She’s being held without bond.


Court sides with Alabama company in patent dispute

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with an Alabama technology company over the U.S. Postal Service in a patent dispute.

The dispute before the justices had to do with U.S. Patent No. 6,826,548. That’s the patent Birmingham-based Return Mail has for a system that uses barcodes, scanning equipment and computer databases to process returned mail almost entirely automatically.

The Postal Service initially expressed interest in Return Mail’s invention but ultimately developed its own, similar system. That led to a dispute over the company’s patent.

On Monday, the court sided 6-3 with Return Mail. Of the Postal Service’s arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor deadpanned in an opinion : “None delivers.”

The dispute began when the Postal Service tried and failed to get Return Mail’s patent invalidated. Return Mail sued, arguing that the government should pay for using its invention without permission.

Just as Return Mail thought it might be gaining the upper hand, the Postal Service switched tactics, using a 2011 law to challenge Return Mail’s patent.

The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act says that a “person who is not the owner of a patent,” can file a patent challenge using the law.
The Postal Service argued it counted as a “person” under the law, but the Supreme Court disagreed.


Bagged lunch sparks inmate fight in courthouse holding cell

INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — A dispute over a banana and a cookie apparently sparked a fight between two inmates in a holding cell at a Pennsylvania courthouse.

Authorities say 18-year-old Ryshawn Crawford and a 35-year-old man were at the Indiana County courthouse for unrelated matters when Crawford said he wanted the other man’s bagged lunch.

The other inmate gave Crawford the sandwich but refused to surrender the other two items.

Crawford then allegedly attacked the other man, who wasn’t seriously injures.

The fight was quickly broken up by sheriff’s deputies and Crawford was charged with assault, harassment and strangulation.

Crawford is serving a five-year state prison sentence term for robbery conspiracy.

The other inmate is in Indiana County jail on a DUI-related charge.

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