Mississippi: Tobacco trial lawyers subject of FBI probe

Tobacco lawsuits made Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs so rich and famous that Hollywood made a movie that featured him, “The Insider.” But now federal investigators are looking into whether Scruggs and Paul Minor, another Mississippi trial lawyer, have influenced the state’s judicial system through loans to judges.

Federal and state investigators have cast a wide net that extends from Mississippi Gulf Coast chancery and circuit courts all the way to the state Supreme Court.

The FBI, U.S. Attorney’s Office and state investigators are trying to determine whether Scruggs and Minor paid off loans to judges from two Mississippi Coast banks, say sources close to the investigation.

No charges have been brought against anyone at this point.

San Diego: Battle group departs for Persian Gulf

Nearly 8,000 sailors and Marines departed Saturday for the Persian Gulf with the seven-ship USS Constellation battle group.

“We expect to go into harm’s way. We expect to make America proud,” said the battle group’s commander, Rear Adm. Barry Costello. “As we head west, it could be anywhere. We’ll be ready to answer the call.”

The contingent is led by the Constellation, which carries 72 Navy and Marine Corps aircraft. The battle group is expected to play a role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism and would fly patrols over Iraq and could strike in combat if war is declared.

The battle group also includes the guided-missile destroyer USS Higgins, guided-missile cruisers USS Valley Forge and USS Bunker Hill, and the guided-missile frigate USS Thach.

Los Angeles: Actor-director dies

Larry Dobkin, a television director and character actor whose acting credits spanned stage, radio, television and films over seven decades, has died. He was 83.

Dobkin, who was one of five actors who played detective Ellery Queen on radio, died of heart failure Monday at his home in Los Angeles.

Dobkin appeared in more than 65 feature films, including “The Ten Commandments,” “Julius Caesar,” “The Defiant Ones,” “North by Northwest” and “Patton”

As an actor, he appeared in early TV shows including “I Love Lucy,” “The Adventures of Superman,” “You Are There,” “Playhouse 90” and “The Colgate Comedy Hour.” He also showed up frequently in TV westerns in the 1950s and ’60s, including “Gunsmoke” and “Lawman” and, more recently, “NYPD Blue” and “Judging Amy.”

As a television director, his many credits from the ’50s through the ’80s include “The Donna Reed Show,” “Dr. Kildare,” “The Waltons,” “Barnaby Jones,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Dallas,” “Dynasty” and “The Fall Guy.”

Arizona: Family, friends mourn slain nursing professors

Family, friends, colleagues and students on Saturday mourned two of three nursing professors slain by a student, including an instructor who studied the relationship between health and spirituality.

“We all feel robbed by her death, thinking of what might have been with Cheryl’s continuing ministry,” the Rev. John Smith said at the funeral service for Cheryl Mallernee McGaffic, 44, a clinical associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Nursing.

Several hours later, more than 400 people packed into Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at a memorial service for Barbara Monroe.

Monroe, 45, a clinical assistant professor, was gunned down with McGaffic on Monday in a classroom. Robin Rogers, 50, also a clinical assistant professor, was shot to death first in her office.

They women were shot by Robert S. Flores Jr., a nursing student who was failing out of school. Flores, a practical nurse and divorced Gulf War veteran, killed himself.