Oregon

Nike settles commercial free speech case

Nike Inc. agreed to pay $1.5 million to a worker rights group to settle the commercial free speech case that it took to the U.S. Supreme Court, the company said Friday.

Marc Kasky, a San Francisco labor activist, had sued the Beaverton-based athletic shoe and clothing giant five years ago, accusing it of false advertising for claiming the company was protecting labor rights at overseas contract factories that make footwear for Nike.

The surprise settlement left hanging the core issue of whether Nike lied and if its ads qualified as protected speech under the First Amendment.

California

Beatles’ record company sues Apple Computer

The Beatles want to take another bite out of Apple Computer Inc.

The Fab Four’s record company, Apple Corps Ltd., said Friday it was suing Apple Computer because the technology company violated a 1991 agreement by entering the music business with its iTunes online store.

When Steve Jobs co-founded Apple Computer in 1977, he is said to have chosen the name in part as a tribute to the Beatles. The 1991 agreement dealt with the future use of the name “Apple” and of both companies’ well-known logos.

Apple Corps, founded in 1968, is owned by Sir Paul McCartney; Ringo Starr; John Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono; and the estate of George Harrison. The Beatles’ suit, filed in London, seeks an injunction to enforce the terms of the 1991 agreement, and monetary damages for the alleged contract breach.

Michigan

Five killed in robbery of convenience store

A man opened fire at a convenience store during an apparently botched robbery of the business, killing four people and wounding two others before he and his girlfriend led authorities on a high-speed chase in their Corvette, police said.

The man shot and killed himself in a residential back yard after crashing the car and fleeing on foot with his girlfriend, who was arrested minutes later in the same yard.

Police Chief Dan Pfannes said Leslie Gordon, 24, acted as a lookout Thursday night as Michael Lamont Schofield, 30, fired one shot each into the two clerks and four customers at Neil’s Party Store in Westland, a Detroit suburb.

Gordon was arraigned Friday on four counts of first-degree premeditated murder and two counts of attempted murder, among other charges. She was not represented by an attorney, but requested that one be appointed for her.

Oklahoma

Three charged in teen’s kidnapping, torture

An 18-year-old man was kidnapped and tortured for six days with beatings and chemical injections at a hotel room, and his former girlfriend and her husband were charged, authorities said.

A third suspect told police the kidnapping was an act of revenge. He said the husband was angry that the teen had slept with his wife and wanted to get even, according to an affidavit.

The victim said he met Krystle Ann Cole Skinner, 22, and Gordon Todd Skinner, 39, at a rave party, and dated Krystle Skinner while the couple had temporarily broken up. Police have not released the victim’s name.

Police said the couple and truck driver William Ernest Hauck, 53, kidnapped the teen during the Fourth of July weekend from a Tulsa hotel and took him about 440 miles south to a hotel in Houston.

The teen was found, bloody and dehydrated, July 11 in a field in Texas City, Texas. Police picked him up and took him to a hospital.