The parties in a slow-moving 2008 class action suit in St. Clair County against Target are moving forward again.

A case management conference on sept. 8 saw the first action in the suit since last year.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Patrick Young signed an order giving the parties in the case 30 days to submit a briefing schedule to him on the issue of class certification in the suit led by led plaintiff Brian Buehlhorn.

If the parties can't agree on that schedule, Young will take up the matter Oct. 20 at 9:30 a.m.

Buehlhorn is leading one of several proposed class actions filed against Target and other retailers over the effectiveness of their immune system supplements.

All of the suits were filed by the same team of attorneys including Paul Weiss of Chicago and Richard Burke of St. Louis.

In his suit, Buehlhorn claims that Target's Immunity Supplement does not boost the immune system as claimed.

While a class has yet to be certified in the case, the plaintiff successfully added claims from Minnesota, California and Florida last year.

There were no filings in the case after October of last year until the Sept. 8 order.

The suit seeks damages not to exceed $75,000 per individual class member.

The defendant is represented by Robert Bassett and others.

Utah's Supreme Court has rejected a petition from members of a southern Utah-based polygamous sect seeking a reversal of changes made to its communal land trust.

In a ruling issued Friday, justices say members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints waited too long to challenge the state's intervention in the United Effort Plan Trust.

Valued at $110 million, the trust holds the property in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Ariz., the twin border towns where most church members live.

Utah seized the trust in 2005 after allegations of mismanagement by church leaders. A court-appointed accountant has since converted the trust into a secular entity.

FLDS members consider state control of the UEP a violation of their religious rights.

David Steeves of Center Moriches pleaded guilty in June to second-degree murder in the death of 41-year-old Maureen Steeves.

An autopsy found the woman was killed by potassium cyanide poisoning. Prosecutors say her husband had laced her coffee with the lethal substance.

Defense attorney Craig McElwee said the 45-year-old Steeves bought the cyanide to kill himself but "chickened out" and gave it to his wife instead.

Steeves pleaded guilty after prosecutors assured him that his sons would not be in court for the sentencing. The boys, ages 17 and 15, wrote letters to the judge, saying their father deserved no mercy.

A Delaware bankruptcy court judge on Friday cleared the way for auto parts supplier Visteon Corp. to begin soliciting votes on its proposed reorganization plan, which would leave unsecured bond holders in control of the company.

Overruling objections from certain shareholders and holders of unsecured trade claims, Judge Christopher Sontchi approved documents describing Visteon's proposed reorganization plan and the process for creditors to vote on it.

Creditors will have until July 30 to vote on the plan, and Sontchi scheduled a plan confirmation trial to begin Sept. 28.

The shareholders could receive nothing under Visteon's plan, and the trade creditors would get no more than 50 cents on the dollar for their claims, which total about $48 million. Their attorneys argued that the disclosure statement outlining Visteon's plan did not contain enough information on the company's valuation, and that the plan itself was unconfirmable because of how it treats various creditor groups.

Attorneys for Visteon argued that the objections to the disclosure statement were without merit, or that they should be addressed at what promises to be a contentious plan confirmation trial stretching over two weeks.

A former secretary for a Hudson Valley law firm has been sentenced to up to 13 years in prison for stealing nearly $700,000 from her employer over a seven-year span.
  
Mary Merten of New Paltz was sentenced Tuesday in Ulster County Court to 4 1/3 years to 13 years and also ordered to pay more than $600,000 to the Kingston law firm where she was employed as a confidential secretary.

The judge who sentenced the 44-year-old Merten noted that her thefts forced one of the victims out of retirement and looted a child's college savings.

She pleaded guilty earlier this year to embezzling from the law firm of Riseley and Moriello.

The $625,000 she was ordered to repay to her victims was the amount agreed to during a restitution hearing.