It's the ongoing public corruption investigation that's led to charges against numerous city officials, including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. It now appears his father could soon be at federal court, as well.

"The case looks like it's at a point where decisions have to be made both by the prosecutors and by Mr. Kilpatrick," said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor.

This time that Mr. Kilpatrick is Bernard Kilpatrick, the father of the disgraced former mayor.

Kwame Kilpatrick is already facing charges related to raiding the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, but now his father has asked for a federal defender - a sure sign he's in trouble, too.

"A target letter is often viewed as an invitation to someone to make contact with the government and explore the possibility of resolving the case," Henning said.

He said it's not clear what the charges would be against the elder Kilpatrick, who is long suspected of orchestrating pay-to-play deals involving city contracts. However, whatever money he might have made appears to be gone. Bernard Kilpatrick had to sign an affidavit of indigency to qualify for a court appointed attorney.

Iraq's highest court has ordered the country's parliament back to work, in a ruling that could help break a seven-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government.

The chief judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Midhat Mahmoud, said the court had ruled unconstitutional the parliament's failure to meet since June or to fulfil its duty to elect a speaker and a president.

The 325-member parliament elected in March has met only once, on June 14, for 18 minutes.

Advertisement: Story continues below The court's ruling has the potential to deepen the political crisis if the Iraqiya bloc, which won the most seats in the election, refuses to attend sessions.

''All members of parliament should abide by this decision,'' said Abdul Sattar al-Beeraqdar, a spokesman for the country's judiciary. ''It will be a constitutional breach if they don't.''

The ruling is in response to a case filed by a consortium of groups, backed by the Communist Party, against the acting speaker, Fouad Massoum.

Mr Massoum, a Kurd, said he would not disobey the order and expected to summon MPs to meet again within two weeks.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson says BP will pay his department $10 million to strengthen its inspection operations to ensure that seafood taken from Gulf of Mexico waters is safe to eat.

Bronson said Monday another $10 million from BP will be used for advertising to help restore public confidence in the safety of Gulf seafood. BP will pay the $20 million over a three year period.

The agreement with the British-based oil giant also provides for a three-year extension if state or federal waters bordering on Florida are closed because of lingering contaminants from the April well explosion that sent millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf until it was capped four months later.

The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from a father and son who built Adelphia Communications into a cable television powerhouse and were convicted of fraud after it collapsed into bankruptcy.

The high court refused on Monday to hear an appeal from John and Timothy Rigas.

The Rigases were sent to prison after Adelphia collapsed in 2002. At the time, it was the country's fifth-largest cable TV company.

Prosecutors said John Rigas used it like a personal piggy bank, paying for expenses as small as massages and withdrawing $100,000 from the company whenever he wished.

The Rigases say the government should have turned over to them notes taken during prosecutorial interviews with some witnesses. They also say their prison sentences were too long.

A federal appeals court has declined to fast-track a challenge against a Minnesota law requiring disclosure of corporate political spending.

In an order Monday, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion to expedite the case, and it scheduled oral arguments for Jan. 11 in St. Louis, well after the election.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the Taxpayers League of Minnesota and a travel company are trying to overturn the law on free-speech grounds.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank last month refused to block the state law.

The groups have also asked the 8th Circuit for an injunction to suspend enforcement of the disclosure law while their appeal is considered. The appeals court took that request under advisement.

The Supreme Court won't decide who really owns the initials "SC" when it comes to college sports: the University of Southern California or the University of South Carolina.

The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from South Carolina, which wanted to trademark a baseball cap logo with the initials "SC."

The Trojans already have a trademark on a version of "SC" and say the Gamecocks' symbol looks too much like theirs. The California school says it has sold tens of millions of dollars of apparel with "SC" on it, while South Carolina only wanted to start using those initials on baseball caps in 1997.

Courts have rejected South Carolina's trademark.

The case is University of South Carolina v. University of Southern California, 09-1270.

Florida's strict ban on adoption by gay people is unconstitutional because no other group, even people with criminal backgrounds, are singled out for a flat prohibition by state law, an appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The ruling by the 3rd District Court of Appeal upholds a 2008 decision by a Miami-Dade County judge who found "no rational basis" for the ban when she approved the adoption of two young brothers by Martin Gill and his male partner. The prohibition was first enacted in 1977 and is the only law of its kind in the nation, according to court records.

In a 28-page opinion, a three-judge panel of the court noted that gay people are permitted to become foster parents or legal guardians in Florida, yet are the only group not allowed to adopt.

"It is difficult to see any rational basis in utilizing homosexual persons as foster parents or guardians on a temporary or permanent basis, while imposing a blanket prohibition on those same persons," wrote Judge Gerald Cope for the panel. "All other persons are eligible to be considered case-by-case to be adoptive parents."

The decision is likely to be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which could then determine the ultimate fate of the law. "We note that our ruling is unlikely to be the last word," the appeals panel said.

The ruling came in an appeal of the 2008 decision by the state Department of Children & Families, which had urged the judges to consider evidence of what it said were risk factors among potential gay parents. These factors, according to attorneys for the department, included more sexual activity by children of gay parents and more incidents of teasing and bullying suffered by children from gay households.