Goodwin Liu, 39, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, learned English in kindergarten and later became an honors graduate at Stanford and a Rhodes Scholar. He has taught at Berkeley since 2003 and was named associate dean of the law school in 2008.

He also worked as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and as a special assistant to the deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

Liu is one of two Asian Americans nominated by Obama to the federal appeals courts, which now have no active Asian American judges. The Ninth Circuit handles federal cases from California and eight other Western states and has three vacancies among its 29 authorized judgeships.

"Goodwin Liu is an outstanding teacher, a brilliant scholar and an exceptional public servant," said the law school's dean, Christopher Edley.

The nomination also won praise from Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and from Tom Campbell, a UC Berkeley business professor and former congressman who is seeking the Republican nomination to run against Boxer.

Campbell said Liu would bring "scholarly distinction and a strong reputation for integrity, fair-mindedness and collegiality to the Ninth Circuit."

But Senate confirmation may not be routine. Some of Liu's positions could draw conservative opposition, which has held up other judicial nominees.

Liu testified in January 2006 against President George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, saying Alito's judicial opinions were well-reasoned but indicated a tilt in favor of prosecutors and the government. He did not testify against Chief Justice John Roberts but told a reporter before the 2005 confirmation hearing that he thought Roberts would move the court to the right.

The state Finance Department has refused to pay the legal fees of a Montgomery law firm that was hired by a legislative oversight committee to stop the state from proceeding with an unbid $13 million computer contract.

State Comptroller Thomas White has written to House Clerk Greg Pappas saying the committee didn't have the authority to hire the firm of Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay. White said the state can't pay the $26,740 bill submitted by the law firm

The Legislature's Contract Review Committee hired the firm to represent the panel in a lawsuit seeking to stop the unbid contract signed by Gov. Bob Riley with Paragon Source LLC. The lawsuit was dismissed by a Jefferson County judge.

Samsung Electronics will pay Rambus Inc. $700 million over five years, and invest another $200 million in the chip design company as part of a settlement ending their legal disputes, the two companies said Tuesday.

Samsung will make an upfront payment of $200 million, and a quarterly payment of about $25 million for the next five years as part of the agreement, the companies said. Samsung also will invest $200 million in Rambus stock.

Under the agreement, Samsung also will license Rambus' patent portfolio "covering all Samsung semiconductor products, including a perpetual fully-paid license to certain DRAM products," the companies said in a release.

A federal appellate court has overturned the conviction of a former tribal casino manager and his family for allegedly stealing from a tribal casino near the Texas-Mexico border.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans overturned the embezzlement convictions of Isidro Garza Jr., his wife and one of his sons. The trio had been among so-called the "Kickapoo Seven" — a group of tribal and casino employees from the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas accused of stealing from the tribe's small casino near Eagle Pass.

The appellate court overturned the convictions because it said that U.S. District Judge Alia Ludlum erred in transferring the case to Waco, about 300 miles from where the defendants, attorneys and witnesses lived.

The court granted a request from the state attorney general's office Friday afternoon, shortly before Alford Jones and Faye Brown were set to go free.

The ruling gives state attorneys another chance to make their arguments after two lower courts sided with the inmates. Gov. Beverly Perdue has said that she's disgusted with the state's legal system for saying the inmates should go free.

State courts previously determined that life sentences imposed during a period in the 1970s could be no more than 80 years long. Two dozen inmates could be freed immediately because of sentence-reduction credits applied to their terms.

A man who killed six people, including a sheriff's deputy, in a northwest Washington shooting rampage last year pleaded guilty Tuesday and will spend the rest of his life in a mental hospital or prison.

Isaac Zamora entered the pleas to 18 charges, including aggravated murder, attempted murder and burglary, after prosecutor Rich Weyrich agreed he would not seek the death penalty.

"Mr. Zamora won't ever walk the streets again," Weyrich said. "From a public safety standpoint, we've accomplished that."

Zamora, 29, began his rampage Sept. 2, 2008, near the town of Alger, 70 miles north of Seattle, and continued it on Interstate 5. Described by his family as mentally disturbed, he was captured after a police chase and later told investigators he killed for God.

The dead included a man who had accused Zamora of trespassing, a woman who lived nearby, two construction workers, a motorist on the highway, and Skagit County Deputy Sheriff Anne Jackson. Jackson had frequently tried to help Zamora's family deal with his mental illness, Zamora's mother said.