The California Supreme Court has ruled that the silence of suspects can be used against them.

Wading into a legally tangled vehicular manslaughter case, a sharply divided high court on Thursday effectively reinstated the felony conviction of a man accused in a 2007 San Francisco Bay Area crash that left an 8-year-old girl dead and her sister and mother injured.

Richard Tom was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter after authorities said he was speeding and slammed into another vehicle at a Redwood City intersection.

Prosecutors repeatedly told jurors during the trial that Tom's failure to ask about the victims immediately after the crash but before police read him his so-called Miranda rights showed his guilt.

Legal analysts said the ruling could affect future cases, allowing prosecutors to exploit a suspect's refusal to talk before invoking 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The Alabama Supreme Court is standing by a decision that business sees as a defeat.

The court on Friday issued an opinion that mostly parallels its ruling last year in a generic drug case.

A divided court says the original decision isn't as broad as some are claiming. But a majority stuck by a 2013 decision saying a brand-name drugmaker can be held responsible by someone who took a generic medication made by a different company.

The Business Council of Alabama says it's disappointed. So is Wyeth, the drug manufacturer sued by Danny and Vicki Weeks over the man's use of a generic form of the brand-name medicine Reglan.

The Weeks filed suit in federal court, and a judge asked the Supreme Court to clarify state law.

A 17-year-old boy arrested in the death and sexual assault of a 6-year-old Washington state girl is due in court Monday.

Authorities still haven't released the name of the suspect, who was arrested Saturday in the Bremerton-area mobile home park from which Jenise Wright had disappeared a week earlier.

He was booked for investigation of second-degree murder, manslaughter and rape, and was scheduled to make an initial appearance at 3 p.m. in Kitsap County District Court.

Authorities said forensic evidence analyzed by the Washington state crime lab linked him to the crime. Earlier in the week, the sheriff's office collected DNA cheek swabs from dozens of nearby residents.

The Seattle Times reported Sunday that Kitsap County sheriff's detectives seized three vehicles from the suspect's home and completed final interviews of residents at the Steele Creek Mobile Home Park, the community where Wright went missing eight days earlier.

The statements and evidence collected Sunday will help authorities in "trying to put together a composite of the suspect for painting a picture for the court," Kitsap County Sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilson told the Times.

A growing memorial at the entrance to the neighborhood includes silver balloons, stuffed animals, lit candles and flowers.

A Tennessee man has pleaded guilty to two counts of forgery of the signatures of a district court judge and an officer of the U.S. District Court.

U.S. District Judge Pamela L. Reeves set sentencing for 49-year-old Scott Thibault of Maryville for Dec. 1 in Knoxville. Thibault entered the plea Wednesday.

Prosecutors say Thibault has also agreed to plead guilty to one-count information of use of the mail to defraud.

Prosecutors say Thibault falsely represented himself as an attorney in an adoption case and forging the name of U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan on the documents.

Thibault told the court he obtained at least $400,000 from the victims to further his scheme to defraud and obtain money.

Italian prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the death of cyclist Marco Pantani after his family presented evidence contending the former Tour de France winner was murdered.

Pantani, who won both the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France in 1998, was found dead in a Rimini hotel room on Feb. 14, 2004. A coroner ruled the 34-year-old Italian died from a cocaine overdose.

The cyclist's mother, Tonina Pantani, has always claimed her son was murdered, alleging that he was forced to drink a lethal dose of cocaine dissolved in liquid.

"It's an important day, but with a bittersweet taste," Tonina said. "On one side I'm glad, after many years, finally I'm not shouting into the wind anymore. But inside me there's also anger, anger and more anger.

"Why did it take all this time? Why were several things not in their place in 2004 and nobody did anything to give me answers? I'm tired."

Rimini's chief prosecutor, Paolo Giovagnoli, confirmed Pantani's file has been reopened but said it is an "obligatory move" in such matters. He has handed the case to a colleague, Elisa Milocco, who will study the dossier of evidence presented by Pantani's family before returning from holiday in September.

The fight over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's signature policy achievement, a law effectively ending collective bargaining for most public employees, ended Thursday with the state Supreme Court declaring it to be constitutional.

Passage of the law in 2011 put Wisconsin at the center of a nationwide battle over union rights and fueled Walker's rise to national prominence as he entered the mix of possible 2016 presidential candidates.

Anger over the law led to Walker being forced to stand for recall in 2012; he won, making him the first governor in U.S. history to withstand such a vote. Walker is up for re-election this November, the third time he will be on the ballot in four years.

The 5-2 state Supreme Court ruling is another major victory for Walker as he heads into the statewide election. Federal courts twice said the law, which limits public workers to bargaining only over base wage increases no greater than inflation, constitutional.

"No matter the limitations or 'burdens' a legislative enactment places on the collective bargaining process, collective bargaining remains a creation of legislative grace and not constitutional obligation," Justice Michael Gableman wrote for the court's conservative majority.