Security screeners at a Honolulu courthouse noticed something moving inside a defendant's bag as it passed through an X-ray machine earlier this week.

After initially refusing to open it, the bag's owner reluctantly revealed that his pet was inside. When he opened the bag, screeners found a live duck and a bottle of beer, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said.

Deputies told Michael Hubbard that his pet and beverage wouldn't be allowed inside Circuit Court, so he left. He returned a short while later and asked that deputies look after his belongings while he went inside for an appointment, Schwartz said, adding that visitors are allowed to leave their things outside at their own risk.

A judge in Las Vegas is expected to hear evidence in a felony case alleging entertainer Flavor Flav attacked his longtime girlfriend and her teenage son last October.

The 54-year-old former rap and reality TV star is due Wednesday before a Las Vegas judge who agreed twice before to postpone his hearing.

Defense attorney Tony Abbatangelo has said he hoped to settle the case, but prosecutor Jake Merback says nothing is resolved so far.

The entertainer's legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr.

He's accused of pushing his girlfriend of eight years to the floor Oct. 17 and wielding two knives while allegedly chasing and threatening the woman's 17-year-old son.

He could face prison time on assault and child endangerment charges.

A British computer hacker affiliated to the group Lulz Security pleaded guilty Tuesday to cyberattacks on institutions including Sony, Britain's National Health Service and Rupert Murdoch's News International.

Ryan Ackroyd admitted one count of carrying out an unauthorized act to impair the operation of a computer.

Prosecutors say the 26-year-old accessed websites belonging to Sony, 20th Century Fox, the NHS, Nintendo, the Arizona State Police and News International between February and September 2011.

He will be sentenced May 14 at Southwark Crown Court in London. Other charges against him are being dropped.

Three other British hackers — 18-year-old Mustafa Al-Bassam, 20-year-old Jake Davis and Ryan Cleary, 21 — had previously pleaded guilty to launching distributed denial of service attacks on organizations including the CIA and Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency. Denial of service attacks work by overwhelming sites with traffic.

A federal judge has ruled that a tobacco manufacturer owned by a Yakama Nation tribal member must pay into an escrow account established under a 1998 settlement with big tobacco companies.

The 1998 settlement required big tobacco companies to pay money to 46 states each year to offset public health costs from their products. Smaller companies are required to pay into an escrow account, but that money could be returned eventually if no health claims are made.

King Mountain Tobacco claims it should be exempt from paying into the escrow accounts under the Yakama Nation's 1855 treaty with the federal government. King Mountain is owned by Yakama tribal member Delbert Wheeler.

U.S District Judge Lonny Suko ruled against the company on Friday.

The top prosecutor in Northern California's remote Del Norte County has been suspended without pay after a judge recommended he be disbarred.

The Del Norte Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in a closed session Friday to suspend District Attorney Jon Alexander.

The suspension comes after State Bar Judge Lucy Armendariz recommended that Alexander be disbarred after concluding Alexander had violated three rules of prosecutorial conduct - communication with a represented party, moral turpitude and suppression of evidence.

The judge ordered Alexander placed on inactive status, meaning he will not be able to practice law in California as of Sunday, pending a possible appeal.

Regulators say California electricity consumers could see up to $2 billion in new refunds from energy wholesalers that profited from the state's 2000-2001 energy crisis if a federal judge's recommendation holds up under review.

The California Public Utilities Commission says the rulings this week from the U.S. Court of Claims in Washington, D.C. are a victory for a state that saw energy prices spike to unprecedented heights amid rolling blackouts. The state bought billions of dollars' worth of electricity to keep the lights on.

The judge found that Portland, Ore. -based Bonneville Power Administration and Lakewood, Colo.-based Western Area Power Administration sold energy at inflated prices.

A Southern California doctor has agreed to plead guilty to charges of illegally prescribing drugs to his patients at nightly meetings in Starbucks stores.

Court documents show 44-year-old Alvin Mingczech Yee entered into a plea agreement earlier this week. He is expected to plead guilty to seven counts at a April 17 hearing.

Prosecutors say Yee saw up to a dozen patients nightly at Starbucks coffee stores across suburban Orange County at meetings that cost up to $600. Prosecutors say Yee barely examined them but prescribed drugs including OxyContin and Vicodin.

Yee was arrested in October 2011 at his Irvine office and has been free on bond.