The Delaware Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by billionaire Ron Burkle in a lawsuit challenging a poison pill plan adopted by Barnes & Noble Inc. after he doubled his stake in the company.

After hearing arguments Wednesday, the court on Thursday affirmed a judge's ruling last year upholding the poison pill plan, which limited a shareholder's stake in the company to 20 percent.

Burkle argued that New York-based Barnes & Noble had created an unfair playing field favoring the family of chairman and founder Leonard Riggio, which owns more than 30 percent of its common stock.

Burkle waged an unsuccessful proxy fight after the ruling but said he would continue to press for changes at the nation's largest brick-and-mortar book seller.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the state Game and Fish Commission's authority to lease public land to natural gas companies so they can drill.

The Thursday ruling affirmed a circuit court ruling turned away James Dockery's claim that proceeds from the wells should go to the Legislature instead of the commission.

The commission voted in 2008 to lease drilling rights to Chesapeake Energy Corp. of Oklahoma City for $32.2 million. Dockery sued in Pulaski County the following year.

The leased areas include include more than 7,500 acres in the Petit Jean River Wildlife Management Area in Yell County and nearly 4,000 acres in the Gulf Mountain Wildlife Management Area in Van Buren County.

A former New York state Senate Democratic leader and his son are due at a pre-trial hearing in New York City.

Pedro Espada Jr. and his son Pedro G. Espada are charged in a federal fraud indictment. They are accused of embezzling more than $500,000 from their federally funded Bronx health clinic.

The hearing is scheduled in Brooklyn federal court on Friday.

Espada and his son have pleaded not guilty.

A newly released document in a $3 million pot shipping scheme says a California woman placed several calls to check on proceeds from the scheme even after she was jailed.

The updated criminal complaint by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent released Thursday says Lisette Lee made 22 calls from Franklin County Jail in Columbus after she was arrested last June.

Most of the calls were to fellow defendant Christopher Cash, who repeatedly warned Lee to be careful what she talked about because the calls were being recorded.

The DEA complaint says Lee asked several times about paperwork, a term the DEA says is a common expression for drug proceeds.

Lee and Cash have both pleaded guilty to a scheme to fly thousands of pounds of marijuana to Ohio in suitcases.

A North Carolina woman indicted on a charge that she kidnapped a newborn from a Harlem hospital more than two decades ago is due for another court appearance in New York.

Ann Pettway is scheduled to enter a plea to a kidnapping charge during an arraignment scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Pettway has been held without bail since she was arrested last month. She was charged with kidnapping Carlina White from Harlem Hospital in August 1987. White is now 23 years old.

The FBI has said in court papers that the Raleigh, N.C., woman took the baby after her own efforts at childbearing failed.