The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state's price-gouging law.

The justices Thursday unanimously overturned a Winston County judge's ruling that the law was unconstitutionally vague.

Chancellor J. Max Kilpatrick's ruling came in 2008 as he rejected Attorney General Jim Hood's lawsuit accusing a Mississippi oil company of charging too much for fuel after Hurricane Katrina. Kilpatrick has since retired from the bench.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to Winston County to determine if Fair Oil Co. in Louisville violated the law.

Fair Oil was one of two companies Hood sued in 2007. The lawsuit, which represents only one side of a legal argument, accused the company of gouging consumers after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Friday that $2.4 billion in high-speed rail funding intended for Florida will be sent to other states after the state Supreme Court upheld Gov. Rick Scott's decision to reject the money.

The Republican governor's decision effectively kills the Tampa-Orlando route.

Until Scott's election in November, it had been on track to become a leading example of how the Obama administration's stimulus plan is creating jobs and reviving the nation's passenger rail system.

Several states, including New York and Rhode Island, have asked LaHood for Florida's rail funds, but the only project that would achieve the high speeds associated with bullet trains in Asia and Europe would be California's.

"I know that states across America are enthusiastic about receiving additional support to help bring America's high-speed rail network to life and deliver all its economic benefits to their citizens," LaHood said in a statement.

A Florida Supreme Court ruling that threw out a $145 billion award against cigarette makers is biting Big Tobacco back, making it dramatically easier for thousands of smokers to sue and turning the state into the nation's hot spot for damage awards.

The 2006 ruling has helped generate more than $360 million in damage awards in only about two dozen cases. Thousands more cases are in the pipeline in Florida, which has far more smoking-related lawsuits pending than any other state.

Though the justices tossed the $145 billion class-action damage award, they allowed about 8,000 individual members of that class to pursue their own lawsuits. And in a critical decision, they allowed those plaintiffs to use the original jury's findings from the class-action case.

That means the plaintiffs don't have to prove that cigarette makers sold a defective and dangerous product, were negligent, hid the risks of smoking and that cigarettes cause illnesses such as lung cancer and heart disease. The plaintiffs must mainly show they were addicted to smoking and could not quit, and that their illness — or a smoker's death — was caused by cigarettes.

Jurors have sided with smokers or their families in about two-thirds of the 34 cases tried since February 2009, when the first Florida lawsuit following the rules set by the Supreme Court decision went before a jury. Awards have ranged from $2 million or less to $80 million, though tobacco companies are appealing them all.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is suing a Henry County law firm over a bank failure, saying the firm's handling of loans to a developer represented malpractice.

The lawsuit against Smith Welch & Brittain and 1 of its partners, J. Mark Brittain, alleges malpractice in Brittain's handling of loans Neighborhood Community Bank made to a developer from 2005 to 2007.

Neighborhood Community failed in 2009.

The suit claims the bank hired Brittain to process loan documents for land purchases by developer Jeff Grant and that Brittain had served as a lawyer for Grant. The FDIC is seeking damages of more than $6 million.

Christine Mast, an attorney representing Brittain and his firm, said Neighborhood Community was to blame for its failure and that the loans were at risk for default from the beginning.

Rupert Murdoch's News America Marketing has agreed to pay a whopping $125 million to settle a years-long lawsuit brought by tiny Insignia Systems Inc. that alleged Murdoch's people unfairly interfered and lied in attempt to take business from the Plymouth company, which provides in-store promotions.

The settlement, which is more than Insignia's market value and more than four times its 2009 revenue, was reached a day after the trial commenced before U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis.

The deal was announced after the markets closed Wednesday. Insignia's stock has traded lately at more than $6.50 per share, a five-year high and partly in anticipation by traders that Insignia would win a favorable outcome in light of recent, similar settlements reached by other competitors of News America, which is part of Murdoch's News Corp. holdings. Insignia shares closed at $7.57, up 3 percent in Wednesday's trading.

Under the settlement, New York-based News America will pay Insignia $125 million and Insignia will pay $4 million in return for a 10-year business arrangement that gives Insignia access to some News America clients. Insignia had sought more than $250 million in damages.