NASA's former chief of staff has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a case stemming from a $600,000 contract for Mississippi State University, a client of his consulting firm.

Sheila Wilbanks, a U.S. Attorney's office spokeswoman, said Courtney Stadd pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Gulfport, Miss.

Stadd faces up to five years in prison at sentencing on Nov. 18.

Prosecutors say Stadd conspired with Liam Sarsfield, NASA's former chief deputy engineer, to guide contracts. Sarsfield pleaded guilty in November to one count.

Stadd was NASA's chief of staff and White House liaison from 2001-2003. Stadd was convicted in 2009 and sentenced to probation in a different case for steering a $10 million contract to MSU.

The 14 crosses erected along Utah roads to commemorate fallen state Highway Patrol troopers convey a state preference for Christianity and are a violation of the U.S. Constitution, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

The ruling reverses a 2007 decision by a federal district judge that said the crosses communicate a secular message about deaths and were not a public endorsement of religion. It's the latest in a recent rash of mixed-bag rulings on the public use of crosses.

A three-judge panel from Denver's 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in its 38-page ruling that a "reasonable observer" would conclude that the state and the Utah Highway Patrol were endorsing Christianity with the cross memorials.

"This may lead the reasonable observer to fear that Christians are likely to receive preferential treatment from the UHP," the justices wrote.

The 12-foot high white crosses with 6-foot horizontal crossbars are affixed with the patrol's beehive logo and a biography of the deceased trooper.

First erected in 1998, monuments were paid for with private funds and erected only with the permission of the troopers' families. Nearly all of the 14 crosses are on public land.

Two men behind the cross project have said they selected crosses for the memorials because the image of a cross can simultaneously convey a message of death, remembrance, honor, gratitude and sacrifice.

New Orleans rapper Juvenile has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge in Louisiana.

The St. Bernard Parish sheriff's office says the 34-year-old, whose real name is Terius Gray, entered the plea Thursday. The rapper and an aquaintance were arrested Feb. 25.

He received a suspended sentence of three months in jail and must serve six months probation and pay a $250 fine and court costs.

Juvenile, best known for the song "Back That Thing Up," has been arrested at least four times on charges ranging from failure to pay child support to resisting an officer at a Florida mall in 1999. Most of the charges have been dismissed. In 2003, he was sentenced to 75 hours of community service for hitting a man on the head with a champagne bottle.

A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that a company is entitled to the value of about 5,900 artifacts it salvaged during six expeditions to the Titanic.

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith in Norfolk granted a salvage award to RMS Titanic Inc. late Thursday.

However, the judge postponed until next year a decision on whether to simply give the company title to the artifacts or sell them and turn the proceeds over to RMS, a subsidiary of Premier Exhibitions Inc. of Atlanta. The items are worth an estimated $110 million.

Until then, RMS can retain possession of the artifacts, which are being displayed in exhibitions around the world.

The Titanic sank in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland in April 1912, killing more than 1,500 of the 2,228 people onboard.

A former Denver-area postal worker has pleaded guilty to stealing DVDs, CDs, and iPods that he sold for over $85,000 over two years.

Former Highlands Ranch U.S. postal worker David Schmauder pleaded guilty Monday to two federal counts of theft by mail. He faces up to five years in prison for each count when he's sentenced Nov. 30.

Schmauder didn't return a phone call seeking comment.

Authorities say the 48-year-old Schmauder was arrested in January after postal special agents saw him open mail, put it in a plastic bag and then in his car. Officials say records show that a store in Littleton paid him a total of $85,174 for nearly 12,000 items. He also stole some items from Victoria's Secret which he gave to his wife.

The families of two Hungarian tourists killed in a duck boat accident on the Delaware River last month have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Philadelphia.

Sixteen-year-old Dora Schwendtner and 20-year-old Szabolcs Prem were killed July 7 when a barge being pushed by a tug slammed into the stalled duck boat. The boat capsized and sank.

Lawyers for the victims' families say the suit was filed Tuesday, naming tour boat operator Ride the Ducks of Norcross, Ga., and others.

The suit seeks punitive damages and claims the deaths were senseless and preventable.

Ride The Ducks spokesman Bob Salmon says the company is always focused on safety.