Nearly a year after he went from anonymity to notoriety, Michael Jackson's doctor returns to court for a pretrial hearing that will determine when he goes to trial and what he will be able to do in the meantime.

Dr. Conrad Murray is likely to face the usual placards and catcalls from Jackson fans denouncing him outside the courthouse and members of Jackson's family glaring at him inside the courtroom Monday.

First on the agenda will be Murray's fight to retain his California medical license. He has not been practicing in the state, but his attorney, Ed Chernoff, has maintained that loss of his license here would have a domino effect on his practices in Texas and Nevada.

Chernoff said in documents filed Friday that those two states have reached agreements to allow Murray to practice as long as he abides by a judge's order not to administer anesthetics such as propofol, which was blamed in Jackson's death.

St. James Anglican Church, a theologically conservative breakaway church, has waged a nearly six-year fight to keep the church property instead of returning it to the Diocese of Los Angeles.

St. James is one of several dozen individual parishes and four dioceses nationwide that voted to split from the national church after the 2003 consecration of the first openly gay Episcopal bishop.

State courts have sided with the Los Angeles diocese throughout the six-year legal case. The church lost its petition to have the case heard in the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

"We only have 15 minutes to make our arguments. It really is daunting," Yale Galanter said Thursday. "But what the public doesn't know is that there are hundreds of pages of briefs that have already been filed."

Simpson and convicted co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart won't be in court when their lawyers tell a trio of justices that Simpson's fame — and his acquittal in the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman in Los Angeles — tilted the Las Vegas proceedings in favor of the prosecution.

Simpson, who turns 63 next month, has been working as a gymnasium janitor while serving nine to 33 years at a state prison in the northern Nevada town of Lovelock.

Stewart, 56, heads a music program while serving 7 1/2 to 27 years at High Desert State Prison, 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

It's unclear when the state's high court will rule.

But the federal court's Chief Judge Tena Campbell said Gardner failed to prove he could not get a "fair and impartial hearing" before Utah's Board of Pardons and Parole.

A two-day hearing before the board is set to begin on Thursday.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court late Tuesday, attorney Andrew Parnes argued that the board's process was tainted because lawyers that represent the board work for the Utah attorney general's office — the same entity that sought Gardner's death warrant. Those state attorneys will also argue against the board commuting Gardner's death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A federal prosecutor has told an appeals court in Ohio that five jailed members of a Midwest militia are a threat to public safety. The prosecutor says they should stay in jail until they're tried on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.

But attorneys for the defendants told the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday that the government hasn't proven their clients are dangerous.

The defendants are among nine members of the Michigan-based Hutaree (hoo-TAH'-ray) accused of conspiracy to commit sedition. Two from Michigan and two from Ohio have been released as they await trial.

A federal judge has said the remaining five, from Michigan and Indiana, could go home with electronic monitors. The government is appealing that order.

The appeals court did not issue a ruling Tuesday.

Amera Akl's family says they're planning to post a $750,000 bond and that it's possible she could be released later this week.

The couple were taken into custody last week after prosecutors said an FBI informant provided them with $200,000 in cash.

The couple were alleged to be preparing to hide the money in a vehicle that prosecutors said was to be shipped to Lebanon.