A former JetBlue flight attendant accused of cursing out an airplane passenger and then sliding down an emergency exit chute is due in a New York City courtroom.

Steven Slater is scheduled to appear today for a routine hearing on criminal-mischief charges.

Share Slater also was charged with reckless endangerment and trespassing after last month's meltdown aboard a JetBlue Airways Corp. flight from Pittsburgh that had just landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport. His lawyer has said the passenger's "lack of civility" prompted his behavior.

Defense attorney Daniel J. Horwitz says Slater is looking forward to his day in court.  Slater became water cooler talk for days after his Aug. 9 meltdown. Online groups canonized him as a hero or vilified him as a cranky brat.

A New Jersey man who was a chemist for a suburban Chicago-based paint company has pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets.

Federal prosecutors say 54-year-old David Yen Lee of Jersey City, N.J., pleaded guilty Wednesday. They say he admits to stealing formulas and information that was valued at up to $20 million. He formerly was a technical director at Valspar Corp.

Prosecutors say Lee stole the information from Valspar as he was preparing to work for a competitor in China. Lee formerly lived in Arlington Heights. Federal officials say he stole secret formulas for paints and coatings from Valspar's offices in Wheeling.

The parents of a Cleveland boy have pleaded guilty to hog-tying and duct-taping him to a coffee table on a nightly basis for months.

Thirty-seven-year-old Andreia Huffman and 32-year-old Jason Dunikowski of Cleveland pleaded guilty Monday to a 196-count indictment. Charges include 180 kidnapping counts, child endangering and, against the mother, felonious assault.

The prosecutor has recommended a 17-year sentence for the mother and 15 years for the father.

Along with the nightly confinement, the couple admitted punishing the 8-year-old boy for six months by forcing him to stand all day facing a wall and smacking the back of his head until his nose broke.

His 15-year-old brother called police in April.

Messages seeking comment were left Monday with the couple's attorneys.

Four men charged with trying to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down military planes were caught on videotape plotting and praying together before setting out to launch the attack, a prosecutor said Tuesday in opening statements at their trial.

"You will see them pray for success," Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Hickey told jurors in federal court in Manhattan.

The prosecutor said that alleged mastermind James Cromitie also was taped complaining that "the best target has been hit" — a reference to the World Trade Center. But the defendant also suggested the George Washington Bridge, a military transport plane and especially a synagogue were worthy targets for jihad.

"I hate those Jewish bastards," the prosecutor quoted Cromitie as saying. "I would like to get a synagogue for me personally."

Cromitie's lawyer countered by calling the 100 hours of videotape from the sting operation a "movie" produced and directed by a paid FBI informant assigned to root out radicals at a mosque in Newburgh, a small town north of New York City.

Lonnie Franklin Jr., the suspect in the "Grim Sleeper" serial killings, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday morning in a Los Angeles, California, courtroom on 10 counts of murder.

Franklin is accused of killing 10 women in the south Los Angeles area between 1985 and 2007.

Nicknamed for taking long breaks between attacks, the "Grim Sleeper" is believed responsible for at least 10 deaths between 1985 and 2007 in south Los Angeles. The killer targeted black women, some working as prostitutes, using the same small caliber weapon.

Los Angeles police arrested Franklin on July 8 by comparing DNA found at some of the crime scenes with the DNA of the suspect's son, who was in a California lockup.

Five days after his arrest, Franklin was attacked in jail. Inmate Antonio Rodriguez and Franklin were in an attorney waiting room when the assault happened, said Steve Whitmore, a sheriff's department spokesman.

Rodriguez was not in handcuffs at the time and apparently recognized Franklin. Without being provoked, Rodriguez hit Franklin in the head twice, and he suffered minor injuries, Whitmore said.

A lawyer for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay says the Justice Department has ended a probe of the Texas Republican and will not file any criminal charges.

The six-year criminal investigation focused on DeLay's ties to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was released from a minimum-security prison camp in June.

One of DeLay's lawyers, Richard Cullen, said Monday the Justice Department's Office of Public Integrity informed DeLay's legal team early last week that it was ending the investigation.

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney declined to comment, which is normally the case when the department ends a criminal probe without filing charges.

Abramoff served about 3 1/2 years in prison for fraud, corruption and conspiracy. He spent three days in a halfway house in Baltimore before he was placed in home confinement. Abramoff currently is working in a kosher pizzeria in northwest Baltimore.