Murder-for-hire allegations are central to a New York trial starting this week for a San Francisco man charged with running an online black market where drugs were sold as easily as books and electronics.

A Manhattan judge found plenty of reasons for leniency Tuesday as she ordered prison stints for financier Bernard Madoff’s former secretary and a computer programmer that fell well short of the double-digit prison terms the government had sought.

Bernard Madoff’s ex-director of operations for investments was sentenced Monday to 10 years in prison by a judge who cited the fraud’s “smoldering ruins” as she kicked off an eight-day stretch during which she will announce the punishments of four other former Madoff workers.

Imprisoned financier Bernard Madoff’s former director of operations for investments faces sentencing Monday, the first of five Madoff ex-employees to learn their fate in coming days after a jury convicted them earlier this year of charges related to the multi-decade, multi-billion dollar fraud.

A 98-year-old woman lost her bid Thursday to persuade a judge to erase her 1950 conviction for conspiracy to obstruct justice in the run-up to the atomic spying trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

A federal lawsuit Wednesday demanded public access to a small uninhabited island off New York City where the remains of about a million people who were poor or unknown are buried.

Turkey, stuffing and a helium-filled Thomas the Tank Engine are on the menu as friends and families gather across the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.

The man who became known as the “20th hijacker” from the Sept. 11 attacks wants to testify in lawsuits filed by victims of terrorism.