The California Supreme Court has lifted legal deadlines for smokers who later develop diseases like lung cancer.

Lawyers who filed the lawsuit say Thursday's unanimous ruling in San Francisco will likely allow new smoker suits to be filed against the tobacco industry and keep alive lawsuits that may have been thrown out because of expired legal deadlines.

The case before the court involved former smoker Nikki Pooshs, who was diagnosed in 1989 with smoking-related chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1989 and a couple of years later with periodontal disease.

But Pooshs didn't sue the tobacco industry until she was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2003.

Cigarette makers argued the suit should be dismissed because California law gives people two years to file suit after discovery of an injury.

A lawsuit that accused Pittsburgh's second-largest law firm of discriminating against women has been settled.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports a dismissal notice was filed in federal court Thursday, ending the case brought by attorney JoEllen Lyons Dillon.

Dillon alleged in a December lawsuit that women at Reed Smith are paid less than men and that females are pressured to have sex with male superiors to get work.

She also said her pay was nearly halved during maternity leave, and that she was asked if she was "done having babies" when she inquired about a promotion.

Dillon's lawyer, Sam Cordes, would say only that "the matter is resolved to our mutual satisfaction."

Reed Smith declined comment. Dillon no longer works there.

A trial lawyer nominated by President Barack Obama to be a federal judge in Rhode Island was confirmed on a party-line vote Wednesday just hours after a Senate GOP filibuster attempt failed.

The Senate voted 50-44 to confirm lawyer John McConnell to the bench after a more significant 63-33 tally to advance the nomination past a filibuster orchestrated by GOP leaders.

Eleven Republicans joined with Democrats in the earlier vote to break the filibuster. GOP leaders opposed McConnell, citing his record as a trial lawyer in cases against businesses. Republicans also said McConnell was less than truthful in his testimony to the Senate.

Wednesday's vote comes six years after the Republicans then in control of the Senate considered a change in procedures to make it impossible to filibuster judicial nominations, citing numerous Democratic efforts to stall former President George W. Bush's nominees. Democrats said Republicans were being hypocritical in now trying to filibuster a Democratic nominee.

New Hampshire's Senate has voted unanimously to reject changes to the state's anti-bullying law, such as limiting school responsibility in dealing with off-campus incidents.

Senators said Wednesday that the current law is only months old and needs further study before any changes are made.

The current law was amended last year for the electronic age. It defines bullying and cyberbullying and allows schools to step in if the conduct happens outside of school and interferes with a student's education or substantially disrupts school operations.

Many states have been moving in this direction, but some New Hampshire lawmakers wanted to restrict the boundaries to school grounds.

The House passed a bill in March that would remove that provision and make other changes. The Senate's rejection leaves the measure's future in doubt.

Before Donald Trump sold the idea of a possible 2012 presidential bid, the bombastic real estate mogul peddled the American dream at a place called Trump University. He promised consumers the golden opportunity to be "my next apprentice" and learn "insider" secrets of real estate.

But a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Diego claims that the possible GOP presidential candidate's courses instead delivered expensive "infomercials" disguised as educational classes that preyed on vulnerable Americans in "troubled economic times."

George Sorial, assistant general counsel for the Trump Organization, told The Chronicle this week that the allegations contained in the suit are "completely ridiculous," adding that Trump University stands "100 percent behind any course we offered."

Sorial dismissed the lawsuit as an effort by two former students and their attorneys "looking to make a quick buck" from the celebrity businessman.

"There wouldn't even be a lawsuit if the Trump name weren't attached to it," he said.

But Tarla Makaeff, 37, a former fashion designer and marketer from Corona del Mar (Orange County), told The Chronicle in an interview this week that Trump's "university" was hardly worthy of the name.

Federal prosecutors have been turning up the heat on a Florida woman accused of arranging the 2009 killings of her millionaire husband and mother-in-law.

Narcy Novack of Fort Lauderdale and her brother, Cristobal Veliz of Brooklyn, N.Y., are due in court Friday morning for a status conference.

Novack and Veliz are accused of hiring others to kill Ben Novack in his New York hotel room and Bernice Novack in her Florida home.

Last month, the government added the mother-in-law's killing to the charges against Novack and Veliz. And a prosecutor said another charge — which carries the possibility of the death penalty — may be in store.

Defense attorneys suggested the prosecution was trying to force a guilty plea.

Ben Novack's father built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, Fla.