President Barack Obama has nominated Hamlin native Stephanie Dawn Thacker as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Thacker has been a partner in the Charleston law firm of Guthrie & Thomas since 2006.

Before that she spent seven years with the U.S. Department of Justice. Her work as a trial attorney there focused on prosecution and training in connection with child pornography and sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, obscenity and other offenses.

She also served as an assistant federal prosecutor and worked for the state attorney general's office.

The U.S. Senate must now consider Thacker's nomination to the Richmond, Va.-based court. The seat became vacant after the March death of Judge Blane Michael.

The 15-member court covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

A Bristol man has pleaded guilty to stealing Social Security benefits and making false statements in an attempt to hide the thefts.

Seventy-one-year-old David Ross entered the plea Thursday in federal court in Abingdon.

Ross faces a sentence of up to 65 years in prison on all counts.

Federal prosecutors say Ross admitted stealing more than $318,000 in benefits that had been intended for his mother, who died in 1971. He told the Social Security Administration that his mother died in December 2010.

A German court rules that Samsung Electronics's Galaxy Tab cannot be sold in Germany because it violated patents of rival Apple's iPad2.

A Duesseldorf state court said Friday it would not allow Samsung, based in Seoul, South Korea, to market its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany because it too closely resembles the iPad2.

Already in August, the court had ruled in favor of Apple, based in Cupertino, California, forcing Samsung to withdraw its tablet from the market.

Samsung challenged the ban. The companies are involved in a series of legal disputes in countries around the world over allegations that each copies the other's technology.