A California appeals court has upheld San Francisco's ban on single-use plastic bags that can serve as a precedent for other cases.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports the 1st District Court of Appeal issued its ruling last month and published it Friday as precedent binding on lower courts. The ordinance was passed in February 2012 and prohibits plastic bags that can be used only once and requires stores to charge 10 cents for recyclable plastic or paper bags.

A lawsuit by Save the Plastic Bag Coalition said plastic bags took more energy to produce than plastic and take up more space in landfills.

Similar measures have been adopted in about 50 cities and counties in California and have survived legal challenges. The state Supreme Court upheld a plastic-bag ban in 2011.

Courts in Ohio must now report certain mental health information about people convicted of violent crimes for inclusion in a law enforcement database.

A rule approved by the Ohio Supreme Court requiring that notification took effect Jan. 1. The court devised the form to be submitted to law enforcement after legislation was approved last year.

The law requires judges to report ordering mental-health evaluations or treatment for people convicted of a violent crime or approving conditional release for people found incompetent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity.

The legislation was introduced after a Clark County sheriff's deputy was fatally shot in 2011 by a man with a criminal history who was conditionally released from a mental health institution.

A judge says a court order is needed to shut off lights and other utilities at Pittsburgh's struggling August Wilson Center for African American Culture.

Allegheny County Judge Lawrence O'Toole on Monday approved an order sought by the center's court-appointed conservator to keep the downtown facility running.

The ruling covers water and electricity as well as sewage treatment, telephone and Internet services.

An attorney for Duquesne Light said the center owes the electric company $38,000 and is running bills of $10,000 a month.

The center, which opened in 2009, is named after late Pulitzer prize-winning playwright August Wilson, who was born in Pittsburgh.

Dollar Bank began foreclosure proceedings in September after the center defaulted on its $7 million mortgage.

Kevin Coe, who was arrested in 1981 after dozens of women were raped in Spokane, is appealing his confinement as a sexually violent predator to federal court.

Coe was suspected in the rapes, attributed to the "South Hill Rapist," but only one conviction stood against him. He served 25 years in prison, and was confined at the state's Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island in 2008, following a monthlong civil trial.

Coe argues that the jurors at his civil trial should not have been asked to determine that he suffered from a "personality disorder" without having that term defined for them. He also says the jury should not have heard evidence of the other cases linked to the South Hill rapist because he was never convicted of them and because he was not allowed to challenge some of the victims through cross-examination.

The state Supreme Court rejected those arguments in 2012.

On Monday, a federal magistrate judge recommended that Coe's request to proceed as an indigent plaintiff be rejected. The judge found that Coe can afford to pay the fee required to file the case.

The Minnesota Supreme Court will consider the case of a national right-to-die group accused of playing a role in the 2007 suicide of an Apple Valley woman.

The high court agreed to hear Dakota County prosecutors' appeal of a Minnesota Court of Appeals ruling in September that a state law prohibiting advising or encouraging suicide was unconstitutional on free speech grounds, the Star Tribune reported Friday (http://strib.mn/JhC7zY ). The Appeals Court, however, sent charges of aiding and abetting suicide against the Florida-based group Final Exit Network and two members back to a district court for trial.

The Supreme Court also agreed in an order dated Dec. 17 to hear the cross-appeal of Final Exit Network, which says all of the charges are unconstitutional. The high court did not set a date for oral arguments.

The high court also stayed all proceedings in the Final Exit case pending its ruling in the separate case of William Melchert-Dinkel, of Faribault, an ex-nurse who was convicted in 2011 of "advising and encouraging" the suicides of a man in England and a teenager in Canada. The Court of Appeals upheld his conviction last year. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in May.

Robert Rivas, an attorney for Final Exit, said the group believes the Appeals Court decision was correct.

An Ohio man pleaded not guilty Thursday in the rape and strangulation of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found in a trash bin at the trailer park where they were neighbors.

One of Jerrod Metsker's court-appointed attorneys entered the pleas for him in Wayne County court. Metsker, wearing a red jail outfit with his wrists handcuffed, appeared via video and did not speak during the brief hearing.

A grand jury had indicted the 24-year-old Metsker on charges of aggravated murder, kidnapping and rape. He is being held on $1 million bond. Authorities previously said the death penalty would be available as punishment if Metsker is convicted of murder.

Metsker was the last person seen with 9-year-old Reann Murphy at their trailer park in Smithville, southwest of Akron, authorities said. A caller identifying himself as Metsker reported Reann missing in a 911 call.

Her body was found Dec. 15 after a frantic search by neighbors and law enforcement. Metsker was arrested later that day. The prosecutor said she was likely killed at Metsker's mobile home between 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 14.