A federal appeals court on Tuesday sided with the publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press in a long-running labor dispute between the newspaper and reporters who were fired after they complained about its editorial practices.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the newspaper's publisher was protected by the First Amendment when it dismissed eight reporters and disciplined others who claimed the owner was interfering with news coverage.

The reporters claimed they were illegally fired for union activity and legitimate complaints about their terms of employment. But the court found the dispute was all about editorial control.

"The First Amendment affords a publisher — not a reporter — absolute authority to shape a newspaper's content," Judge Stephen Williams wrote for a three-judge panel.

The ruling stems from a dispute between Ampersand Publishing LLC and employees that began in 2006. Nearly every top editor at the paper quit in protest over what they said was owner Wendy McCaw's meddling in news coverage.

Newsroom employees later voted to form a union, and they have been fighting with the newspaper since then over bargaining rights.

Attorneys for the state of Rhode Island will ask a judge to dismiss a legal challenge to the state's landmark pension overhaul filed by public-sector unions.

The hearing in Judge Sarah Taft-Carter's Providence courtroom on Friday is the highest profile one yet in the legal dispute over the year-old pension law. Unions argue the changes to state retirement benefits are unconstitutional and unfair.

State leaders insist that without the changes, ever-escalating pension costs would swamp state finances. They say the pension law — which passed overwhelmingly in 2011 — was carefully crafted to withstand legal scrutiny.

The litigation could have far-reaching implications as states around the country seek to rein in pension costs. Collectively, states face a $1.4 trillion gap between what they've promised workers and what they've set aside to pay for those benefits.

Rhode Island has attracted a high-profile defender: New York attorney David Boies has asked to join the legal team defending the law because of what he has said are the case's implications for other governments dealing with their own pension problems.

A Texas law firm has reached an agreement with West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw to resolve a case stemming from a national mortgage settlement.

Officials said Wednesday that Murray LLP has agreed to stop offering services in West Virginia to help homeowners receive benefits from a settlement between lenders and states.

Claim forms already were sent to more than 5,000 West Virginians who lost their homes to foreclosure eligible for payments under the settlement.

McGraw had sued the company earlier this month for allegedly charging fees to consumers for completing the claim form.

Officials say the company has agreed it would not represent or collect payments from West Virginia consumers in relation to the settlement.