Howard Mintz

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- For the past six years, Santa Clara County, Calif., has led a quiet legal fight to force the drug industry to reimburse local governments across the country allegedly gouged by hundreds of millions of dollars per year on prescription drug prices at public hospitals and clinics devoted to serving the poor.

But the pharmaceutical companies have struck back with a vengeance, unleashing their lawyers to keep the courthouse doors slammed on the legal claims.

Wednesday, local governments and the drug industry will square off over the issue in the U.S.

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Backers of California's ban on same-sex marriage moved Wednesday to disqualify the most liberal appeals court judge on the panel hearing the legal challenge to Proposition 8.

In court papers, sponsors of Proposition 8 asked 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt to disqualify himself because his wife, Ramona Ripston, is the longtime executive director of the Southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has been actively involved in trying to invalidate the state's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.