“Utah A.G. joins other states in defending Nevada’s ban on gay marriage; They see a slippery slope in extending rights to same-sex couples”: Brooke Adams of The Salt Lake Tribune has this news update.

“Lawyer will fight for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s life”: The Boston Herald has an article that begins, “Federal prosecutors are facing a legal obstacle course — including a highly experienced anti-death-penalty defense attorney, a largely liberal Massachusetts jury pool and multiple appeals — before they can win an execution order against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.”

Access online the January 2014 edition of “Appellate Issues,” published by the ABA’s Council of Appellate Lawyers: Via this link.

It contains articles titled “A Conversation With Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli, Jr.”; “Honing the Knife: Editing Effectively to Improve Legal Writing”; “Handling the Difficult Oral Argument”; “Making Appellate Briefs More Effective: Selecting Issues and Structuring the Argument “; and “The Art of Dissent.”

“Mass. to appeal decision that murder convict Michelle Kosilek is entitled to sex change surgery”: The Boston Globe has this news update.

The Boston Herald has a news update headlined “State to appeal order to pay for inmate’s sex-change operation.”

And The Associated Press reports that “Mass. appeals inmate’s sex-reassignment surgery.”

“Pressure mounts on law societies to reject faith-based school’s graduates”: Today’s edition of The Toronto Globe and Mail contains a front page article that begins, “Concerned law professors are pressing their provincial societies to rethink recognizing graduates of a proposed new law program at Trinity Western University, a faith-based school that prohibits same-sex intimacy.”

And Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham has an essay titled “Anti-gay pledge could result in Trinity Western’s law degrees being worthless; B.C. Law Society has final say in approval of faculty; other provinces considering options.”

You can access the web site of Trinity Western University’s School of Law at this link, and the law school has posted online this FAQ addressing these issues.

“Rubio discusses decision to block Miami judge from reaching federal bench; Sen. Marco Rubio speaks to Local 10’s Michael Putney”: WPLG Local 10 of Miami has this video report.

“Muncie native joins U.S. Court of Appeals; Robert Wilkins confirmed by the Senate on Jan. 13”: This front page article appears in today’s edition of The Star Press of Muncie, Indiana.

“Shell scraps 2014 exploration, cites 9th Circuit’s lease decision”: Phil Taylor of Greenwire has this report.

“Injured bicyclist is testing whether the City of Mercer Island is immune from a lawsuit”: kirotv.com of Seattle has this report on a ruling that the Supreme Court of Washington State issued yesterday.

Not so dear Abby: A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit yesterday issued an opinion in Abby v. Howe denying Michigan state prisoner Leo Abby’s appeal from the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging a second-degree murder conviction.

According to the opinion’s recitation of facts:

On November 4, 2003, a resident of Buena Vista, Michigan, found a human leg on his lawn. The man alerted the police, who found several plastic bags containing dismembered human limbs nearby. All of the recovered remains belonged to Calvin Tubbs, a friend of Abby’s, who had last been seen on October 27, 2003.

Laboratory technicians found Abby’s fingerprints on some of the plastic bags. They also recovered bits of Tubbs’ flesh from a reciprocating saw that Abby had borrowed from his cousin on October 27, 2003. The police did not find any other physical evidence connecting Abby to the crime.

The opening brief for appellant can be accessed here.