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2 CHARGED WITH THREATENING GIRL IN OHIO RAPE CASE: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Authorities have arrested two eastern Ohio girls suspected of making social media threats against a West Virginia girl who accused two high school football players of raping her in a case that drew widespread attention.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the girls arrested Monday posted threatening Facebook and Twitter comments on Sunday, the day the players were convicted in Steubenville (STOO'-behn-vihl). DeWine says the girls are being held in juvenile detention on allegations of aggravated menacing after an investigation by state and local authorities.

DeWine says he hopes the arrests end harassment of the alleged victim.

A judge sentenced the players to at least a year in juvenile prison. A grand jury will look into whether others broke the law by not speaking up after the attack last summer.

ARIZ. SALON OWNER LOSES SUIT OVER FISH PEDICURES: PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has rejected an Arizona salon owner's claims that her constitutional rights were violated when cosmetology regulators forced her to stop offering pedicures that use fish to nibble the dead skin off people's feet.

Cindy Vong opened a fish spa within her nail salon in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert in October 2008 but was forced to close that part of her business nearly a year later.

The closure was prompted by the state Board of Cosmetology's conclusion that the practice was illegal because the fish were an unsafe tool for skin exfoliation that couldn't be sanitized in between uses.

Fish pedicures are popular in Asia and spread to some U.S. cities in recent years. But Texas, Washington, Massachusetts and New Hampshire have outlawed the practice.

ALA. MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO TWEETING OBAMA THREATS: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Birmingham man has pleaded guilty to using the social networking site Twitter to threaten the life of President Barack Obama.

U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance said 25-year-old Jarvis Britton entered the guilty plea Monday.

A federal grand jury had indicted Britton in September on charges that he knowingly threatening to kill, kidnap or inflict bodily harm on the president. Prosecutors said he tweeted, "Let's kill the president. F.E.A.R.," on Sept. 14.

Several people, including soldiers from Georgia's Fort Stewart, have been connected to a national militia group that prosecutors say was called F.E.A.R. — Forever Enduring Always Ready. They said the group had terrorism plans and an ultimate goal to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate the president.

Britton's sentencing is scheduled for June 20.

CALIF POLICE NAB 4 IN NATIONWIDE THEFT SPREE: TORRANCE, Calif. (AP) — Four people from Chicago are facing charges stemming from a nationwide theft spree at electronics stores that police say resulted in $3 million in losses.

The Daily Breeze of Torrance reports the two men and two women were arrested March 8 in Hawthorne. Police believe they were responsible for thefts at eight Apple stores in Southern California. The group also allegedly stole items from businesses in Colorado, Florida and Washington.

All four have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of conspiracy to commit burglary and graft theft. They are being held without bail.

Police say the group identified themselves as a gypsy family from Chicago that came from Poland and needed to shoplift so they could pay off a $2 million debt their family had incurred.

DEFENSE: PHILLY ABORTION DOC'S CASE 'A LYNCHING' : PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A lawyer defending a Philadelphia abortion provider on murder charges accused officials of "an elitist, racist prosecution," as the death-penalty trial opened Monday.

Lawyer Jack McMahon also accused city officials of "a prosecutorial lynching" of his client, Dr. Kermit Gosnell, who is black.

Gosnell, 72, is accused of running a rogue clinic that ignored the state ban on third-term abortions and 24-hour waiting periods. Prosecutors say he also maimed desperate, often poor women and teens by letting his untrained staff perform abortions and give anesthesia. And they say he got rich doing it, by performing a high volume of substandard abortions.

Police found $250,000 in cash during a 2010 search of his home, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said. Gosnell used outmoded drugs and unorthodox methods, forcing women to endure labor and then deliver live babies that were then killed by staff with scissors, she said. Normally, the fetus is killed in utero.

"The standard practice here was to slay babies. That's what they did," said Pescatore, who echoed a 2011 grand jury report in calling the clinic "a house of horrors."

CHICAGO POLICE EXPECT ARRESTS IN BABY'S KILLING: CHICAGO (AP) — A 6-month-old baby who was killed when a gunman fired at minivan in Chicago was on her father's lap at the time, Police Superintendent Gary McCarthy said Monday.

The father, Jonathon Watkins, was seriously wounded when the shooter approached the vehicle and fired. McCarthy said that Jonylah Watkins was sitting in his dad's lap in the driver's seat — a change from previous reports that Watkins was changing the baby's diaper at the time.

McCarthy also said the baby was shot once, not several times as previously reported.

SUPREME COURT: RULING AGAINST GOLD MINERS STANDS: GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has let stand a ruling that makes it tougher for small-time gold miners to work their claims on federal lands across the West.

The high court on Monday denied without comment a petition to hear an appeal from The New 49'ers, a gold-mining club based on Northern California's Klamath River.

That leaves standing a ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. It ruled last year that the U.S. Forest Service has to consult biologists from other agencies before allowing miners to do anything that might harm salmon protected by the Endangered Species Act.

The Karuk Tribe had sued after a Forest Service district ranger allowed the club to mine in the river without first consulting NOAA Fisheries Service.