Chris Brown's criminal sentencing for his domestic violence assault on former girlfriend Rihanna was moved up to this afternoon at 2 p.m. PST, two days earlier than his recently re-scheduled August 27, 2009 date.

At a previously scheduled sentencing hearing on August 5th, this blog reported that Rihanna's attorney Donald Etra explained that the delay was because L.A. Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg was "awaiting confirmation from Virginia as to what Chris would be doing" during his sentence of community labor.

The Supreme Court put out a few noteworthy decisions yesterday, covering issues ranging from postconviction DNA testing to age discrimination in the workplace. In one of the key 5-4 rulings, the Court said convicts had no Due Process right under the Constitution to access the state's evidence for DNA testing. The five justices felt that, considering the fact that federal law and 46 states' statutes already cover access to DNA evidence, it was best left to the states to deal with that postconviction issue.

In another close ruling (with the typically liberal-leaning justices in the minority), the Court held that a plaintiff bringing a federal law age discrimination claim must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the "but-for" cause of the challenged adverse employment action. The ruling noted that the age discrimination statute's language did not track that of Title VII, which deals with other types of discrimination (race, sex, religion, etc.). As a result, age discrimination claims will be gauged under a more scrutinizing light for the plaintiffs, as compared to Title VII.

In a rare bit of good news for Countrywide, the Associated Press reports that a federal district court judge in Los Angeles has thrown out most of a shareholder suit alleging insider trading against former executives of the company.

The suit remains in place against former CEO Angelo Mozilo.  The judge stated that adjustments to his automatic stock sale plan were unusual.  The lawsuit alleges that he sold $478 million in shares between 2004 and 2008.