Bank of America Corp. (BAC) News

CUPERTINO, Calif., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. computer giant Apple has filed for a patent for a touch-screen computer that also has mouse and keyboard capabilities, documents show.

EWeek reported Tuesday that Patently Apple, a company watchdog, discovered Apple had filed for a patent for a dual-input computer in Europe in July 2009.

The patent application, published Jan. 14, says, "While touch-based input is suited to many applications, conventional styles of input, such as mouse/keyboard-based input, may be preferred in other applications."

The patent says the computer screen could trigger the switch from traditional to touch input formats based on the angle of the screen itself.

It does not say what operating system would be used for the computer, eWeek reported.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The public may have the final say on how tough U.S. courts get on banks that break the law, a University of Chicago law professor said.

Federal judges have become increasingly vocal about disagreeing with deals prosecutors make with banks.

"The court is trying to make it public that the government may be cutting cozy deals, because it is the public that ultimately controls the executive branch," The New York times quoted Professor Todd Henderson as saying.

Two judges at the Federal District Court in Washington last week balked at signing off on deals prosecutors made with banks.

In separate hearings, Judge Emmet Sullivan asked, "Why isn't the government getting tough with banks?"

This was a day after Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle reacted to a deal struck with Citigroup (NYSE:C) by asking rhetorically, "Why would I find this fair and reasonable?"

Last year federal Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan chastised a Securities and Exchange Commission attorney for proposing what he considered a small monetary fine on Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) that did not hold individual executives accountable for the bank's withholding information from shareholders when it purchased Merrill Lynch.

"The courts are staking out a role that frankly we seem to need," said University of Pennsylvania law Professor Jill Fisch.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 24 (UPI) -- A judge in Florida said the wife of Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein could have some of her seized jewelry returned, depending on when she received it.

In November, prosecutors took possession of 300 pieces of jewelry owned by Kim Rothstein, wife of convicted fraudster Scott Rothstein, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday.

The jewelry is expected to be sold to compensate victims of Rothstein's $1.4 billion Ponzi operation. However, Judge James Cohn said Mrs. Rothstein is entitled to keep the jewelry given to her before the Ponzi scheme began. She can also keep items she can prove were given to her as gifts from friends other than her husband, Cohn said.

SACRAMENTO, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The state of California is suing a nationally known tax attorney, claiming her firm does little work and issues fraudulent bills, court papers say.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed papers that say television ads featuring attorney Roni Lynn Deutch, the self-proclaimed "Tax Lady," make false claims, The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday.

One ad focuses on three clients who say they saved thousands of dollars by employing Deutch to help them with their taxes. Court paper say their tax bills were not reduced, but put on hold.

Deutch's firm "systematically cheat(s) their clients out of refunds by exaggerating the amount of time spent on their matters," court papers say.

Deutch also founded the Roni Deutch Tax Center franchise chain of tax preparers, which is not involved in the lawsuit. The author of "The Tax Lady's Guide to Beating the IRS," Deutch has appeared as a tax adviser on several national television news shows.