The federal judge overseeing much of the massive litigation over withdrawn painkiller Vioxx yesterday capped fees for plaintiffs' attorneys at a relatively low 32 percent of the $4.85 billion settlement, saying he had to ensure fees were reasonable.

U.S. District Judge Elden Fallon wrote in an order that while the limit is below the usual 33.3 percent to 40 percent that lawyers collect when they take cases on a contingency, it won't result in "a paltry award" for the lawyers.

A multi-million dollar verdict Wednesday against the Belleville Diocese in the case of a child abused by a predator priest in the 1970's.

That victim Jim Wisniewski is now 47 years old and living in Champaign, Illinois.

But Wisniewski says the emotional scars of what happened in his childhood are still with him.

The alleged sexual abuse took place when Jim was an altar boy at St. Theresa's Catholic Church in Salem, Illinois.

Jim says it started when he was just 12 years old in 1973 and went on for three to four years.

The drive south from New Orleans toward the Gulf of Mexico is a study in coastal vulnerability.

As the road winds through marshes and skirts bayous, dry land grows sparser by the mile.

Soon, water dominates the landscape, and the danger that a storm surge from a hurricane coming ashore would pose becomes clear.

At the far edge of this web of wetlands, roughly 60 miles south of New Orleans, lies one of the most strategically important ports in the United States.