A lawsuit filed in state court alleges California's corrections agency routinely refers inmates who appear to be “foreign-born” to federal immigration authorities even if they are U.S. citizens.

MIAMI – Authorities say five South Florida inmates beat up an accused child killer as he slept because “of the nature of his pending charges.”They’ve been charged with battery by a detainee for the March 1 attack on 53-year-old Jorge Barahona. Barahona is accused of killing his adopted 10-year-old daughter Nubia Barahona in February 2011. Investigators said she and her twin brother Victor were tortured for months. Her body was found soaked with chemicals in the back of her father’s truck along an interstate. Last year Carmen Barahona pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse charges.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block the execution of four federal prison inmates who are scheduled to be put to death in July and August. The executions would mark the first use of the death penalty on the federal level since 2003. The justices rejected an appeal from four inmates who were convicted of killing children. The court's action leaves no obstacles standing in the way of the executions, the first of which is scheduled for July 13. The inmates are separately asking a federal judge in Washington to impose a new delay on their executions over other legal issues that have yet to be resolved.