One of the victims in an O.J. Simpson-led robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room was ordered by a judge Friday to turn over the ex-NFL star's Pro Football Hall of Fame ring, even though a lawyer for the memorabilia dealer claims he doesn't have it.

During the hearing, an investigator from the Las Vegas district attorney's office suggested the dealer, Alfred Beardsley, had received the ring from Simpson in exchange for changing his testimony during the robbery case.

Superior Court Judge Gerald Rosenberg ordered Beardsley to produce the ring by next Friday.

Beardsley took the witness stand and invoked his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination 15 times as he was questioned by a lawyer for Fred Goldman, who is seeking Simpson's assets in payment of a $33.5 million civil liability judgment.

Goldman is the father of Ron Goldman, who was slain along with Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson in the notorious 1994 case. Simpson was acquitted of murder charges but later held liable in civil court in the wrongful death case.

Simpson is in a Nevada prison after being sentenced to nine to 33 years for the robbery-kidnapping in Las Vegas last year that centered on his efforts to retrieve memorabilia from his storied sports career.

Bill Falkner, an investigator for the Las Vegas district attorney and the only other witness called at Friday's hearing, said he had transported Beardsley several times from California, where he was in jail on a probation violation, to Las Vegas to testify in the robbery-kidnap case.

During the final trip back to California, Falkner testified that Beardsley told him "the only thing he received for this trouble in the case was Mr. Simpson's Hall of Fame ring. It was given to him. He was upset the case caused him some period of incarceration."

Beardsley's attorney Jack Swickard said he had advised his client to invoke the Fifth Amendment because he had heard rumors of a grand jury investigation under way in Las Vegas into possible witness tampering by Simpson.

He asked Falkner whether there had been "bad blood" between the investigator and Beardsley.

"I have no issues with Mr. Beardsley," Falkner testified.

However, Falkner acknowledged he was unhappy with Beardsley's contradictory testimony at the preliminary hearing and trial in the robbery-kidnap case.

Falkner said Beardsley initially testified that tape recordings of the incident at the hotel were accurate, then changed his story and said the tapes had been altered.

"When you asked Mr. Beardsley what did you get in exchange for your testimony, what did Mr. Beardsley say?" Swickard asked.

"Hall of Fame ring," Falkner said.

He said Beardsley had estimated the value of the ring at $200,000.

"He said it was a very nice ring, and he planned to wear it to Mr. Simpson's sentencing," the investigator said.

Beardsley did not attend the sentencing, and Falkner said he never saw the ring.

Falkner also said he knew of phone calls between Simpson and Beardsley after the hotel room incident. He testified that Beardsley told him, "I talked to O.J., and it's all cool."

Outside court, Swickard said Beardsley doesn't have the ring, and "we can't turn over what the doesn't have."

Attorney David Cook, who represents Fred Goldman, said he didn't know if he would succeed in getting the ring.

"Maybe Mr. Beardsley is a colorful guy who likes to make up stories," he said. "But I'm not going to pass up this opportunity."

Cook said he wasn't sure if Goldman would end his quest for Simpson's assets now that he was in prison.

California, a state plagued by smoggy skies and rising asthma rates, adopted the nation's toughest diesel emission standards Friday for the trucks and buses that crowd its highways.

The state Air Resources Board approved the rule despite warnings it could shut down many small trucking companies in the state. Many of them rely on the older, dirtier vehicles targeted by the change.

The regulation comes one day after the board adopted a sweeping plan to reduce the state's greenhouse gases, which is expected to change everything from the way factories operate to the fuel Californians put in their vehicles.

Starting in 2011, the diesel rules will speed up the replacement of thousands of polluting trucks and buses that typically stay on the road for decades and are not as clean as newer models that have tougher, federally mandated emissions standards.

Board chairwoman Mary Nichols said California has a legal obligation to clean up pollution and meet federal air standards. Failing to meet those targets could cost the state an estimated $2 billion in federal transportation funding.

Air regulators estimate the emissions standards would cost businesses, school districts and transit agencies $5.5 billion over 16 years.

Many trucking companies say they cannot afford to comply.

Ron Faulkner, president of Tulare-based Faulkner Trucking, estimated it would cost him $7 million to replace 26 of his 35 aging trucks by 2014. He said he doesn't know if he can afford it, since his company only turns a profit of $50,000 a year.

"I've worked hard to build this to where it's at and they're going to tear it down," he said.

Nearly a million vehicles will have to be replaced or retrofitted with smog traps, filters or cleaner-burning technology beginning in 2011. By 2014, all trucks must have soot filters, and by the time the rule is fully implemented in 2023, no truck or bus in California will be allowed to be older than 13 years unless it has equipment to cut nitrogen oxide emissions.

Illinois plunged deeper into turmoil Friday over disgraced Gov. Rod Blagojevich as the attorney general asked the state's highest court to strip the governor of his powers, billions of dollars in bills went unpaid and lawmakers moved closer to impeaching the scandal-plagued politician.

But Blagojevich showed no sign of backing down. He took time to pray with ministers at his home and signed a bill that extends insurance coverage for autistic kids, sending a sign to his critics that he's still in charge.

In the midst of it all, the state headed toward an extraordinary constitutional showdown. Attorney General Lisa Madigan asked the Supreme Court to declare Blagojevich unfit to serve, likening his corruption scandal to a debilitating illness as she ramped up pressure on the governor to resign. The move seeks to hand power over to the lieutenant governor.

"I recognize that this is an extraordinary request, but these are extraordinary circumstances," Madigan said.

It is the first time in Illinois history that such an action was taken. The attorney general is applying a rule that was intended to cover cases in which a governor is incapacitated for health reasons.

The Democrat is "unable to serve as governor due to disability and should not rightfully continue to hold that office," according to the motion. "His ability to provide effective leadership has been eliminated, and the state government is paralyzed."

The attorney general, also a Democrat, asked the court to strip the governor of his duties until possible impeachment proceedings and his criminal case run their course. If he does not step down and is not impeached or convicted, Blagojevich could go to the court and ask to be reinstated.

The scandal has also begun to impede state business, Madigan said.

Illinois has billions of dollars in unpaid bills, including payments to Medicaid patients, hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and schools, and the state has approved $1.4 billion in short-term borrowing to keep cash flowing. But before the borrowing takes effect, Madigan said she has to certify that there is not any legal proceeding threatening the ability of the governor to hold his office.

In light of Friday's filing by her office, Madigan said she can't sign that.

"We will not be able to move forward on it until we have a different governor," Comptroller Dan Hynes said.

The state's inability to pay the bills has "a horrible ripple effect," the comptroller said. He said that pharmacies that count on state reimbursements could shut down, and suppliers could stop delivering food to Illinois prisons or letting state troopers buy gasoline. Businesses waiting for the state to pay its bills could lay off workers or simply go bankrupt, Hynes said.

"If our backlog gets worse, people are going to stop providing services," he said.

Blagojevich has rebuffed calls to resign after prosecutors accused him of a litany of corruption allegations, including putting President-elect Barack Obama's Senate seat up for sale, strong-arming the owners of the Chicago Cubs and threatening to withhold millions of dollars from a children's hospital.

Blagojevich began the day praying with several ministers in his home before heading to his office, telling them he is innocent and will be vindicated "when you hear each chapter completely written," according to one of the pastors.

The Rev. Ira Acree said Blagojevich would not discuss details of the allegations against him. He said the governor discussed trying to get a legal and political consultation team in place, but feels as if everything is closing in on him and that he's not getting "any space or chance to sort anything out."

"I look at it like this: Everybody that's hurting needs hope, and the family needs hope, and that's what our jobs are as pastors," said the Rev. Steve Jones, one of the pastors. "Nobody should be left hopeless. Nobody, no matter what the circumstances."

Within a few hours after arriving at work, Blagojevich took his first official action as governor since the scandal broke, signing the autistic health care bill.

"Families of children with autism have a right to access the treatment their children need and today that has finally become a reality in Illinois," the governor said. "I have continued to fight for this cause, and I am pleased to sign this bill into law today."

Spokesman Lucio Guerrero said the governor has concerned himself with bills that are time sensitive, like Friday's autism measure.

"He wants to show that he's still the governor and still has the authority and responsibility to sign into law important pieces of legislation," Guerrero said.

Blagojevich's attorney said the governor also stopped at the federal courthouse for several minutes Friday to complete pretrial paperwork that is required of all defendants. As he left his office, Blagojevich refused to answer questions from reporters, saying only, "I'll have a lot to say at the appropriate time."

The fallout over the scandal resumed Friday as John Harris, the governor's chief of staff, resigned. He was arrested with his boss on corruption charges. Harris attorney Jim Sotos said his client resigned "because it was the right thing to do, and that's all I'm going to say."

The taint of the scandal followed Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. for a third straight day. A report in the Chicago Tribune said businessmen with ties to the governor and the congressmen discussed raising $1 million for Blagojevich to get him to appoint Jackson to Obama's seat.

Jackson flatly denied any wrongdoing. "It is unfortunate that every appearance the governor makes and meeting he has taints everyone in attendance," Jackson said.

In Washington, people who have been briefed on the Illinois governor corruption investigation said Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is not a target of the probe.

Emanuel has refused to answer questions about whether he's the "president-elect adviser" referred to in the criminal complaint that accuses Blagojevich of putting Obama's Senate seat up for sale. The complaint does not say that Blagojevich ever spoke to the unidentified Obama adviser about the Senate seat.

Blagojevich faced a growing threat of impeachment when lawmakers gather Monday in Springfield. Because that process could take several weeks, Madigan said she felt compelled to go to the Supreme Court to deal with the Blagojevich matter in quicker fashion.

Illinois Supreme Court spokesman Joseph Tybor wouldn't comment on when the court might act on Madigan's motion, saying only that it "will be properly considered."

The decision to go to the state's highest court was not welcomed by everyone. Democratic Rep. Jack Franks said it would set "a dangerous precedent" for the court to remove a governor as proposed by Madigan, who is a likely candidate for governor in 2010.

Franks, a fierce Blagojevich critic, said that kind of decision should be left to the General Assembly.

"That's our job, and we should be doing it," he said.

Lawmakers also continued their preparations to meet Monday and consider setting up a special election to fill Obama's former Senate seat.

Republican Sen. Christine Radogno said a draft of the legislation calls for the primary and general elections to be held in conjunction with municipal elections on Feb. 24 and April 7.

The Atlanta courthouse gunman who killed a judge and three other people avoided a death sentence Friday when jurors failed to reach a unanimous decision on his sentence.

Superior Court Judge James Bodiford is required by state law to sentence Brian Nichols to life, and will decide in a hearing scheduled for Saturday morning whether that will include the possibility of parole. It is likely Nichols would spend the rest of his life behind bars regardless of the decision.

Prosecutors had urged jurors to sentence Nichols to death after he was convicted last month of murder and dozens of other counts in the 2005 killings. The 37-year-old was on trial for rape when he grabbed a guard's gun and fatally shot the judge, a court reporter and a sheriff's deputy at the courthouse. He fled and killed a federal agent in an Atlanta neighborhood.

Anything short of a death sentence was viewed as a failure for prosecutors. They turned down an offer by Nichols' attorneys last year for him to plead guilty to the murder charges if the state took the death penalty off the table. Both sides have spent millions of dollars since in legal fees to try the case.

Nichols sat emotionless throughout the hearing, while relatives of the victims looked downtrodden.

Lawyers from both sides refused to comment until after Saturday's sentencing decision, as did the family members of the victims. Court spokesman Don Plummer said the jurors, who also refused to comment, were "exhausted and relieved."

"They said they felt like they had been here forever," said Plummer.

Death sentences in Georgia require a unanimous jury decision. The jurors deliberated for more than 30 hours over four days before telling Bodiford around noon Thursday they were deadlocked 9-3, with nine in favor of death and three in favor of life without parole.

The judge declared the jury deadlocked late Friday after the jury reported it had "reached a stage where further deliberations will not change an opinion."

Atlanta residents have watched the trial unfold as one setback after another slowed efforts to bring Nichols to justice and tested the patience of a city seeking closure.

Nichols was accused of plotting an escape from jail with his pen-pal girlfriend. Frustrated legislators used the growing expenses as a rallying cry to slash Georgia's fledgling public defender system.

An earlier effort to bring the case to trial was postponed because of funding problems, and the case's first judge, Hilton Fuller, resigned after he was quoted in a magazine article saying of Nichols, "everyone in the world knows he did it."

The new judge, Bodiford, vowed to keep the trial on a tight schedule since the opening statements began in late September. Attorneys introduced more than 1,000 pieces of evidence and jurors have heard testimony from more than 140 witnesses throughout the trial.

After Nichols was convicted on Nov. 7, defense attorneys called a parade of Nichols' friends and family to the stand to build a case to spare their client's life. Sentencing him to death, they argued, would not improve society.

"Are we, can we be better off with mercy? The answer to that question is, 'Yes,'" said Henderson Hill, a defense attorney.

Prosecutors summoned relatives of Nichols' victims to deliver emotional testimony on how the shootings have changed their lives. And they sought to prove Nichols was an unrepentant "snake" who would plot to escape once more.

"He has not changed," prosecutor Clint Rucker told the jurors. "And if he's done it once, he'll do it again - until someone stops him. And that someone is you."

The trial was held amid high security in a municipal courthouse a few blocks from where the first shootings occurred, and police cordoned off the streets outside the building and screened visitors through two separate checkpoints. Still, Fulton County authorities said they confiscated a razor and a handgun from two people who tried to enter the courtroom last month.

The shooting rampage began when Nichols stole a deputy's gun and burst into the courtroom, where he shot and killed Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and court reporter Julie Ann Brandau. Deputy Hoyt Teasley was killed outside.