Wake Up Call: Police Investigate Death of New York Judge

• New York City police are investigating the death of Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam, the first African American woman to serve on New York’s highest state court. She was found dead Wednesday in the Hudson River. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr., a Columbia Law School friend of Abdus-Salaam’s, attended her swearing in ceremony in 2013. ( Bloomberg , New York Law Journal )

• A California federal judge slashed attorneys’ fees by over 90 percent, or more than $25 million, in the $1.2 billion settlement between Volkswagen and its U.S. dealerships in the diesel-emissions cheating scandal. ( Courthouse News Service ) Judge Charles Breyer ...