WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three congressional hearings during the past week have allowed lawmakers to vent their anger at the U.S. tax agency for its targeting of conservative groups for extra scrutiny, but the sessions have yielded few answers about who was responsible.

The frustration on Capitol Hill seemed to reach a crescendo on Wednesday when Lois Lerner, the Internal Revenue Service official who first acknowledged the targeting - and the day's star witness before a House panel - refused to testify.

Lerner, whom lawmakers have accused of providing false information to Congress because she did not tell them about the problems in the office she leads before revealing them at a lawyers' conference on May 10, told lawmakers that she had done nothing wrong.

She then invoked her constitutional right not to incriminate herself, and declined to answer questions.

"I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any congressional committee," Lerner told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

"Because I am asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I have done something wrong. I have not," she said.

The scene marked the latest in a series of failed attempts by lawmakers to pry details from high-level IRS officials about who precisely was responsible for targeting conservative groups that have sought tax-exempt status since 2010.

The scandal over what a Treasury inspector general called "inappropriate" targeting of groups with names that included terms like "Tea Party" and "Patriot" by the IRS has become a distraction for Democratic President Barack Obama as he pursues an ambitious second-term agenda.

And as Republicans in Congress seek to determine whether the White House might have had a hand in encouraging the extra scrutiny of populist groups that seek lower taxation and less government, the scandal has fueled Republicans' portrayals of an indifferent, overreaching federal bureaucracy.

The Justice Department has opened a criminal probe into the targeting scandal.

On Wednesday, former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who unlike Lerner had appeared at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, again was asked who was behind the targeting done in the IRS office in Cincinnati, Ohio.

And again, Shulman said that he had no names to provide. Like outgoing acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller, whom Obama has fired, Shulman also rejected accusations that he had misled or lied to lawmakers about the matter.

"I answered truthfully based on the information that I had at the time," Shulman said.

Shulman's answers did not satisfy many lawmakers. "Either there was a cover-up or an extreme lack of curiosity on your part," said Republican Representative Mark Meadows from North Carolina.

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa released documents including internal emails between Cincinnati workers and Holly Paz, an IRS director in Washington who led an internal review of the matter in 2012. They seem to confirm the Treasury inspector general's conclusion that low-level employees came up with the controversial criteria.

"This is criteria the screening group came up with," Cindy Thomas, a Cincinnati-based IRS employee wrote to Paz in a June 2, 2011 email.

'THAT'S NOT THE WAY IT WORKS'

Issa and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle became exasperated that the officials on Wednesday provided so few answers about the scandal and whether there was a cover-up.

Lerner is seen as central to the scandal because she was alerted in June 2011 that the partisan criteria were being used, and she ordered them changed. They were then changed back in January 2012 to focus on the policy positions of organizations, but is it not clear who changed them.

Issa and other Republicans also questioned whether Lerner technically waived her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination by reading an opening statement declaring her innocence.

Republican Trey Gowdy of South Carolina demanded that she stay to answer questions, drawing applause from the crowd in the hearing room. "You don't get to tell your side of the story and then not be subject to cross-examination. That's not the way it works," Gowdy said.

Lerner has hired high-powered Washington attorney William Taylor to help defend her against accusations from Issa that she provided "false or misleading" information to Congress last year about the IRS' treatment of conservative groups.

Taylor, of the law firm Zuckerman Spaeder, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that there was no point in Lerner agreeing to answer lawmakers' questions at the hearing.

"Why should she go up there and confront people who have already decided she has done something wrong?" Taylor said.

After conferring with aides, Issa dismissed Lerner from the hearing but said he might call her to testify in the future.

CONGRESS IN THE DARK

At Wednesday's hearing, frustrated lawmakers repeatedly criticized former IRS chief Shulman and J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general who published a watchdog report on the practice last week, for not alerting Congress to the practice earlier.

Democratic Representative Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts warned their failure to be more forthcoming could force the appointment of a special prosecutor to look into the scandal.

Issa noted that the IRS internal review uncovered the policy of scrutinizing conservative groups in May 2012 and that top officials, including Miller, were made aware of the findings but did not alert Congress for nearly a year.

He also questioned why George's investigators looking into the targeting allowed IRS officials to be present during interviews with subordinates, and he criticized the inspector general for waiting 10 months to give the committee information on the targeting.

George said it would have been "impractical for us to give you partial information that may not be accurate."

Shulman repeated testimony he gave at the Senate hearing on Tuesday that he did not know the full details of the targeting for two years after it started in 2010. Issa told Shulman, "If you didn't know, you were derelict in your duty."

Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the panel, criticized Shulman for not correcting congressional testimony he gave in March 2012 denying that targeting was occurring, after learning the results of the IRS internal review in May 2012.

"Why didn't you ever come back to the Congress to explain that you were mistaken?" Cummings asked.

"I didn't have all the facts, I didn't know what was on the list, exactly how it was used," Shulman said. He later acknowledged he "would have answered differently" in March 2012 if he had known what he did in May 2012.

Cummings also said the panel would like to hear from Daniel Werfel, the White House budget official who started on Wednesday as the new IRS head after Obama fired Miller last week.

Werfel is conducting a 30-day review of the IRS and is due to report back to Obama about how to correct failures that led to the targeting and how to hold IRS staff accountable for inappropriate actions.

(Additional reporting by Casey Sullivan; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Karey Van Hall and Tim Dobbyn)

(Reuters) - Representatives at the United Nations may think twice about crossing Ban Ki-moon in future after the secretary-general was awarded an honorary 10th degree black belt in the Korean martial art of taekwondo.

While is unclear whether the 68-year-old Ban can break bricks with his bare hands, World Taekwondo Federation president Choue Chung-won said the awarding of the black belt reflected the common goals and values shared by the UN and federation.

"I am delighted to have presented UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon with our prestigious black belt," Choue said in a statement.

"The black belt is a globally-recognized symbol of expertise across the martial arts and awarding it to the secretary-general represents how strongly matched the WTF's values are with the United Nations."

South Korean Ban, who succeeded Kofi Annan in the UN's top job in 2007 and will serve through his second term until the end of 2016, praised the efforts of the federation, founded in 1973, to achieve peace through sport.

"The World Taekwondo Federation have many accomplishments to celebrate as they mark their 40th anniversary," he added in the statement. "They have become a great example of the values and objectives that are shared by the United Nations and the Olympic Movement."

While ninth degree is technically the highest level attainable through the ranking system, some honorary 10th degree black belts have been awarded to individuals for their contributions to taekwondo and society in general.

The WTF presented their first two honorary 10th degree black belts to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and his predecessor, Juan Antonio Samaranch. Ban is the third recipient of the third.

(Writing by Peter Rutherford in Singapore; Editing by John O'Brien)

Elsewhere in central Europe, communities were beginning to count the cost of devastating floods that have hit Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic.

At least 19 people have died over the past week, and experts say the economic damage in Germany alone could top 11 billion euros ($14.6 billion).

The Danube's crest left Austria on Friday and entered Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that water levels were above the all-time highs.

"It is now certain that we will face the largest-ever flood on the Danube, so we must be prepared for the worst," Orban said Gyor, a western city on the Danube.

The crest was expected to reach Budapest on Monday, and Mayor Istvan Tarlos said in a worst-case scenario up to 55,000 people may need to be evacuated. But he was confident that only the lowest-lying areas of the city would be exposed to the Danube's surge.

Tarlos said the Danube was expected to rise to around 8.95 meters (31 feet) in the downtown area, while the walls along the river and temporary defenses would be able to keep out waters up to 9.3 meters (30 feet, 6 inches).

Farther upstream in Hungary, about 900 people had to leave their homes because of the flood.

In neighboring Slovakia, the situation was critical in the border city of Komarno where the Danube was still rising and was expected to do so till Saturday. Rescuers, soldiers and volunteers have been filling sand bags to reinforce protective barriers.

In the Czech Republic, the government's central crisis committee ordered local authorities to leave all flood protection measures in place because meteorologists have forecast possible heavy rains for the next few days and the situation could get worse again.

"The flooding is not over yet," Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas.

In Germany, meanwhile, water levels were stabilizing in the south and east, even as the crest of the Elbe rolled northward.

Authorities said the greatest dangers remained in the Saxony-Anhalt town of Bitterfeld where levees around a lake were threatening to collapse and in Muehlberg in Brandenburg, where 2,000 residents were told to leave their homes.

Authorities in Magdeburg, the state capital of Saxony-Anhalt, reported that water levels in the Elbe were higher than during the record floods the region experienced in 2002. Since then, flood defenses have been significantly upgraded.

The German military said some 11,300 soldiers were helping build sandbag barriers and flying helicopters over flood zones to ensure levees and dams were holding.

A 74-year-old man died after he was hit by a vehicle carrying sandbags in the eastern German town of Wittenberg. Five other flood-related deaths have been recorded in Germany, ten in the Czech Republic, two in Austria and one each in Slovakia and Switzerland.

___

Karel Janicek in Prague, Czech Republic, and Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, contributed to this report.

Sales of the book, which sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon, have already reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction "The Casual Vacancy" last year.

"We think it's going to be the fastest and biggest-selling book of the year because Dan Brown is in a league of his own," Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells told Reuters.

"The early word is that it's darker, which will whet the appetite for everyone because this is the fourth appearance of Robert Langdon and I think giving it that sort of twist, freshens it up for long-term readers," Howells added.

Brown, who is famous for his love of puzzling codes, conspiracies and other symbols, said the subject matter for the book was so vibrant and horrifying that it helped do a lot of the work for him.

"I'm not writing about the masons and ancient histories, which is kind of ethereal. I'm writing about Dante's vision of hell," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

"It wasn't until the 1300s and this version of Inferno that it became terrifying. Dante has had enormous influence on the Christian view of hell."

The author, who said he tries not to read reviews of his books, also spoke of his unique way of dealing with writer's block, by suspending himself upside down to help get his creative juices flowing.

"It does help. You've just got to relax and let go. The more you do it the more you let go. And then soon it's just, wow," he said.

Brown's religion-themed mystery novel "The Da Vinci Code," was published in 2003 and was made into a hit film starring Tom Hanks. It spent more than a year atop the New York Times bestseller list.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

He places the cigarette through a hole he carved in his helmet for a quick toke and exhales.

The green flag hits and out the window goes the cigarette butt and back to racing goes Trickle.

"Dick always had a cigarette lighter in his car," said fellow NASCAR driver Geoff Bodine.

Trickle was a unique driver with a unique name who found cult-like status before his death Thursday.

Trickle, whose larger-than-life personality and penchant for fun won him legions of fans despite a lack of success beyond the nation's small tracks, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said. He was 71.

The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office said authorities received a call believed to be from Trickle, who said "there would be a dead body and it would be his." Authorities tried to call the number back, but no one answered.

Trickle's body was found near his pickup truck at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, N.C., about 40 miles northwest of Charlotte. Sheriff's Lieutenant Tim Johnson said foul play was not suspected.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Dick Trickle on his passing today," NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France said. "Dick was a legend in the short-track racing community, particularly in his home state of Wisconsin, and he was a true fan favorite.Personalities like Dick Trickle helped shape our sport. He will be missed."

Trickle earned his reputation as a successful short track driver before joining the Winston Cup series and earning rookie of the year in 1989 at age 48.

He competed in more than 300 Cup races. Although he never won a Cup race and won only two Busch Series races, Trickle earned cult status in the 1990s.

Former ESPN anchor Keith Olbermann would regularly mention where Trickle finished after talking about each NASCAR race. It caught on and drew snickers from race fans around the country.

Bodine said there was only one way to describe Trickle, a native of Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

"Fun," Bodine said. "Just plain fun."

Trickle was never one to be told how to live his life.

"It's all just sad," Bodine said in a telephone interview. "We don't understand why he would do this. Hopefully we will all learn why he would do that. There was something that triggered him to take his own life. We are all really saddened by this in the racing community."

NASCAR does not keep track of short-track records, but according to the (Milwaukee) Journal-Sentinel, Trickle won more than 1,000 short-track races throughout the country during his prime. He was a seven-time winner in the regional ARTGO Challenge Series in the late 1970s and mid '80s. Trickle also captured the ASA AC-Delco Challenge Series in back-to-back years in 1984-85 before turning to Cup racing.

"Dick Trickle was one of the best race drivers of the '80s, no one knew how many races he won," said Humpy Wheeler, the former president of Charlotte Motor Speedway. "He was right there with Red Farmer and other short track drivers the wins kind of got so big that they blended into each other. He was a product of the rich Wisconsin soil, where they race eight races a week in the season, and he could win all of them."

Wheeler said he asked Trickle to try NASCAR in the 1980s, but Trickle initially declined because he was so successful on the short track circuit.

"He could not make enough money then as he could on those Midwest tracks, so he deferred," Wheeler recalled. "For a guy who really won at least 700 races, I could see why. In those days, unless you were a top Cup driver, you couldn't win enough money to overcompensate for that."

Trickle eventually did move to NASCAR, settling into Iron Station, N.C., where he lived for more than 20 years. Bodine said Trickle was full of stories and popular because of it.

"People everywhere knew his name," Bodine said. "That's why they used his likeness in that movie 'Days of Thunder.' He was such a character."

The main character in that popular niche racing movie, played by Tom Cruise, was named Cole Trickle.

Bodine said that a few years ago he had to back out of a celebrity cruise for patients who were on kidney dialysis. He asked Trickle to fill in.

"He made such an impression on people on that ship that everyone wanted to know when Dick was coming back," Bodine said. "They loved him. They tell me he was the last man to leave most of the bars on the ship and I believe it."

Bodine also recalled inviting Trickle to compete in one of his bobsled events in 2004 at Lake Placid, N.Y.

He said Trickle went down the first time and crashed. After being cleared by doctors to continue, Trickle tried again and crashed in the same place.

"They were doing interviews with him on TV and he was like, 'I don't know what happened, I did the exact same thing I did the first time,'" Bodine said. "And we're all looking at him like, 'Hey Dick, maybe that was the problem.'"

''This must be great for you guys,'' he said through his laughter. ''Come out to the PGA Tour and every week they hand you another story.''

And he wasn't talking about Adam Scott winning the Masters.

The debate over anchored strokes and long putters. Deer antler spray. Rule 33-7. A player cleared of an anti-doping violation on a technicality, and then suing his own tour. Players hiring an attorney over a new rule related to the long putter.

And this was before the public spat between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods took an ugly turn that brought overtures of racism back into golf.

''It's been quite a controversial year for golf,'' Lee Westwood said.

Woods already has won four times on the PGA Tour going into the Memorial, a tournament he already has won five times in his career. So when someone asked Westwood on Tuesday if there was a sense that the No. 1 player was on the verge of going on a big run, Westwood looked mildly perplexed.

''I think he's on one, isn't he?'' Westwood said. ''How many tournaments has he played this year? He's won more than 50 percent.''

But any talk of Woods is sure to include the illegal drop he took at the Masters, the two-shot penalty he received the next day, the incorrect scorecard with his signature on it and Augusta National invoking Rule 33-7, which gave it discretion to disregard the penalty of disqualification for the incorrect scorecard.

That debate lost steam when Vijay Singh sued the tour the day before The Players Championship began at TPC Sawgrass, where the Fijian spent years honing a game that brought him nearly $70 million in earnings and a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Lawsuits against the tour are rare, but the details of this one were bizarre.

''Nobody has ever sued the tour for being cleared of getting a drug violation,'' Padraig Harrington said.

WADA warned against deer antler spray. Vijay Singh used deer antler spray. The tour proposed a six-month suspension. Singh appealed. WADA said deer antler spray was no longer the same concern. Singh was off the hook. And then Singh sued the tour.

The good news for PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was the lawsuit was largely forgotten three days later. The bad news for the tour was why it was forgotten.

Singh vs. PGA Tour felt like an undercard compared with Garcia vs. Woods.

The Spaniard threw a sucker punch during a rain delay by suggesting Woods was the cause of a commotion in their final group of the third round. Woods fired back by calling out Garcia for his constant complaining, which led Garcia to say Woods wasn't the nicest guy on tour. And with no interest by either side in a truce, Garcia tried to make a joke about having Woods over for fried chicken, and he wound up with egg on his face.

Garcia threw out the racial stereotype the same day that the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and U.S. Golf Association introduced Rule 14-1b, effective in 2016, that would ban the anchored stroke used for long putters - like the one Scott used when he won the Masters, or the one Els used at the British Open, and Webb Simpson in the U.S. Open, and the ones used by Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson their entire pro careers.

At least three players, including Scott, have retained a lawyer as they wait to see whether the PGA Tour goes along with the new rule. The tour met with its Player Advisory Council on Tuesday at Muirfield Village, the first step toward figuring out which direction it will go.

According to one PAC member at the meeting, there was passion on both sides of the debate, which was not surprising. And there was no consensus, also not surprising. This was only a conversation, and from all indications, no one called anyone names.

So much for golf's reputation as a genteel sport.

''Is it bad for golf?'' Nick Watney said Tuesday afternoon. ''It depends on your theory of publicity. If you had the Kardashian feeling that any publicity is good publicity, then it's good. If you're a purist in terms of golf, then it's bad. The lawsuits, the rule change, the little feud going on. My view is that it's bad. This is supposed to be a gentleman's game. We're different from a lot of other pro sports.''

This isn't the first time golf has gone way beyond birdies and bogeys.

There was the lawsuit involving Ping and the square grooves in the 1980s. There was Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, leading the breakaway from the PGA of America to start what is now the PGA Tour at the end of the 1960s. Imagine if Woods and Phil Mickelson did something like that today.

''It's not a perfect game,'' Curtis Strange said. ''Some people believe there's no such thing as bad press, but it seems like we're still having growing issues. We're learning how to handle doping issues, although nobody has learned to do that yet. I'm been reading about Lance Armstrong all day.''

It always seemed like some other sport's problems, and now some of those problems belong to golf.

''It's been great on the golf course - fantastic, really,'' Geoff Ogilvy said. ''Tiger has won four times. The Masters was amazing again. Any time golf is in the newspaper, it's a good thing for us. Obviously, the Sergio-Tiger thing wasn't good. But it has been a tumultuous year.''

And it's not anything Finchem can make go away with a wave of his hand. Considering that golf is a niche sport, maybe that's not the worst thing.

''Outside the ropes, golf is probably more interesting than it ever has been,'' Robert Garrigus said. ''I don't think it's all that bad if it makes our sport more interesting. There might be a few more people come out to the U.S. Open.''

That would be good for golf. Maybe not so much for Garcia.

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for parts of Oklahoma on Friday, describing weather conditions as "particularly dangerous" a day after more than a dozen reported twisters ripped through the region.

Forecasters said several intense tornadoes were likely, along with storms bringing up to 4-inch hail and damaging wind gusts that could reach 80 miles per hour.

"An extremely unstable air mass has developed across much of Central (and) Eastern Oklahoma," the weather service said in an advisory. "This will likely result in rapid development of severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening."

Forecasters said the winds would pose an increasing threat through the evening and urged residents to watch for severe weather.

"This is a particularly dangerous situation," the advisory said.

Storms in Oklahoma and Arkansas on Thursday left an Arkansas county sheriff dead and at least one man missing in an attempted water rescue, while at least seven other people were injured elsewhere, officials said.

The body of Scott County Sheriff Cody Carpenter was recovered early on Friday, said Keith Stephens, a spokesman for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Authorities continued to search for a missing state game warden after Thursday night's rescue attempt along the Fourche La Fave River.

A man died in Tull, Arkansas, when a tree fell on his car during a possible tornado, said Grant County sheriff's chief deputy, Pete Roberts. A Scott County official said a woman's body was found in floodwaters on Friday.

Arkansas had numerous reports of damage from high winds, heavy rain and possible tornadoes. Entergy Arkansas reported about 15,000 people were without power, down from a peak of about 30,000 customers early on Friday.

SURVEYING DAMAGE

Brian Smith, a National Weather Service forecaster in North Little Rock, said damage assessment teams were surveying several counties on Friday after the reports of several tornadoes.

Several storms produced straight-line wind damage and heavy repeated rain, causing flash flooding across Arkansas, he said.

Little Rock received more than 3 inches of rain in an hour, breaking the hourly record for the state capital, with more thunderstorms and heavy rain possible on Friday, he said.

Large, long-lasting thunderstorms known as supercells are responsible for producing the strongest tornadoes, along with large hail and other dangerous winds.

Oklahoma City and Tulsa, as well as Springfield, Missouri, may all be buffeted by Friday's severe weather and possible tornado touchdowns, said Rich Thompson, a lead forecaster at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

The danger zone included Joplin, Missouri, he added. Joplin was hit by a monster tornado, one of the most catastrophic in U.S. history, that killed 161 people and destroyed about 7,500 homes two years ago.

On Friday, the focus was going to be from southwest Missouri into Oklahoma, Thompson said, referring to the area often referred to as "Tornado Alley."

The twisters on Thursday sent Oklahoma residents scrambling for cover 10 days after a deadly EF-5 tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, and killed 24 people. The May 20 tornado damaged or destroyed about 13,000 homes in the Oklahoma City suburb.

(Additional reporting by Tom Brown and Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Barbara Goldberg, Doina Chiacu and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

Witness Malcolm LaVergne said that defense attorney Yale Galanter's conflict was that he had given Simpson legal advice regarding his plan to confront sports memorabilia dealers at a Las Vegas hotel in 2007 and take back what he believed was his property.

"Mr. Galanter may not have agreed with it, but he enabled him to do it," LaVergne said during a hearing on Simpson's bid for a new trial.

Simpson testified earlier that Galanter told him he was within his rights to take back his property as long as there was no violence and he didn't trespass."I followed what I thought was the law," the 65-year-old former NFL star and actor said Wednesday in his first testimony about the Las Vegas incident.

LaVergne said that had Galanter's involvement been known he would have had to declare a conflict of interest and step out of the case. In addition, he said, Galanter's exorbitant fees meant he was putting his own financial interest ahead of the interest of his client.

"From what I know now, absolutely. There's no doubt about it," LaVergne said under questioning by Simpson lawyer Patricia Palm.

LaVergne took over as Simpson's local counsel for an appeal in 2010, after another Las Vegas lawyer bowed out in a dispute over fees with Galanter, a Miami-based attorney who is scheduled to testify Friday.

LaVergne said he found Galanter wasn't open to any suggestions in the case.

"Yale was going to have it his way," LaVergne testified in the fourth day of hearing before District Judge Linda Marie Bell, who will determine whether Simpson was improperly represented in 2008 and deserves a new trial.

Simpson is serving a sentence of nine to 33 years in prison.

The focus since Monday has been on Galanter's promises, payments and performance while representing Simpson at trial and staying with the case through oral arguments in a 2010 appeal that was rejected by the Nevada Supreme Court.

"Mr. Simpson was very cordial to Mr. Galanter, and Mr. Galanter ran the show," LaVergne said, recalling his first meeting with the two.

LaVergne said Simpson went along with what Galanter wanted. But he said he later found out that Simpson was unaware of any of the legal issues being raised in his appeal and had not seen copies of the briefs submitted on his behalf.

LaVergne said Simpson wanted him and Galanter to split oral arguments before the state high court, but Galanter rejected that.

Palm entered into evidence about seven pages of June 2010 emails between the attorneys about the issue.

LaVergne recalled that at one point in the exchanges, he told Galanter he was being "disrespectful" to him and Simpson. He said when he reported later to Simpson that Galanter made the oral presentation, Simpson was surprised.

Palm asked LaVergne if Galanter ever discussed "a conflict in his representation" with Simpson, and LaVergne said no.

"I was concerned," LaVergne said. "The biggest concern was that Mr. Simpson's appeals were not going well and another set of eyes could look at his case."

After the appeal was denied, Galanter wanted to skip any other possible state appeals and go directly to federal court, witnesses have asserted.

LaVergne said that was when Simpson broke with Galanter.

On Wednesday, Simpson testified that LaVergne and "jailhouse lawyers" were telling him at the time that he was throwing away his last chance to claim ineffective counsel.

Earlier Thursday, there was testimony by a lawyer who has hounded Simpson to collect a multimillion-dollar civil judgment after Simpson's "trial of the century" acquittal in the 1994 stabbing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman.

Attorney David Cook said items taken in the hotel room heist didn't really belong to Simpson.

Cook, testifying for the state, said his client, Ron Goldman's father, still has ownership rights to nine airless "game" football mementos that a California judge ordered returned to Simpson in 2009.

"We have some right to the footballs if they appear on the market," Cook said.

But Simpson testified Wednesday he would never sell what he termed his "stuff." His lawyer Ozzie Fumo, on cross-examination Thursday, made Cook concede that the footballs were returned to Simpson's attorney along with neckties, awards and an autographed photo of Simpson with former FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover.

Cook has been representing Fred Goldman since 2006 in efforts to collect a share of a $33.5 million judgment awarded in February 1997 to the estates of his son and Nicole Brown Simpson.

H. Leon Simon, attorney for the state, called Cook to the stand to rebut Simpson's testimony that he only wanted to retrieve personal belongings when he and five men confronted the sports collectibles dealers.

Outside court, Cook said the original judgment of $19 million to the Goldman estate, with accumulated interest, is now more than $45 million. He said only some of it has been recovered.

"This is an eternal odyssey," Cook told The Associated Press. "There is no closure here. Fred Goldman rejects closure."

The state on Thursday also called a psychiatrist, Dr. Gregory Brown, to rebut testimony from a psychiatrist, Dr. Norton Roitman, who suggested that Simpson's perception of what happened in the hotel room may have been narrowed by sleeplessness, stress and the effects of several hours drinking alcohol before the confrontation.

Brown said he saw no obvious evidence that Simpson was impaired.

___

Find Ken Ritter on Twitter: http://twitter.com/krttr

We have two children. One is away at college and the other starting high school. When I talk to my husband about wanting to do things, he says I should have done them when I was younger. But I married him before I was even an adult!

Is it wrong to want to go out and do things I never got to do when I was a teenager? It makes me question whether or not I want to be married to him anymore. I still love him, but I have changed.

Jake insists we don't need counseling and I just need to get over it and accept that this is my life. What if I don't want to regret what I have never had a chance to do? -- WANTS MORE OUT WEST

DEAR WANTS MORE: I'm sorry, but you can't relive your lost teenage years.

I wish you had been more specific about what it is you want to do. If it's go out and have some fun, perhaps some of your girlfriends would like to go with you. Instead of sitting home, you and Jake could socialize with other couples. If you're into sports, why not join a women's sports team? If you're not, how about a book club? You don't have to sit around and vegetate.

You also didn't mention whether you completed high school. If you didn't receive a diploma, you would be well-served to work on earning your GED, which could widen your horizons and opportunities considerably.

DEAR ABBY: I have two daughters, 11 and 14. They fight over many things, but what gets to me is the way they fight over what television shows to watch.

My younger daughter has nightmares if she watches even mildly dramatic cop/lawyer-type shows. However, my older daughter loves them.

At home, I'd have one kid watch TV in one room and the other in the other room. However, when they're at the sitter's house, which has only one TV, they call me at work and fight over the phone over who watches what. They both accuse me of favoring the other.

How do I deal with this fairly without upsetting them? And how do I keep my younger daughter from having nightmares? -- DOING MY BEST IN KENTUCKY

DEAR DOING: Because your younger daughter has nightmares after viewing shows that create anxiety, she shouldn't be forced to do it. When they are at their sitter's, they should alternate days when each has control of the remote control. When your older girl has it, the younger one should be encouraged to read a book of her choosing and/or listen to music. When the younger one gets to do the choosing, the older one should do the same.

DEAR ABBY: Christmas and birthday gifts I will never use have accumulated around my house. I'd like to have a yard sale, but many of the items came from close friends and family. I feel guilty getting rid of them because the people who gave them to me obviously meant well. Would selling them be wrong?

One gift was from my mother. I live at home, so she will notice if I stick it in the garage sale. I can't let this extra stuff sit around. It's taking up space and I need the money for a very expensive college. But I'm afraid of people finding out that I don't want their presents. What should I do? -- DOWNSIZING IN NEW YORK

DEAR DOWNSIZING: Selling the items would not be wrong. Once a gift is given, it is yours to do with as you please. If you offer them for sale online, it will be less obvious and cause fewer hurt feelings.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order "How to Have a Lovely Wedding." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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That's because HTC hasn't had a hit since 2011. After , the once-popular Taiwanese smartphone competitor needed something like the One to lift it out of a bad year. The phone should have been good enough to do that, given all the laudatory praise. But it didn't: Sales of the device, which debuted in mid-April, started off slow, sources tell Ziegler — and that was a worse outlook than , which had the One "selling well," but not as well as its biggest competition, Samsung's Galaxy S IV. One source attributes the lag to "supply issues," which had to do with internal disorganization. But even if they get on track, HTC might be too late to fix this mess. The Samsung Galaxy S IV has already captured a lot of that high-end, non-iPhone smartphone market, gettingand selling 10 million devices in less than a month. (The Galaxy S III took 50 days to hit the same mark.) 

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Unfortunately, the One's decent sales are the better part of the news for HTC. The Facebook phone's  has only made things worse. One of Ziegler's sources called it an internal "disaster," which pretty much mimics its performance in the outside world. After a little over a month, the company discontinued the HTC First, despite the hype of a Facebook partnership, straight from Mark Zuckerberg himself. Things only look to get worse from here: HTC CEO Peter Chou told other senior executives he would step down if the One failed, . At this point, it remains unclear if that bigger, better phone is a failure, per se, but it's definitely not the type of huge and huger success that HTC really needs.