New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has led the charge on bad actors in the investment world, including one or two here in New Mexico, now is going after Intel Corp, which has a big presence in the Land of Enchantment. Cuomo filed a new antitrust lawsuit against the chip maker Wednesday, alleging broad-based bribery and coercion to maintain its market position, reports the Albany (NY) Times-Union.

Did Ohio voters unintentionally start a casino arms race Tuesday when they approved opening gambling casinos in four cities? Sounds like. Officials in Kentucky and Indiana, which already have casinos, are talking about protecting their gambling interests. Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear wants that state’s lawmakers to expand gambling, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. Meanwhile, the paper reports, a top Indiana lawmaker says his state is under increasing pressure to improve its gambling industry. At issue, officials in those states warn, is a potential loss of state revenue produced by their respective gambling industries.

California lawmakers finally passed a piece of water legislation Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports. Months in the making, the legislation could reshape how the nation’s most populous — and some would say most water-hungry — state thinks about and uses water. The legislation includes $11.1-billion bond that must go before voters, establishes a statewide program that for the first time would measure if too much water is being pumped from underground aquifers. It also would require an overall 20 percent drop in the state’s per capita water use by 2020 and create a new, politically appointed council to oversee management of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the state’s water hub, the paper reported. The legislation likely will make it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s desk by next week.

Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik is reportedly pleading guilty to lying to the White House and also will admit to tax crimes, the Associated Press reports. As you may recall, Kerik was nominated to become the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary under President George W. Bush, but withdrew his name.

A United Nations court has ordered an attorney for war-crimes defendant and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, according to the BBC. Karadzic, who until this point has represented himself against 11 war crimes charges from the Bosnian war of the 1990s,  has missed court appearances, effectively holding the prosecution captive to his intermittent appearances. That’s why a UN judge ordered an attorney to represent Karadzic when he doesn’t show for court appearances, the BBC reports. Karadzic faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted.

The Wall Street Journal debuts its San Francisco edition today, following the the New York Times, which debuted its Bay Area edition recently. Those two nationals are courting Bay Area readers as the region’s largest paper — the San Francisco Chronicle — hemorrhages readership, although the Chron is changing to glossier paper to attract readers.

Meanwhile, Google CEO Eric Schmidt speculated on what the news reader of the near future — five, 10 years — will look like. I’m not a tech geek, but his vision is pretty close to mine. So why is he making a billion times more money than me? Probably two reasons: he’s way smarter than me; and he’s a tech geek.

Finally, John Irving has some advice for aspiring novelists.