Still Battling: Talk-show host Larry King wants...

Still Battling: Talk-show host Larry King wants to fight his divorce case in a Virginia court. A Philadelphia judge agrees that’s where it belongs, so he dismissed estranged wife Julia King’s complaint for spousal support Monday. She wanted the case heard in Philadelphia, where she lives. King has an apartment in Arlington, Va.

* Stilled: A coroner’s jury in Washington, Pa., has recommended murder charges against Mary Kay Cassidy, who confessed that she and her teen-age lover killed her husband, John. The case, which recalls the conviction Friday of Pamela Smart for a similar crime, could be complicated because a recording of Cassidy plotting the deed may not be admissible as evidence. When state trooper Roy Fuller played the tape, Cassidy said: “That’s enough. You can turn it off.” Fuller: “You killed your husband, didn’t you?” Pause. “She just dropped her head. Tears started coming. She nodded.”

* Still Routine: An astronaut couple plan to keep a unique shuttle flight next year strictly business. Mark Lee said when he and his wife, Jan Davis, become the first married couple on the same flight, it will be “two people just doing their job.” Indeed, they won’t see much of each other: They are on opposite 12-hour wake shifts.

* Still Looking: More and more Tokyo workers must spend more than four hours commuting each day as sky-high land costs force even well-paid executives to buy homes far from the capital. In Isezaki, a 2 1/2-hour train commute from central Tokyo, a 2-story, 2,200-square-foot dwelling costs $290,000. Cheaper housing isn’t available “nearer town anymore,” said a government official.