Mayor pledges to take action on evidence unit
(AP) - Mayor Martin Chavez has vowed to make changes because of problems with the Albuquerque Police Department's evidence unit but said he probably won't take action until after the results of a criminal investigation.
"Heads are going to roll," he said Saturday. "I am tired of this situation, and I am in no mood for excuses, and I don't want to see anymore."
The department's evidence room has been under scrutiny for about a year because of missing evidence and allegations of other problems.
New Mexicans to average savings of $61 per return
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SANTA FE (AP) - Taxes defined the Legislature's just completed 60-day session, and Gov. Bill Richardson ended up getting what he wanted.
Lawmakers approved a measure that allows Richardson to proclaim, "We now have covered every New Mexican with a tax cut."
Shortly before adjourning on Saturday, the Legislature gave final approval to a tax package providing an income tax exemption of up to $2,500 per person for lower and middle-income New Mexicans. Tax savings will average $61 per return.
Senate passes legislation on life-support case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate passed a bill that could prolong Terri Schiavo's life while a federal court considers her case. House Republicans, stymied by Democrats, scrambled to bring enough lawmakers back to the Capitol for an emergency vote early Monday. GOP leaders planned a House vote just past midnight, hours after the Senate approved the bill by voice vote. President Bush rushed back from Texas for a chance to sign the measure.
Prosecutors use X-rated material in Jackson case
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - Michael Jackson's child molestation trial has started to look like an X-rated show, complete with lurid magazine covers of topless women projected on a large screen in the courtroom.
The prosecution intended from the outset to haul Jackson's reading materials before jurors, implying that he used the magazines to arouse young boys.
"They want the jury to get the sense of Michael Jackson as a pervert who doesn't live by the rules and is obsessed with sex," said Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor and professor at Loyola University Law School. "But this could backfire."
Iraq, Jordan pull envoys after security argument
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Iraq and Jordan engaged in a tit-for-tat withdrawal of ambassadors Sunday in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan is failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq, while U.S. forces killed 24 insurgents in a clash south of Baghdad. An American convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, when it was attacked, U.S. officials said. Six soldiers and seven militants were wounded.
Deadlock stalls handover of West Bank town
TULKAREM, West Bank (AP) - Israeli and Palestinian commanders met Sunday to work out the last details of a handover of the West Bank town of Tulkarem to Palestinian control, but the session ended without agreement, a new hitch for fledgling peace efforts.
Earlier, Israel's defense minister said the handover would take place Monday, making it the second of five West Bank towns to be transferred to Palestinian control.
