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By Mike Ward, The Austin American-Statesman
Rejecting a rare recommendation to commute a death sentence, Gov. Rick Perry refused Thursday to stop the execution of a man convicted of murder for his role in the 1996 shooting death of a Houston convenience store clerk. Less than an hour later, Robert Lee Thompson, 34, was executed at a state prison in Huntsville.
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By Nicholas Confessore, The New York Times
The longtime secretary for one of the most powerful politicians in New York spent as much time on his private business, handling bills and correspondence, as she did on his public duties, like arranging meetings with lawmakers.
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AR: Board OKs beer, wine sales at Fayetteville Walmart stores
By John Lyon, Arkansas News Bureau
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Thursday approved beer and small-farm wine permits for a Walmart Neighborhood Market and a Walmart Supercenter in Fayetteville, the first grocery stores in the city to be approved for alcohol sales.
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CA: California, Sacramento County to probe in-home care
By Susan Ferriss, The Sacramento Bee
California teamed with Sacramento County officials Thursday to launch a first-in-the-state multi-agency task force to investigate fraud in In-Home Supportive Services. The program could benefit from the state budget approved last July that included $10 million to bolster anti-fraud efforts in the rapidly growing in-home care program.
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CA: California lawmakers, officials face 18% pay cut
By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
California's Legislature went to state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown recently seeking relief from a future pay cut and on Thursday received an unwelcome surprise: An 18% reduction for lawmakers and other elected state officials can begin next month instead of a year from now.
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CT: Lawmaker stopped again for using cell phone in car
By The Associated Press, The Hartford Courant
NEWTOWN, Conn. -- A Connecticut lawmaker says he's paid more than $390 in fines and his driver's license has been reinstated after he was pulled over by police a second time for illegally using a cell phone while driving.
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DE: Correction Department alerts Delaware to crowding crisis
By James Merriweather, The News Journal (New Castle-Wilmington)
Crowding at Baylor Women's Correctional Institution near New Castle, the state's only women's prison, could become a crisis even if there's a relatively small spike in crime, Corrections Commissioner Carl C. Danberg told state budget writers Thursday.
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FL: Broward grand jury recommend pain clinic reforms
By Scott Hiaasen, The Miami Herald
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A Broward County grand jury issued a damning report Thursday bemoaning the explosion of illegal painkillers sold through Broward pain clinics -- and warning that reforms passed by the Legislature may not be enough.
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GA: Adelman nominated ambassador to Singapore
By Aaron Gould Sheinin, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Sen. David Adelman (D-Atlanta) has been nominated by President Barack Obama to be U.S. ambassador to Singapore, the White House announced late Thursday.
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ID: ITD hires new director
By Ben Botkin, The Times-News (Twin Falls)
The Idaho Transportation Department has a new director, just days after the former director sued the state agency over her firing.
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IL: State GOP tones down heat on Gitmo
By Joseph Ryan, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights)
Meanwhile, Gov. Pat Quinn and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, a Springfield Democrat, seized on the attacks as fear mongering as they tried to sell the deal in a series of news conferences around northern Illinois.
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IL: New trial ordered for man in 1992 Lakeview slaying
By Steve Schmadeke, Chicago Tribune
The Illinois Supreme Court ordered a new trial for Salvador Ortiz for a 1992 gang-related Lakeview slaying that drew attention after Ortiz's mother, who became a community activist and advocate for her son's case, died in police custody in 2004 after being arrested on drug charges.
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KY: Senate hopefuls squabble about terrorism, coal
By Jack Brammer, Lexington Herald-Leader
LOUISVILLE — Republicans Trey Grayson and Rand Paul exchanged sharp words on the issue of Guantánamo Bay, and Democrats Jack Conway and Daniel Mongiardo squabbled about their alliances with coal.
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LA: In New Orleans, elation over Katrina liability ruling
By Campbell Robertson, The New York Times
NEW ORLEANS — Since the first days after Hurricane Katrina, when the streets were still under water, many residents of New Orleans and its surroundings have maintained that the flood that wrecked their lives was the government's fault, and that the government should pay for it.
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MD: Dixon's fate in jurors' hands
By Julie Bykowicz and Annie Linskey, The Sun (Baltimore)
BALTIMORE, Md. -- Twelve Baltimore residents are now deciding the fate of Mayor Sheila Dixon, who stands accused of five criminal charges involving theft or embezzlement of gift cards. The jurors deliberated for about four hours Thursday, sending the judge several questions before the end of the day.
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ME: Maine high court rules against ATV rider
By The Associated Press, Bangor Daily News
PORTLAND, Maine — Maine's highest court has overturned a lower court judge's ruling that a state law that authorized game wardens to stop all-terrain vehicle operators without cause was unconstitutional.
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MS: Miss. high court tosses out wrongful death award
By The Associated Press, The Sun Herald (Biloxi)
A $75,000 award to a family who claimed Lisa Williams' death resulted from Laurel police officers' failure to arrest Kenneth Wilson after two distrubance calls has been thrown out by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
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MS: Miss. levee board sues EPA over flood project
By The Associated Press, The Sun Herald (Biloxi)
GREENVILLE, Miss. -- Environmental groups have intervened in a lawsuit filed by a Mississippi levee board over the Environmental Protection Agency's veto of a $220 million flood control project that dates back decades.
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MS: Victims' kin in civil-rights era cases sought
By Jerry Mitchell, The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson)
The FBI is seeking to find family members of 33 people slain during the civil rights movement. A third of those killings took place in Mississippi, including that of Jimmie Lee Griffin, whose body was discovered on a highway near Sturgis on Sept. 24, 1965.
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NC: Prisoners allege sex abuse
By Mandy Locke, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Four female inmates have filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing North Carolina prison officials of subjecting female prisoners to extensive sexual violence and harassment amounting to cruel and unusual punishment.
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NC: Perdue rethinks life terms
By Mandy Locke, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Gov. Beverly Perdue's third take: Prison officials never doled out credits for good behavior to those sentenced to life in the 1970s. It's the latest position Perdue's administration has taken on the question of freedom for dozens of inmates convicted of murder, rape and robbery more than three decades ago.
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NC: Stam sees a chance for eminent domain bill
By Benjamin Niolet and Rob Christensen, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The departure of state Sen. Tony Rand has a lot of people wondering how the Senate will operate without the powerful master of rules, legislative maneuvers and hardball politics. It even has state Rep. Paul Stam wondering whether he'll finally get a favorite bill passed in the Senate.
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NE: UNL and witch settle lawsuit
By The Associated Press, Omaha World-Herald
A woman who sued the University of Nebraska last year, saying the school fired her because she is a witch, has agreed to settle the case for $40,000.
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NJ: Colleges spot chance to fight sexual assault
By Staff Reports, The Star-Ledger (Newark)
On college campuses across the state, students mix in dormitories and mingle at parties, but experts say they remain dangerously shy about confronting the warning signs of sexual assault.
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NY: Gay couple rights OK'd by state's top court
By Joseph Spector, Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester)
In a case that mirrors a Rochester-area decision, the state's top court on Thursday upheld the rights of Westchester County and the state to legally extend benefits to same-sex couples married in other states.
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NY: Pork politics key to Bruno reign
By James M. Odato, Times Union (Albany)
Under Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno's rule, $85 million a year in discretionary funds known as member items were doled out by senators with political considerations in mind, a high-level Senate aide said Thursday under oath in Bruno's federal criminal trial.
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OH: Slot-like machines in a legal muddle
By James Nash, The Columbus Dispatch
Attorney General Richard Cordray's office insists that it cannot decide whether slot-like Sweepstakes machines are legal in Ohio because courts haven't ruled on the devices.
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OH: Strickland vows to punish domestic abusers
By Mike Wagner, The Columbus Dispatch
In response to a Dispatch investigation that showed Ohio's tolerance of and indifference toward domestic violence, Strickland called for a sweeping examination of, and reforms to, Ohio's approach to the crime.
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OK: Oklahoma chided for litter-trial additions
By Robert J. Smith, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock)
U.S. District Judge Greg Frizzell on Thursday chastised an attorney working for the state of Oklahoma for overloading its poultry-litter lawsuit with paperwork.
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PA: Rendell revises gaming claim
By Brad Bumsted, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Gov. Ed Rendell on Thursday backed off his claim the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office investigated the state gambling board's award of slot licenses in 2006 and found nothing.
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SC: Sanford relents on ethics report
By Staff and Wire Reports, The Post and Courier (Charleston)
Gov. Mark Sanford agreed Thursday to remove the last hurdle to a long-delayed House of Representatives impeachment investigation of his travel and campaign expenses.
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SC: Ethics panel votes to charge Sanford
By John O'Connor, The State (Columbia)
Gov. Mark Sanford agreed Thursday to remove the last hurdle to a long-delayed House of Representatives impeachment investigation of his travel and campaign expenses.
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SD: Pricey fight over ban expected
By Peter Harriman, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)
Backers of a statewide smoking ban say they expect to be outspent by opponents in what's expected to be a hard-fought campaign after deciding Thursday not to appeal a judge's ruling.
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TX: Settlement delay costs HISD $82 million
By Ericka Mellon, The Houston Chronicle
Houston ISD schools have gone without at least $82 million for technology upgrades while the district is under federal investigation for questionable deals with computer equipment vendors.
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UT: Abortion bill approved by Utah legislative committee
By James Thalman, The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
A bill that would make seeking an illegal abortion a second-degree felony as well as remove any immunity for Utah women seeking illegal abortions was approved by a legislative committee Wednesday morning.
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VT: Feds hit farms looking for illegal immigrants
By Sam Hemingway, Burlington Free Press
Federal immigration officials served subpoenas on at least four Vermont dairy farms Thursday as part of a national crackdown on businesses suspected of using immigrant workers who have entered the country illegally.
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WA: Man gets $4 million after jail beating
By Staff Reports, The Olympian
A man who suffered permanent brain damage from a beating by his cellmate at the Washington Corrections Center in Shelton has received a $4 million settlement from the Washington State Department of Corrections.
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WA: Criminal deportations spike in Pacific Northwest
By Manuel Valdes, The Associated Press, seattlepi.com
SEATTLE -- Deportations of illegal immigrants with criminal records from Alaska, Oregon, and Washington this past year spiked by nearly 40 percent, while overall removals dropped for the first time in five years, according to new data released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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