Californians support reducing sentences for nonviolent criminals
(Reuters) – California voters passed a measure on Tuesday that will reduce the sentences of nonviolent offenders, potentially releasing 10,000 felons from state prisons.
Push to end ‘autopilot’ raises for police, firefighters nixed in bankrupt San Bernardino
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Voters in bankrupt San Bernardino, California, overwhelmingly rejected an attempt on Tuesday to scrap a rule that sets police and firefighter wages based on salaries in wealthier cities.
Texas city bans fracking in its birthplace, court battles loom
DALLAS (Reuters) – Voters approved a ban on hydraulic fracturing in the north Texas town of Denton on Tuesday, making it the first city in the Lone Star State to outlaw the oil and gas extraction technique behind the U.S. energy boom.
Trial opens for man accused in Pennsylvania woman’s death, dismemberment
STROUDSBURG Pa. (Reuters) – A former electrical contractor at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in eastern Pennsylvania went on trial Wednesday on charges he beat, strangled and dismembered a woman whose body parts were stuffed into garbage bags and strewn alon…
Amazon tries out taxi deliveries in California cities, WSJ reports
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is testing deliveries via taxis in San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to the Wall Street Journal, as the Internet retailer explores alternative modes of delivery to speed up shipments while restraining cos…
U.S. justices leaning toward letting fisherman off the hook
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed a desire on Wednesday to reel in the federal government for prosecuting a Florida fisherman under a white-collar crime law for disposing of undersized red grouper fish while he was under inve…
Defense for U.S. warship bombing suspect focuses on Obama torture statement
FORT MEADE Md. (Reuters) – President Barack Obama’s acknowledgment that the CIA tortured suspects after the 9/11 attacks arose in a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday of the prime suspect in the 2000 bombing of a U.S. warship.
New York socialite guilty of manslaughter in death of autistic son
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A wealthy New York socialite accused of killing her 8-year-old autistic son in a posh Manhattan hotel room was found guilty of first-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, said prosecutors, who had sought a second-degree murder convicti…
Washington, D.C., voters OK legal pot, but congressional hurdles remain
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – District of Columbia voters have overwhelmingly approved legalizing marijuana, but pot smokers in the U.S. capital still need congressional approval before they can legally light up.
Financier, 70, facing 20 years prison, to not withdraw guilty plea
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stephen Walsh, a former minority owner of the New York Islanders professional hockey team, has decided not to withdraw his guilty plea to swindling investors in a $554 million fraud, even after a federal judge said he deserved the …
