Trayvon Martin shooter disparaged Mexicans on old Web page

Trayvon Martin shooter disparaged Mexicans on old Web page
Staffers recall embarrassing details of Edwards' campaign affair
Gunman kills four in Phoenix suburb, kills self
New York City faces shortfall on Wall Street weakness
Wrecked California yacht had headed straight for island
CEOs rank Texas tops for business, California worst
San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested
Missouri Republican lawmaker announces he is gay
Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug
Obama's top security adviser to travel to Russia
U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case
California student jailed 5 days without water drinks own urine
Charges filed in hazing death of Florida university drum major
U.S. charges more than 100 for Medicare fraud schemes
Four Irish, British suspects helped Stratfor hack: U.S.
Woman blames moths for fiery Colorado car crash
FBI, volunteers search Coast Guard station in Alaska murder case
Bronzed U.S. mom denies taking daughter, 5, into tanning booth
Goldman CEO: support for gay rights "not without price"
Bankrupt Alabama county cuts more workers
Kentucky's cash-strapped courts to shut temporarily
Ohio teen competent for trial in school shooting: judge
Oakland police may face sanctions over handling of Occupy protests
Florida governor rejects gun ban for Republican convention
Georgia bans most late-term abortions, assisted suicide
A century later, Niagara Falls high-wire feat set for June 15
Clock ticks on Koch case over fake Jefferson wine
San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested
Groups push for vote on GMO food labels
Severe storms possible in Central Plains Wednesday
Missouri Republican lawmaker announces he is gay
Staffers recall embarrassing details of Edwards' campaign affair
San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested
California student jailed 5 days without water drinks own urine
Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug
CEOs rank Texas tops for business, California worst
Gunman kills four in Phoenix suburb, kills self
Obama's top security adviser to travel to Russia
U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case
Four Irish, British suspects helped Stratfor hack: U.S.

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(Reuters) - A MySpace page created in 2005 by George Zimmerman has surfaced in which the man charged with killing black teenager Trayvon Martin appears to disparage Mexicans and makes apparent references to two brushes with law enforcement that year. On the social media page, Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, writes about missing his friends in Manassas, Virginia, and starting his own insurance agency in Florida. Zimmerman also seems to make reference to a pair of restraining orders that he and an ex-fiancée filed against each other in 2005. ...

Staffers recall embarrassing details of Edwards' campaign affair

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GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Ex-staffers recounted tawdry details of former U.S. Senator John Edwards' affair during his failed 2008 presidential bid on Wednesday, but said little to tie him to allegations that he used illegal campaign contributions to hide his pregnant mistress. The focus halfway through the second week of Edwards' federal campaign finance trial was squarely on his dalliance with a videographer and the effect revelations about that relationship had on his cancer-stricken wife. ...

Gunman kills four in Phoenix suburb, kills self

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GILBERT, Ariz (Reuters) - A gunman shot and killed four people including a toddler girl in a Phoenix suburb on Wednesday afternoon before apparently committing suicide, police said. Gilbert Police Sergeant Bill Balafas said the gunman opened fire at or near a house in a neighborhood of single-family homes in the town of Gilbert. Police recovered two handguns and a shotgun from the scene. The youngest victim, a girl of between one and two years old, was still alive at the scene, but later died in a hospital, Balafas said. The other dead were two men and two women. ...

New York City faces shortfall on Wall Street weakness

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(Reuters) - New York City expects a total budget gap of $495 million for the current and next fiscal years due to weaker profits on Wall Street than previously forecast, although funds from a legal settlement will largely fill the gap, an administration source said on Wednesday. The tax revenue forecast for the two budget years was revised downward by $352 million, with taxes paid by the growing tech, film and television, tourism and higher education sectors not enough to offset weakness in the financial sector, the source said. ...

Wrecked California yacht had headed straight for island

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FAIRFAX, California (Reuters) - A GPS record tracing the path of a yacht that crashed mysteriously while racing from Southern California to Mexico showed the vessel sailing on a collision course into an island, U.S. Coast Guard officials said on Wednesday.

CEOs rank Texas tops for business, California worst

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Texas remains the top state for business and California still holds the title for the worst, according to an annual ranking of states by Chief Executive magazine released on Wednesday. Chief Executive each year surveys CEOs and asks them to grade states in which they do business. This year 650 responded, giving Texas high marks "foremost for its business-friendly tax and regulatory environment," a report on the survey and ranking said on the magazine's website. "Texas easily clinched the No. 1 rank, the eighth successive time it has done so," the report said. ...

San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in riot gear raided a vacant San Francisco building before dawn on Wednesday, arresting 26 people and taking the structure back from demonstrators who seized it the night before for use as a commune after a May Day march. The building, owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, was the site of a previous failed attempt by protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement to take over the vacant structure a month before. ...

Missouri Republican lawmaker announces he is gay

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KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A Missouri state lawmaker who is not running for reelection announced on Wednesday that he is gay, the first state-level Republican politician in the nation to do so, according to the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund. Missouri state Representative Zachary Wyatt, 27, announced his sexual orientation in a news conference at the Missouri state Capitol in Jefferson City. Wyatt said later in an interview that he did so because he wanted to openly oppose a proposal to ban discussion of sexual orientation in Missouri public schools. ...

Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug

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OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma, which executes more prisoners per capita than any other state, said on Wednesday it has only one remaining dose of pentobarbital, a key drug used to kill condemned prisoners. One reason the state is running out is because of a ban on the sale of drugs for such purposes by the European Union, which opposes the death penalty. Oklahoma has a single vial of pentobarbital left after the execution on Tuesday night of 57-year-old Michael B. Selsor, prison spokesman Jerry Massie said. ...

Obama's top security adviser to travel to Russia

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top security aide will be in Moscow this week for meetings with Russian officials on the U.S.-Russia relationship and other issues, the White House said on Wednesday. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon's two-day trip comes ahead of a G-8 leaders' summit the United States is hosting this month as well as an expected White House meeting between Obama and Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin. ...

U.S. quarantines two dairies after mad cow case

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two California dairy farms are under quarantine and a calf ranch is under investigation following discovery of the latest case of mad cow disease, but the government on Wednesday said the actions were standard procedure and there was no threat to the food supply. Also, a calf born to the infected cow was found and tested negative for the disease. Cattle records at the two dairies are being matched to determine if any at-risk cattle are on the farms, said the Agriculture Department. ...

California student jailed 5 days without water drinks own urine

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SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - A California university student who was mistakenly left handcuffed in a cell without food or water for five days and survived by drinking his own urine is planning to sue, his lawyer said on Wednesday. Daniel Chong, an engineering student at the University of California at San Diego, ended up hospitalized for five days after being left unattended in one of three cells at a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office in San Diego last month, his lawyer, Julia Yoo, said. ...

Charges filed in hazing death of Florida university drum major

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ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Thirteen people were charged on Wednesday in the death of a drum major for Florida A&M University's celebrated marching band who was subjected to a brutal hazing ritual last November, a state prosecutor said. Rather than face murder charges, 11 of the defendants were accused of a third-degree felony for "hazing with death," punishable under Florida law by a maximum of six years in prison, said Florida State Attorney Lawson Lamar. Two others face a misdemeanor charge, he said. ...

U.S. charges more than 100 for Medicare fraud schemes

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have charged 107 people, including doctors and nurses, for trying to defraud the federal Medicare healthcare program for the elderly and disabled of about $452 million, the biggest Medicare fraud sweep to date, the Obama administration said on Wednesday. At least 91 people were arrested in Miami; Houston; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and four other cities on a variety of charges: from submitting false billing for home healthcare, mental health services, HIV infusions and physical therapy to money laundering and receiving kickbacks. ...

Four Irish, British suspects helped Stratfor hack: U.S.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors said four Irish and British men charged in a crackdown on the international hacking group Anonymous also helped breach the security analysis company Stratfor last year. In an indictment made public on Wednesday, Manhattan federal prosecutors said the four men, previously charged in March, were part of the "Antisec" faction of Anonymous that disclosed in December that it had hacked into Strategic Forecasting Inc, or Stratfor. Stratfor is dubbed a "shadow CIA" because it gathers non-classified intelligence on international crises. ...

Woman blames moths for fiery Colorado car crash

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DENVER (Reuters) - An 18-year-old Colorado woman who survived a fiery crash in her sport utility vehicle told authorities she lost control and struck a tree after being distracted by fluttering moths, police said on Wednesday. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, was driving her GMC Denali in Colorado Springs on Tuesday when she veered off the road and crashed, according to a police blotter entry. As gasoline poured from a ruptured fuel line, passing motorists pulled her out of the driver's side window before the car burst into flames. ...

FBI, volunteers search Coast Guard station in Alaska murder case

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - Scores of volunteers on Wednesday helped the FBI search Alaska's Kodiak Island near a U.S. Coast Guard communications station where two workers were killed in April, looking for clues in the still-unsolved case. An FBI spokesman declined to say what the roughly 120 volunteers were looking for in the search, which comes three weeks after the two men were found shot to death inside the station on the Coast Guard's sprawling base on Kodiak Island, about 250 miles southwest of Anchorage. ...

Bronzed U.S. mom denies taking daughter, 5, into tanning booth

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(Reuters) - A New Jersey mom with a passion for tanning is facing a child endangerment charge for allowing her then 5-year-old daughter into a tanning booth. Authorities say Patricia Krentcil's daughter, now 6, turned up at her elementary school in Nutley, New Jersey, with a sunburn on April 24, prompting a school nurse to contact police. The extremely tan Krentcil, 44, appeared on Wednesday in a Newark courtroom where she pleaded not guilty to a charge of child endangerment. ...

Goldman CEO: support for gay rights "not without price"

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said on Wednesday his recent very public support for gay rights had cost the investment bank at least one client. At an event discussing Wall Street's role in pushing for greater lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality across corporate America, Blankfein said his stance on the matter was "not without price." Blankfein said there had been some "adverse reaction" on at least one occasion, where a money management client "did not want to continue a relationship" with Goldman in the wake of his advocacy. ...

Bankrupt Alabama county cuts more workers

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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Alabama's bankrupt Jefferson County is laying off more government workers as prospects for reviving a local employment-tax dim. Lay-off letters have been sent to 75 employees of Jefferson County, the home of Birmingham, that last year filed America's biggest municipal bankruptcy, officials said on Wednesday. The county already employs some 700 fewer people than a year ago. Eighty more layoffs are expected before the end of May according to County Manager Tony Petelos. ...

Kentucky's cash-strapped courts to shut temporarily

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(Reuters) - Kentucky's top judge announced plans on Wednesday to temporarily shut down the state's court system to cope with what he characterized as "deep cuts" in the judiciary's budget. John Minton Jr., the chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, said 3,700 workers, including more than 400 judges and circuit court clerks, would be furloughed without pay for three days between August and October, forcing courthouses statewide to close. ...

Ohio teen competent for trial in school shooting: judge

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CHARDON, Ohio (Reuters) - A judge on Wednesday declared a teenager is competent to stand trial on juvenile charges in the deaths of three students and wounding of two in a February shooting rampage at a school in a small Ohio town. T.J. Lane, 17, who faces three counts of aggravated murder and other charges, came to court wearing a blue, collared shirt and sat next to his defense team. After a short hearing, Judge Timothy Grendell ruled without objection to accept the findings of Dr. ...

Oakland police may face sanctions over handling of Occupy protests

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(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the city of Oakland and its police department to submit a plan within a week to address a backlog of complaints stemming from their handling of Occupy protests, threatening sanctions if they fail to do so. The mandate by District Judge Thelton Henderson follows the release of a report by an outside monitor that said Oakland police used "an overwhelming military-type response" to the demonstrations. ...

Florida governor rejects gun ban for Republican convention

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Tallahassee, Florida (Reuters) - Florida Governor Rick Scott has shot down a request by Tampa's mayor to allow local authorities to ban guns from the city's downtown during the Republican National Convention in August. Citing Second Amendment protections in the U.S. Constitution, Scott told Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn that conventions and guns have co-existed since the nation's birth and would continue to do so during the four-day event beginning August 27. ...

Georgia bans most late-term abortions, assisted suicide

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ATLANTA (Reuters) - Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law two pieces of legislation on Tuesday to restrict late-term abortions and outlaw assisted suicide in the state. The first law banned most abortions after 20 weeks' pregnancy, making Georgia the eighth U.S. state to outlaw most late-term abortions based on controversial research that a fetus can feel pain by that stage of development. Georgia already prohibits most abortions starting in the third trimester. The second law signed by Deal made it a felony to help people take their own lives. ...

A century later, Niagara Falls high-wire feat set for June 15

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NIAGARA FALLS, New York (Reuters) - High-wire performer Nik Wallenda announced on Wednesday that June 15 is the day his boyhood dream to walk a tightrope over Niagara Falls will become a reality. Wallenda, 33, a seventh-generation member of the famed "Flying Wallendas" family of circus performers, is set to walk a 2-inch cable strung 1,800 feet across Niagara Falls gorge — the first such tight rope feat between the United States and Canada in more than a century. This has been his dream since he was 6 years old, Wallenda said during a news conference held near the falls in upstate New York. ...

Clock ticks on Koch case over fake Jefferson wine

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The clock could be running out for billionaire William I. Koch in a lawsuit against Christie's in which he accused the auction house of fraud over his purchase of wines said to have been owned by third American president Thomas Jefferson. A federal appeals court panel in New York on Wednesday questioned whether Koch had conducted timely due diligence when doubts were raised about four bottles of 1787 wine engraved "Th.J" that were sold to him in 1987 and 1988 by dealer Hardy Rodenstock through intermediaries. In March last year, U.S. ...

San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Police in riot gear raided a vacant San Francisco building before dawn on Wednesday, arresting 26 people and taking the structure back from demonstrators who seized it the night before after a May Day march. The building, owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, was the site of a previous failed attempt by protesters affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement to take over the vacant structure a month before. ...

Groups push for vote on GMO food labels

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(Reuters) - A California initiative to require labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients appeared headed for the ballot in November after organizers said on Wednesday they had gathered nearly 1 million signatures in favor of the measure. The hotly contested proposal is similar to measures being pushed in other U.S. states and at the federal level as GMO opponents demand more transparency in food products. ...

Severe storms possible in Central Plains Wednesday

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MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and very large hail could develop over the Central Plains later on Wednesday stretching from eastern Nebraska into western Iowa and southern Minnesota, the National Weather Service said. Conditions are ripe for three consecutive days of storms in the region. There were reports of tornadoes, large hail and high winds in parts of south-central Minnesota and in northwest Iowa on Tuesday, and more storms are possible on Thursday. ...

Missouri Republican lawmaker announces he is gay

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Staffers recall embarrassing details of Edwards' campaign affair

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San Francisco police seize building from protesters, 26 arrested

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California student jailed 5 days without water drinks own urine

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Oklahoma says running out of death penalty drug

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CEOs rank Texas tops for business, California worst

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