S.C. governor rebuffs call to resign office
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford rebuffed his lieutenant governor's call to resign Wednesday, two months after he admitted an affair, saying he will not be "railroaded" out of office and plans to finish his term.
Sanford returned from a nearly weeklong disappearance in June to acknowledge the affair with an Argentine woman, a revelation that led to questions about the legality of his travel on state, private and commercial planes.
At a news conference hours after Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer called for him to step down, Sanford said the people of South Carolina want to move past the scandals.
"I'm not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks who were never fans of mine in the first place," Sanford said. "A lot of what is going on now is pure politics, plain and simple."
Bauer and Sanford are Republicans who have served together for two terms but were elected separately and have never been friends.
Californian charged in high school attack
SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) — A 17-year-old boy accused of detonating two pipe bombs at a northern California high school while armed with a chain saw, sword and explosives appeared in court Wednesday on charges of trying to murder two faculty members.
Alex Youshock, a former student at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, did not enter a plea to charges that included exploding or attempting to explode bombs in a school to terrorize others and possession of dangerous weapons — the sword and chain saw.
No one was injured in the attack, which quickly ended when faculty members wrestled the attacker to the ground. Prosecutors said they would try Youshock as an adult for Monday's attack.
Suspect in vandalism was a Demo activist
DENVER (AP) — An act of vandalism at Colorado Democratic headquarters that shattered windows next to signs about health-care reform took a strange turn Wednesday when it was revealed that one of the suspects was a Democratic activist.
Democratic leaders initially said that the window shattering was an act of political vandalism, possibly by opponents of health-care reform. But the political leanings of suspect Maurice Schwenkler raised the prospect that one of the party's own might have vandalized its building to make a statement.
Schwenkler refused to discuss possible motive with police, and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.
"He's not giving us any indication why he did what he did," Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Wednesday of Schwenkler. He was released Wednesday afternoon on $5,000 bail, according to jail officials.
Man convicted in post-Katrina killings
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Louisiana man was convicted Wednesday of gunning down five teenagers in a grisly crime that prompted the governor to bring National Guard troops back to New Orleans to help curb violence in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Michael Anderson, 23, was found guilty of five counts of first-degree murder. The jury that convicted him will now decide whether he should face the death penalty.
Prosecutors said Anderson shot the teens at an intersection, but police couldn't pinpoint exactly what motivated the killings.