Life in prison for mom who killed girls
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — A Maryland woman was sentenced Monday to life in prison for torturing and killing two of her daughters and storing their bodies in a home freezer.
Renee Bowman, 44, showed no emotion even as she apologized.
"I am very sorry for the abuse of the girls," she told Montgomery County Circuit Judge Michael J. Algeo in an even voice. "It haunts me. It haunts me every day."
The judge was unconvinced. "You come across as such a nice, soft-spoken person," Algeo said. "I can only conclude that the Renee Bowman I see before me is a different Renee Bowman from the one who lived in that house in Lusby."
The bodies of Minnet and Jasmine Bowman were discovered in a locked freezer in September 2008. Authorities searched the house after a third sister escaped and was found wandering the neighborhood.
Investigators concluded Bowman had killed the girls months before, while the family was living 60 miles away in Rockville, and took the freezer with her as she moved around. Even after the girls died, she continued to collect subsidies paid to adoptive parents of special needs children in the District of Columbia. She received a total of about $150,000 after the adoptions.
A jury convicted Bowman last month of two counts of first-degree murder and three counts of first-degree child abuse. Bowman had earlier pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree child abuse in Calvert County for abusing the third girl in Lusby and was sentenced to 25 years.
Monday's sentence — two consecutive life terms for the killings, plus 75 years for the abuse — was the maximum allowed under Maryland law.
Justices again reject request to block fish
CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to order the emergency closure of Chicago-area shipping locks to prevent voracious Asian carp from slipping into the Great Lakes, leaving disappointed environmentalists and state officials vowing to continue their fight.
In a one-line ruling, the nation's highest court for the second time rejected a request by Michigan and several other Great Lakes states to issue a preliminary injunction shutting the locks in the increasingly desperate battle against the invasive fish, which have migrated up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers toward the lakes after escaping from fish farms in the South decades ago.
Asian carp can consume up to 40 percent of their body weight daily in plankton, the base of the food chain for Great Lakes fish. Many fear that if they reach the lakes, the invaders could lay waste to a $7 billion fishing industry by starving out competitors such as salmon and walleye.
Strip-search victims settle suit with N.Y.
NEW YORK (AP) — Two women who claimed they were forced to undergo gynecological exams and thousands of other people who said they were strip-searched in New York City jails have settled a class-action lawsuit with the city for $33 million.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of people arrested on misdemeanor drug and weapons charges and strip-searched at Rikers Island and other jails. Other charges included jumping turnstiles, failing to pay child support, shoplifting and trespassing.
Under the agreement, victims can receive between $1,800 and $2,900 each, depending on how many people respond. The plaintiffs who claimed they were forced into gynecological exams are entitled to $20,000 each for their injury and suffering, according to the decision, reached last week and finalized Monday.
California nears ban on smoking at beach
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday moved a step closer to banning smoking at state beaches and parks, following the lead of hundreds of communities nationwide.
The state Assembly voted 42-27 in favor of the ban. Anti-smoking groups say the bill would make California the first state to ban smoking throughout its entire park system if it is signed into law.
The Senate passed it previously but must agree to amendments made in the Assembly before it is sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has not taken a position on it.
The bill's author, state Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, said she wants to keep cigarette butts out of the ocean, reduce the threat of wildfires at parks and eliminate secondhand smoke.
Prop. 8 foes ordered to turn over memos
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Civil rights groups that campaigned against California's same-sex marriage ban must surrender some of their internal campaign memos and e-mails to lawyers for the other side, a federal judge ruled Monday.
U.S. District Chief Judge Vaughn Walker said sponsors of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative targeting gay marriage, were entitled to the information as evidence in their defense against a lawsuit challenging the ban.
Walker's decision upholds a previous ruling by a federal magistrate.
The ruling could delay a verdict in the trial, the first in federal court to examine if the U.S. Constitution prevents states from outlawing gay marriages.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Equality California, two of the groups that must turn over the campaign materials, said Monday they are reviewing Walker's order to determine whether to appeal it.
Colorado trooper accused of DUI
DENVER (AP) — An on-duty Colorado state trooper was pulled over Monday and accused of driving drunk after several people called 911 to report a State Patrol vehicle driving erratically, authorities said.
Video captured by a television station helicopter showed the arrest of 48-year-old David Dolan, who was in uniform. Sheriff's deputies put handcuffs on him and placed him in the back of a patrol vehicle.
Dolan, who authorities say was carrying a gun, was booked on charges of driving under the influence and prohibited use of weapons. Colorado law makes it illegal for anyone to have a firearm while intoxicated.
The arrest happened about 7 a.m. on Colorado 470, a beltway around southwest Denver. Dolan was placed on unpaid leave, and an internal investigation is under way.
Bigamist is ordered to pay 2nd wife, too
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (MCT) — Charles Clemens is paying $1,500 a month to his ex-wife, but the convicted bigamist owes $37,829 to another woman he was married to at the same time.
"Mrs. (Jayme) Wear's needs are just as great as your other wife's," Judge James Franklin Davis told him Monday during a hearing to determine how much restitution Clemens owes Wear.
Davis sentenced Clemens in December to 18 months in prison for bigamy and identity theft after Wear discovered her husband of six months had been married for 22 years to another woman. He was convicted of identity theft for using a fake name and Social Security number.
Food in Last Supper paintings supersized
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — Has even the Last Supper been supersized?
The food in famous paintings of the meal has grown by biblical proportions over the last millennium, researchers report in a medical journal Tuesday.
Using a computer, they compared the size of the food to the size of the heads in 52 paintings of Jesus Christ and his disciples at their final meal before his death.
If art imitates life, we're in trouble, the researchers conclude. The size of the main dish grew 69 percent; the size of the plate, 66 percent, and the bread, 23 percent, between the years 1000 and 2000.
Supersizing is considered a modern phenomenon, but "what we see recently may be just a more noticeable part of a very long trend," said Brian Wansink, a food behavior scientist at Cornell University.