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	Olympian Montgomery gets 46 months for check fraud WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Olympic gold medalist Tim Montgomery’s once-celebrated life continued its long downward spiral Friday when a federal judge sentenced the former ‘‘world’s fastest man’’ to nearly four years in prison for dealing in bad checks. The judge also warned Montgomery, 33, that the evidence against him ‘‘does not appear to be flimsy’’ in an ongoing case in Virginia, where he is accused of selling heroin. A conviction there would carry a minimum mandatory five-year sentence. Montgomery, wearing a white T-shirt and baggy pants, lamented the turns his life has taken as he asked Judge ... Read Article »
	CDC: Syringe reuse linked to hepatitis C outbreak RENO, Nev. — A hepatitis C outbreak was caused by workers improperly reusing syringes and medicine vials at a Las Vegas clinic, federal health officials said Friday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was contacted by state health officials earlier this year after two people treated at the now-closed Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada were diagnosed with hepatitis C. Officials have linked 84 cases of the liver disease to the clinic after notifying 50,000 patients of the clinic to be tested. CDC investigators said in a report to the Nevada State Health Division that during ... Read Article »
	Mo. lawmakers vote to bar Internet harassment JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Responding to the suicide of a Missouri teenager who was teased over the Internet, state lawmakers Friday gave final approval to a bill making cyber harassment illegal. The bill updates state laws against harassment to keep pace with technology by removing the requirement that the communication be written or over the telephone. Supporters say the bill will now cover harassment from computers, text messages and other electronic devices. It was approved 106-23 in the House and 34-0 in the Senate and now goes to the governor. Republican Gov. Matt Blunt issued a ... Read Article »
	Texas assesses whether sect ’girls’ are adults SAN ANTONIO — When Texas child welfare authorities released statistics showing nearly 60 percent of the teen girls taken from a polygamist sect’s ranch were pregnant or had children, they seemed to prove what was alleged all along: The sect commonly pushed girls into marriage and sex. But in the past week, the state has twice been forced to admit ‘‘girls’’ who gave birth while in state custody are actually adults. One was 22 and claims she showed state officials a Utah birth certificate shortly after she and more than 400 minors were seized from the west Texas ... Read Article »
	Chemist gets life for killing husband in acid vat FRESNO, Calif. — A biochemist was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Friday for killing her estranged husband by knocking him out and stuffing him into a vat of acid, possibly while he was still alive. Larissa Schuster was convicted in December of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. At the time of his death in July 2003, the Schusters were in the middle of a divorce after nearly 20 years of marriage. Just days after Timothy Schuster was reported missing, his half-dissolved remains ... Read Article »
	Budget crunch shrinks Ky. colonel certificates FRANKFORT, Ky. — Colonel Elvis Presley, Colonel Muhammad Ali and Colonel Pope John Paul II all received ornate certificates to accompany the honorary rank that Kentucky bestows on thousands of people each year, including some of the world’s most rich and famous. Now a budget crunch threatens to curtail the glories of those commissions that conjure up the image of a genteel Southerner. The certificates won’t be eliminated, but the state plans to scrap the hand-pasted gold seals and blue ribbons that adorn each one and reduce the size from 10 by 15 inches to 8 1/2 ... Read Article »
	Ask AP: Global warming and the Earth’s rotation As the Earth warms, is it starting to feel a little slow? Read Article »
	Intel agencies seek help recruiting recent immigrants McLEAN, VA — The U.S. is its own worst enemy when it comes to the desperately important task of recruiting immigrants as spies, analysts and translators in the war on terror, new Americans are telling intelligence officials. The government’s policies raise suspicions and fear in the immigrants’ home countries and disturb potential recruits here who might otherwise want to help. The U.S. knows it needs the help. At the heart of a Friday summit with immigrant groups was a stark reality: The intelligence agencies lack people who can speak the languages that are needed most, like Arabic, Farsi ... Read Article »
	Food stamp recipients pinched by high food prices CHICAGO — Danielle Brown stands outside a South Side market at midnight, braving the spring chill for her first chance to buy groceries since her food stamps ran out nearly two weeks ago. For days, Brown said, she has been turning cans of ‘‘whatever we got in the cabinet’’ into breakfast, lunch and dinner for her children, ages 1 and 3. ‘‘Ain’t got no food left, the kids are probably hungry,’’ said Brown, a 23-year-old single mother who relies heavily on her $312 monthly allotment of food stamps — a ration adjusted just once a year, in ... Read Article »
	Hotels seek workers on eve of summer travel season CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The shortage of workers at Ted Blair’s three hotels near Yellowstone National Park is so severe that Blair himself might soon be busing tables and stripping beds. Less than a month before the start of the summer travel season, Blair and other hotel owners are scrambling to find low-wage employees because Congress dramatically reduced the number of guest-worker visas during last year’s immigration debate. ‘‘We will keep running,’’ Blair said. ‘‘We have to — even if the management has to make beds.’’ The labor shortage is so severe that some hotels in the ... Read Article »
	Alabama sheriffs feed inmates on $1.75 a day BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Back in the day of chain gangs, Alabama passed a law that gave sheriffs $1.75 a day to feed each prisoner in their jails, and the sheriffs got to pocket anything that was left over. More than 80 years later, most Alabama counties still operate under this system, with the same $1.75-a-day allowance, and some sheriffs are actually making money on top of their salaries. But exactly how much is something of a mystery because state auditors do not have access to sheriffs’ private accounts. How could anyone turn a profit feeding men and ... Read Article »
	Restrictions, recycling in Los Angeles water plan LOS ANGELES — Faced with drought and a jump in consumption, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called for cleansing sewage for drinking water and imposing restrictions for watering lawns and washing driveways. The mayor, who once opposed wastewater recycling as unsafe, unveiled a sweeping water plan Thursday that could cost up to $2 billion over 20 years. It comes as Los Angeles tries to meet a projected 15 percent increase in water demand by 2030. ‘‘For over 250 years, through dry and wet seasons, we’ve grown from 44 settlers to 4 million people and every time we needed ... Read Article »
	GE plans to exit appliance business NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — General Electric Co. said Friday that it plans to sell or spin off its iconic appliance business that for a century sold refrigerators, air conditioners and ovens for millions of homes. The industrial conglomerate said in a statement the move is part of an ongoing plan to exit ‘‘slower growth and more volatile businesses.’’ GE’s 101-year-old appliance business, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., has been hurt by the housing slump and economic slowdown in the U.S. The appliance division had revenues of $7 billion last year and employs about 13,000 people worldwide. ... Read Article »
	Arizona man charged in serial predator investigation PHOENIX — A suspected serial predator accused of sexually assaulting four women, killing two of them, was described by co-workers as a polite, soft-spoken car salesman who mostly kept to himself. Trent Christopher Benson made an initial court appearance Thursday and was ordered held without bond. The public defender’s office was appointed to represent him, but a lawyer has not been named. Police in suburban Mesa said Benson has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of violent sexual assault, three counts of kidnapping and one count of sexual assault. Investigators watched Benson ... Read Article »
	Polygamist sect’s finances are murky ELDORADO, Texas — In just five years, the West Texas polygamist sect transformed 1,700 acres of scrubland purchased for $700,000 into a bustling ranch with a blazing-white limestone temple, sprawling three-story log cabins, woodworking shops and a dairy. Assessed value of the property now: $20.5 million. How did members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints do it? Sweat equity was clearly one factor. The men quarried limestone themselves from the hard ground and built the enormous homes with their own hands, using skills learned at construction companies close to the sect’s ... Read Article »