SANTA FE, N.M. — The New Mexico Legislature on Saturday gave final approval to the first-ever limits on campaign contributions to elected officials and lawmakers.
New Mexico is one of just five states that doesn’t put any caps on contribution amounts. Under the new measure, candidates for statewide office could take $5,000 from one contributor for a primary election plus $5,000 for a general election. The limit per election for candidates for the Legislature and other non-statewide office would be $2,300.
Opponents objected that the legislation did nothing to curb expenditures by some nonprofit organizations they claim are influencing elections under the guise of voter education. The bill also not does not prohibit donations from corporations.
California: Octuplets go home
Two more of the world’s longest surviving octuplets have been discharged from a Southern California hospital. Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Medical Center said it sent home two of Nadya Suleman’s babies, Maliyah and Nariyah, on Saturday afternoon. The two girls, each weighing about 5 pounds 2 ounces, will join their six older siblings and two infant boys who were released Tuesday night. The remaining four babies remain at the hospital and are doing well.
New York: Dinosaur auction
A New York gallery said a 150-million-year-old complete skeleton of a dinosaur has failed to sell at auction. Josh Chait of I.M. Chait Gallery/Auctioneers, www.chait.com, said two museums interested in the fossil failed to meet the minimum price of nearly $300,000 during the auction Saturday. Chait said the gallery is still trying broker a deal to sell the 9-foot-long dryosaurus fossil to a museum. Dryosauruses were two-footed, plant-eating creatures.
Firefighter linked to arson
A volunteer firefighter was charged Saturday with setting a fire that ripped through a crowded apartment house, killing a woman and three of her children. Caleb Lacey, 19, a volunteer member of the Lawrence-Cedarhurst Fire Department, set the fire at a neighbor’s apartment house as a staged rescue attempt that went awry, a Nassau County homicide detective said. “The suspected motive is what arson experts call ‘hero’ or ‘vanity’ — to be the savior and appear to have saved individuals,” he said. Lacey faces one count of arson and four counts of second-degree murder in the Feb. 19 blaze.
Pennsylvania: Arson plague
Two new fires make 22 for the year in the arson-plagued city of Coatesville. The Chester County Arson Task Force said the blazes broke out late Friday on intersecting streets. Investigators determined that both fires were deliberately set. The number of arsons in Coatesville this year has reached 22. The latest fires come a week after a blaze badly damaged two homes in the distressed former steel town of 11,000 about 35 miles west of Philadelphia. There have been at least 48 arsons in Coatesville since February 2008.
Missouri: Law officer crash
Four people have been killed in a two-car accident involving an off-duty police officer in the St. Louis area and investigators say they believe alcohol was involved. A Missouri State Highway patrolman said the accident occurred early Saturday in Des Peres when a vehicle carrying five people was struck almost head-on by another vehicle traveling on the wrong side of the road. He said the vehicle in the wrong lane was driven by 41-year-old Chrissy L. Miller, a 12-year veteran of the police department in Sunset Hills.
Australia: Airbus ‘tail hit’
An Emirates jetliner carrying more than 225 people slammed its tail into the runway as it took off, sending smoke into the cabin and forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, officials said Saturday. No one was hurt, but passengers described being terrified after learning something was wrong soon after the Airbus A340 took off from Melbourne about 10:30 p.m. Friday, bound for Dubai. A Transport Safety Bureau spokesman said such incidents are known as “tail hits” and are caused by a number of factors such as the angle of takeoff, weather conditions and loading issues.
Italy: March against Mafia
Widows, children and grandchildren of many of those slain by Italy’s various mafias are rallying in Naples to protest organized crime. The annual march on the first day of spring drew thousands of participants Saturday along Naples’ waterfront. An Italian priest who runs a group called “Libera” organizes the march and helps citizens fight organized crime.
From Herald news services
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