SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Wednesday that he will not sign any bills into law until legislators pass a budget, and will veto measures already on his desk to keep them from becoming law. “There is no excuse for the Legislature’s failure to reach a compromise and to send me a budget,” Schwarzenegger said Wednesday, more than a month into the new fiscal year. “Until the Legislature passes a budget that I can sign, I will not sign any bills that reach my desk.” There are 13 bills on the governor’s desk now.
Colorado: Small chopper crashes
A small civilian helicopter crash-landed Wednesday after the pilot was denied permission to refuel at an Air Force base. No one was injured. The pilot of the two-seat Engstrom 280FX aircraft asked to land at Buckley Air Force Base in suburban Aurora but was turned away because he did not declare an emergency, a Buckley spokesman said. “If he declared an in-flight emergency, then yes, he could come to Buckley and we could have gotten him gas,” the spokesman said.
Arizona: Mexican soldiers in U.S.
Four Mexican soldiers crossed into a remote area of Arizona and briefly held a U.S. Border Patrol agent at gunpoint before realizing where they were and returning to Mexico, U.S. authorities said. A Border Patrol spokeswoman said the incident early Sunday on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, about 85 miles southwest of Tucson, was in an area where the border likely was marked only with barbed wire. She said the soldiers lowered their weapons after about four minutes when the agent convinced them who he was and where they were, then retreated into Mexico.
New York: Tax the rich, poll finds
A new poll shows 78 percent of New Yorkers favor raising the income tax on millionaires to help the state to dig out of its financial hole. The poll shows support for a proposal by the state Assembly’s Democratic majority to help fill a projected $6.4 billion deficit for the coming year by raising the tax on people who earn $1 million or more each year. Opponents say a higher tax will drive employers away.
‘Girls Gone Wild’ worker charged
Prosecutors in Smithtown say a “Girls Gone Wild” employee has pleaded not guilty to sexually attacking a woman aboard a bus outside a New York bar. Matthew O’Sullivan, 37, of Los Angeles was arraigned Wednesday and ordered held on $100,000 cash bail. A 20-year-old woman told police she was invited onto a “Girls Gone Wild” bus after an event held by the company Tuesday night on Long Island. She says she was forcibly groped and subjected to unwanted sexual contact.
Mauritania: Army ousts leader
Army commanders ousted Mauritania’s first freely elected president in two decades Wednesday after an increasingly bitter political fight over his ties to allies of a reviled former dictator and his overtures to Islamic radicals. In a bloodless coup, troops detained President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, seized control over state radio and television and announced the formation of a new “state council” led by the commander of the presidential guard, Gen. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The coup — which drew widespread international condemnation — reflected the internal struggle over how to manage this desperately poor west African nation that straddles the Arab and African worlds and is Africa’s newest, if small-scale, oil producer.
Canada: Crash kills rodeo rider
A veteran rodeo star and 14 of his horses were killed in a head-on collision in western Canada, police said Wednesday. Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a tractor-trailer carrying 15 horses collided with a pickup truck Tuesday near Rycroft in west-central Alberta. The driver and 14 of the horses were killed. Friends confirmed the driver was 68-year-old Herman Flad. A man and a child in the pickup were taken to a hospital.
Spain: 2.5 tons of cocaine seized
Spain’s Interior Ministry said police have seized 2.5 tons of cocaine in a high-seas raid and arrested 11 people suspected of belonging to a major drug-trafficking ring. The ministry said Spanish agents boarded a Venezuelan-registered ship carrying the cocaine on July 26 in international waters of the Atlantic and arrested the vessel’s five Venezuelan crew members. It said Wednesday that six more Spanish suspects were arrested Tuesday in Spain.
Sweden: Floating foot identified
A human foot that washed up on a beach near a Swedish tourist resort belonged to a 59-year-old man who went missing on the southwestern coast last year, police said Wednesday. A police spokesman said authorities did not suspect foul play, saying the foot separated from the body through natural decomposition. Officials said the man went missing near a river in Halmstad in November and probably fell in, with his body being carried out to sea by strong currents. The foot was identified through DNA testing.
From Herald news services
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