Head of child porn ring sentenced to 30 years

Head of child porn ringsentenced to 30 years
HOUSTON -- A Texas man behind a worldwide e-mail ring that traded pornographic images of children, some as young as 18 months old, was sentenced to the maximum of 30 years in federal prison Friday.
"I'm sorry for the children in the pictures," Mark Bates, 33, of Palestine said. "I was using the pictures so I wouldn't go out and hurt anyone. I wasn't thinking there was actually a person behind the pictures."
Bates pleaded guilty to trafficking in child pornography via computer. He was the moderator of the "Candyman" e-mail group that served more than 6,000 users, who were expected to contribute images as well as receive them. More than 80 people in 26 states were arrested in the case last March.
Defense attorney David Cunningham argued against the maximum, citing evidence that Bates himself was a victim of sexual abuse several times before age 11.
But the scope of Bates' Internet groups, the nature of the material, Bates' two molestation convictions and a confession in psychiatric records that he sexually abused about 30 children -- and possibly as many as 100 -- led the judge to impose the harshest penalty under law.
Governor appointsdaughter to U.S. Senate
JUNEAU, Alaska -- Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed his daughter to replace him in the U.S Senate, saying he wanted the person who succeeded him to share his beliefs in the future of the state.
"I felt the person I appoint to the remaining two years of my term should be someone who shares my basic philosophy, my values," Murkowski said Friday in naming his daughter, Lisa, to the seat he held for 22 years.
Lisa Murkowski, 45, is a Republican state representative who was re-elected last month to a third term and was selected as House Majority leader. She will serve through 2004.
"We have a great deal in common besides sharing a name," Lisa Murkowski said of her father. "We share the same vision for the state. We share the same values."
Frank Murkowski resigned the Senate seat he held for more than two decades when he was sworn in as governor Dec. 2. At a news conference Friday in Anchorage, he said he whittled his list of potential candidates from 26 to 11 since becoming governor and conducted interviews.
Family seeks to clearname of last czar
MOSCOW -- Members of Russia's former royal family have asked the government to officially exonerate Czar Nicholas II, his wife, children and other relatives executed by the Bolsheviks after the Russian revolution.
The family filed the necessary documents with the government's commission for rehabilitation of Soviet-era political repression victims, said Alexander Zakatov, a representative of Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna Romanova.
The government "should denounce lawlessness committed against its citizens, regardless of whether they were members of the imperial house or simple people," Zakatov said Friday, adding that by not acting, the state would "justify the crimes that were committed in 1918."
A commission spokesman refused to comment on the royal request.
Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were killed by a firing squad July 17, 1918, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg. Most of the bodies were burned, doused with acid and thrown into a pit outside the city.
Dr. Laura's mom slain
LOS ANGELES -- Radio host Laura Schlessinger told her audience Friday that her estranged mother had been found slain in her condominium this week.
The announcement came in the final minutes of the "Dr. Laura" radio call-in advice show.
"I do pray that she is at peace and [am] confident that the police department will be able to bring justice to this situation. But I am overwhelmed by sadness," she said.
The body of Yolanda Schlessinger, 77, was found Monday in her Beverly Hills condominium when police were asked to check by a neighbor who hadn't seen her in weeks. Police would say only that she had been dead for a long time.
Beverly Hills police released a statement on the discovery of the body that did not contain the victim's name. Lt. Gary Gilmond said the remains had not been positively identified but indications were that it may be the radio host's mother.
An autopsy determined that she was the victim of a homicide.
Associated Press