Schwarzenegger to bypass Legislature to help cities

Schwarzenegger to bypassLegislature to help cities
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to declare a financial emergency and bypass the Legislature to provide millions of dollars due cities and counties, administration sources said.
To make up for $4 billion lost when he cut the unpopular car tax, the governor will make a $40 million payment to local governments to keep them from closing facilities and laying off police officers and fire fighters, aides said Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Schwarzenegger will get that money and future payments by making $150 million in cuts that will fall heavily on public health and welfare programs, the sources said.
Since Schwarzenegger cut the tax as his first official act as governor last month, local officials have said they are losing millions of dollars every day. Many have threatened to sue the state if something isn't done quickly to restore the funds.
High school students stopknife attack on teacher
CONYERS, Ga. -- The estranged husband of a high school Spanish teacher burst into her classroom during a final exam and tried to stab her in the chest before students tackled him and pinned him to the floor, authorities said.
"Those kids are my heroes," Debbie Shultz said as she recuperated at home with stitches in her hand and leg where she was cut in the Wednesday attack at Heritage High School.
Theodore Franklin Shultz, 51, of Conyers was being held in the Rockdale County Jail on charges of aggravated assault, aggravated stalking, cruelty to children, disrupting a school and carrying a weapon on school property.
Nimesh Patel, 17, was taking a nap after finishing his final when he heard screaming and saw his teacher trying to fend off her assailant.
"I froze there for a second. Me and a couple of other guys grabbed him and threw him to the ground and basically sat on him until the cops came," said Patel.
The teacher said she is in the final stages of divorce after seven years and had a restraining order against her husband.
"I'm sorry that they were called upon to do such a huge job so early in their lives, but without them I wouldn't be alive," said Shultz, 46.
Failed flight attempt
KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. -- After waiting through a morning of downpours, some 35,000 people watched as a replica of the airplane used during the Wright brothers' first flight began its crawl down a wooden launching track.
The flyer's front rose for a moment -- and then pilot Kevin Kochersberger cut the engine and it plopped into wet sand. The crowd groaned.
Despite Wednesday's failed re-enactment, aviation enthusiasts said they were happy to be there for the event, which marked the 100th anniversary of the Wrights' first flight on Dec. 17, 1903.
"It would have been a nice addition to the thing, but I don't think it's critical," said Peck Young of Austin, Texas. "I think the whole event has been commemorating the flight."
Anti-Dean ads ending
WASHINGTON -- Television commercials criticizing Democratic presidential front-runner Howard Dean, including one featuring Osama bin Laden, will come off the air in three early voting states by the end of the week.
Americans for Jobs, Healthcare and Progressive Values, a group with ties to Dean rival Dick Gephardt, is ending the ad runs in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina to comply with a federal ban on such ads by outside groups in the month before a primary contest. Voting begins Jan. 19 with Iowa's caucuses.
David Jones, the group's treasurer, said in an interview that the decision to stop running the ads was made weeks before Dean and others condemned them and said they should be pulled.
"We're going to take a break for the holidays and reassess where we are after that," Jones said.
Sale of dog meat banned
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's lawmakers have banned the selling of dog meat and have introduced heavy fines for killing pets for food or fur.
The new measure strengthened an existing ban on the slaughtering of pets for use of their meat and skin.
Animal rights activists had protested that the original ban had not stopped the killing of the animals, and that a ban on trading was necessary to give the law more teeth.
When they passed the law on Tuesday, legislators also introduced tougher fines for offenders.
The new animal protection law included fines ranging from $1,500 to $7,300.
The fines also were applicable to those illegally killing pets. In the original version of the law, the fines were limited to a range from $58 to $300.
Associated Press