TEEN ARRESTED IN SLAYING OF CALIF. ATTORNEY'S WIFE

Teen arrested in slayingof Calif. attorney's wife
MARTINEZ, Calif. -- Attorney Daniel Horowitz hugs an unidentified woman at the front gate of his home in Lafayette. A teenage neighbor was arrested in the slaying of his wife.
Authorities would not identify the 16-year-old youth and said they were still working to determine a motive for the beating death Saturday of Pamela Vitale
Vitale, 52, was slain over the weekend at the hilltop estate where the couple were building their dream home in the wealthy San Francisco suburb of Lafayette. Horowitz is a a TV legal pundit. The teenager lived down the hill on a remote canyon road. He was arrested Wednesday night.
The San Francisco Chronicle, citing an unidentified law enforcement source, reported that investigators believe the killing was related to a scheme that involved using stolen credit card numbers to fund a marijuana-growing operation.
The source said the boy had ordered equipment for the pot operation and mistakenly thought the supplies were delivered to Horowitz and Vitale's home, the newspaper reported on its Web site.
He went there Saturday looking for the equipment and got in a fight with Vitale, striking her dozens of times in the head with a piece of molding that was left behind at the scene, according to the source.
Flooding fears ease
TAUNTON, Mass. -- Fears that a dam collapse could inundate this city's downtown eased late Thursday, as pumping lessened pressure on the storm-weakened structure and officials began allowing some of the 2,000 people evacuated to return home.
Residents had been evacuated for days since the Whittenton Pond Dam buckled and began breaking apart, and hundreds whose homes are nearest the 173-year-old dam were still being asked to stay away Thursday night. But city officials grew more confident Thursday afternoon, when pumps began moving water from behind the dam downstream to the Mill River.