Contempt vote set for AG Holder

Contempt vote set for AG Holder

WASHINGTON

A House committee looking into a flawed gun-smuggling probe in Arizona announced Monday that it will consider holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress next week for failing to produce some documents the panel is seeking. The committee has scheduled a contempt vote for June 20.

Mother of man killed by Border Patrol sues

PHOENIX

The mother of a 19-year-old man fatally shot in the back by a U.S. Border Patrol agent has sued the federal government and the agent himself, claiming it was “an appalling use of excessive force” because her son was unarmed, had his back to the agent and posed no threat. Guadalupe Guerrero said Monday that the Border Patrol had no right to take her son’s life, even if he had marijuana in his truck as they say — though she disputed the allegation.

NY bill denies right to murder suspects

ALBANY, N.Y.

People accused of murdering their husbands or wives will have no control over their spouses’ burials, according to a bill agreed to by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders on Monday.

The legislation means a family that loses a loved one to domestic violence in New York no longer will face the additional anger and heartache of seeing a burial dictated by a murder suspect.

The change was pushed in part by relatives of Constance Shepherd, whose husband had slashed her throat, then refused to release her body in 2009. Eventually, Shepherd’s husband had his attorney bury her remains hundreds of miles from her western New York home, near his favorite fishing spot, outraging her family.

US accuses Syria of ‘new, horrific tactics’

BEIRUT

The United States accused the Syrian government of using “new, horrific tactics” Monday, as U.N. observers reported Syrian helicopters were firing on rebellious areas and concerns mounted that civilians were trapped in besieged cities.

Violence in Syria has spiked in recent weeks, as both sides ignore an internationally brokered cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect April 12 but never took hold.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed concern about reports the regime “may be organizing another massacre” in Latakia province, where U.N. monitors have been impeded.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Nuland warned, “People will be held accountable.”

FBI: Violent crime down for 5th year

WASHINGTON

The number of crimes reported to police dropped again last year compared with 2010, but a closer look at the numbers suggests the long annual line of declines in crime levels may have hit bottom.

Last year marked the fifth-straight year of year-to-year improvement for the number of violent crimes reported to authorities. It was the ninth-consecutive year of declines for property crimes, according to preliminary FBI data for 2011 released Monday.

However, the early 2011 figures show that the decline in both violent crime and property crime levels slowed from July through December of last year. Violent crime fell 6.4 percent in the first six months of last year. But for the entire year, the decline was much less, just 4 percent. The number of reported property crimes fell 3.7 percent in the first half of last year. For all of 2011, it went down 0.8 percent.

Associated Press