Voters to decide about marijuana

Voters to decide about marijuana

California voters will decide in November whether to legalize recreational marijuana.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that initiative proponents turned in more than the 366,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.

A successful vote in California would mean one in every six Americans lives in a state with legal marijuana sales, including the entire West Coast.

The measure asks voters to approve allowing people 21 and older to buy an ounce of marijuana and marijuana-infused products at licensed retail outlets and also grow up to six pot plants for personal recreational use.

Texas mom kills her two daughters

FULSHEAR, Texas

Authorities on Tuesday released 911 calls that capture the panic in the home of a Houston-area mother before she killed her two daughters, as well as in the home of a neighbor after the shootings.

The Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office released recordings of two 911 calls from Christy Sheats’ home and one from a neighbor’s home. Sheats fatally shot her two daughters before an officer killed her.

In the first call, a woman is heard crying, “Please! Forgive me! Please! Don’t shoot!” After a scream, she cries, “Please! I’m sorry!” and “Please! Don’t point that gun at her!” Another woman is heard saying, “I promise you, whatever you want,” before the call is disconnected.

In the second call, a woman is heard saying, weakly, “She shot ’em.” In the third call, a neighbor describes 17-year-old Madison Sheats and 22-year-old Taylor Sheats, apparently still alive, lying in the street in front of their house. The neighbor describes Christy Sheats kneeling over her eldest daughter and shooting her dead. Madison Sheats died later at a hospital.

An officer killed Christy Sheats after she refused demands to drop her gun.

3 more women join lawsuit against Baylor University

WACO, Texas

Three more women have joined a federal lawsuit against Baylor University accusing the school of doing nothing to help them after they reported being sexually assaulted on or near campus. The former Baylor students are identified only as Jane Doe. On Tuesday, they joined a lawsuit filed by three other women on June 15. They claim sexual assaults dating from 2005 to 2014.

The Southern Baptist school in Waco, Texas, has come under intense criticism for mishandling allegations of sexual assault over several years, including cases involving football players. President and Chancellor Ken Starr was demoted and head football coach Art Briles was fired.

Prosecutor: Deny parole for follower of Manson

LOS ANGELES

The Los Angeles district attorney is urging Gov. Jerry Brown to reject parole for a follower of mass murderer Charles Manson.

District Attorney Jackie Lacey released a letter Tuesday she sent to Brown saying that Leslie Van Houten should stay in prison for her role in the brutal 1969 killings.

Van Houten is serving life for the first-degree murders of wealthy grocer Leno La Bianca and his wife, Rosemary.

The couple were fatally stabbed a day after other “Manson family” members killed pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four others.

A parole board recommended in April that Van Houten be freed. Brown has until mid-September to block her release.

In addition to Lacey’s letter, Tate’s sister and La Bianca relatives turned in signatures of 140,000 people opposing Van Houten’s release.

Associated Press