National Roundup

Massachusetts Salem mom pleads not guilty to slashing kids SALEM, Mass. (AP) -- The Salem woman charged with slashing the throats of her two children and setting fire to their apartment has been arraigned in Superior Court. A not guilty plea was entered on behalf of 25-year-old Tanicia Goodwin on Tuesday to charges including armed assault with intent to murder and arson. The Salem News reports that a judge also approved an order that will keep Goodwin at a psychiatric facility for at least another 30 days. Prosecutors allege Goodwin slashed 8-year-old Jamaal and 3-year-old Erica inside their apartment in March then set it on fire with the boy inside. Both children are recovering. Prosecutors also filed a motion seeking to have Goodwin held without bail as a dangerous person. Goodwin's attorneys asked the judge to impound documents supporting that motion. Arizona Sheriff says Obama birth certificate is fake PHOENIX (AP) -- Investigators for an Arizona sheriff's volunteer posse say President Barack Obama's birth certificate is definitely fraudulent. Members of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's posse said in March that there was probable cause that Obama's long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April 2011 was a computer-generated forgery. Now, Arpaio says investigators are positive it's fraudulent. So-called "birthers" maintain Obama is ineligible to be president because, they contend, he was born in Kenya. However, Hawaii officials have repeatedly verified Obama's citizenship, and courts have rebuffed lawsuits over the issue. Mike Zullo, the Arizona posse's chief investigator, said numeric codes on parts of the long-form birth certificate indicate those parts weren't filled out, yet those sections asking for the race of Obama's father and his field of work or study were completed. Zullo said investigators previously didn't know the meaning of the codes but they were explained by a 95-year-old former state worker who signed the president's birth certificate. Zullo said a writer who published a book about Obama's birth certificate and was aiding investigators let them listen to an interview he conducted with the former state worker. The Arizona Democratic Party said in a statement that Arpaio's investigation is intended to draw attention away from problems within his own agency, such as hundreds of sex-crime cases that the sheriff's office failed to adequately investigate over a three-year period. A civil trial is set to begin Thursday in a lawsuit that accuses Arpaio's office of racially profiling Latinos. The suit filed by a handful of Latinos will serve as a precursor to the U.S. Justice Department's lawsuit that alleges a broader range of civil rights violations against Arpaio's office. "President Obama was born in Honolulu, and his birth certificate is valid," Joshua A. Wisch, a special assistant to Hawaii's attorney general, said in a statement. "Regarding the latest allegations from a sheriff in Arizona, they are untrue, misinformed, and misconstrue Hawaii law." Virginia Ex-Bosnian camp guard faces war-crimes extradition ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- A former Bosnian prison camp guard who now lives in Roanoke County faces extradition to his native country on war-crimes charges. A federal judge on Tuesday ordered 53-year-old Almaz Nezirovic held without bond. According to court documents, Nezirovic is charged with torturing Serbians detained in a prison camp in 1992 during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, now known as Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Roanoke Times reports that the complaint alleges that Nezirovic participated in beating prisoners with rifles and batons, starving them, ordering them to crawl naked on the ground and forcing them to eat urine-soaked grass. His attorney denies the allegations. Nezirovic also faces related naturalization-fraud charges. He's accused of illegally concealing his wartime activities when applying for refugee status and naturalization in the United States. New York Upstate NY man admits guilt in frying pan slaying ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) -- A 37-year-old upstate New York man has admitted to killing another man by hitting him in the head with a frying pan three years ago. Local media outlets report that Robert Storms of Elmira pleaded guilty Tuesday in Chemung County Court to second-degree murder charges in the death of 53-year-old Douglas Hubbard. Storms told authorities he hit Hubbard with the frying pan after the two got into a fight inside Hubbard's Elmira apartment in the spring of 2009. Storms then disposed of the body in the neighboring town of Big Flats. The body hasn't been found. As part of his plea deal with prosecutors, Storms has agreed to show police where he dumped Hubbard's body. Storms faces a 10-year prison term when he's sentenced in late August. New York Attorney arraigned on Connecticut charges STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A well-known attorney and Republican fundraiser from New York has been arraigned on charges he attacked a woman inside a Connecticut restaurant. The Greenwich Time reports Albert Pirro of White Plains, N.Y. did not enter a plea Tuesday to charges of unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct. Police say the 64-year-old Pirro grabbed and shook a woman inside the J-House restaurant in Greenwich on June 15. Pirro was married to Jeanine Pirro, a former Westchester County prosecutor who ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2006. He is due back in court on Sept. 11. Albert Pirro spent 17 months in federal prison after being convicted of fraud, tax evasion and other charges in 2000. Colorado Patrol criticized for anti-gay culture DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado State Patrol has been ordered to change its policies after an administrative law judge found the patrol fostered an anti-gay culture. The changes were ordered after a former patrol captain admitted he was gay during a polygraph exam. The judge says the questioning was out of line and ordered the patrol to follow its own policies forbidding discrimination. According to KMGH-TV, the former captain admitted to the judge that he withheld information about his sexual orientation, but the judge ruled that was irrelevant. A spokesman says the state patrol is reviewing the report. Published: Thu, Jul 19, 2012