National Roundup

Texas
State to benefit from $1M ship suit settlement
BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A Portuguese shipping company has agreed to pay $1 million to settle pollution allegations in East Texas.
U.S. Attorney John Bales on Monday announced the environmental agreement with CIMPSHIP Transportes Maritimos SA., based in Funchal, Portugal. The settlement to benefit forests and marine sanctuaries was announced on the banks of Village Creek in Hardin County.
A federal grand jury in Beaumont indicted the company in 2010 on charges of conspiring to violate environmental laws and pollute waterways.
Investigators say the dispute involved the bulk-freight carrier Niebla that stopped at various Gulf of Mexico ports, including Port Arthur. Prosecutors say crewmembers from March 2008 through August 2009 failed to maintain an oil record book as required by U.S. law.

West Virginia
Cops: Man vowed to eat 3 people he kidnapped
ELKINS, W.Va. (AP) — A Beckley man is behind bars, accused of kidnapping three adults and threatening to shoot and then eat them.
Forty-year-old John Will Jackson was in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on $20,000 bond Tuesday.
State Police charged him with one count of attempted robbery and three counts of kidnapping.
Trooper D.T. Stallings says Jackson forced the victims to drive him to a tobacco store in Elkins early Sunday.
The Inter-Mountain says the victims were at a party in Beverly but left when a fight broke out. They told police Jackson indicated he had a weapon and demanded they take him to the store.
The victims say that Jackson repeatedly threatened to shoot, bite and eat them.
Stallings says Jackson didn’t have a firearm. He only pretended to.

Pennsylvania
Batch of banana moonshine nets charges for men
MIDWAY, Pa. (AP) — Two men have been charged by police with making banana brandy moonshine in a shed next to one of the men’s mobile homes in western Pennsylvania.
The (Washington) Observer-Reporter says McDonald police charged the men after getting complaints from neighbors that the men were burning items inside the shed owned by 29-year-old Matthew Kirks.
When police investigated Monday, they found an ethanol moonshine distillery made from two beer kegs and copper pipes, and say Kirks and 33-year-old Matthew Zirwas III, of Carnegie, acknowledged making the hooch.
Police say they confiscated a Blackberry phone displaying a web page about “How to make banana brandy moonshine,” seven Mason jars containing a blend of bananas and yeast, and other releated items.
Online court records don’t list attorneys for the men who don’t have listed or working phones.

North Dakota
State High Court hears appeal in murder case
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Supreme Court is considering the appeal of a man serving life in prison for shooting and beheading a North Dakota State University researcher.
The Forum newspaper reports that attorneys made oral arguments in the appeal on Monday. Justices will rule later.
Prosecutors said 32-year-old Daniel Wacht shot Kurt Johnson after a night of drinking on New Year’s Eve 2010, then cut off his head. Authorities found Johnson’s head in Wacht’s basement but the researcher’s body has not been found. A jury convicted Wacht of murder a year ago.
Defense attorney Steven Mottinger told Supreme Court justices that authorities conducted illegal searches of Wacht’s van and home. Prosecutor Marina Spahr said there was a “multitude of facts” supporting the trial judge’s decisions and the guilty verdict.

New Hampshire
State adopts bar exam recognized in 13 states
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The New Hampshire Supreme Court is adopting a uniform bar exam that would qualify lawyers who pass it in New Hampshire to practice in 13 states, including North Dakota.
The Granite State is the first state in the Northeast to adopt the uniform exam. The first uniform exam will be administered in February.
The state will begin in August to accept bar admission applications from those who passed it in the 13 states that already administer the exam.
The other states are Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Linda Dalianis says the exam retains New Hampshire’s high standards while offering law school graduates more flexibility in finding employment.

Kansas
Mother gets time served in son’s beating death
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A Leavenworth woman whose conviction for involuntary manslaughter was overturned pleaded no contest to a lesser charge and was sentenced to time served.
Thirty-one-year-old Monica F. Rivera spent 28 months in prison while appealing her conviction for involuntary manslaughter and endangering a child in the 2009 death of her 4-year-old son.
The boy died of blunt force trauma while he was being cared for by Rivera’s boyfriend, Jason L. Jones.
The Leavenworth Daily Times reports Rivera pleaded no contest Friday to aggravated endangering a child and was sentenced to time served.
The Kansas Court of Appeals ordered a new trial after finding errors in jury instructions during Rivera’s 2010 trial.
Jones is serving more than 38 years in prison for second-degree murder in the boy’s death.

Minnesota
Indictment set in death of woman  in impound lot
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A grand jury has indicted a 23-year-old man on a first-degree murder charge in the death of a St. Paul woman whose body was found in an impounded car.
Prosecutors say Alberto Palmer met the victim, 18-year-old Brittany Clardy, through an online escort ad and killed her with a hammer at a residence in Brooklyn Park Feb. 11. Clardy’s body was found Feb. 19 in a car at the Columbia Heights impound lot.
Palmer had previously been charged with second-degree murder in Anoka County. The Star Tribune says he remains jailed on $2 million bond. His next court appearance is June 27.