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HOMEOWNER FIRED WARNING AT TEEN INTRUDER: STERLING, Va. (AP) — Police say a homeowner fired a warning shot before fatally shooting a 16-year-old neighbor who drunkenly entered the wrong home by mistake.

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that Caleb Gordley of Sterling died from a gunshot to the back of his shoulder.

Caleb died Sunday morning. His family said he sneaked out of the house Saturday night and went drinking with friends. Walking home, he mistakenly entered a similar home two doors down from his own by crawling through a back window.

The sheriff's office said Thursday that the homeowner gave verbal warnings and fired a warning shot, but Caleb continued up the stairs. Caleb was shot in the back after passing the homeowner in a hallway and walking toward a bedroom where others were located.

POLICE: GIRL, 7, WAS ASKED TO PEPPER SPRAY WORKERS: UPPER DARBY, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Philadelphia-area woman returned to a dollar store where she'd been banned and pepper-sprayed employees who tried to escort her out before giving the can to her 7-year-old daughter and asking her to continue the fight.

Upper Darby police say 27-year-old Delaina Garling went to the Family Dollar Store on Monday, a place she'd been banned from for alleged theft. When employees tried to escort her out, police say she doused them with pepper spray.

Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood says after employees tackled Garling, she handed the can to her daughter and said: "You know what to do, baby. Spray it!" Chitwood says the girl never used the spray.
NY TOWN: OK TO BOO, POLITELY, AT BOARD MEETINGS: RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A New York town's board members have decided it's OK to boo at their meetings — but only if it's done politely.

The Riverhead board voted to ban booing earlier this month. But Newsday reports that the board voted 4-1 on Tuesday to strike the anti-boo rule from the books.

The board on Long Island retained another part of its code. That part prohibits disruptive behavior and disruptive demonstrations.

No explanation was given on how to boo without being disruptive.

Councilman James Wooten says the town supervisor should be able to keep order at a meeting without written rules.

NY COURT: LIFETIME CAN AIR MOVIE ON GRISLY KILLING: ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A New York state appeals court has lifted the Lifetime television network's prohibition from airing a movie this weekend on a man who killed his father and maimed his mother with an ax.

Lifetime on Thursday said it will air its original movie "Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story" on Saturday as originally planned. It stars "Will & Grace" star Eric McCormack as an investigator.

Porco sought to stop the movie, saying Lifetime needed permission to use his name because the movie represents a fictionalized account of the 2004 crime.

A New York judge on Wednesday had temporarily banned Lifetime from showing the movie based on the grisly attack in upstate New York.

But the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court in a ruling on Thursday allowed the airing.

CIVIL UNIONS OK IN COLORADO: DENVER (AP) — Civil unions for gay couples got the governor's signature in Colorado on Thursday, punctuating a dramatic turnaround in a state where voters banned same-sex marriage in 2006 and restricted protections for gays two decades ago.

Cheers erupted as Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill during a ceremony at the History Colorado Center near the state Capitol. Hundreds looked on, with many chanting "Equal! Equal!"

Some wiped away tears and others hugged during the signing ceremony.

The law takes effect May 1.

SIERRA CLUB BLASTS NEW PLAN TO IMPROVE FRACKING: PITTSBURGH (AP) — The Sierra Club and some other environmental groups are harshly criticizing a new partnership that aims to create tough new standards for fracking.

The criticism Thursday came a day after two of the nation's biggest oil and gas companies made peace with some national and regional environmental groups, agreeing to go through an independent review of their shale oil and gas drilling operations in the Northeast.

If Shell Oil, Chevron Appalachia and other companies are found to be abiding by a list of stringent measures to protect the air and water from pollution, they will receive the blessing of the new Pittsburgh-based Center for Sustainable Shale Development, created by environmentalists and the energy industry.

But some are questioning whether a partnership between environmentalists and the oil and gas industry should exist at all.

GUN RIGHTS GROUP FILES FEDERAL SUIT AGAINST NY LAW: ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The New York affiliate of the National Rifle Association, sportsmen's groups, firearms businesses and individual gun owners on Thursday requested an injunction to stop the state's strict new gun control law enacted in the wake of the Newtown school shooting.

The federal suit, filed in Buffalo, said the law violates the constitutional rights of "law-abiding citizens to keep commonly possessed firearms in the home for defense of self and family and for other lawful purposes."

The challenge takes aim at two key provisions of the law: a lower limit on magazine capacity and an expansion of the state's assault weapons ban to include some popular and formerly legal semi-automatic rifles.

The law pushed through by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Jan. 15 also requires registration of an estimated 1 million older guns.

Other provisions require five-year renewals of handgun licenses statewide, direct mental health professionals to notify authorities of patients deemed likely to seriously hurt themselves or others and require federal background checks for private gun sales in New York. It will require registration of ammunition sellers and buyers.

100 INJURED IN HIGHWAY WRECKS IN CANADIAN BLIZZARD: EDMONTON (AP) — A blizzard sweeping across the Canadian plains caused a chain of traffic wrecks involving a bus, semi-trailer trucks and cars south of Edmonton, Alberta, sending about 100 injured travelers to hospitals on Thursday, officials said.

One person was seriously hurt, said Sharman Hnatiuk of the Alberta Health Services office. She had earlier estimated that 300 people were hurt, four seriously. Many victims were taken to hospitals in nearby communities including Edmonton and Red Deer, she said.