TRIAL BEGINS FOR OHIO MOM CHARGED IN SCHOOL BRAWL : CINCINNATI (AP) — A police officer testified Wednesday that he arrested a woman accused of helping her teenage daughter beat up a classmate at a high school because she "tried to take the law into her own hands" when she bypassed school rules to get on campus.
On the opening day in Precious Allen's assault and trespassing trial, Officer Shawn George said he believed Allen had every intention of harming a student at Withrow High School when she walked in without permission from the front office on Feb. 7 and went to the girl's classroom.
Allen, 31, has said she was at the school to withdraw her daughter and get her daughter's things and passed by a school security guard, who allowed her to continue without a visitor's badge. She has pleaded not guilty.
George described a chaotic scene when he responded to the on-campus fight involving Allen, her then-14-year-old daughter and another student, with dozens of students yelling and trying to see what was happening. Allen is accused of punching the other student and holding her down as her daughter hit the girl with a combination lock, leaving her with cuts and bruises.
MASSACHUSETTS OWES PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA $312.46 : HOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts owes President Barack Obama more than $300.
The office of State Treasurer Steven Grossman says the president is on the state's unclaimed property list for two cable TV refund checks from Comcast for $156.23 each.
The checks were cut in May and June of 2009, the first year of Obama's presidency. For reasons Grossman's office can't explain, they were sent to the Massachusetts state treasury as a reimbursement from his cable television account in Maryland.
Obama lived in Massachusetts when he attended Harvard Law School.
NJ SHORE MAYOR PRICED OUT BY LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES
EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — The mayor of a New Jersey shore town is selling his waterfront home because he says he can't afford the property taxes.
Egg Harbor Mayor James "Sonny" McCullough has lived in the township's Seaview Harbor section since 1974. He and his wife bought land and built their home for $360,000 in 1985.
The property was valued at slightly more than $1.1 million during last year's township-wide revaluation, which increased his property taxes nearly 60 percent to $31,056.
The 71-year-old mayor said he thought he'd be able to live and die in his home.
McCullough says he hopes to find another home in the township. But if he doesn't, the couple purchased a $150,000 waterfront condominium in Florida, where the property taxes are $2,569.
New Jersey has the highest property taxes in the nation. Last year the average bill, before any tax credits, was close to $8,000.
The biggest share of property taxes is used to pay for local schools
ARIZONA SCHOOL INVESTIGATES CHAIR-TAPING CLAIM: PHOENIX (AP) — A second grade teacher in Tucson has been removed from the classroom and an investigation is underway amid accusations that the educator taped a young girl to her chair as punishment, school officials said Wednesday.
The girl's mother, Maria Vasquez, was outraged and said her daughter suffers from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
"She likes to be happy, and they tied her to a chair," Vasquez said. "Regardless if it was a little tape — she got tied to a chair where she couldn't move. That's not right."
Vasquez said her daughter told her the teacher taped her to the chair after becoming upset that the girl was getting up to sharpen her pencil too many times last week at Hollinger Elementary School.
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BIDEN: SON HAD SUCCESSFUL PROCEDURE IN TEXAS: DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, the eldest son of Vice President Joe Biden, underwent a medical procedure at a Texas cancer center on Tuesday and will be returning soon to his home state, the vice president's office said Wednesday.
In a statement released by the White House, Vice President Biden and his wife Jill said Beau Biden underwent "a successful procedure," but they did not provide any details.
Beau Biden, 44, was hospitalized last week after becoming weak and disoriented while on a family vacation in Indiana.
MAN HURT IN CALIFORNIA TUTORING CLUB CRASH DIES: FOUNTAIN VALLEY. (AP) — A man who was among six people injured when a car went into a California tutoring center earlier this week has died.
Authorities say 32-year-old Alex Martinez succumbed to his injuries Wednesday. Martinez and four others were injured Monday when a car driven by 76-year-old Peter Hauk rammed through a glass storefront at the Tutoring Club in Orange County.
Hauk also was hurt in the crash. He and the other four were treated and released from a hospital.
Martinez was the most senior tutor at the Fountain Valley tutoring center, where he taught kids math, science and English and helped high school students prepare for the SAT.
NIXON TAPES SPAN WATERGATE, SOVIET SUMMIT: YORBA LINDA (AP) — President Richard Nixon had just delivered his first major national address on the Watergate scandal that would ultimately cost him the White House when the calls of support began pouring in.
Audio tapes released Wednesday show that within hours of the speech on April 30, 1973, the beleaguered 37th president heard from Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and evangelist Billy Graham.
The calls were captured on a secret recording system that Nixon used to tape 3,700 hours of phone calls and private meetings in his executive offices between February 1971 and July 1973.
The final chronological installment of those tapes — 340 hours — were posted online by the National Archives and Records Administration as part of a release that also includes more than 140,000 pages of text documents. Another 700 hours of tapes remain sealed for national security and privacy reasons.
Since 2007, the National Archives has released hundreds of hours of the tapes, offering the public an unvarnished and sometimes shocking view of the inner workings of Nixon's administration and insight into the president's private musings on everything from Watergate to Vietnam.
