California

Scott Peterson trial’s penalty phase begins

The penalty phase of Scott Peterson’s murder trial opened Tuesday with prosecutors saying the slaying of his pregnant wife left the family with “a hole in their hearts that can never be repaired.”

“When the defendant dumped the bodies of his wife and unborn son into the bay, those ripples spread out and they touched many, many lives,” prosecutor Dave Harris said in opening statements.

The jury that convicted Peterson on Nov. 12 of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and the fetus she was carrying will decide whether the 32-year-old former fertilizer salesman should be executed or get life in prison without parole.

Chicago

Mayor’s son enlists in Army infantry

Mayor Richard Daley’s 29-year-old son has enlisted in the Army and will soon report for duty in the airborne infantry.

“It’s been in the back of my mind for some time,” Patrick Daley told the Chicago Sun-Times in Tuesday’s editions. “I left West Point during my freshman year when I was 18 years old and always remembered their motto, ‘Duty, Honor and Country.’ But I was so young and not really old enough to understand what it really meant. But I know now.”

Daley finished college at the University of Illinois and got a master’s degree in business from the University of Chicago in June. He could have pursued lucrative job offers, but said the 9-11 attacks played a role in his decision to enlist.

Baltimore

NAACP president to step down

NAACP President Kweisi Mfume announced Tuesday that he was stepping down after a nearly nine-year tenure in which he helped rescue the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights group from debt and scandal.

Mfume, 56, said he wanted to spend more time with his family, namely his 14-year-old son. He became misty-eyed at a news conference as he described how the son — the youngest of his six children — has come to know a world of airplanes and news conferences for most of his life.

“I don’t want to miss another basketball game. I want to sew on his varsity letter on his sweater,” Mfume said of his son, who recently made the basketball team. “I just need a break. I need a vacation.”

Washington, D.C.

President planning talks for intelligence bill

Former members of the 9-11 commission met Tuesday with Vice President Dick Cheney, and President Bush planned talks with leaders of Congress in an attempt to gain passage for an intelligence reorganization bill this year.

Tom Kean, the former New Jersey governor who chaired the commission, said he left the half-hour meeting with Cheney optimistic that the bill would pass.

Speaking in Ottawa, Canada, Bush said he planned to discuss the bill later this week with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

“I want a bill,” Bush said. “Let’s see if I can say it as plainly as I can: I am for the intelligence bill.”