California

Santa Monica OKs beach smoking ban

Santa Monica would become the third — and largest — California community to ban smoking on its beaches under an ordinance tentatively approved by the City Council.

Council members voted 4-2 in favor of the ordinance late Tuesday but must approve it in a second vote in about two weeks before it can become a rule. The ban would prohibit smoking along a 13-mile stretch of beach, on the city’s pier except in designated areas, and at bus stops.

Last week in Orange County, the San Clemente City Council voted 3-2 for a beach smoking ban. Solana Beach in San Diego County went smoke-free in October. Los Angeles officials will hear a similar proposal April 6.

California’s strict anti-smoking restrictions include bans on smoking in restaurants and bars and within 20 feet of a building entrance or operable window.

Washington, D.C.

Park Service promises cuts in travel expenses

Reacting to stern criticism in Congress, the National Park Service sought to dispel notions Thursday that its spending priorities were out of line and that it had muzzled employees who might want to speak out.

Park Service Director Fran Mainella said she would halt any more spending for foreign travel and cut 10 percent from domestic travel spending.

She acknowledged that million-dollar projects were getting under way without her consent and said any costing more than $1 million would require approval from her or Interior Secretary Gale Norton.

Former Park Service employees last week released a memo that suggested plans to keep some parks and visitor centers open fewer hours this summer or to scale back on guided tours and lifeguards.

California

Mass slaying suspect pleads not guilty

A man accused of killing nine of his children pleaded not guilty Thursday and his attorney asked a judge to lift an order barring surviving relatives from visiting his client.

“He’s still cloaked in a presumption of innocence,” Marcus Wesson’ attorney Peter Jones said after the hearing.

Judge Brant Bramer scheduled a Tuesday hearing on the motion.

Wesson has been kept in isolation at the Fresno County Jail, unable to receive visits or phone calls from relatives. Officials based the decision on a phone call from a woman who called the jail March 14, two days after the bodies were found.

“We were told (relatives) would request his permission to commit suicide,” said Wes Merritt, a chief deputy in Fresno County’s Counsel’s Office.

The victims of the mass slaying included eight children ages 1 to 17, as well as Wesson’s 25-year-old daughter, who also was the mother of one of the slain children, police said.

Wesson could face the death penalty if convicted.

North Carolina

Jury: Ex-boyfriend liable for topless e-mail

A jury Thursday found a former beauty queen’s ex-boyfriend liable for the e-mail he sent about topless photos that forced the Miss North Carolina to give up her crown.

Jurors determined that Tosh Welch’s anonymous e-mail, sent a month after Rebekah Revels won the state pageant, interfered with Revels’ contract with the pageant and a potential contract with the Miss America Organization.

In a July 2002 e-mail to the Miss America Organization, Welch wrote: “Would you want to be represented by someone with a past? Nude pictures of Miss America bring in big bucks these days.”

Shortly after the e-mail was sent, state pageant officials asked Revels to resign or be terminated.

Atlanta

Returning to moon not enough, Aldrin says

Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin says the United States needs enthusiasm similar to the “pioneering days” of the first moon landing if it wants to go to Mars.

“We’ve got to get the excitement back,” Aldrin told the president’s commission on travel to the moon and Mars on Thursday. “We’ve really got to move out and maintain this momentum.”

Aldrin said it was important that the nation have a clear vision about what it wants to do in space. Simply going to the moon and back again wouldn’t be enough, he said.

NASA needs to launch long-term missions, establish bases on the moon and Mars and continue exploration beyond that, said Aldrin, who rode on Apollo 11 to a landing on the lunar surface in July 1969.

Rhode Island

Suicide victim’s car had girlfriend’s head

A man who was suspected of harming his girlfriend killed himself after leading police on a high-speed chase, and the woman’s head, knives and a gun were found in the man’s car.

Authorities found Heather Mullins-Keltz’s dismembered body in the Plainfield, Conn., home she had shared with Michael Shechtman.

Shechtman, 33, shot himself in the head Wednesday as police approached his car after a high-speed chase through several Rhode Island towns.

After Shechtman killed himself, police found the woman’s head wrapped in a plastic bag on the front seat, as well as a handgun, a fully loaded 9 mm magazine pouch and two knives, authorities said.