Lead Story
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New York state senator Howard Babbush won reelection despite prosecutors’ efforts over the last five years to bring him to trial on corruption charges. Babbush has claimed for the last two years that he is too ill to stand trial. Said he, “There’s a big difference between standing trial and taking care of the needs of my constituents.”
Bernard Hale, candidate for treasurer of Michigan’s Cannon Township, was arrested at five o’clock one morning last July when his car was found to contain 31 political yard signs, most belonging to his opponents. He said he was just trying to clean up the neighborhood.
For more than a year Sandra McMahan Irwin has blocked the execution of the will of her late ex-husband, William Kane, who committed suicide in October 1991. Kane’s girlfriend, Deborah Hecht, is claiming from the estate a vial of frozen sperm that Kane had stored just for her. However, Irwin and Kane’s grown children argue that Kane was not of sound mind when he promised her the sperm. In December a judge ordered the sperm destroyed, but Hecht appealed.
Julia Pena, 31, was arrested in Los Angeles last April for a drive-by shooting. Pena was angered when her son came home early one morning and complained that a gang had robbed him at gunpoint of 25 cents. Said police sergeant Gary Grubbs, she got out of bed, got dressed, drove back to the school, and fired off several shots at gang members.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Shawn Belschwender.
