Michigan
Nurse sues hospital over racist agreement
FLINT - An African-American nurse claims a Michigan hospital agreed to a man's request that no black nurses care for his newborn.
Tonya Battle told the Detroit Free Press she didn't know how to react when she learned about the request in October at Hurley Medical Center in Flint. Battle sued in Genesee Circuit Court seeking punitive damages.
Battle's lawsuit claims a note was posted on an assignment clipboard reading "No African-American nurse to take care of baby." She said it was later removed, but claims black nurses weren't assigned to the baby's care for about a month.
Hurley President Melany Gavulic said supervisors were concerned for the staff's safety after the father displayed a swastika tattoo.
Georgia
Man's execution halted at last minute
JACKSON - The execution of a Georgia man who killed a fellow prisoner in 1990 was halted Tuesday at the last minute so courts could consider claims that he's mentally disabled and other issues.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted its stay of execution as 52-year-old Warren Lee Hill was being prepared for lethal injection. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the court said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill's mental capacity.
California
Fists, chairs fly at HOA meeting
RANCHO MIRAGE - Fists of fury flew in ritzy surroundings in the Mojave Desert last weekend at a homeowners' association meeting at a Palm Springs-area country club.
The meeting at the seemingly genteel Springs Country Club, a private golf and tennis club and gated community in Rancho Mirage, turned into an all-out brawl that hospitalized two people when members threw punches - and even chairs - over a board of directors election.
"Some people were upset that a certain person won and began yelling at him and pushing him," Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Myling Bourdeau said.
Texas
She delivers 2 sets of identical twins
HOUSTON - A Texas woman has beaten long odds in delivering two sets of identical twin boys.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Tressa Montalvo delivered her sons at The Woman's Hospital of Texas. It said the odds of giving such a birth naturally are one in 70 million.
Montalvo said she and her husband, Manuel, planned the pregnancy but didn't use fertility drugs.
911 call for cigarettes leads to an arrest
GRANBURY - A Texas woman wanted to make sheriff's deputies the butt of a joke, but she picked the wrong audience when she called 911 to have cigarettes delivered to her home.
Hood County sheriff's Lt. Kathy Jividen said the 48-year-old woman was "very intoxicated" when she requested the special delivery on Feb. 11. Jividen said the caller instead received a visit from two deputies and was arrested. She was charged with abuse of 911.
Women get prison in kidnapping case
SAN AUGUSTINE - An east Texas jury sentenced two women to prison Tuesday after convicting them of kidnapping a Houston boy when he was 8 months old and hiding him for eight years before he was found.
Gloria Walker and her daughter, Krystle Tanner, were sentenced in the 2004 disappearance of Miguel Morin, now 8.
Wire reports
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