National Roundup

Illinois
Woman with history of airliner stowaways arrested again
CHICAGO (AP) — A woman with a history of stowing away on airliners was arrested Tuesday for attempting to sneak onto a flight at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, authorities said.

The arrest of Marilyn Hartman, 69, came two weeks after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have given her probation for a previous attempt to stowaway on a flight. Hartman is being held on a trespassing charge.

Hartman allegedly left the facility where she had been staying while on electronic monitoring. The device allowed Cook County sheriff's deputies to track her as she headed for O'Hare. Deputies activated an alarm on Hartman's device as she neared Terminal 1, where she was arrested.

Officials of the Cook County Sheriff's Department say plans are to seek a felony escape charge for Hartman.

Hartman's arrest comes two weeks after a court hearing in which Hartman's attorneys and prosecutors said they reached the plea deal on a pending case that would have imposed 18 months of probation, plus court-ordered mental health treatment.

Formal plea proceedings had not begun, but Judge Peggy Chiampas put attorneys on notice that she was not inclined to agree to that sentence.

Hartman, was arrested at O'Hare in October 2019 just as she was trying to pass the second of two security checkpoints, according to court records. She was released from Cook County Jail about a year ago in an effort to release low-risk detainees from contracting COVID-19.

The 2019 arrest violated her probation sentence for sneaking past O'Hare security in January 2018, boarding a jet and flying to London's Heathrow Airport without a ticket.


West Virginia
Republican AGs question federal stimulus barring tax cuts
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Republican attorneys general from 21 states are questioning a provision in the $1.9 trillion pandemic rescue plan that bars states from using its funds to offset tax cuts.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday, they said the prohibition is "unclear, but potentially breathtaking" — airing concerns that any tax cut could be construed as taking advantage of the pandemic relief funds.

The attorneys general list over a dozen instances of states currently considering new tax credits or cuts that they believe could be jeopardized simply because of the relief funds.

"We ask that you confirm that the American Rescue Plan Act does not prohibit States from generally providing tax relief," wrote the coalition, led by Georgia, Arizona and West Virginia.

The aid plan, approved by Congress in close party-line votes and signed by President Joe Biden last week, includes $195 billion for states, plus separate funds for local governments and schools.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden expects the relief funds to not go toward decreasing taxes.

"The original purpose of the state and local funding was to keep cops, firefighters, other essential employees at work and employed, and it wasn't intended to cut taxes," she said at a briefing.

The Treasury Department did not immediately return an email requesting comment.

In West Virginia, Republican Gov. Jim Justice has applauded Congress for passing a massive stimulus but railed against the provision amid his push to cut the state personal income tax.

"Congress may not micromanage a state's fiscal policies in violation of anti-commandeering principles nor coerce a state into forfeiting one of its core constitutional functions in exchange for a large check from the federal government," Republican West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said in a statement.

Signing on to the letter were Arizona, Georgia, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.

Three Republican members of the U.S. Senate introduced a long-shot bill on Tuesday to eliminate the provision.

"If a state like Idaho wants to provide tax relief in the interest of economic recovery, and to help people return to earning their livelihoods, the American Rescue Plan says it will be financially punished by the federal government," Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho said in a statement.

Mississippi
Man arrested, charged with capital murder in deputy slaying
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A Mississippi man accused of fatally shooting a sheriff's deputy last month was arrested Tuesday and charged with capital murder.

Joseph Michael Rohrbacker, 30, was taken into custody without incident by special agents of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation in connection with the Feb. 1 shooting death of Lt. Michael Boutte, according to an agency statement.

Until he was taken into custody, Rohrbacker had been receiving treatment at a Louisiana hospital for wounds sustained in the shooting, officials said. He is being held at a detention center in Gulfport, Mississippi, near the state line with Louisiana.

Rohrbacker is accused of shooting Boutte as he tried to get out of his vehicle near a Hancock County home where authorities were responding to an attempted suicide call. Rohrbacker fired at a second responding deputy who returned fire and wounded him, Sheriff Ricky Adam said at the time.

Boutte was airlifted to a New Orleans hospital and later pronounced dead. He was an Air Force veteran who had been in law enforcement for eight years and had been "awarded the Life Saving Medal for saving a child's life," among other accomplishments, according to the sheriff's department.

If convicted of the capital offense, which is automatically applied whenever a law enforcement officer is killed, Rohrbacker could face a maximum sentence of life without parole or death by lethal injection, the Sun Herald of Biloxi reported.