National Roundup

Minnesota
Shooting suspect blames noisy cars for fatal attack
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota man accused of killing a 9-year-old boy by standing in the street and firing indiscriminately at passing cars told investigators he did it because people had been waking him up by revving their engines in front of his home, according to a search warrant affidavit.
When police arrested 34-year-old Nhan Lap Tran after the February rampage, they found a note in his bedroom that read, “Random Kill, Fake Plates,” the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
The date “12/12/12” was also scrawled all over the walls of the bedroom, according to the affidavit filed in Washington County District Court.
Tran is charged with six felonies, including second-degree intentional murder and second-degree murder during an assault. He had previously admitted to the shootings but hadn’t given a motive, prosecutors said.
Tran’s attorney, Susan Drabek, did not immediately return a phone call to The Associated Press for comment Saturday.
The shooting rampage happened shortly after 6 p.m. on Feb. 11 in the St. Paul suburb of Oakdale, a few yards from Tran’s home. Fourth-grader Devin Aryal died in the shootings, and his mother and another woman were wounded. Two other motorists escaped as they were being fired upon, according to the criminal complaint.
Tran told investigators that “cars had been following him around for a while, and the persons driving the cars had been revving up their engines while parked in front of his house waking him up,” the affidavit said. “Nhan Tran said this is why he shot at the cars tonight.”
Prosecutors said Tran had roughly 200 rounds of ammunition stuffed into his jacket pocket, a backpack and the fanny pack he was wearing when arrested several blocks away.
He was also carrying two loaded 9 mm magazines and two large knives at the time. A loaded 9 mm handgun with a bullet in the chamber was found just feet from him. He admitted he tossed the gun aside when he saw authorities closing in, the criminal complaint said.
During Tran’s first court appearance in February, his public defender requested a mental health evaluation. A review hearing is scheduled for March 25.

Iowa
Conservative scholar denied new trial in suit
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A conservative scholar who sued a University of Iowa law school dean, saying she was denied promotions because of her political orientation, will not get a new trial.
Teresa Wagner, 48, had sought another trial after a federal jury found in October that the university did not discriminate against her. A mistrial was declared on a second count alleging the school had violated Wagner’s equal protection rights. A third count charging that Wagner’s due process rights had been violated was dismissed before the trial.
Wagner sought retrial on all counts.
Her lawyers asserted that the judge accepted the verdict without allowing attorneys to be present. That, they said, denied them the right to poll the jury, a process that helps determine if jurors were unduly pressured to render a verdict after lengthy deliberations.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pratt issued a ruling rejecting Wagner’s arguments and denying a new trial, The Des Moines Register reported. The judge also granted the law school defendants’ motion to dismiss the count that the school had violated Wagner’s equal protection rights.
Wagner was a part-time employee of the law school’s writing center and appeared on track to get a full-time position teaching legal writing and analysis to first-year law students in 2007. But the faculty voted to hire a less-qualified candidate who had to resign within a year for poor performance, did not fill the other job, and then refused to consider Wagner for similar jobs that came open later.
Wagner filed the lawsuit contending the 50-member faculty — which included 46 Democrats — blocked her appointment because they knew she was a Republican who had worked for two anti-abortion groups, the National Right to Life Committee and the Family Research Council.

Kansas
Court, attorneys to discuss school case deadlines
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Attorneys involved in a Kansas school funding lawsuit are preparing for a conference call with Chief Justice Lawton Nuss to discuss the state Supreme Court’s schedule for reviewing the case.
Monday morning’s call was set up by Nuss to discuss deadlines. But attorneys also expected to address the appointment of a mediator to oversee negotiations aimed at settling the litigation.
The court already has said the negotiations will occur as the case moves forward.
Several school districts and parents and guardians of students sued the state in November 2010.
The state is appealing a January ruling by a three-judge panel in Shawnee County that legislators must increase the state’s annual spending on schools by at least $440 million.

Mississippi
Hattiesburg answers rescue  mission lawsuit
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) — The city of Hattiesburg has answered a lawsuit filed by a local church contesting enforcement of land use code, arguing that none of the church’s rights were violated.
The Hattiesburg American reports the answer also asks for a dismissal of the suit, with reimbursement for costs to defend it.
Lighthouse Rescue Mission Inc. filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court, arguing the code violates federal and state constitutional and statutory rights.
Lighthouse alleges the city has violated the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
The answer specifically denies any violation of rights under the act.

Connecticut
Woman going on trial in her son’s overdose death
KILLINGLY, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut woman charged with manslaughter in her son’s overdose death is going on trial, nine years after being acquitted of manslaughter in a car crash that killed a prominent businessman.
The trial of 42-year-old Heather Specyalski of Ashford is scheduled to begin Monday in Danielson Superior Court.
Prosecutors say Specyalski knew her son, Brandon, had consumed alcohol and morphine before he died in 2008, but didn’t seek medical attention until after finding him unresponsive hours later. She denies the allegations.
Specyalski was in a 1999 car crash in Cromwell that killed Neil Esposito, a prominent Republican campaign contributor. Authorities initially said Specyalski was driving.
But a jury acquitted Specyalski after her lawyer raised the possibility that she was performing a sex act on Esposito while he was driving.s