Los Angeles

Mother of Jackson

accuser charged

The mother of Michael Jackson's molestation accuser was charged with welfare fraud yesterday for allegedly collecting almost $19,000 in benefits under false pretenses, the Los Angeles County District Attorney said.

The pop star's defense team dug up the evidence of the mother's alleged welfare cheating and used it to discredit her at his criminal trial. Jackson was acquitted of all charges June 13.

A five-count complaint alleges the mother knowingly lied and concealed cash assets to collect $18,782 in assistance payments between November 2001 and March 2003.

She could face more than four years in prison if convicted, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

Milwaukee

Missing child found

with wanted man

A missing 13-year-old boy who had been communicating with adults on the Internet was found yesterday in Phoenix with a man wanted on a child-sex charge.

The teenager apparently took a bus to Arizona last Wednesday at the urging of Vernon Monk, 32, whom he met online, police said. Investigators tracked an e-mail address to the man's apartment, and officers were waiting when the two drove up.

2 Wal-Mart workers

killed, man arrested

Two Wal-Mart employees were shot to death yesterday as they gathered shopping carts in the parking lot of one of the stores in suburban Phoenix, and police later arrested the suspected gunman.

Police spokesman Mike Pena said Ed Lui surrendered without incident in a retirement community in nearby Peoria.

Authorities did not have a motive for shootings. It does not appear Lui knew the victims or had a vendetta against Wal-Mart, Pena said.

Man executed

for 1994 murder

A man who fatally attacked a woman in her home with a knife and a hammer nearly 11 years ago was executed last evening.

Robert Alan Shields, 30, was executed by injection. He had no final statement.

A jury condemned him for the killing of Paula Stiner, 27, in September 1994.

Shields was the 12th Texas inmate to be executed this year.

Raleigh, N.C.

Historic vote ends

2004 elections

North Carolina lawmakers selected a new superintendent of public schools yesterday in a historic vote, resolving the nation's last undecided statewide election from November 2004.

Democrat June Atkinson was picked to run the state's 1.4 million-student school system by a 93-21 vote during a joint session of the Senate and House.

4 inches of rain

cause flooding

Storms dumped up to 4 inches of rain yesterday across southern Arizona, flooding washes and waterways and forcing evacuations of some 46 people in the Tucson area, including a mother and two children rescued by a helicopter.

Several flights were delayed and one was canceled from Tucson International Airport, and the rains forced closure of five roads in Tucson and more than two dozen in Pima County, where a state of emergency was declared.

Salt Lake City

Man charged with

insurance fraud

A man accused of faking his disappearance, setting off a search in the area where he had supposedly gone hiking, has been charged with insurance fraud.

The felony charge was filed Monday against Bryan Butas, 35, of St. George.

Butas had applied for a $250,000 life-insurance policy that named his estranged wife, their two sons and a stepdaughter as beneficiaries, authorities said.

Butas said he left his car at the hiking area, rode a bicycle to another location where he had parked a different vehicle, and eventually caught a bus to Los Angeles, picked up a passport and boarded a flight to Australia, Sheriff's Sgt. Jake Adams said.

Compiled from The Associated Press and New York Daily News