Budget impasse forces shutdown
Michigan’s state government partially shut down early today as the new fiscal year began with no budget deal in place to plug a $1.75 billion deficit.
The Senate voted to raise the state’s income tax from 3.9 percent to 4.35 percent, a key step toward implementing a budget deal, hours after the measure passed the House. It now heads to Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is expected to sign it.
Granholm was waiting for the tax measures before signing a 30-day continuation budget. The state has no authority to spend money without a budget in place.
Without a budget deal in place, 35,000 of the state’s roughly 53,000 workers were expected to be barred from going to work this morning.
LAS VEGAS
Man arrested in sex-tape case
A man accused of holding and showing off a tape depicting the sexual assault of a 3-year-old girl was taken into custody Sunday on a probation violation, authorities said.
Darrin Tuck, 26, arranged to surrender after evading arrest since Friday, said Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo. Prosecutors are set to formally charge Tuck with possession of child pornography and possibly promoting child pornography today, DeMeo said.
Tuck had been on probation for desertion and failure to pay child support, but his probation was revoked, authorities said. Officials were unable to arrest him Friday night because he could not be found.
Tuck has told authorities he found the tape in the desert, but authorities said he possessed it for as long as five months before turning it in. He was arrested earlier this month in the case and released without bail pending a court appearance.
The girl in the tape was located after authorities on Friday released information they would not normally disclose in order to get tips from the public, including a picture, DeMeo said.
SALT LAKE CITY
Prison escapees caught after chase
Two escaped prisoners who were on the run for almost a week were arrested after a high-speed chase, started after a retired police officer called 911 when the two convicted killers broke into his home, authorities said.
Danny Martin Gallegos, 49, and Juan Carlos Diaz-Arevalo, 27, who escaped from a Utah jail Sept. 23, had apparently stolen guns and an SUV at knifepoint from the retired officer Saturday night, said Detective Dick Blust of the Sweetwater County, Wyo., Sheriff’s Office.
The former officer, who was duct-taped in the break-in, freed himself and called for help after the two men left in his SUV.
The former officer, whose name was not released, called 911 around 9:30 p.m. His vehicle was spotted at a parking lot eight minutes later and the chase began, Blust said.
A Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper spiked the tires, and the chase ended between Rock Springs and Green River, about 100 miles east of the Utah-Wyoming state line.