In brief: 5-year-old girl fatally shoots self

NEW ORLEANS – Police say a 5-year-old girl fatally shot herself when her mother locked her inside their home and went to the store.

The New Orleans Police Department said in a news release the girl was home alone Sunday, somehow found her mother’s revolver and accidentally shot herself in the head. The mother, 28-year-old Laderika Smith, will be booked on a charge of second-degree murder. Police say her negligence resulted in the death of her daughter.

Upon returning home from the store, police say Smith found her daughter lying on a bedroom floor with a gunshot wound. She died at a hospital.

AUSTIN, Texas – More than 800 women’s rights protesters crowded into the Texas Capitol on Sunday to watch Democrats try a series of parliamentary maneuvers to stop the Republican majority from passing some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.

Democrats passionately spoke against the bill or tried to add amendments to soften it. They started the session pointing to a technicality that delayed voting on any bills for 41/2 hours. The forced adjournment burned up precious time since the session ends at midnight Tuesday, and the abortion bill still needs to go back to the Senate for final approval.

The only bill with a real chance is Senate Bill 5, an omnibus bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks, require that they take place in surgical centers and restrict where and when women can take abortion-inducing pills. Part of the new law also would require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.