In brief: Texas senator to retire in 2012

WASHINGTON – Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison will not seek a fourth full term in 2012, she announced in a letter to supporters Thursday.

The Republican senator, first elected in a 1993 special election, said she had held her current office longer than she ever intended and looked forward to returning to live full time in Texas.

“Knowing that I have been able to truly help my fellow Texans and make a positive difference in their lives is a public servant’s greatest reward,” she wrote in her announcement letter.

In 2010, Hutchison lost to incumbent Rick Perry in the GOP gubernatorial primary. A former state treasurer, she had long eyed the governor’s mansion in Austin. Perry, the longest-serving governor in state history, made Hutchison’s Washington service an issue in the heated primary campaign.

“The last two years have been particularly difficult, especially for my family,” Hutchison wrote. “But I felt it would be wrong to leave the Senate during such a critical period.”

Some postal rates increasing in April

WASHINGTON – Postal rates will go up in April, but the cost of sending the basic letter will remain the same.

The post office said the 44-cent price of a first-class stamp won’t change, but heavier letters will cost more. The basic rate is for the first ounce, and the price for each extra ounce will rise from 17 cents to 20 cents.

The post office can raise rates as long as it doesn’t exceed inflation, which would permit an increase of 1.7 percent averaged over all mail.

Other decisions on rates included:

• Post cards will rise by a penny to 29 cents.

• Letters to Canada or Mexico increase to 80 cents, from 75 cents to Canada and 79 cents to Mexico.

Group suing to protect polar bears

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday gave formal notice that it intends to sue the federal government for what conservationists consider a failure to protect critical habitat for polar bears from harmful oil and gas development.

Federal agencies have reaffirmed a Bush-era plan that authorizes oil leasing in the newly designated polar bear critical habitat in the Chukchi Sea, and are considering a proposal to allow Shell Oil to drill next summer in polar bear critical habitat in the Beaufort Sea.

“Unfortunately, Interior seems profoundly confused about whether to actually protect polar bear critical habitat or sacrifice it to oil companies,” attorney Rebecca Noblin said.

Rapper relieved after confession

NEW YORK – Rapper G. Dep is facing a murder charge after walking into a police station to confess to a long-cold case, but he isn’t regretful – he’s relieved, his lawyer says.

“He had been haunted by this,” attorney Anthony L. Ricco said Thursday after the rapper pleaded not guilty to charges including murder and manslaughter in the 1993 shooting of John Henkel. Defendants generally plead not guilty early in their cases, even if they’ve confessed, to allow evidence-gathering, legal arguments and any plea negotiations to proceed.

G. Dep turned up at a police precinct last month to say he’d shot someone as a teenager during a robbery in East Harlem.

The rapper, now 36, has said he didn’t know the victim died until police told him so.