Related articles:

Around the nation Around the nation: Walkway collapse injures 16 Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation Around the nation

Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

HUNTSVILLE — Texas executed a killer Thursday who was on parole when authorities say he stabbed his ex-girlfriend in a jealous rage after beating down the door to her Dallas-area apartment nearly a decade ago.

Robert Jean Hudson was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m., eight minutes after the lethal drugs began to flow.

Hudson, 45, was the 18th inmate put to death this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state and the last scheduled for this year.

Edith Kendrick, 35, was killed and her 8-year-old son seriously wounded in the 1999 attack in Mesquite, east of Dallas.

MEMPHIS — Two white supremacists accused of plotting to kill President-elect Barack Obama and dozens of others face more federal charges in Tennessee.

Daniel Cowart of Tennessee and Paul Schlesselman of Arkansas were indicted by a federal grand jury this month on firearms and conspiracy charges. Federal prosecutors say more charges alleging damage to religious property and use of a firearm during a crime of violence were added Thursday.

Cowart and Schlesselman have been held in a West Tennessee jail without bond since their arrests on Oct. 22.

TOPEKA— A former Army cook convicted of multiple rapes and murders is set to die next month in what would be the U.S. military's first execution in nearly 50 years.

The military said Thursday that former North Carolina soldier Ronald A. Gray is to be executed Dec. 10 at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute, Ind.

Gray was arrested in connection with four slayings and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area between April 1986 and January 1987, while he was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was convicted of murdering two women.

President Bush approved Gray's execution in July, and a month later Army Secretary Pete Geren set the execution date and ordered that Gray be put to death by injection. The date was publicly released Thursday.

Gray, 43, is being confined at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth.

KANSAS CITY — A man convicted of killing and beheading the 3-year-old daughter of the woman he would marry and dumping her body in the woods was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Before being sentenced, Harrell Johnson again stated that he is innocent of the 2001 murder of Erica Green. The girl's remains went unidentified for four years after they were found, during which time she was referred to by the community and in the news media as "Precious Doe."

"Never once have I harmed a hair on her head or did anything to hurt her," Johnson told the court.

Johnson, 29, was convicted last month of first-degree murder, endangering the welfare of a child and abuse of a child.

MALIBU —Water regulators have taken a step toward banning septic tanks in the heart of Malibu, Calif., after a battle over bacterial pollution at popular beaches.

Residents and city leaders have long opposed switching from septic tanks to sewer pipes because the infrastructure could be used to bring massive development to the rustic community.

Members of the Los Angeles regional water board on Thursday directed staff to draft a plan that would yank the city's ability to manage commercial septic systems in its center.

The plan would also ban septic tanks in the area.

LITTLE ROCK, — City and state police have closed their investigations into last summer's shooting of Arkansas' Democratic Party chairman without offering an explanation of why the attack occurred.

Bill Gwatney died Aug. 13 after being shot three times by a man who lost his job at a Target store that morning. The shooter, Timothy Dale Johnson, was chased into Grant County, where he was shot and killed after threatening officers.

A police report said an autopsy found Effexor, an antidepressant, in Johnson's blood. Investigators said the drug may have played a part in his "irrational and violent behavior."

MONTPELIER — A Vermont legislator plans to introduce a bill to allow gay marriage in the state that first approved civil unions for same-sex couples.

State Sen. John Campbell, a Democrat, says he will sponsor the bill in the legislative session beginning in January. He acknowledges it is unlikely to gain ground unless Gov. Jim Douglas signals support.

The Republican governor said Thursday that the civil union law is sufficient but wouldn't say whether he would veto a gay-marriage bill.

Only Massachusetts and Connecticut allow gay marriage. California voters recently overturned a ruling allowing the practice there.

NEW YORK — The "Today" show's Ann Curry didn't make it to the top of Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro.

Altitude sickness and forbidding weather forced the NBC morning show's crew to stop about 3,000 feet short of the 19,000-foot summit. They were climbing to draw attention to environmental problems, and hoped to hit the top for today's show.

Curry reported to her "Today" show colleagues Thursday that she was heading back down.

Said Curry: "Here's the bottom line: I just did not want to live with any one of us having any kind of serious injury just to get us live from the top of this mountain. It just wasn't worth it." She described it as an unanimous decision by the five-person crew.