Senator Hutchison Delays Stepping Down & Nightly Roundup

By KERA News & Wire Services

Dallas, TX –

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison plans to announce Saturday that she will not resign her Senate seat until after the March Republican primary for Texas Governor.

Senator Hutchison is challenging Governor Rick Perry for the GOP nomination.

Campaign officials provided The Associated Press a copy of Hutchison's prepared speech to be delivered to Republican women in Galveston on Saturday. In it, Hutchison will say she is stepping down in 2010 regardless of who wins the Republican primary for Governor. But she says there are too many important issues facing Congress for her to quit this fall as she had planned.

The senator says in the written speech that she "will be resigning this Senate seat" next year. In the remarks, she says "Make no mistake, this is going to happen."

While recording WFAA's Inside Texas Politics Friday, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said he would consider quitting his job to run for U.S. Senate if Senator Hutchison steps down.

Sheriff: DNA links Texas woman to babies' remains

A Fort Worth-area woman now believed to be the mother of three babies whose remains were found beneath a mobile home porch and nearby has been arrested.

Authorities say that's after DNA tests tied 36-year-old Rachel Lynnette New to the decomposed bodies. New was released on $70,000 bond today after her arrest yesterday. Tarrant County Sheriff's spokesman Terry Grisham says she's charged with three counts of tampering with evidence.

Two sets of infant remains were discovered this summer under the porch of a home near the Rendon community, just southeast of Fort Worth. That's where New and her brother had been living. Another set was found nearby last year.

Investigators collected DNA samples from 23 people with ties to the property, and authorities say test results showed Rachel New was a match to the DNA recovered from the remains.

New and her brother have previously denied to detectives that they knew anything about the remains. And though she didn't deny being pregnant, Grisham says that "when the topic got around to DNA and babies, she didn't want to talk about that." He says authorities do not know who fathered the children.

Fake Investor Sentenced To Prison

A Carrollton man is going to federal prison for 20 years after pleading guilty to securities fraud.

Prosecutors say 41 year old Joseph Kelly Lara pretended to be a lawyer and investment banker, and bilked North Texans out of more than a million dollars. Court documents say he sold securities that he never possessed, including Google stock.

Federal authorities say he used the name Nick Mancuso, and even became the pastor of a North Texas church. His administrative assistant testified she had to file for bankruptcy after investing with "Pastor Nick."

Ex-Dallas deputy gets 15-year term in drug case

A former Dallas County sheriff's deputy who pleaded guilty to cocaine and firearms possession charges will
serve a 15-year federal prison term. A federal judge assessed the sentence to 36-year-old Standric
Choice in Dallas on Friday. Last March, Choice had pleaded guilty to single counts of conspiracy, cocaine possession and unlawful firearms possession.

A criminal complaint alleged Choice and two co-defendants conspired to steal cocaine from a drug dealer by faking the arrest of an informant.

The two co-defendants, 29-year-old Terry Kemone Anderson and 31-year-old Charlie Lee Hill, pleaded guilty and were sentenced in September. Anderson got a 5-year-prison term, while Hill drew an 8-year term.

Choice had faced up to life in prison and a fine of $4.25 million.