Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era

NATIONAL

Authorities: N.M. teen planned more shootings Many say let illegals stay in U.S. No charges in gun show shooting Feds don't use Postal Service Not seeking mom for Neanderthal Midwest bundles up in bitter cold

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The New Mexico teenager accused of gunning down five family members over the weekend ambushed his father as he returned home from an overnight shift at a rescue mission, then reloaded his rifles and planned to go to a Wal-Mart and randomly shoot people, authorities said Tuesday.

Instead, 15-year-old Nehemiah Griego texted a picture of his dead mother to his 12-year-old girlfriend, then spent much of Saturday with the girl and her family, authorities said. That evening, he went to the church where Griego's father had been a pastor, and Griego eventually confessed to killing his parents and three younger siblings.

"The motive, as articulated by the suspect, was purely that he was frustrated with his mother," Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston said.

Houston said Griego had planned the shootings for at least a week, but it's unclear why he changed his mind about continuing the attack.

Griego told detectives he also contemplated killing his girlfriend's parents, Houston said.

The sheriff said he didn't know if Griego's contact with his girlfriend avoided further bloodshed. But he said she apparently knew what had happened.

WASHINGTON -- More than 6 in 10 Americans now favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually become U.S. citizens, a major increase in support driven by a turnaround in Republicans' opinions after the 2012 elections.

The finding, in a new Associated Press-GfK poll, comes as the Republican Party seeks to increase its meager support among Latino voters, who turned out in large numbers to help re-elect President Barack Obama in November.

Emboldened by the overwhelming Hispanic backing and by shifting attitudes on immigration, Obama has made overhauling laws about who can legally live in the U.S. a centerpiece of his second-term agenda. In the coming weeks, he's expected to push for an eventual pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country.

Sixty-two percent of Americans now favor providing a way for illegal immigrants in the U.S. to become citizens, an increase from just 50 percent in the summer of 2010.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Wake County's district attorney says he can find nothing to indicate laws were broken in an accidental shooting at a gun show.

District Attorney Colon Willoughby said Tuesday that no charges will be filed against 36-year-old Gary Lynn Wilson of Wilmington.

State Fairgrounds Police Chief Joel Keith said a 12-gauge shotgun discharged while its owner removed it from its case at a security checkpoint at the entrance to the Dixie Gun and Knife Show last Saturday. A retired sheriff's deputy and two bystanders were hurt.

WASHINGTON -- Even the federal government turns to private shippers rather than the Postal Service to send packages.

A report from the agency's inspector general said that since 2001, private companies like FedEx and United Parcel Service had captured 98 percent of the revenue from long-term shipping contracts with the government because the financially troubled Postal Service did not have a sales staff or a strategy to focus on the federal sector until 2009.

The report said the Postal Service lost out on about $34 million in potential revenue over the last two years, a relatively small amount for an agency that reported $65 billion in revenue last year. But officials at the inspector general's office said the Postal Service, which had a net loss of $15.9 billion last year, could not afford to pass up opportunities to generate revenues and profits no matter how small.

NEW YORK -- A prominent genetics expert from Harvard Medical School says he is not looking for a woman to bear a Neanderthal baby. Not even an adventurous one.

Some press reports in the past few days suggest Harvard's George Church is supporting the idea of creating a Neanderthal and even looking for an "adventurous" woman for the project.

Church says those reports are based on misunderstandings of an interview he gave the German magazine Der Spiegel. Church said the idea gets a brief mention as a theoretical possibility in his recent book. Scientists have recovered Neanderthal DNA from fossils.

MADISON, Wis. -- Homeless people scrambled to find shelter, schools closed down and plumbers wrestled with frozen pipes Tuesday as the Upper Midwest endured a third straight day of bitter cold temperatures.

In International Falls, Minn., a town near the Canadian border, the temperature was minus 30.