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A 4-year-old girl who went missing in New Mexico nearly 62 years ago has been identified as "Little Miss Nobody," a previously unidentified girl whose remains were discovered in Arizona, police announced Tuesday. Authorities identified the victim as Sharon Lee Gallegos, who was abducted on July 21, 1960. Police said Gallegos was abducted by a man and a woman while she was playing with other children in an alley behind her grandmother's house in Alamogordo, New Mexico. According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, the couple had been stalking the girl for several days. Gallegos was dragged into...

LONG BEACH - After exchanging several rounds of gunshots, Santa Ana police officers on Wednesday shot and killed the man they suspected of shooting and critically wounding two Long Beach police officers. Police officials say they believe the man is Oscar Gabriel Gallegos, 33, but his identity cannot be officially confirmed until after a coroner's inspection this morning. "We do believe it's him based on the information we have, but it's not 100 percent," said Victor Standke, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Police Department. The fatal shooting occurred when three SAPD officers followed the man believed to be Gallegos...

WASHINGTON — Already saddled with resolving a looming nuclear showdown with Iran, the Bush administration now faces the possibility that that country's new leader helped take 52 Americans hostage in 1979. Earlier, the White House indicated.... Five Americans who were held for more than a year in the hostage crisis believe that Ahmadinejad was one of their captors.

EUREKA -- Here's yet another huge twist in the ongoing Humboldt County district attorney saga: DA Paul Gallegos' right-hand man, Tim Stoen, wants to run for U.S. Senate. Stoen, hired by Gallegos this year to be his assistant district attorney, and who is handling Gallegos' controversial lawsuit against Pacific Lumber Co., filed an intention statement with the county Elections Office on Thursday. Neither Stoen nor Gallegos could be reached for comment, but elections officials confirmed Stoen filed the statement to run against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. While such a run may come as a surprise -- Stoen's name...

Whitmire treated like a turncoat BY NATALIE GOTT Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - When 10 Democratic lawmakers returned to the Capitol after running off to New Mexico for six weeks to block congressional redistricting, they were met with boisterous cheers from the Senate gallery. But the crowd had a different welcome for Democratic Sen. John Whitmire of Houston: Members of the audience unveiled white T-shirts printed with one letter apiece, spelling out "QUITMIRE." After spending more than 30 days holed up in a hotel in Albuquerque, N.M., Whitmire broke ranks with his fellow Democrats Sept. 2 and decided to return...

Good will frays in Senate as topic becomes fines Associated Press AUSTIN (AP) — Some of the good will shown on the Senate floor a day earlier appeared to be cracking Wednesday as Democrats pressured Republicans about the fines imposed on them for the Democratic boycott of the last special legislative session. "We're here. I'm here," an angry Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said from the Senate floor. "I'd like to write my constituency back home and either, either somebody does something on this floor or I will. I will go to my parking space ... I want somebody to take...

Committee passes redistricting bill BY NATALIE GOTT Associated Press Writer AUSTIN - A Senate committee on Wednesday adopted a map of new congressional districts that likely would give the Texas GOP an advantage over the state's Democrats in Washington, but the plan seemed doomed this special legislative session. The Senate Jurisprudence Committee approved the measure 4-3 on a party line vote. Sen. Todd Staples of Palestine, who chairs the Senate Republican Caucus, sponsored the map, which he unveiled Wednesday. He said it was fair and balanced. "Clearly I think the map that I laid before you today respects rural, east,...

Redistricting committee back in Austin Associated Press AUSTIN (AP) - After days of hearings on the road, Senate committee members taking testimony on plans to redraw congressional boundaries indicated Thursday they were planning to take some time before voting on a proposed new map. The Senate Jurisprudence Committee approved a resolution saying it would not vote on a map before at least noon Tuesday. Sen. Chris Harris, R-Arlington, said he had planned to start putting a map together Thursday and would stand strong for a map with which he is comfortable. Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston, said he wanted senators to...