(Wednesday, 3 June 2009)  An 18-year-old is accused of killing his own mother; the former US House Speaker says he shouldn't have labeled Judge Sotomayor a "racist;" some veterans say a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner is wrongly trying to "cash in" on his experience.  Details--plus info on why you might want to call up Darius McCrary--the guy you remember as "Eddie" from Family Matters--on today's KISS News Now!

• An 18-year-old Sandy Springs man is jailed without bond, accused of killing his own mother.  Sandy Springs SWAT officers spotted Alexander Cordell in a car around 10:00 last night in the parking lot of a Publix near the crime scene, and he surrendered without incident.  He had the nine millimeter weapon with him.  It appears Cordell shot 40-year-old Shani Fecht shortly after she pulled up aside the front gate of the Preserve at Dunwoody apartments where her son lives, and police say they don't know the motive.
  
  
• Looks like former Governor Roy Barnes wants his old job back after all.  He has scheduled a news conference for this afternoon to announce what political insiders believe will be another run for the state's highest office.  Now a lawyer in private practice, a recent poll shows Barnes way ahead of other Democratic candidates--only 12 points away from clinching the nomination.  On the Republican ticket, John Oxendine is leading the pack.
  
  
• More details about the new jobs coming to Gwinnett County.  NCR, the world's biggest maker of ATMs and cash registers, says relocating to Georgia will add more than 2,100 metro Atlanta jobs over the next five years.  NCR CEO Bill Nuti says the jobs average $60,000-70,000 a year.  Nuti says Georgia's highly-skilled workforce and academic institutions helped make the moving decision easy.  Most of the jobs at the relocated corporate headquarters will be new positions in marketing, engineering and software development.  Another 850 jobs will be going to the company's new manufacturing plant in Columbus.
  
   
• The drugs weren't in the luggage--they WERE the luggage.  A 26-year-old Argentine woman about to fly from Chile to Spain was detained; authorities say her two suitcases were made of cocaine mixed with resin and glass fiber.  Once she'd arrived, a chemical process would've been used to separate out the coke.  The suitcases, detectives say, were actually heavier than their contents.
  
  
• Aggravated at accusations that Judge Sonia Sotomayor is "racist," Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy is threatening to start hearings on her Supreme Court confirmation sooner rather than later.  He calls the attacks unfair, and baloney.
  
  Meanwhile, ex-Speaker Newt Gingrich is taking back--kind of--what he said about Sotomayer.  In an e-mail to supporters last night, Gingrich wrote, "My initial reaction was strong and direct -- perhaps too strong and too direct. The sentiment struck me as racist and I said so. ...The word "racist" should not have been applied to Judge Sotomayor as a person, even if her words themselves are unacceptable."  The e-mail goes on to explain his opinion about her and he repeatedly calls her "a radical."
  
  
• Usually criminals try to breakout of the police department, but now cops in McDonough are looking for the one who broke in.  The criminal came in through a window and then raided the evidence room.  No word yet what may have been taken.  The police chief says he's been on the job 25 years, and this is the first time he's heard of a police station break-in.
  
  
• Police in Carroll County are looking for a man who pulled a knife on a grocery store manager.  Police say the man was caught stuffing slabs of ribs down his pants inside the Southern Family Market, so he could sell them on the street.  The guy got away with ribs in his shorts.  Guess that's what they mean by "packin'."
  
  
• A former terror detainee who spent years locked up at Guantanamo Bay sparks controversy with a video game he helped design in the UK for XBox.  It's called Rendition: Guantanamo and portrays prisoners who fight their way to freedom.  Former Gitmo guard Pete Hegseth heads the group Veterans for Freedom, and they're asking Microsoft not to sell the game here--saying it would be a slap in the face to our military.  The ex-prisoner says after two years being tortured there with no trial, he's now a human rights activist and wants to donate all his profits to detainees' rights.
  
  

• You'll probably remember him as Eddie from Family Matters--but now Darius McCrary says his music--and what you think about it--is what matters to him.  His new song F.I.N.E. is on his website, here--along with his actual cell phone number--so you can call him up and tell him whether you like it or not.  The 33-year-old McCrary says he'll be going on tour as the opening act with TLC and Lil Kim, starting in October.
  
  
• So what'd it cost for your last date? The White House says it won't lay out how much it cost for President Barack Obama to take his wife Michelle out on a date in New York over the weekend.  While in the Big Apple, the couple had dinner and took in a play--and the Republican National Committee has criticized them for a so-called "extravagant" trip in an economic downturn.  White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the Obamas would have preferred using a commercial airline to New York and back--but that the Secret Service wouldn't hear of it.
  
  Speaking of the president...Mr. Obama picked the NCAA champs--and now is picking the team he thinks will take the NBA title.  He says the Lakers will win it in six.
  
  
  
• This just in! We got a tweet this morning about the brand-new baby of Kimora Lee Simmons and Djimon Hounsou. They've named their son Kenzo Lee Hounsou, adding that he was eight pounds and 20 inches when he was born Saturday.
  
  
• The KISS 104.1 weather forecast:  a mix of clouds and hazy sunshine with a high of 87, low of 68.  Tomorrow, partly to mostly cloudy and a 50% chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms, high near 80.