The Courier
February 22, 2010
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/02/22/conroe_courier/news/0223_state_briefs.txt
WACO (TX) -- A former Waco-area Baptist preacher convicted of killing his wife and trying to cover it up as a suicide is seeking a new trial.
Matt Baker was sentenced to 65 years in prison after his conviction last month. Now, he's alleging ineffective representation by his trial attorneys.
Court officials say the motion for a new trial was filed Monday afternoon in a state District Court in Waco where his trial was held. The judge has 45 days to make a ruling on the appeal.
Baker was convicted last month of giving his wife Kari sleeping pills and smothering her with a pillow in 2006. According to testimony, he then typed a suicide note and rubbed her lifeless hand over it in case authorities checked for fingerprints.
Geithner gives Obama letter to IRS workers
AUSTIN — U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is offering President Barack Obama's support to government workers in Austin.
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| IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, left, with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, talk to the media after taking a tour of the damaged Echelon office building in Austin on Monday. |
That's where a suicide pilot rammed his plane last week into an office building housing Internal Revenue Service offices, killing an IRS employee.
Geithner and IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman made brief comments to reporters Monday after meeting with IRS employees and delivering a letter from Obama. They were scheduled to tour the devastation that software engineer and pilot Joe Stack left behind.
Geithner and Shulman expressed condolences to the family of Vernon Hunter, an IRS employee who was killed in the incident.
Continental eliminating 600 call center jobs
DALLAS — Continental Airlines is cutting about 600 jobs in its reservations centers because customers increasingly prefer to book flights online.
Continental told employees about the furloughs on Monday and said they would take effect April 11.
The airline said it will cut the jobs of 250 agents who are currently on leave plus another 350 still working.
The company said calls to reservations agents are falling 15 percent per year as customers instead buy tickets from Web sites. There is no charge for booking on continental.com, but customers must pay $20 to make a reservation by phone. Airlines use the call center fees to raise money and encourage passengers to book online, which is cheaper for the carrier as well as the passenger.
Continental also said it won't renew a contract to answer calls for Disney resorts, which will result in about 100 of the 600 job losses.
No new trial in Texas police officer death
HOUSTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday reversed a lower court decision that gave a new trial to a man condemned for killing an off-duty Houston police officer.
The high court told the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision that Anthony Cardell Haynes, 31, of Houston, should get a new trial or be released from death row.
The New Orleans-based federal appeals court had ordered Haynes retried or released because a prospective juror improperly was excluded from his 1999 trial in Harris County because of race.
But the high court said the 5th Circuit last year misinterpreted Supreme Court rulings in its decision ordering a new trial. The Texas Attorney General's Office had appealed the 5th Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court.
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