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OBAMA DAUGHTERS-POLITICS

First lady: Girls can choose to have campaign role

DALLAS (AP) Michelle Obama says her daughters' main concern about the coming presidential election is all about them.

In an interview Friday in Dallas, Mrs. Obama said a child in a campaign always asks, "What happens in my life?"

The first lady says she's trying to assure 10-year-old Sasha and 13-year-old Malia that they'll be fine, no matter what happens.

And she says she tells them it's their choice to be part of their father's re-election campaign or to stay far from it.

Mrs. Obama says her girls enjoyed going on campaign trips during the 2008 election because people gave them ice cream everywhere they went.

The first lady was in Dallas to mark the second anniversary of her "Let's Move" campaign against childhood obesity.

PLEASURE FLIGHT CRASH

1 dead in crash of small plane in South Texas

FLORESVILLE, Texas (AP) A small airplane crashed near a rural South Texas airfield, killing its lone occupant.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the aircraft was on a pleasure flight from Stinson Municipal Airport in San Antonio. FAA spokesman Lynn Lunsford says it was preparing to land at the John Connally Ranch Airport about 28 miles southeast of San Antonio when it disappeared from air traffic control radar.

The dead pilot has been identified as 58-year-old John Hurley of Bulverde, according to Wilson County Justice of the Peace Johnny Tejada Villarreal.

No other injuries or damage was reported. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.

DAYCARE SEXUAL ABUSE

Daycare worker gets life for sex abuse of boy, 5

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) A North Texas jury tool less than two minutes to return a life sentence for a former North Texas daycare center worker who sexually abused a 5-year-old boy.

The Tarrant County jury deliberated just over a minute Friday before recommending the maximum penalty for 41-year-old Paul Joseph Lair Junior of Keller. The jury had found Lair guilty earlier Friday of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 6 and indecency with a child.

According to trial testimony, Lair babysat the boy regularly until November 25th, 2008, when he described to his mother sex acts that Lair made him perform at night. The jury heard other testimony that he was seen fondling children at the daycare center.

DRUG WAR-MEXICO

DEA: Mexican governor got millions in drug cash

MEXICO CITY (AP) A court document says U.S. agents have evidence that drug cartel leaders paid millions to the governor of a Mexican border state and other members of the country's former ruling party to gain political influence.

A 13-page DEA complaint filed in a Texas federal court says four informants reported that the leaders of the Gulf and Zetas cartels paid members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party including Tomas Yarrington, who served as governor of Tamaulipas state in 1999-2004.

The DEA says a ledger it obtained supports the allegations.

The investigation could have ramifications for Mexico's presidential race. The candidate of the Institutional Revolutionary Party has a big lead in opinion polls heading toward the July election.

MEXICO-TRAVEL WARNING

US increases travel warning to 14 Mexican states

MEXICO CITY (AP) The U.S. State Department recommends Americans avoid travel to all or parts of 14 of 31 Mexican states in the widest travel advisory since Mexico stepped up its drug war in 2006.

The state department advises against any nonessential travel to Chihuahua, Coahuila (koh-ah-WEE'-lah) and Tamaulipas (tam-ah-LEE'-pahs), all bordering the U.S, and the central state of Durango. It advises caution in three other border states, as well as states in central and western Mexico where cartels have been warring.

The advisory this week said U.S. citizens have been victims of drug violence, including killings, kidnappings and carjackings.

The previous warning in April 2011 recommended avoiding travel in just two states, Tamaulipas and Michoacan (meech-wah-KAHN'), and parts of eight others.

GULF OIL SPILL-LITIGATION

US urges for openness at Gulf oil spill trial

NEW ORLEANS (AP) The federal government's lead lawyer in an upcoming trial over fault in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill is urging judges to make sensitive business documents and testimony public.

Mike Underhill, a U.S. Justice Department lawyer, made his comments Friday at a pre-trial hearing before U.S. Magistrate Sally Shushan, who is working with the presiding judge, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, to determine what proprietary information should not be disclosed.

BP, Transocean and Halliburton, companies involved in spill, are worried about their trade secrets going public.

The trial is to begin February 27th.

GINSBURG-WOMEN'S RIGHTS

Ginsburg questions 1973 abortion ruling's timing

NEW YORK (AP) Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says her predecessors on the high court may have mistimed the milestone 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide.

"It's not that the judgment was wrong, but it moved too far too fast," Ginsburg told a symposium Friday at Columbia Law School marking the 40th anniversary of her joining the faculty.

At the time of Roe, abortion was legal in four states, allowed under limited circumstances in some others, and outlawed under nearly all circumstances in most states, including Texas where the case originated.

Alluding to the persisting abortion debate, Ginsburg said the justices of 1973 could have delayed hearing Roe while the state-by-state process evolved. Or they could have struck down just the Texas law without legalizing the procedure nationwide.

MISBRANDED DRUGS-DEATHS

Charges filed in deadly drug shipment misbranding

DALLAS (AP) Federal charges have been leveled against a Dallas-based mail-order compounding pharmacy over a shipment of a misbranded drug ingredient federal officials blame for three deaths in the Pacific Northwest.

A Justice Department statement Friday says ApotheCure Incorporated and its owner, Gary Osborn, have been charged with two misdemeanor criminal violations of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

The case centers on a February 2007 shipment of a gout drug containing some vials with dosages more than seven times stronger than what was shown on the label, and some with strengths about two-thirds those shown.

The shipment went to a now-defunct Portland, Oregon medical center. Autopsies showed three patients who died there after receiving the drug died of overdoses.

A message left at Apothecure Friday wasn't returned.

MAVERICKS-KIDD

Kidd returns to Mavs lineup after 6-game absence

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Point guard Jason Kidd has returned to the Dallas lineup after missing the past six games because of a strained right calf muscle.

Kidd started for the Mavericks on Friday night at Minnesota, pushing Delonte West to the bench. The 38-year-old Kidd has played in more games (1,284) than any other active player in the NBA.

Kidd also missed four games last month because of a strained lower back.