National news briefs

Man charged with threatening Obamas

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man has been charged with posting a poem threatening President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on a white supremacist Web site.

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Stephan M. Pazenzia said Johnny Logan Spencer Jr., 27, of Louisville wrote and posted the poem, titled "The Sniper," on a page called NewSaxon.org. The site is described as an "online community for whites by whites." The poem was posted in August 2007, according to an arrest affidavit.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin on Friday ordered Spencer released on $25,000 bond, but kept under house arrest at a family member's home. He's charged with making threats against the president and threatening to kill or injure a major candidate for the office of the president.

Mother gets life in murder of children

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The mother of two babies whose bodies were found stuffed under a Texas house in 2007 has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Valerie Lopez pleaded guilty to capital murder in 2008. State District Judge Mary Roman sentenced the 22-year-old Lopez on Friday.

The sentence was part of a plea deal in which Lopez agreed to help prosecutors in their case of her ex-boyfriend, 31-year-old Jerry Salazar.

The couple shared the San Antonio home where the bodies of 4-month-old Sebastian and 14-month-old Sariyah were found in March 2007 after neighbors reported a foul smell. The bodies, which were wrapped in plastic, were found after the couple moved out.

Salazar reached a separate plea agreement in December and also received a life sentence.

Self-help guru says he can't post bond

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A man who built a multimillion-dollar empire with a motivational mantra that teaches people to create wealth contends he's broke and cannot post bond in a criminal case that threatens the survival of his self-help business.

James Arthur Ray was charged earlier this month with three counts of manslaughter stemming from the deaths of three people following a sweat lodge ceremony he led last year in Arizona. His bond has been set at $5 million, a figure his attorneys say is "excessive and oppressive."