Gun access to mentally ill curbed

WASHINGTON - President Bush signed legislation yesterday aimed at preventing the severely mentally ill from buying guns, in a rare bipartisan agreement with the Democratic-led Congress after the bloody Virginia Tech shooting. The bill authorizes up to $1.3 billion in grant money for states to improve their ability to track and report individuals who shouldn't qualify to buy a gun legally. Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho was able to pass a background check and buy two guns even though a Virginia court had deemed him mentally ill. (AP)

SANTA FE - A couple of snowboarders who spent three frigid nights lost near a Santa Fe ski area were rescued yesterday by helicopter after they stomped SOS in the snow. Adam Putnam, 36, and his fiancée, Rachel Fehl, 30, were treated at St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and released. They were hungry and tired but alert and in very good spirits when they left the hospital after about two hours in the emergency department, a hospital spokesman said. Meanwhile, the search resumed for two snowboarders who have been missing since Saturday near Colorado's Wolf Creek Ski Area. (AP)

SCOTT CITY - A teenager who won a VFW contest with an essay titled "My Role in Honoring America's Veterans" has been accused of killing an Air Force veteran. Marcus Bowers, 18, was indicted Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder in the September death of Stanley Hagan, 45. Police say Bowers slammed Hagan's head into a tie-down stake outside Hagan's mobile home in Scott County. Investigators would not comment on a possible motive in the slaying. (AP)