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Colorado gun control bills near being law

Denver • Fiercely debated ammunition limits cleared Colorado's Democratic Legislature on Wednesday and were on their way to the governor, who has said he'll sign the measure into law.

The 15-round magazine limit would make Colorado the first state outside the East Coast to ratchet back gun rights after last year's mass shootings.

Colorado's gun-control debates have been closely watched because of the state's gun-loving frontier heritage and painful history of mass shootings, most recently last summer's movie theater shooting that killed 12.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has said he is ambivalent about the magazine ammunition limit but will sign it. The law gives him 10 business days to do so.

Still pending in the Legislature is the Democrats' other signature gun-control bill, which would require background checks for private and online gun sales. Hickenlooper has more enthusiastically backed that measure, and it was scheduled for a final vote Wednesday.

60 indicted in Florida gambling scandal

Orlando, Fla. • A sweeping multistate investigation of a purported veterans' charity based in Florida has led to nearly 60 people indicted on gambling charges and the resignation of the state's lieutenant governor.

Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll once did public relations for the charity Allied Veterans of the World. She was questioned in the investigation, but she has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Authorities said Wednesday they have issued 57 arrest warrants in Florida and five other states. Attorney General Pam Bondi says charges will include racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and possession of slot machines.

Gunman kills fourin upstate New York

Herkimer, N.Y. • A man neighbors said rarely spoke to them started a fire in his apartment on Wednesday, shot four people dead at a couple of businesses in his hometown and a neighboring village and then exchanged gunfire with police officers who surrounded an abandoned building where he apparently was holed up, authorities said. Police Superintendent Joseph D'Amico identified the man as 64-year-old Kurt Myers.

Police said Myers' rampage started with a fire in his apartment in the nearby village of Mohawk at about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. D'Amico said Myers then drove to John's Barber Shop around the corner and used a shotgun to kill two customers, one of whom was a retired corrections officer. The shop's owner and another customer were listed in critical condition at a Utica hospital. D'Amico said the gunman then drove to Gaffy's Fast Lube in nearby Herkimer and killed an employee and a customer who was a 23-year veteran of the state Department of Corrections.