FAA launches balloon probe

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- The Federal Aviation Administration has opened its own investigation into the 50-mile flight of the helium balloon that briefly delayed flights at Denver International Airport after a couple reported that their 6-year-old son may have been on board, an official said Tuesday.

FAA spokesman Mike Fergus said the agency investigates civil allegations rather than criminal ones. He declined to provide details on the nature of the FAA probe or its possible outcome.

Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden has said investigators believe amateur storm chasers Richard and Mayumi Heene called 911 Thursday saying they thought their son, Falcon, was aboard the large helium balloon that floated away from their yard in Fort Collins in a bid to get publicity for a reality TV show.

Woman charged in shooting sons

LOS ANGELES -- A Los Angeles woman accused of shooting her young sons, killing one and critically wounding the other, has been charged with murder.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that La' Tonya Ann Dixon is also charged with attempted murder, assault on a child, and a special circumstance allegation of using a firearm. The 26-year-old mother faces multiple life sentences if convicted of all the charges.

Officers disarmed Dixon on Saturday after she called 911 to report that she shot her children. Her 5-year-old son was killed and her 1-year-old remains on life support.

Dinosaur fossils are smallest

LOS ANGELES -- Fossil bones housed at a Los Angeles museum belong to the smallest dinosaur discovered in North America, scientists said Tuesday.

The newly identified creature weighed less than two pounds and stood about 4 inches tall. From head to tail, it measured a little over 2 feet long, said Luis Chiappe, director of the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County where the fossil bones are stored.

It likely ate plants and hunted bugs during the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. It was so tiny and fast that it probably darted between the legs of larger dinosaurs, researchers said.

Chiappe and an international team recently identified and named it Fruitadens haagarorum.

Rick weakens as Neki winds up

LOS CABOS, Mexico -- Once-powerful Hurricane Rick lost most of its punch as it headed toward Mexican resort regions as a tropical storm Tuesday, but local authorities still prepared for evacuations in case of flooding.

Rick had been the strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific region since 1997, with winds of 180 mph during the weekend, and waves that killed at least two people.

Far out in the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Neki formed far from the main Hawaiian Islands.

Maximum winds were at about 75 mph. It was expected to pass near tiny Johnston Island possibly today, forecasters said.

-- From wire reports