Nation in brief: Liberal activist opposes Brown

Sacramento, Calif. – A founder of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org said he will challenge Democrat Jerry Brown for the party’s nomination for governor.

Peter Schurman, who announced his candidacy Tuesday, said Brown isn’t being bold enough in his plans to fix California. Schurman supports raising taxes and ending the two-thirds vote requirement to pass budgets.

Brown is a former governor who is now the state’s attorney general. He faces no other serious challengers in the June Democratic primary.

Evidence sought in polygamy towns

Salt Lake City – Government officials in twin polygamous communities along the Utah-Arizona border were served Tuesday with search warrants seeking evidence on suspected misuse of public funds, authorities said.

The warrants allege City Manager David Darger and Fire Chief Jake Barlow in Colorado City, Ariz., personally benefited or took money for their own use from the fire department “by false pretenses and/or without authority of law,” sometime between Aug. 1, 2004, and Feb. 1, 2010.

No one was arrested or charged.

The twin communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, are home to members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an embattled religious sect that follows Warren Jeffs, a church leader serving prison time after being convicted of rape as an accomplice in the marriage of a 14-year-old follower to her 19-year-old cousin.