Lawmaker: Grand jury 'maniuplated'

ST. LOUIS — A Missouri lawmaker is calling for an investigation of St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch, saying he “manipulated” the grand jury in the Ferguson case.

McCulloch said in a radio interview Friday some witnesses obviously lied to the grand jury.

State Rep. Karla May is pushing for a state investigation, saying she believes McCulloch helped sway the grand jury into the decision not to indict Ferguson officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed.

McCulloch, who convened the grand jury in August, was interviewed Friday by KTRS Radio in St. Louis — his first interview since the Nov. 24 decision not to prosecute.

“Clearly some were not telling the truth,” McCulloch said.

He made reference to one woman who claimed to have seen the shooting. McCulloch said she “clearly wasn't present. She recounted a story right out of the newspaper” that backed up Wilson's version of events, he said.

DETROIT — After resisting for nearly a month, Chrysler has bowed to government demands and will expand a recall of driver's side air bag inflators across the nation.The automaker said Friday that it will recall nearly 2.9 million older cars and trucks in the U.S., as demanded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.The vehicles have driver's air bags equipped with inflators made by Japan's Takata Corp. that can explode with too much force and spew shrapnel at drivers and passengers. At least five deaths have been blamed on Takata inflators.The recalls previously were limited to areas with high humidity.

NEW YORK — Despite an early start, sales data provided to The Associated Press show that stores may once again have to rely on procrastinators to save the holiday shopping season.Sales rose 1.8 percent from Nov. 1 through Monday compared with the same period a year ago, according to payment technology company First Data Corp.The numbers are modest considering that the National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, expects sales for the entire season — November and December — to rise 4.1 percent to $616.9 billion.The slow growth also comes at a time when retailers tried to do a number of things to jumpstart the season and encourage shoppers to spend.