SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — Five people have been arrested in the investigation surrounding six bodies found last week at a remote dirt crossroads in the Southern California desert in a dispute over marijuana, sheriff’s officials said Monday.

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Authorities discovered the bodies in the Mojave Desert outside El Mirage after someone called 911 and said he had been shot, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Warrick said. Five bodies were found late Tuesday and a sixth the following morning.

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Five suspects were arrested after deputies served search warrants Sunday in the Adelanto and Apple Valley areas of San Bernardino County and the Pinyon Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles County, Warrick said at a news conference.

“We are confident that this appears to be a dispute over marijuana,” he said.

Warrick said all the suspects in the case had been arrested. The five men, ranging in age from 24 to 34, were held

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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A bill to decriminalize marijuana in Louisiana was short-lived, swiftly dying in committee Tuesday before ever reaching the House floor for debate this legislative session.

Democratic state Rep. Candace Newell briefly argued that her bill to decriminalize the possession and distribution of marijuana would provide opportunity for economic gains in the Deep South state. The legislation would have been contingent upon the Legislature “providing for a statutory regulatory system for the legal sale and distribution of marijuana” and establishing a sales tax.

“We should not still be criminalizing people when in other states their economy is flourishing,” Newell said. To date, 22 states have passed laws legalizing recreational use of marijuana by adults.

However, the House Criminal Justice Committee voted 9-4 along party lines to involuntarily defer the bill — effectively killing the legislation. None of the nine GOP lawmakers provided an

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WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s plan to expand private sales of liquor is on hold, and its private retail system for cannabis may come under review after an upcoming election.

The Opposition New Democrats said Monday they will use procedural rules in the legislature to delay passage of two liquor bills beyond the summer break. And with an election scheduled for Oct. 3, the bills are almost certain not to pass before Manitobans go to the polls.

“What we don’t want is people being able to pick up a bottle of vodka at the 7-Eleven at two in the morning, or having to deal with that when they take their kids there for a Slurpee after school,” said Lisa Naylor, NDP critic for liquor and lotteries.

One of the bills would pave the way for a pilot project in which liquor would be available in more retail environments such

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