Mexico City, Mexico (CNN) — Authorities believe assassins targeted a pregnant woman and two other people connected with a U.S. consulate who were killed in drive-by shootings over the weekend, Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said Monday.

The killings were carried out by a local gang, known as Los Aztecas, that is allied with the Juarez Cartel, Reyes told CNN. No arrests had been made by Monday afternoon.

More than 120 million U.S. census forms begin arriving Monday in mailboxes around the country, in the government’s once-a-decade population count that will be used to divvy up congressional seats and more than $400 billion in federal aid. Fast-growing states in the South and the West could stand to lose the most because of lower-than-average mail participation rates in 2000 and higher shares of Hispanics and young adults, who are among the least likely to mail in their forms.

Did those $2.5 million Super Bowl ads work? Stay tuned.

DENVER – An American woman and three others arrested in Ireland over an alleged plot to assassinate Swedish artist Lars Vilks have been freed without charge, Irish police said Saturday.

Seven people — including the American woman, three Algerians, a Libyan, a Palestinian and a Croatian — were arrested Tuesday in Ireland. Irish police said three others who were also arrested remained in custody and were being questioned.

In Leadville, Colo., Christine Mott identified the American woman held in Ireland as her daughter, 31-year-old Jamie Paulin-Ramirez. Christine Mott said she was informed of Paulin-Ramirez’s arrest by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.

(CNN) — The driver of a Toyota Prius says he was taken on a wild ride Monday after the car’s accelerator became stuck, reaching speeds in excess of 90 mph on a winding, hilly portion of a southern California interstate.

It took the California Highway Patrol to bring the car safely to a stop.

The driver, Jim Sikes, said he was traveling east on Interstate 8 outside of the San Diego area when he attempted to pass a slower vehicle.

Kansas City, Mo., plans to close nearly half its public schools by fall. Illinois’ governor wants to raise state income taxes by 1 percent to continue funding schools and prevent the layoffs of thousands of teachers. Hawaii, President Barack Obama’s home state, has whacked 17 days from the school year and says it’s not done with educational cost-cutting.

From Maine to Wisconsin, Florida to California, school districts across the country are taking drastic measures to deal with school budget cuts made severe by the recession and its aftermath. Msnbc.com asked readers how their school district is coping, and one clear lesson emerged — cuts in education make no one happy.

CNN) — Some people who didn’t file a federal tax return for 2006 have more than 1 billion reasons to reconsider, but they need to do it fast, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS says it has more than $1.3 billion in refunds for 1.4 million people who didn’t file a 2006 return. But to collect the cash, they will have to file for that year by April 15.

Otherwise, the money will become the property of the U.S. Treasury, as happens with all tax refunds that aren’t claimed within three years.

The IRS estimates the median unclaimed refund for 2006 nonfilers is $604. California is the state with the most nonfilers who qualify for refunds from that year (159,700), with Texas (109,600) and Florida (101,700) right behind.

CNN) — A man apparently angry over a poor performance evaluation entered an Ohio State University maintenance building early Tuesday and opened fire, killing a manager before turning the gun on himself, police said.

Larry Wallington, 48, a building services manager at the OSU Maintenance Building, was pronounced dead at the scene of the 3:30 a.m. ET shooting, Ohio State University Police Chief Paul Denton said. Wallington was a 10-year university employee, he said.

NEW YORK – Dozens of former federal officials are playing leading roles in helping carmakers handle federal investigations of auto defects, including those for Toyota’s runaway acceleration problems.

A Washington Post analysis shows as many as 33 former National Highway Traffic Safety Administration employees and Transportation Department appointees left those jobs in recent years and now work for automakers as lawyers, consultants, lobbyists and in other jobs that deal with government safety probes, recalls and regulations.

(CNN) — North Korea said Sunday it would no longer move forward with nuclear disarmament in response to a planned U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise.

The announcement was made by the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.

“The maneuvers clearly indicate once again that the U.S. and the South Korean authorities are the harassers of peace and warmongers keen to bring a war to this land,” the statement sa

JOSH SMITH is a large man with a shaved head, a goatee and a look in his eyes that can only be described as stoked. And he is never more stoked than when he talks about his job, one of the strangest at the General Motors Proving Grounds, here in this suburb 45 miles northwest of Detroit.

All day, he breaks G.M. parts.

Not just any parts. Mr. Smith is a member of Red X, a team of 33 engineers who study auto parts that are malfunctioning for reasons that have everyone stumped. The work is a little bit “CSI” and a little bit “MythBusters.” Red X takes working parts and methodically torments them in controlled experiments, hoping to re-enact the demise of ones that failed.