We prove weighted local smoothing estimates for the resolvent of the Laplacian in three dimensions with weights belonging to the Kerman-Sawyer class. This class contains the well-known global Kato and Rollnik classes. We go on to discuss dispersive and Strichartz estimates for perturbations of the Laplacian by small potentials, and apply our results and observations to the well-posedness in L 2 of the Cauchy problem for some linear and semilinear Schrödinger equations.