News For Monday Aug 4, 2008 News For Monday Aug 4, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Shoe containing human foot found on Wash. beach - Added 2 weeks ago

An athletic shoe containing a human foot was found on a Washington state beach, and authorities are investigating whether it may be linked to a series of human feet found in shoes along the coast of British Columbia. ...

Chicago tornado warning sounded; Wrigley cleared - Added 2 weeks ago

A powerful storm led to tornado warnings in downtown Chicago and the evacuation of fans from the stands at Chicago's Wrigley Field on Monday night. The National Weather Service had not confirmed any tornado touchdowns....

19 indictments for accused underwear-survey conman - Added 2 weeks ago

A man accused of conning parents into allowing him to be alone with their children to conduct a "marketing survey" of underwear was indicted Monday on 19 criminal counts involving 11 minors. Ben Hawkins, 44, of...

US nixes visas for Gaza Fulbrighters - Added 2 weeks ago

The United States has revoked the visas of three Palestinian Fulbright scholars whose cases were taken up personally by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice after Israel refused to let them leave Gaza for interviews,...

Civil liberties union sues NYPD over race records - Added 2 weeks ago

The New York Civil Liberties Union has sued the New York Police Department seeking records identifying the race of everyone shot by city police officers since January 1997. The NYCLU says the lawsuit filed Monday in...

Utah state employees make switch to 4-day workweek - Added 2 weeks ago

Thousands of state employees began a new four-day work schedule Monday, making Utah the first state in the country to shut down most of its services on Fridays. Instead of having employees working five days a week,...

Tourist survives 250-foot slide down Big Sur cliff - Added 2 weeks ago

A tourist is nursing only cuts and bruises after sliding 250 feet down a cliff on California's coast. Twenty-year-old Jost Ben of Wilnsdorf, Germany, had been tossing a football with friends Sunday at a traffic pullout...

5 dead, 3 hurt after plane hits Oregon home in fog - Added 2 weeks ago

A small plane crashed into a seaside house in heavy fog early Monday, killing two people aboard and three children inside the vacation home, authorities said. A woman and two children in the home were injured. ...

FAA: Plane violates Camp David airspace - Added 2 weeks ago

The Federal Aviation Administration and the Secret Service say a plane violated the airspace around Camp David in Maryland. The Secret Service says the incident happened around noon Monday, though FAA officials say it...

Jury: Preacher guilty of murdering elderly rancher - Added 2 weeks ago

A rural California preacher was convicted Monday of murdering an 85-year-old farmer after stealing more than $1 million from the elderly bachelor's trust. Jurors in Stanislaus County Superior Court also found Howard...

Wis. ambush suspect maybe 'freaked out,' mom says - Added 2 weeks ago

When he learned police were looking for him, Scott Johnson tried to assure his mother that he would take care of the situation. "He walked out, and that's the last time I saw my boy," Judy Johnson said. The next...

Man pleads guilty in Las Vegas ricin case - Added 2 weeks ago

An unemployed graphic designer who authorities say poisoned himself with ricin in his Las Vegas motel room pleaded guilty Monday to possessing a biological toxin. Sitting in a wheelchair, Roger Bergendorff, 57, was...

Study: Restaurant kids' meals loaded with calories - Added 2 weeks ago

Parents looking for healthy meal choices for their children are likely to find slim pickings on the menus of the nation's top restaurant chains, according to a report released Monday by a nonprofit public health group. ...

Former NYC commune member cleared in shooting - Added 2 weeks ago

A woman was cleared of all charges Monday in the shooting of a commune founder nearly killed by a shadowy figure on the stairwell of his compound. The jury took less than five hours to acquit Rebekah Johnson of...

US military deaths in Afghanistan region at 491 - Added 2 weeks ago

As of Monday, Aug. 4, 2008, at least 491 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department....

Ohio woman bills Michigan $16 for work zone delay - Added 2 weeks ago

An Ohio woman has sent Michigan transportation officials a bill for the $16 she says she wasted on gasoline sitting in construction zone traffic. Carol Greenberg complained there were no signs warning about the work on...

Alleged pickup thief loses truck to carjacker - Added 2 weeks ago

A pickup truck thief lost his purloined Chevy Silverado to an armed carjacker during a 7-Eleven stop. Police Cmdr. Kelly McMillin said "you couldn't make up something stranger than this." A 33-year-old man told police...

Fla. man dials 911, complains his sub had no sauce - Added 2 weeks ago

The sauce for a spicy Italian sandwich was apparently a must have for one Florida man. The man, Reginald Peterson, called 911 twice after a sandwich shop left off the sauce. Peterson initially called the emergency...

Pa. man watches helplessly as train squashes truck - Added 2 weeks ago

Nathan Miller learned the hard way that "Road Closed" signs are posted for a reason. The 25-year-old Milesburg man ventured onto a closed road Sunday afternoon in search of good fishing at Bald Eagle State Park, but got...

Obituaries in the news - Added 2 weeks ago

Skip Caray ATLANTA (AP) _ Skip Caray, a voice of the Atlanta Braves for 33 years and part of a family line of baseball broadcasters that included Hall of Famer Harry Caray, died Sunday. He was 68. He died in his sleep...

Embattled senator receives warm greeting in Alaska - Added 2 weeks ago

Sen. Ted Stevens returned home Monday to a cheering crowd, declaring his innocence and insisting his re-election campaign was "full speed ahead." The Senate's longest-serving Republican pleaded not guilty last week to...

Ohio officer acquitted of killing mom holding baby - Added 2 weeks ago

A white police officer was acquitted Monday in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black. The...

Co-defendant in OJ Simpson case pleads guilty - Added 2 weeks ago

A fourth co-defendant pleaded guilty Monday in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery and kidnapping case, agreeing to testify against the Hall of Fame football player and one remaining co-defendant. Charles Ehrlich entered...

Firefighters contain blaze in Los Angeles park - Added 2 weeks ago

Firefighters have contained a fire that burned about three acres of brush in the northeast corner of Griffith Park. Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Brian Humphrey says the fire broke out about 2:30 p.m. Monday...

Bush signs bill to settle Libya terror lawsuits - Added 2 weeks ago

President Bush signed legislation Monday that allows the State Department to settle all remaining lawsuits against Libya by U.S. terrorism victims and paves the way for complete rapprochement between Washington and...

Missouri sees second tiger attack in as many days - Added 2 weeks ago

Three tigers attacked a worker at an exotic animal park in southwestern Missouri on Monday _ the state's second tiger attack in as many days. Stone County Sheriff Richard Hill said the tigers attacked a 16-year-old...

Controversial military counterspy office closed - Added 2 weeks ago

The Pentagon on Monday officially dissolved an intelligence office that once created a controversial database about potential threats to military bases, shifting it to the Defense Intelligence Agency. The Pentagon's...

NYC pastor forced to leave amid abuse allegations - Added 2 weeks ago

A Roman Catholic pastor who helped organize Pope Benedict XVI's visit to New York and gave the invocation at Gov. David Paterson's inauguration has been forced to leave his position because of allegations of sexual...

Dad charged in girl abduction going back to Mass. - Added 2 weeks ago

A Massachusetts man accused of abducting his 7-year-old daughter planned to start a new life in Baltimore, where his recent purchase of a nearly half-million-dollar home helped lead to his arrest, authorities said...

Accidental courthouse shooting injures 2 officers - Added 2 weeks ago

Authorities say a gun accidentally fired in a Texas courthouse and injured two federal agents when a bullet ricocheted. Border Patrol spokesman Doug Mosier says injuries to a Border Patrol agent and the deputy U.S....

Gay couples use weddings to wage ballot fight - Added 2 weeks ago

When Pamela Brown got married, the two bride figurines atop her wedding cake celebrated her newfound right in California to marry another woman. But one of the figurines had a tiny sign over its head with something more...

FDA advisers must abide by new financial limits - Added 2 weeks ago

Outside experts may not participate in federal advisory committee meetings on drugs and medical devices if they have more than a $50,000 financial interest in the companies governed by their decisions, according to new...

Ancient moss, insects found in Antarctica - Added 2 weeks ago

Mosses once grew and insects crawled in what are now barren valleys in Antarctica, according to scientists who have recovered remains of life from that frozen continent. Fourteen million years ago the now lifeless...

7 more Philly workers suspended in teen's death - Added 2 weeks ago

Seven city social service administrators were suspended Monday, exactly two years after the emaciated, maggot-infested body of a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy was found in the squalid home of her mother, who has...

State: Panhandle center can't hold mentally ill - Added 2 weeks ago

A medical center that allowed a patient to escape twice before he killed a sheriff's deputy has been ordered to stop admitting the mentally ill who have been involuntarily committed. The Florida Department of Children...

FDA advisors must abide by new financial limits - Added 2 weeks ago

Outside experts may not participate in federal advisory committee meetings on drugs and medical devices if they have more than a $50,000 financial interest in the companies governed by their decisions, according to new...

Small Vt. town has fond memories of Solzhenitsyn - Added 2 weeks ago

When Alexander Solzhenitsyn sought refuge in the West, he looked for a place whose forested hillsides and harsh winters evoked his Russian homeland, and where residents had an ethic of respecting one another's privacy....

Residents warned of refinery fire fumes in Houston - Added 2 weeks ago

A tank of sulfur caught fire Monday at a refinery and residents were urged to take precautions against the fumes, authorities said. The minor fire at the Valero Houston Refinery was extinguished and the fumes were...

Bush running out of time on nuclear threats - Added 2 weeks ago

President Bush is rushing the clock and running out of time as he tries to stare down nuclear threats on three fronts. Bush has seen Iran ignore a weekend deadline to say whether it will haggle with the U.S. and others...

Attorney: Winkler takes custody of 3 children - Added 2 weeks ago

Mary Winkler, the woman convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her minister husband, has taken custody of her three daughters, one of her lawyers said Monday. Rachael Putnam, a custody...

Robert Novak retiring after brain tumor diagnosis - Added 2 weeks ago

Conservative political commentator Robert Novak announced his immediate retirement Monday because of his diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor. Novak told the editor and publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times that he plans...

Kosher slaughterhouse owners surrounded by scandal - Added 2 weeks ago

Two decades ago, the Rubashkin family of Brooklyn opened up a kosher slaughterhouse amid the cornfields of Iowa _ not exactly a center of Jewish culture. The bearded, fedora-wearing strangers from Brooklyn quickly...

Prison for ex-NYC cop accused of prostituting girl - Added 2 weeks ago

A former New York City police detective accused of forcing a 13-year-old runaway into prostitution has been sentenced to more than three years in prison. Wayne Taylor pleaded guilty last month to attempted kidnapping....

Komarow named AP's deputy Washington bureau chief - Added 2 weeks ago

Steven Komarow, senior deputy international editor for The Associated Press, has been named deputy Washington bureau chief for the news cooperative. Komarow, a veteran correspondent with extensive background in...

NYC airports to defy Bush plan for flight auctions - Added 2 weeks ago

The managers of New York City's three crowded airports vowed Monday to block a Bush administration experiment to reduce flight delays around the country by auctioning off takeoff and landing slots. A federal official...

A look at nuclear programs in Iran, NKorea, India - Added 2 weeks ago

President Bush has pursued nuclear containment deals with Iran and North Korea and a nuclear cooperation pact with India. None of the deals will be complete when he leaves office. Here is a look at the nuclear programs...

Recordings raise questions about inmates' rights - Added 2 weeks ago

The last thing defense attorney Jim McMahon expected to hear on a recording of phone calls from the county jail was his own voice discussing trial strategy with a client who had been jailed on a probation violation. ...

Man dies of burns suffered on Dallas power lines - Added 2 weeks ago

Authorities in Dallas say a man burned over half of his body while apparently trying to steal copper wire from a high-voltage power line has died. The Dallas County medical examiner's office confirmed Monday that James...

NY trooper, Canadian civilian electrocuted - Added 2 weeks ago

A veteran state trooper and a civilian were electrocuted while fixing a flat tire on an antique fire truck when the truck's ladder touched a high-voltage power line, police said. The fire truck, from the Canadian...

Petraeus: More than 80,000 buildings under review - Added 2 weeks ago

More than 80,000 facilities in Iraq will be inspected for faulty wiring as part of an effort to prevent future accidental electrocutions of U.S. troops, the top commander in Iraq said. At least 10 U.S. soldiers, five...