|
Ohio plane crash kills 6, including ex-legislator
FREMONT, Ohio -- A small plane crashed Sunday afternoon in a residential area and killed all six people aboard, including a former state lawmaker who had offered joyrides to visitors after a charity breakfast.
Former legislator Gene Damschroder Sr., 86, was piloting the fixed-wing, single-engine Cessna when it crashed about 1 p.m., the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. His five passengers also died in the crash in Ohio's Sandusky County.
No one on the ground was injured, and no buildings were damaged, patrol Lt. Tony Bradshaw said. It was too early to tell what caused the crash. The National Weather Service said there was no severe weather in the area at the time.
The Lions Club of Fremont on Sunday held a fly-in breakfast, inviting nearby pilots to fly to the airport and display their planes.
After the event, Damschroder offered visitors a chance to go up in planes for the cost of fuel, according to a poster at the airport. The joyrides were not related to the Lions Club event.
It wasn't clear whether those on board had taken Damschroder up on his offer. Also killed were Bill Anstead, 62; Allison Anstead, 23; Daniel Gerwin, 31; and Emily Gerwin, 4; and Matt Clearman, 25.
3 dead, 1 missing in Midwest flooding
INDIANAPOLIS -- Wicked weekend storms with tornadoes and heavy rain pounded the Midwest, where at least three people drowned and one was missing in floodwaters that swallowed roads and neighborhoods.
Rescuers in boats continued to pluck people from rising waters in Indiana, a day after more than 10 inches of rain deluged much of the state. At least one person drowned, and another person was missing after falling off an airboat in a flooded area, state police said.
In Michigan, two delivery workers for The Grand Rapids Press drowned early Sunday when their car became submerged in a creek that washed out a road about 4 a.m. near Lake Michigan in Saugatuck Township, the newspaper said.
At least one tornado hit the Omaha, Neb., area with little to no warning as people slept Sunday morning, damaging several dozen homes and businesses. No major injuries were reported.
"I'd say it was a miracle no one got killed," said Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey as he toured a heavily damaged neighborhood in the west Omaha area of Millard
Shuttle crew breezes through last spacewalk
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Shuttle Discovery's astronauts breezed through their third and final spacewalk Sunday, replacing an empty gas tank at the international space station and collecting a sample of dusty debris.
Spacewalkers Michael Fossum and Ronald Garan Jr. wrapped up their work so quickly that Mission Control threw in some extra chores.
The highlight of the 6 1/2-hour spacewalk, for Garan, was a long ride on the space station's robot arm that swung him 80 feet out from the orbiting complex. He carried an empty nitrogen gas tank from one side of the station to the other, then returned with a full tank and plugged it in for use in the coolant system.
Fire burns Texas governor's mansion
AUSTIN, Texas -- Arson is suspected in a fire that swept through the historic Texas governor's mansion early Sunday, leaving much of the 152-year-old building charred and severely damaged, the state fire marshal said.
No one was believed to be inside when the fire started at the home, whose roof buckled because of the flames and the massive amount of water used to put them out. Officials said there is no evidence any direct threat was intended to Gov. Rick Perry, who is out of the country with his wife, Anita.
"We are heartbroken by the fire that has ravaged the Texas Governors Mansion," Perry said in a prepared statement. "It has not only been our home for the past eight years, but has stood as a symbol of Texas pride throughout its history. Though it can certainly be rebuilt, what Texas has lost today can never be replaced."
All historic furnishings and heirlooms had been removed for a renovation project, but much of the wood in the Greek revival-style mansion was "completely irreplaceable" longleaf pine, said Robert Black, a Perry spokesman. Some interior ornamentation is beyond repair, he said.
Medical helicopter crash in Texas kills 4
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A medical helicopter on its way to a Houston hospital crashed in a national forest early Sunday, killing all four people aboard, authorities said.
Rescue crews struggled to find the wreckage in the dense Sam Houston National Forest. The cause was being investigated.
The PHI Air Medical helicopter was on its way from a Huntsville hospital when a missed check-in with dispatchers raised concern, PHI spokesman Jonathan Collier said. The chopper was found about 10 miles from where it had taken off, he said.
"This is a devastating loss," Collier said.
Killed were flight nurse Jana Bishop, pilot Wayne Kirby and flight paramedic Stephanie Waters, all PHI employees. The name of the patient on board and the medical emergency involved were not immediately released.
5 Sailors survive hours in Gulf; 6th still missing
GALVESTON, Texas -- Four college students and a safety officer floated for more than a day in choppy seas, sharing four life vests after their sailboat capsized during a regatta on the Gulf of Mexico, authorities said Sunday. The body of a second safety officer was removed from the boat later.
The safety officer who survived kept the group together in the water and used a flashlight to signal Coast Guard searchers, said R. Bowen Loftin, CEO of Texas A M at Galveston, which three of the students attended.
The survivors were at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and were in good condition with sunburn and dehydration, Loftin said.
The men were resting and visiting with their families after 26 hours floating in the Gulf, said a hospital spokeswoman.
A helicopter crew from Air Station Houston pulled the five men from the water 23 miles south of Freeport, Texas, Petty Officer Renee C. Aiello said Sunday. They had drifted about five miles northwest of their capsized boat.
NYC festival reminds grown-ups how to play
NEW YORK -- Running down a busy Manhattan sidewalk, drawing funny looks from passers-by as his teammates wearing green T-shirts and feather headdresses brought up the rear in their quest for more water balloons, David Abrams felt entirely unlike himself.
"I feel about 12," the 30-year-old corporate lawyer said with a laugh as the game clock ticked down and he dashed for a chance to earn his team a few more points.
This weekend, Abrams and hundreds of other participants in the Come Out and Play street games festival gave their grown-up selves permission to engage in child's play.
From Friday through Sunday, the festival turned the city's streets into a game board of sorts, as people played mini golf on the sidewalks of the Lower East Side and launched a game similar to manhunt amid the crowds in a city park.
Upcoming trial to focus on hard-core porn
LOS ANGELES -- If all goes according to plan, an otherwise stately federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles will be converted into a makeshift movie theater this week, screening a series of graphic -- many people would say vulgar -- sexual fetish videos.
At issue is how a jury will define obscenity in a city that boasts its place as the capital of the porn industry and at a time when technology has made the taboo adult flicks of a generation ago available to a mainstream audience.
Hollywood filmmaker Ira Isaacs says the videos he sells are works of art, protected under the Constitution. Federal prosecutors contend the movies are criminally obscene.
The prosecution is the first in Southern California by a U.S. Department of Justice task force formed in 2005 after Christian conservative groups appealed to the Bush administration to crack down on smut.
For jurors to determine whether Isaacs' work is obscene, they will have to view hours of hard-core pornography so degrading that in one film, an actress cries throughout.
But if jurors find that any of the four videos at issue in the case have any "literary, scientific or artistic value," then the work is not legally obscene, according to a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.
"All they're going to do is turn on a DVD machine and hope the jury is going to be so shocked and disgusted and offended that they're going to throw me in prison," said Isaacs, 57, a native of the Bronx. He said he hopes that jurors will be shocked -- he's a self-described "shock artist," after all -- but also that they will see the artistic value in the work.
The portly defendant, who sports a pony tail and goatee, produced and starred in one of the videos. He contends that the sex in the movie is incidental to the art. It's merely a marketing tool to drive sales, he said.
In a statistic that some people might find every bit as shocking as his work, Isaacs said he was selling about 1,000 videos per month at $30 each before being raided by the FBI early last year. The number has since dropped to between 700 and 800 per month.
|