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Mass. patient tested for mad cow disease
BOSTON -- Public health officials in Massachusetts are investigating whether a patient in a Cape Cod hospital has the human form of mad cow disease.
Dr. Alfred DeMaria, the state's director of communicable disease control, confirmed Sunday to The Associated Press that tests were under way to see if the patient has Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, and whether it's the variant attributed to mad cow.
There have only been three cases of the human form of mad cow disease reported in the United States in the last several years, and officials say it's extremely unlikely the patient in Cape Cod Hospital has the disease.
Emergency landing interrupts air show
DAYTON, Ohio -- A Northwest Airlines plane made an emergency landing Sunday at Dayton International Airport, interrupting the city's air show.
The Boeing 757 was en route from Tampa, Fla., to Detroit when a computer for one of its engines failed, airline spokeswoman Leslie Parker said in an e-mail.
The crew shut down the engine and landed as a precaution, she said.
Nobody was injured. Six crew members and 182 passengers were on board.
The Dayton Air Show at the airport was halted for about 25 minutes while the plane landed.
Spectators applauded the landing, and the air show's announcer said over a loudspeaker, "All right, a piece of cake."
Baby-mystery woman charged with homicide
PITTSBURGH -- A woman suspected of cutting open a pregnant woman's uterus and stealing the baby has been charged with homicide, unlawful restraint and kidnapping, police said Sunday.
Andrea Curry-Demus, 38, of Wilkinsburg, is charged in the death of Kia Johnson, 18, of McKeesport.
Curry-Demus is accused of taking the baby boy to a Pittsburgh hospital and claiming it was her own.
Johnson's body was found Friday in Curry-Demus's apartment. The body was positively identified through dental records, Allegheny County Medical Examiner Karl Williams said Sunday.
In the criminal complaint, police said that video surveillance at the Allegheny County Jail from Tuesday afternoon shows Curry-Demus talking with Johnson for several minutes. The women were at the jail visiting different inmates, police said.
The clothing Johnson is seen wearing on the surveillance tape was consistent with the garments found on her body, police said.
Tropical storm skirts North Carolina coast
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Tropical Storm Cristobal dumped rain and brought rough seas to the North Carolina coast Sunday, and forecasters predicted the weakening system was headed for the open Atlantic.
At 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said the center of the storm had moved to 45 miles east of Cape Lookout and 40 miles south-southwest of Cape Hatteras with maximum sustained winds continuing at 45 mph. The storm was moving to the northeast at 8 mph.
The advisory said the storm's center would head away from the coast early Monday.
The National Hurricane Center issued a tropical storm warning from Cape Lookout to the Virginia-North Carolina border, including Pamlico Sound.
The storm's strongest winds were east of the center, out at sea, National Weather Service meteorologist Rich Bandy said. Winds on the coastal side of the storm were about 25 mph and will have little impact on coastal cities unless the storm strengthens.
Search team finds no sign of Steve Fossett
CARSON CITY, Nev. -- A team of elite athletes and expert mountaineers has ended a weeklong hunt for Steve Fossett, finding no sign of the missing adventurer or his plane but eliminating miles of rugged terrain from areas that still must be searched.
The 10 searchers, headed by Canadian geologist and adventure racer Simon Donato, 31, packed up their gear on Saturday after taking a day to explore a steep canyon in Nevada's Wassuk Range, dominated by 11,239-foot-high Mount Grant.
That followed six days of hiking in the Sweetwater Mountains and Bodie Hills to the west, on the state's border with California.
"We didn't find what we were looking for, but we covered a lot of land that can basically be crossed off the [search] map now," team member Greg Francek said in a telephone interview.
"We were looking for wreckage probably the size of one or two shopping carts -- and it's hard describe the huge scale of the wild, tough country we were in. It's really something," he said.
New baggy pants law in Chicago suburb: Can't show more than 3 inches of underwear in public
LYNWOOD, Ill. -- Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood.
Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches or more of their underwear in public.
Eugene Williams is the mayor of Lynwood. He says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. He calls the new law a hot topic.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the ordinance targets young men of color.
Young adults in the village, like 21-year-old Joe Klomes, say the new law infringes on their personal style. He says leaders should instead spend money on making the area look nicer.
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