LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY "If you rule out inflating our way out of the problem and defaulting on the debt, there are two ways: Cut spending or raise taxes."
William Gale,
an expert on fiscal policy at the Brookings Institution, on the growing federal deficit Article, 1A7 killed, 2 hurt on Georgia plantation
BRUNSWICK, Ga. - Seven people were killed and two critically injured at a mobile home on a historic plantation in southeast Georgia, officials said Saturday.
Glynn County spokesman Candice Temple wouldn't say how they were killed. The county's police chief, Matt Doering, said authorities discovered the victims when responding to a 911 call shortly after 8 a.m. Saturday.
Doering said the injured were taken to a hospital.
Police said the probe was a homicide investigation.
A department news release said some of the victims had been tentatively identified, but it didn't provide any names or ages. It also didn't say whether police were looking for a suspect.
The mobile-home park consists of about 100 spaces and is nestled among centuries-old live oak trees near the center of New Hope Plantation, according to the plantation's Web site.
The 1,100-acre tract is all that remains of a Crown grant made in 1763 to Henry Laurens, who later succeeded John Hancock as president of the Continental Congress in 1777.
Laurens obtained control of the South Altamaha river lands and named it New Hope Plantation, according to the plantation's Web site.
Police hunt kidnapping-slayings link
ANTIOCH, Calif. - Three police agencies Saturday searched the home of a California man charged in the kidnapping of a girl 18 years ago to see if there is evidence linking him to other open cases in the area, including the unsolved murders of prostitutes.
The investigations are "preliminary," said Jimmy Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County sheriff's office, east of San Francisco Bay. He declined to discuss what cases were being reviewed.
Police in Pittsburg are investigating whether Phillip Garrido, whose home is in nearby Antioch, is linked to several unsolved slayings of prostitutes in the early 1990s.
Antioch police are also looking into other unsolved cases but declined to give further details.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido are in jail, suspected of abducting Jaycee Lee Dugard 18 years ago and subjecting her to nearly a lifetime of torment in a squalid backyard compound. They pleaded innocent Friday to 29 counts, including forcible abduction, rape and false imprisonment.
Foster parents held in missing-boy case
OAKLAND, Calif. - The foster parents who held vigils pleading for the safe return of a missing 5-year-old boy with cerebral palsy have been arrested on suspicion of murder, Oakland police said Friday.
Louis Ross and Jennifer Campbell, who is the boy's aunt, were being questioned by investigators in the case of Hasanni Campbell, who disappeared on Aug. 10 after Ross said he briefly left the boy outside his car in the parking lot of an upscale Oakland neighborhood shoe store where Campbell works.
The couple were arrested separately within an hour of each other, police spokesman Jeff Thomason said.
"This is not a missing persons case anymore. This is a homicide investigation," Thomason said late Friday outside police headquarters in downtown Oakland. "We are talking to the people responsible. We do believe Hasanni Campbell is dead."
Thomason would not say what led to the couple's arrests or what led police to conclude that the boy was dead. Thomason said the boy's body has not been found.
Small quake shakes S. Carolina coast
SUMMERVILLE, S.C. - The U.S. Geological Survey says a small 3.2-magnitude earthquake was reported in South Carolina near the coast.
Moderate tremors were felt for three to five seconds about 6:30 a.m. Saturday. The tremors were followed by a series of weaker vibrations.
No damage or injuries were immediately reported. Some residents experiencing the earthquake reported hearing an explosion.
The earthquake was centered about 2 miles northeast of Summerville, which is about 15 miles north-northwest of Charleston.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 08/30/2009