LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“There’s almost no chance it’ll have any
impact on the wellhead or the cap because it’s right around 5,000 feet deep and even the largest waves won’t get down that far.”
Don Van Nieuwenhuise
of the University of Houston, on whether a severe storm would affect the plug on the damaged oil well in the Gulf Article, 1APilot in lake rescued; 4 on plane lost
LUDINGTON, Mich. - A pilot who volunteered to fly a man with cancer, his wife and a doctor to the Mayo Clinic on Friday was rescued by boaters in Lake Michigan hours after his small plane crashed into the water, authorities said. The search for a co-pilot and the three passengers was ongoing.
U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Brandon Blackwell said Jerry Freed, 66, of Alma was rescued hours after the plane lost power and crashed a few miles off the coast of Ludington. He was in good condition at a hospital.
An air and marine search continued for co-pilot Earl Davidson, Alma school Superintendent Don Pavlik, his wife, Irene, and Dr. James Hall.
“We’re crazy trying to figure out what might be going on,” Alma School Board Vice President Tony Costanzo said late Friday afternoon. “Some of the best people in town were on that plane.”
Don Pavlik was diagnosed earlier this year with cancer of the esophagus, and Freed and Davidson had volunteered to take him to the Rochester, Minn., medical center, Costanzo said. Hall, he said, was along because he wanted to help his ailing friend.
Collins third in GOP to back Kagan
WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said Friday that she would vote to confirm Elena Kagan as a Supreme Court justice, breaking with her party to back President Barack Obama’s nominee.
Collins announcement made her the third GOP senator to support Obama’s choice to succeed retired Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan was already well on track to be confirmed in early August by the Senate’s majority Democrats and a handful of Republican moderates.
The Maine lawmaker said in a statement that Kagan has “the intellect, experience, temperament and integrity” to serve honorably on the high court.
But, Collins added, she thinks Kagan deserves to be confirmed on the basis of her record, her character and her promises to adhere to precedents, including in cases in which the Supreme Court recognized gun ownership as an individual right protected by the Constitution.
Collins divulged her plans at the end of a week in which two other Republicans announced they would back Kagan.
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was the first to do so as the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Kagan’s nomination, and Richard Lugar of Indiana followed suit the next day.
D.C. public schools fire 241 teachers
WASHINGTON - The D.C. Public Schools are firing 241 teachers and warning more than 700 other employees that they could be fired in the next year if their performances don’t improve.
The firings announced Friday total 302 school-system employees, including the 241 teachers. They come largely as a result of the first year of a new teacher-evaluation system, though 76 teachers were fired for problems with their licenses.
The evaluation is based largely on five classroom observations of teachers and their students’ standardized test scores.
Those found “ineffective” on a four-tier system were fired.
Washington Teachers’ Union President George Parker said the union will challenge the firings for performance.
Explosion at natural-gas well kills 2
CHESWICK, Pa. - An oil storage tank at a natural-gas well exploded Friday morning, killing two workers, leaving a third man uninjured and sparking a smoky well fire that smoldered for hours.
A team of oil- and gas-well firefighting experts flew in from Texas to help local crews figure out how to put out the fire, which was extinguished about 8:30 p.m., officials said.
A three-man crew employed by a maintenance contractor was working on oil tanks at the well in Indiana Township when the blast happened at 9:50 a.m., rocketing one of the tanks more than 70 yards into the woods, said Allegheny County Emergency Director Robert Full. The two dead workers were part of that crew.
The cause has not been detailed in full, but state officials believe that “people were welding at the site and there was an explosion and the well caught fire,” said Helen Humphries, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 07/24/2010