LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The debt is out of control. Since I did that last time, the debt’s at over $13 trillion and rising.”
Republican Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts,
who helped block a jobless aid measure after voting three months ago to defeat a filibuster Article 3ASuspected twister hits in Connecticut
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - A suspected tornado tore through Connecticut’s largest city Thursday, toppling trees and power lines and collapsing several buildings as a powerful line of storms swept across parts of the Northeast.
No serious injuries were reported.
Hundreds of bricks shook loose from buildings, trees split in half and crushed cars, and a billboard hung precariously several stories up over Main Street. Nine buildings were partially or fully collapsed, including three on East Main Street that crumpled to their foundations. Rescuers searched the rubble to ensure no one had been inside.
Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch declared a state of emergency after the fast-moving system of driving rain and wind gusts that reached 78 mph in the area.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell was surveying damage to the city.
There were unconfirmed sightings of a tornado, Finch said.
The Connecticut storm was part of a system that destroyed a historic town hall and other buildings in Edgerton, Ohio, the night before and delivered torrential rains and high winds to the Philadelphia area Thursday afternoon.
Airline: Arrest threat kept fliers stuck
HARTFORD, Conn. - The pilot on a Virgin Atlantic flight that spent several hours on the tarmac after being diverted to Connecticut had asked for permission to let the passengers get off the plane, but a customs official threatened to have the passengers arrested if they did, the airline said Thursday.
Customs officials denied the airline’s allegation.
The trans-Atlantic flight’s captain was told by a customs official at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks that passengers couldn’t get off the plane until more immigration officials arrived, Greg Dawson, an airline spokesman in London, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. It took more than two hours for the officials to arrive, he said.
Storms diverted the London-to-Newark, N.J., flight. Passengers sat on the tarmac in Connecticut for four hours beginning around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday into early Wednesday.
Travelers said they were offered water but no food; some fainted.
A federal rule limiting tarmac time to three hours does not apply to international flights.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not receive a call from the pilot, and no one from the agency refused a request to allow passengers off the plane, said Theodore Woo, an agency spokesman in Boston.
Congress passes new Iran sanctions
WASHINGTON - Congress on Thursday overwhelmingly passed tough new sanctions against Iran.
The Senate and House in quick succession approved the penalties that focus on Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard and the country’s imports of gas and other refined energy products.
The measure now goes to the White House for President Barack Obama’s signature.
One provision added in final House-Senate negotiations specifies that foreign banks interacting with the Revolutionary Guard or certain Iranian banks will be shut out of the U.S. financial system.
The Senate vote was 99-0. The House vote was 408-8. All members of the Arkansas delegation supported the sanctions.
The House passed its original version last December, and the Senate in March. But at the urging of the White House, Democratic leaders put off a final vote as they waited for diplomatic talks to play out.
2 convicted in fatal flow of painkillers
WICHITA, Kan. - A federal jury Thursday found a Kansas doctor and his wife guilty of conspiring to profit from illegally prescribing painkillers to dozens of patients who later died.
Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, were charged in a 34-count indictment with unlawful dispensing of drugs, health-care fraud and money laundering. Jurors convicted them of a moneymaking conspiracy that prosecutors linked to 68 overdose deaths. They were directly charged in 21 of the deaths.
The Schneiders also were found guilty on five counts of unlawfully writing prescriptions and 11 health-care fraud counts. They also faced 17 money-laundering counts. Stephen Schneider was found guilty on two of those counts; Linda Schneider was found guilty of 15 money laundering charges.
The two each face up to a life sentence, with the most serious counts carrying a minimum of 20 years in prison.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 06/25/2010