LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“In moments of crisis, true character comes out. His immediate response was to protect the woman he loved.”
Herb Shaffer,
pastor at Maiden Lane Church of God in Springfield, Ohio, on his nephew, Matt McQuinn, who was killed when he leapt in front of his girlfriend during a shooting rampage at a Colorado movie theater Article, 5AShip christened in honor of 9/11 victims
AVONDALE, La. - The USS Somerset - the last of three Navy ships named for Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack sites - was christened Saturday in honor of the passengers and crew of the plane that crashed short of terrorists’ intended target after passengers stormed the cockpit.
United Airlines Flight 93 was hijacked after taking off from New Jersey. It crashed after passengers and crew, some alerted by cell-phone calls from loved ones about the other 9/11 attacks in New York, decided to fight the hijackers. Investigators later determined the hijackers intended to crash it into a target in Washington, D.C.
Instead of hitting a target in Washington, Flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pa., killing all 40 passengers and crew members.
About two dozen relatives of the passengers heard Navy Rear Adm. David Lewis and others praise their slain family members.
The Somerset is one of three amphibious landing docks named after and incorporating steel from the sites where planes taken over by terrorists crashed, killing nearly 3,000 people.
Senator blocks OK of Air Force chief
WASHINGTON - A Texas senator is blocking approval of President Barack Obama’s nominee for Air Force chief of staff, saying the Pentagon has been slow to respond to sexual-assault allegations at Lackland Air Force Base.
The nomination of Gen. Mark Welsh to succeed Gen.
Norton Schwartz was approved Thursday by the Senate Armed Services Committee for a vote by the full Senate.
Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has placed a legislative hold on Welsh, invoking a prerogative available to any senator.
“My hold will remain until I feel the Air Force is adequately addressing the unacceptable situation at Lackland and taking corrective steps to reform their training program to prevent this from happening again,” Cornyn said in an e-mailed statement. Welsh is currently commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe.
The Air Force is investigating 15 military instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio for alleged sexual misconduct involving at least 38 trainees.
Six of the instructors have been charged with crimes, from sexual advances to rape. One instructor, Staff Sergeant Luis Walker, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on July 21 for crimes including rape, adultery, obstruction of justice and aggravated sexual assault.
Smaller ‘dead zone’ recorded in Gulf
NEW ORLEANS - A new report says this year’s Gulf of Mexico “dead zone,” an area of low oxygen that develops every spring and summer, is the fourth-smallest since measurements of the zones began in 1985.
The zone measured 2,889 square miles, according to the report released by the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.
The dead zone forms because fertilizer and other nutrients run into the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf. The nutrients feed huge numbers of microscopic organisms. When they die, their decomposition uses up oxygen.
Last year’s hypoxic zone was about 6,765 square miles.
The record is 8,400.
3 killed; girl taken, found safe in Ohio
QUINCY, Pa. - Authorities in south-central Pennsylvania said a man confronting his estranged wife about custody arrangements for their daughter shot the wife to death, and killed her boyfriend and his mother, then fled with the 4-year-old girl.
The two were later found about 250 miles away in Ohio.
Kevin Cleeves, 35, was charged Saturday with three counts of criminal homicide and was awaiting an extradition hearing in the Friday night deaths of Brandi Cleeves, 25, Vincent Santucci, 28, and Rosemary Holma, 55.
Pennsylvania state police said Cleeves went to Santucci’s house and was asked to leave but instead opened fire.
He then took the girl and fled, and an Amber Alert was issued, police said
The girl is safe, police said.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/29/2012