LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s important that we coalesce as conservatives around Mitt Romney and focus on the big task at hand, which is defeating Barack Obama in the fall.”
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin
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Files say missing wife’s blood found
TACOMA, Wash. - Authorities investigating the 2009 disappearance of a Utah woman found her blood on the floor at her home.
Court documents unsealed Friday show that blood found at Josh Powell’s Utah home belonged to his wife, Susan Powell. The documents were released in connection with a Washington state case against Josh Powell’s father, Steven Powell.
Pierce County Prosecutor Mark Lindquist said Friday that had the Susan Powell case happened in his jurisdiction, he would’ve charged Josh Powell with her murder.
Utah authorities have been criticized for their handling of the case.
Josh Powell was the only suspect in her presumed murder, but maintained his innocence and said he had taken their boys, then 2 and 4, on a midnight camping trip in freezing weather the night she disappeared.
Powell moved with the boys to his father Steve’s home in Puyallup, Wash., but Steve Powell was arrested and charged with voyeurism and child pornography last September. The boys were placed with Susan Powell’s parents for their safety.
On Feb. 5, Josh Powell locked a social worker out of his rental house, attacked the boys with a hatchet and then ignited the home in an explosive, gas-fueled inferno. The social worker was not injured.
E-mails detail debate on 9/11 remains
WASHINGTON - Newly released Pentagon documents show that Air Force officers debated briefly about burial at sea before concluding that 1,321 unidentifiable fragments of remains from the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon should be treated as medical waste and incinerated.
A string of e-mails running from Aug. 5-7, 2002, reveal that an unidentified Air Force colonel suggested scattering the already cremated remains at sea. A second official said it may be appropriate to also have witnesses and a chaplain present.
Their arguments that the 9/11 remains weren’t just normal waste were rejected by others who concluded the material was medical waste and should not be treated like human remains.
The e-mails were among nearly 2,000 pages of documents released by the Pentagon on Friday detailing operations at the mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
2 identified from bone pieces in well
FRENCH CAMP, Calif. - Authorities released Friday the identities of two Northern California teenagers whose remains were among hundreds of bone fragments found last month inside an abandoned well.
San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore identified Kimberly Billy, who disappeared in 1984 at the age of 19, and Joann Hobson, who disappeared in 1985 at the age of 16. Both were from Stockton.
The remains of a third body found in the well near the farming town of Linden is awaiting identification.
Investigators believe they were victims of Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog, who authorities say went on a methamphetamine-fueled killing rampage in the 1980s and ’90s.
Shermantine is now on death row for four murders.
Judge dismisses Virginia Tech fine
RICHMOND, Va. - A judge has ruled that federal education officials were wrong to conclude that Virginia Tech University’s response to a 2007 campus rampage that left 33 dead violated federal law.
In a ruling that became available Friday, Administrative Judge Ernest Canellos dismissed a $55,000 fine against the Blacksburg school and determined that the university officials’ actions on April 16, 2007, didn’t violate the Clery Act, which requires schools to issue timely warnings of campus threats.
The latest decision stands contrary to previous findings about how Virginia Tech alerted the campus after the gunman killed his first two victims in a dormitory. A state panel that did an extensive review of the slayings in late 2007 and a jury in a wrongful-death lawsuit this month both found fault with university officials’ actions.
They determined that Virginia Tech waited too long to issue its e-mail alert of a possible safety threat after the initial deaths.
Front Section, Pages 4 on 03/31/2012