The nation in brief

In this Saturday, Aug 16, 2014 photo, A monster alligator weighing 1011.5 pounds measuring 15-feet long is pictured in Thomaston, Ala. The alligator was caught in the Alabama River near Camden, Ala., by Mandy Stokes at right, along with her husband John Stokes, at her right, and her brother-in-law Kevin Jenkins, left, and his two teenage children, Savannah Jenkins, 16, and Parker Jenkins, 14, all of Thomaston, Ala. (AP Photo/Al.com, Sharon Steinmann)
In this Saturday, Aug 16, 2014 photo, A monster alligator weighing 1011.5 pounds measuring 15-feet long is pictured in Thomaston, Ala. The alligator was caught in the Alabama River near Camden, Ala., by Mandy Stokes at right, along with her husband John Stokes, at her right, and her brother-in-law Kevin Jenkins, left, and his two teenage children, Savannah Jenkins, 16, and Parker Jenkins, 14, all of Thomaston, Ala. (AP Photo/Al.com, Sharon Steinmann)

Family kills 1,000-pound, 15-foot gator

CAMDEN, Ala. -- A family battled a 1,000-pound alligator for more than five hours, putting several large hooks into the beast before firing a fatal shotgun blast into the gator's head.

The result was the catch of a lifetime and a state record in Alabama.

The 15-foot gator was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery early Saturday, Al.com reported. The first attempt to weigh the gator destroyed a winch state biologists typically use, so they had a backhoe lift it. It weighed 1,011.5 pounds.

It was caught by Mandy and John Stokes, brother-in-law Kevin Jenkins and his children, 16-year-old Savannah and 14-year-old Parker.

The family planned to send the gator to a taxidermy shop. Beyond that, they're not sure what they're going to do with it.

The previous Alabama record was a 14-foot, 2 inch, 838-pound gator captured in the Alabama River in 2011.

New York Met, 2 unions reach accord

NEW YORK -- New York's Metropolitan Opera reached tentative labor deals with two of its largest unions early Monday while negotiations continued with 10 more unions in hopes of averting a lockout.

The federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced the agreements with Local 802 of the musicians' union and with the American Guild of Musical Artists, its orchestra and chorus. Details of the agreements were not released.

A spokesman for the Met said the contract deadline has been extended through midnight tonight with the remaining unions.

The Met had set a deadline of midnight Sunday. A lockout could threaten the opera's season, scheduled to start Sept. 22.

Allison Beck, deputy director of the mediation service, thanked Met General Manager Peter Gelb and the leaders of the two unions that settled Monday.

Gelb had demanded pay cuts of about 17 percent, saying production costs had skyrocketed and the operatic art was in trouble, with shrinking audiences.

House Democrats' cash tops $56 million

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats' uphill effort to oust Republicans from their majority is sitting on a $56.7 million pile of cash heading into what is shaping up to be a costly fall election season, campaign officials said Monday. House Republicans again lagged in fundraising but reported $47.5 million saved and ready for ads.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported raising $11.5 million in July, and a record $7 million of that came from online donors. The National Republican Congressional Committee raised $8 million in July.

As Congress prepared to leave Washington for its August recess, Democratic fundraisers told donors that House Republicans were laying the groundwork to impeach President Barack Obama. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called that criticism bogus, but Democrats hammered that notion in near-constant fundraising messages.

Combined, the two party-aligned campaign committees have now raised almost $246 million for the elections.

Body of Marine's wife found; man jailed

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- The body of the missing, pregnant wife of a U.S. Marine has been found deep in an abandoned mine shaft in Southern California, where her husband had been stationed, and Alaskan authorities have arrested her purported lover on suspicion of homicide.

The remains of 20-year-old Erin Corwin were found Saturday 140 feet down an abandoned mine shaft on federal land near Twentynine Palms after authorities spent nearly two months searching 300 square miles in the remote area east of Los Angeles, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon said.

Her remains were identified Sunday through dental records, he said.

Christopher Brandon Lee was arrested about 9 p.m. Sunday in Anchorage, Alaska, on suspicion of homicide on an extradition warrant from California, said Jennifer Castro, a spokesman for the Anchorage Police Department.

The investigation grew to focus on Lee, who was the Corwins' neighbor, according to court papers.

-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS

A Section on 08/19/2014

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