Police build profile on barracks shooter
The gunman who ambushed two Pennsylvania State Police troopers outside their barracks, killing one, used a rifle and might have had formal firearms training through the military or law enforcement, authorities said Monday.
Releasing a profile of the killer, Lt. Col. George Bivens said investigators are focusing on the possibility that he had an "ongoing issue with law enforcement or the government" and was targeting the Blooming Grove barracks specifically.
Cpl. Bryon Dickson, 38, was killed and another trooper was critically wounded in the Friday night ambush at the barracks in northeastern Pennsylvania. The attacker slipped away. Authorities have been combing the dense forest surrounding the barracks and stopping motorists at checkpoints throughout the area to ask if they saw anything that could help lead to an arrest.
Wisconsin races to reinstate voter-ID law
MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin election officials were scrambling Monday to deal with a federal appeals court's ruling reinstating the requirement that voters show photo identification when casting ballots.
The law had been on hold, after being in effect only for the low-turnout February 2012 primary, following a series of court orders blocking it. But a three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, just hours after hearing oral arguments, said late Friday that the state could proceed with implementing the law while it weighs the merits of the case.
The decision came after a federal judge's ruling in April struck down the law as an unconstitutional burden on poor and minority-group voters who may lack the required identification.
The biggest immediate issue is what to do about more than 11,800 absentee ballots that have already been requested, and perhaps returned, without the voter showing the required identification, Government Accountability Board spokesman Reid Magney said Monday.
Oklahoma City updates bombing exhibit
OKLAHOMA CITY -- A key piece of evidence, hundreds of oral testimonies and new artifacts were unveiled Monday at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum dedicated to the deadly 1995 bombing.
The additions are part of a nearly $8 million project that aims to attract a new generation of visitors to the structure, including those too young to remember the attack by Timothy McVeigh on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more.
Detailed information about the investigation of the attack has been added to the museum for the first time. Among the evidence now on display is the 1977 Mercury Grand Marquis that McVeigh was driving when he was pulled over and arrested north of Oklahoma City the day of the bombing.
In one installation, a large map of the United States shows how the bombing reached beyond state lines. One example shows how, before the attack, McVeigh was attending a gun show in Akron, Ohio, while co-conspirator Terry Nichols was committing a robbery in Arkansas.
California crews regroup as wildfires rage
SAN FRANCISCO -- Crews attempted to get better access to two raging wildfires in California that have forced hundreds to evacuate their homes, including one near a lakeside resort that destroyed nearly two dozen structures, officials said Monday.
Meanwhile, officials in Southern California said another fire was started by the sun's rays reflecting off sheet metal that edged a homeowner's backyard garden.
In Northern California, firefighters spent the day working to build and reinforce containment lines in steep terrain near a foothill community south of an entrance to Yosemite National Park in central California, prompting authorities to evacuate about 900 residents out of about 400 homes, Madera County sheriff's spokesman Erica Stuart said.
The blaze has burned a less than a square mile and destroyed 21 structures -- 20 of them homes, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokesman Dennis Mathisen said. The fire started off a road outside of Oakhurst, near Yosemite National Park, and spread to Bass Lake, a popular year-round destination.
More than 300 firefighters were on the scene and the blaze, which is 20 percent contained, has not affected the park, Mathisen said.
Farther north, a wildfire about 60 miles east of Sacramento forced the evacuation of 133 homes. El Dorado County sheriff's officials said residents of an additional 406 homes were being told to prepare to flee.
The fire grew by 900 acres overnight to more than 6 square miles, Mathisen said. It was 10 percent contained, he said.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 09/16/2014