Service held for Branson boat victims
BRANSON — The 17 people killed when a tourist boat sank in a Missouri lake were remembered Sunday during a service attended by about 200 people in the tourism community of Branson.
A church bell at Williams Chapel at the College of the Ozarks chimed 17 times for those who died Thursday at Table Rock Lake.
More than a dozen survivors, along with their families and friends, filled the front pews of the church. Although a patrolman guarded their privacy, he allowed one attendee — Carmen Lawson, 61, of Branson — to deliver pink and red roses after the service to an Indiana family who lost nine loved ones.
Two Arkansans — Steve Smith, 53, and his 15-year-old son Lance, both of Osceola — also died.
Branson Mayor Karen Best recalled the desperate family members who turned to City Hall for information about their loved ones.
“We did what families do,” Best said. “We held hands, we wept and we prayed together.”
The city and college hosted the remembrance for the victims.
Panel urges more mental-decline checks
CHICAGO — Too few people with signs of mental decline or dementia are getting checked during routine medical visits or told when a problem is found, according to a panel of Alzheimer’s disease experts who offered new guidance Sunday.
Though mental decline can be an uncomfortable topic for patients and their doctors, the panel said, family physicians should do thorough evaluations when worrying symptoms arise and should share diagnoses candidly.
Patients and family members should push for evaluations if they’re worried that symptoms might not be normal aging — the difference between occasionally misplacing keys versus putting them in the freezer or being confused about their function.
“By the time you forget what the keys are for, you’re too far gone to participate in your own care. We’ve lost probably a decade” that could have been spent planning, said the panel’s leader, Dr. Alireza Atri, a neurologist at Banner Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona.
The panel was appointed by the Alzheimer’s Association and included primary care doctors, aging specialists, nurses and a psychiatrist. Broad guidelines were released Sunday at the group’s international conference in Chicago; details will be published later this year.
Utah man arrested in infant son’s death
OGDEN, Utah — A Utah man was arrested on accusations of stabbing his infant son multiple times and then putting the boy’s body in a garbage can, authorities said Sunday.
Alex Hidalgo, 37, of Ogden was being held without bail at the Weber County jail. He faces felony charges of aggravated murder, abuse or desecration of a dead human body and obstruction of justice.
Ogden police said 10-month-old Alex Hidalgo Jr. was found nonresponsive and covered in blood Friday afternoon. The boy later was pronounced dead at a hospital.
According to a probable cause statement, the elder Hidalgo was watching his son and another child while the boy’s mother left the apartment to run some errands.
When she returned, she found Hidalgo sitting on the couch, reading a Bible and watching a religious video, the statement said. He told her the baby was dead, according to the statement.
The woman found the baby’s body inside a plastic garbage bag, the statement said.
Officer struck, killed by police vehicle
KENT, Wash. — A police officer in a Seattle suburb who was trying to stop a fleeing driver was apparently struck and killed by another officer, authorities said Sunday.
The Washington State Patrol said preliminary information shows that the Kent police officer was attempting to deploy spike strips at an intersection early Sunday when he was hit by a police vehicle.
Kent police said in a news release that officers were pursuing a truck seen leaving a parking lot where gunshots were reported just before 2 a.m.
The officer pursuing the suspect was injured in the crash. He was taken to a Seattle hospital in critical condition.
The suspect’s vehicle also crashed. One person was taken into custody.
Kent police did not immediately identify the officer who was killed. They said he was an eight-year veteran of the force and had made significant contributions to the department.
