CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
Bear traps monitored for killer of 6-year-old
A mountaintop campground remained closed Saturday as officials searched for signs of the black bear that killed a 6-year- old Ohio girl near a swimming hole.
Officers detected some bear activity around the traps and snares that were rigged Friday in the remote Cherokee National Forest Chilhowee Recreation Area, said Sharon Moore, a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.
If any bears are trapped, a comparison with hairs shed during Thursday’s attack of Elora Petrasek will identify the responsible animal, Moore said.
Authorities have closed all roads and trails leading into the recreation area.
The girl’s 2-year-old brother, Luke Cenkus, was in fair condition, but their mother, Susan Cenkus, 45, remained in critical condition, hospital officials said Saturday. Doctors said they expected both to recover.
HOUSTON
8,900 evacuees won’t get more aid for rent
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified about 8,900 heads of households in Houston, representing more than 20,000 Katrina evacuees, that they will be ineligible for the cash assistance intended to replace a massive city voucher program that has paid their rent.
A common reason was that the evacuees’ former homes were now habitable.
A team from Houston’s Hurricane Housing Task Force, however, conducted a spot check of 43 New Orleans homes deemed habitable by FEMA and found 70 percent unfit for occupancy, Houston Mayor Bill White said Friday after a briefing.
FEMA spokesman Frank Mansell said the agency could not immediately respond to White’s comments because its senior officials were still discussing the issues he raised.
DURHAM, N.C.
Jackson coalition to pay stripper’s tuition
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday that his Rainbow/Push Coalition would pay the college tuition of a black woman who alleges white members of the Duke University lacrosse team raped her.
The 27-year-old woman, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she and another woman were hired to strip dance at a team party. The woman told police that three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom and raped her March 13.
No one has been charged in the case, but the allegations have rocked the community.
Jackson said the woman should be able to support her two children and pay her tuition without having “to sacrifice her body to make money.”
The prosecutor has said he believes a crime was committed at the party, citing a medical exam that found the woman’s injuries and behavior were consistent with being raped.
OLATHE, Kan.
Students are charged in threats on teachers
Five middle school students have been charged with making threats – including death threats – against teachers in separate incidents.
Prosecutor Paul Morrison said filing charges against the students, who attend Trailridge Middle School in Lenexa, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, was appropriate.
“We’re trying to make a statement,” he said. “Teachers have a right to feel safe in their classrooms.”
Authorities did not release the names of those charged Friday because of their ages. Two 13- year-old girls were each charged with one felony count of criminal threat. They allegedly threatened to kill a teacher over a grade in a Jan. 17 posting on an online journal site.
Three 14-year-old boys were charged in two separate incidents in January in which a liquid was placed in a teacher’s coffee pot.
SALT LAKE CITY
Boy Scouts criticized for attending rally
A Boy Scout official has warned a troop that its participation in last week’s immigration demonstrations violated the organization’s policy against involvement in political events.
Members of Troop 987 – made up of 15 Latino boys ages 12 to 15 – were attempting to earn merit badges for “Citizenship in the Community,” scoutmaster Michael Clara said.
Clara said he received a phone call from Vic Rowberry, a Great Salt Lake Council of Boy Scouts of America field director, who said the troop should not have been involved.
“It’s disappointing that the council would second-guess our judgment,” said Clara, a Utah Republican Latino Assembly member who started the troop three years ago.
Kay Godfrey, spokesman for the Great Salt Lake Council, said uniformed members cannot participate in political events or activities that might be “construed as rendering an endorsement for a particular candidate or position.”
