Snow falls on parts of south, cancels flights
ATLANTA — Snow, rain and sleet spread across parts of the South on Saturday, dusting lawns and shrubs with flakes and leading airlines to cancel several hundred flights.
Enough snow fell in Montgomery, Ala., for children to make snowballs to toss in front of the state Capitol, although the snow melted on contact with pavement.
Eleven-year-old Khryshanna Taylor saw snow for the first time Saturday in Montgomery and was unimpressed.
“I have decided that I don’t like snow!” she said as she hurried home after a brief attempt at a snowball fight. “If it snows again, I’m going to move out of the state!”
Snow also fell as far south as southwestern Mississippi, with totals of as much as 3 inches, although the ground was too warm to allow accumulation. It was that area’s first snow since 2001, the National Weather Service said.
All five runways at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport were reported open, but an automated Internet report from the Federal Aviation Administration said some flights bound for the airport were delayed by more than four hours.
Vehicle strikes and kills a Border Patrol agent
YUMA, Ariz. — A Border Patrol agent trying to stop a vehicle that had illegally entered the U.S. was struck and killed Saturday in southeastern California, agency officials said.
The agent was killed about 20 miles west of Yuma in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, a spot along the border popular with off-road vehicle enthusiasts and frequently used by smugglers.
The agent attempted to impede the vehicle’s progress before he was hit, but the Border Patrol did not immediately have more information, said agent Eric Anderson, a spokesman for the Yuma sector.
The name of the agent killed was withheld until his family was notified.
Witnesses told the Yuma Sun newspaper that agents were chasing a Hummer and a Ford pickup on Interstate 8 when the vehicles turned into the dunes and fled toward Mexico. The agent was trying to place spike strips in their path and was struck by the Hummer, they said.
15-year-old robbed, stabbed in schoolyard
NEW YORK — A 15-year-old boy was stabbed during an after-school robbery at a suburban high school and died at a hospital early Saturday, authorities said.
Michael Alguera was playing handball with friends on a court at Hempstead High School on Friday afternoon when they were confronted by as many as nine people, some masked, said police in Long Island’s Nassau County.
“He was doing what all kids do, playing, and then this happens,” said Detective Sgt. Anthony Repalone. “This was a senseless incident.”
The attackers, possibly gang members, robbed the boys of a cellphone and an MP3 player, then stabbed Alguera in the torso, police said.
The boy’s companions, ages 15 and 16, were not hurt. No one had been arrested, police said.
3 immigrant workers die in building fire
NEW YORK — An early morning fire killed three Guatemalan immigrant workers and seriously hurt two other people in a building where they rented rooms, authorities and neighbors said Saturday.
It took 60 firefighters about 40 minutes to get control of the blaze in a two-story building in Brooklyn. Firefighters said four victims were found unconscious in one room and the fifth jumped from a window.
Fire marshals had not determined the cause.
The building was occupied by men from Guatemala who worked in construction and house painting, a neighbor said.
