SanLuisObispo.com: Nation

Investigator: Utah explosion caused by burst pipe

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:50 PST

A refinery explosion that severely damaged 10 homes this week was caused by a burst pipe that sprayed hydrogen gas onto a nearby heater, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board's lead investigator said.

Donald Holmstrom said investigators don't know why the pipe suffered what he called a "catastrophic failure." He said the safety board will test what's left of the pipe to determine what went wrong.

"I can assure the people who live around this area that we will do a thorough investigation," Holmstrom said.

AP News in Brief

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:20 PST

Democrat senators divided on government health insurance, so House's bill has nowhere to go

WASHINGTON (AP) - The glow from a health care triumph faded quickly for President Barack Obama on Sunday as Democrats realized the bill they fought so hard to pass in the House has nowhere to go in the Senate.

Speaking from the Rose Garden about 14 hours after the late Saturday vote, Obama urged senators to be like runners on a relay team and "take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people."

Lieberman: Senate to investigate Ft. Hood shooting

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:25 PST

By By ALLEN G. BREED -- A key U.S. senator said Sunday he would begin an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology.

Sen. Joe Lieberman's call for an investigation came a day after classmates who participated in a 2007-2008 master's program at a military college said they complained to superiors about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan and what they considered to be his anti-American views, which included his giving a presentation that justified suicide bombing and telling classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.

"If Hasan was showing signs, saying to people that he had become an Islamist extremist, the U.S. Army has to have zero tolerance," Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, said on "Fox News Sunday." "He should have been gone."

Fort victims had different reasons for enlisting

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:15 PST

By By AMY FORLITI -- The 13 people killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, included several people who shared the same profession as the alleged shooter, a father of three with ties to Laos whose family had a history of military service, a civilian who had returned to work a week after suffering a heart attack, and a psychiatric nurse who arrived at Fort Hood a day before the shooting. Here is a look at the victims.

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Michael Grant Cahill

Philly transit strike in 6th day; no new talks

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:40 PST

By By RON TODT -- Commuters in the City of Brotherly Love have been told to gear up to begin a second week of finding other ways to work following the collapse of a proposed deal to end a six-day-old strike by about 5,000 bus drivers, subway and trolley conductors and mechanics.

The largest union representing workers of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority wants an independent forensic audit of pension funds. The union is also rejecting language that could reopen the contract if SEPTA's costs increase due to national health care reform.

SEPTA spokesman Richard Maloney said the ball is in the union's court "to come back to the table and sign the contract."

Earthquake measuring 6.7 reported near Indonesia

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:15 PST

A strong earthquake was reported in the ocean off Indonesia on Sunday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake measured a magnitude of 6.7, the survey reported. It hit at 3:41 a.m. local time (1941 GMT)

It struck at a depth of 11 miles (17.7 kilometers) and had its epicenter about 10 miles (15 kilometers) north-northwest of Sumbawa and 830 miles (1,335 kilometers) east of the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

Onlookers flock to site of Cleveland killings

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:30 PST

By By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS -- Reggie Turner stopped by a growing memorial to 11 victims of an alleged serial killer because he knew one of the women. Michelle Lee came to pay her respects as a mother and grandmother. Mark Mason and two buddies rode their motorcycles to just take a look.

The street corner opposite the home dubbed Cleveland's "House of Horrors" buzzes with visits from mourners, well-wishers, politicians and the curious.

"We wanted our children to understand what has occurred, to understand how people go missing," said Cliff Westwood, who brought his 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son by the house late Saturday afternoon.

Expanding drug treatment: Is US ready to step up?

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:40 PST

By By DAVID CRARY -- Based on the rhetoric, America's war on drugs seems poised to shift into a more enlightened phase where treatment of addicts gains favor over imprisonment of low-level offenders. Questions abound, however, about the nation's readiness to turn the talk into reality.

The economic case for expanding treatment, especially amid a recession, seems clear. Study after study concludes that treating addicts, even in lengthy residential programs, costs markedly less than incarcerating them, so budget-strapped states could save millions.

The unmet need for more treatment also is vast. According to federal data, 7.6 million Americans needed treatment for illicit drug use in 2008, and only 1.2 million - or 16 percent - received it.

Utah girl's pierced nose: US-Indian culture clash

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:10 PST

By By JESSE WASHINGTON -- To 12-year-old Suzannah Pabla, piercing her nose was a way to connect with her roots in India. To Suzannah's school, it was a dress-code violation worthy of a suspension.

To other Indians, the incident was emblematic of how it can still be difficult for the American melting pot to absorb certain aspects of their cultural and religious traditions.

Suzannah was briefly suspended last month from her public school in Bountiful, Utah, for violating a body-piercing ban. School officials - who noted that nose piercing is an Indian cultural choice, not a religious requirement - compromised and said she could wear a clear, unobtrusive stud in her nose, and Suzannah returned to her seventh-grade class.

Ill. prosecutors seek journalism students' grades

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:00 PST

By By KAREN HAWKINS -- A Northwestern University professor and journalism students who spent three years investigating the case of a man convicted in the 1978 killing of a security guard believe they have evidence that shows prosecutors put the wrong man behind bars. But in the quest to prove his innocence, they may have to defend themselves, too.

Cook County prosecutors have outraged the university and the journalism community by issuing subpoenas to professor David Protess seeking his students' grades, his syllabus and their private e-mails. Prosecutors claim since the team was made up of students, they may have been under pressure to prove the case to get a good grade.

It's a first for Protess and his investigative reporting students, who have helped free 11 innocent men from prison, including death row, since 1996. Their work also is credited with prompting then-Gov. George Ryan to empty the state's death row in 2003, re-igniting a national debate on the death penalty.

La. Gov. declares emergency ahead of Hurricane Ida

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:50 PST

By By BECKY BOHRER -- Hurricane Ida, the first Atlantic hurricane to target the United States this year, plodded Sunday toward the Gulf Coast with 105 mph winds, bringing the threat of flooding and storm surges.

A hurricane watch extended over more than 200 miles of coastline across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Louisiana's governor declared a state of emergency.

Authorities said Ida could make landfall as early as Tuesday morning, although it was forecast to weaken by then. Officials and residents kept a close eye on the Category 2 hurricane as it approached, though there were no immediate plans for evacuations.

Beauty and tragedy in global network of war graves

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:55 PST

By By MATTI FRIEDMAN -- It is the British empire of the dead.

Scattered across 150 countries and managed from a modest office building near London's Heathrow Airport, a global patchwork of graveyards constitutes a beautiful memorial to the ugliest carnage: the 1.7 million fighting men and women who died for Britain and its dominions in the world wars of the last century.

Most were buried where they fell, and their graves are still tended by dedicated groundskeepers even as the wartime generations dwindle and visitors to the cemeteries become rare.

Correction: Immigrant Hate Crimes story

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:45 PST

In a Nov. 7 story about the racial issues in a New York community a year after the stabbing death of an Ecuadorean immigrant, The Associated Press misspelled the last name of one of the defendants charged in the immigrant's death. His correct name is Anthony Hartford, not Harfford.

Suspect in Vail bar shooting faces murder charge

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:00 PST

A 63-year-old man suspected of fatally shooting one person and wounding three others in a Vail bar has been arrested in what authorities say was an apparently random shooting.

Longtime Vail resident Richard Moreau is accused of firing several shots outside and in the Sandbar Sports Grill in the mountain ski resort town. Police say he was arrested Saturday at the scene on suspicion of first-degreee homicide.

Police said Gary Bruce Kitching, 70, of Carbondale, was fatally shot. The other victims, whose names have not been released, are from Vail and they include a 29-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his arm and 25-year-old man who was treated for injuries to his leg and released.

Murder case a glimpse into stresses of caretaking

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:40 PST

By By MATT SEDENSKY -- The scenes seared into the minds of those who know Bobby Yurkanin differed only in place: Whether in the pool, around the dinner table or at the bowling alley, he was the 50-something man whose life had long before been handed over to the sickness of his parents. Always his father was by his side.

Yurkanin moved across the country to care for his dying mother, only to do it all over as his father sank into the fog of Alzheimer's disease. When the octogenarian grew combative, his son would calm him. When he didn't want to eat, his namesake would cajole him to take some fruit.

The son assumed his caretaker role out of necessity, friends said, despite a strained family history and a less-than-perfect childhood. And those who observed him and his father together often describe the younger Yurkanin with similar adjectives of praise:

Va. Tech advises Army on Texas shootings response

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:00 PST

Virginia Tech administrators have been advising Pentagon officials on how to respond to the mass shootings at Fort Hood.

University spokesman Mark Owczarski (oh-ZAR-skee) says the school's president and about a dozen administrators had a teleconference with miltitary officials Friday.

He says Pentagon officials asked for guidance on how to respond to the shooting spree at the Texas military base. The discussion ranged from how to help victims' families to accommodating large numbers of news media.