Polygamist leader out of hospital

Polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs was released from a Nevada hospital Wednesday, a day after he was found “convulsive,” weak and feverish in an Arizona jail cell, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

The 52-year-old leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was released around 5 p.m., police Officer Jose Montoya said.

Earlier Wednesday, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said Jeffs was conscious but in a “weakened state of health, acting in a convulsive manner, shaking, and running a fever” when he was found Tuesday his solo jail cell in Kingman, Ariz.

Jailers moved Jeffs from the Mohave County Jail to Kingman Regional Medical Center. He was then flown about 100 miles to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas.

“We’re not told what his diagnosis is,” spokeswoman Trish Carter said of Jeffs. “But based on our observations from jail staff, it does not appear to be life-threatening.”

Jeffs has been in custody since his August 2006 arrest outside Las Vegas.

OMAHA, Neb.

WWII veteran dies after memorial visit

A 91-year-old Nebraska veteran on a one-day trip to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., died on the flight home just hours after the visit.

Donald Dragoo, a World War II Army veteran, traveled to Washington as part of the Heartland Honor Flight, which transports veterans free of charge to the memorial and other sights.

He slumped over and became unresponsive about 20 minutes before the return flight landed in Lincoln on Tuesday night, flight organizer Bill Williams said. Two doctors onboard were unable to revive him, Williams said.

Dragoo served with the 3rd Armored Division in Europe.

Dragoo’s daughter, Cindy Slone, a nurse, accompanied her father on the tour.

“He told me it was the perfect day,” Slone said Wednesday. “He felt honored to be there.”

SAN FRANCISCO

Group wants facility renamed for Bush

A group calling itself the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco this week submitted a proposal to rename a local sewage treatment plant after the outgoing chief executive in recognition for the political and environmental “mess” they say will be his legacy.

Supporters submitted 12,000 signatures with San Francisco election officials, hoping to place on the ballot an initiative that would re-christen the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant as the George W. Bush Sewage Plant.

“We think this is a fitting tribute to this president,” said Brian McConnell, a member of the group, whose insignia shows the presidential seal with an American eagle holding two toilet plungers. “It’s fair to say that we’re going to be cleaning up a substantial mess over the next decade or more, thanks to Bush.”

Republicans aren’t amused by the gesture.

“It doesn’t dignify a response,” White House spokesman Trey Bohn said.

NEW HAVEN, Conn.

Lunchbox stops robbers’ bullets

Carlos Juarez figures his lunchbox saved his life.

The 31-year-old was waiting for his ride to work early Tuesday in his driveway when two attempted robbers accosted him, demanding money, police said. Juarez said he had no money, and the would-be thieves opened fire, hitting him twice in the side.

Juarez said he reflexively held up his lunch cooler over his chest to shield himself from the bullets, and the cooler was hit twice.

“He thinks the cooler saved his life,” Carlos Paz, a friend who translated for Juarez, said. “If he doesn’t have the cooler, the shots come maybe in the heart.”

Juarez still has one of the bullets that was in the cooler. A lunch container of rice and meat has a bullet hole, as does a package of gum also in the cooler.

Juarez was treated at a hospital and released.