Fishing boat sinks; four found alive

Four crew members of a fishing boat were plucked alive from a life raft in frigid, stormy seas in a remote Alaskan island chain Wednesday, hours after their vessel was reported in distress, a Coast Guard spokesman said.

Three crew members died, and four remained missing.

A search continues for other members of the Katmai, a 93-foot fish processor based on Alaska’s Kodiak island, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Levi Read.

The water was 43 degrees when rescuers hauled the survivors out of the raft, Read said. He couldn’t speculate on how long they were in the raft. Still, he said, several factors helped them survive.

“That takes a lot of fortitude and a lot of heart,” Read said. Their survival suits, their physical condition, and an effort to keep one another semi-warm and awake all could have helped them endure, he said.

It wasn’t clear what happened to the boat.

BOSSIER CITY, La.

Teen beauty queen loses crown

Miss Teen Louisiana lost her crown 11 days early after being arrested on charges of leaving a restaurant without paying and carrying marijuana.

RPM Productions Inc., the sponsor, took back the title on Tuesday after learning that Lindsey Evans, 18, of Blanchard, had been arrested, President Paula M. Miles said Wednesday.

Evans will have to return her sash and crown, but won’t have to return any other prizes or cash equivalents, Miles said.

“She’s done a good job this year,” Miles said.

A call to Evans’ parents’ house was not answered Wednesday.

Bossier City police booked Evans and the three women with her at the restaurant on theft charges, three on drug charges and two on drug paraphernalia charges, he said.

Bossier City spokesman Mark Natale said police were called to a Posados Cafe restaurant Saturday evening because a group had left without paying $46.07.

The manager had found a pocketbook at the table, and police found Evans’ driver’s license and about 2 grams of suspected marijuana in it, Natale said.

The next Miss Teen Louisiana will be chosen Nov. 1 at a pageant in Lafayette.

WASHINGTON

GOP pulls funds from Bachmann

National Republicans have yanked TV advertising for Minnesota GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann’s re-election bid after she suggested Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may have “anti-American” views and urged an investigation of unpatriotic lawmakers.

Bachmann is one of four at-risk Republican incumbents left to fend for themselves by a cash-strapped House campaign arm in the crucial final days of the campaign amid a tough political environment for the GOP.

The National Republican Campaign Committee has also canceled planned TV ads to help GOP Reps. Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, Tom Feeney in Florida and Joe Knollenberg in Michigan, spokeswoman Karen Hanretty confirmed.

Musgrave, Feeney and Knollenberg are extremely vulnerable and Democrats – who are eyeing double-digit gains in their House majority – have been targeting them heavily.

Bachmann, whose district is solidly conservative, has only recently emerged as a prime target after her controversial remarks on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” which sparked a flood of campaign contributions to her Democratic opponent and have reshaped the race.

Democrats’ House campaign group is dumping $1 million on TV ads in the district in hopes of helping Bachmann’s challenger, Elwyn Tinklenberg, unseat her.