In brief: Seven tugs free stuck freighter

GROSSE ILE, Mich. – Seven tugboats succeeded Sunday in unsticking a 579-foot coal-hauling Great Lakes freighter that was grounded for two days in the Detroit River south of Detroit.

The McKee Sons ran aground Friday near Grosse Ile while trying to dock at a DTE Energy Co. electrical power station.

“They broke it free,” said U.S. Guard Lt. Justin Westmiller.

The freighter came from Cleveland with a load of 11,900 tons of coal and a crew of 17. It has a hauling capacity of 29,500 tons.

The Coast Guard said efforts to pull the freighter off the bottom resumed Sunday after a break for Christmas.

The freighter is owned by Ohio-based Grand River Navigation and didn’t sustain structural damage, Westmiller said.

Kennedy’s exit is end of an era

WASHINGTON – The Kennedys have held congressional seats, the presidency and the public’s imagination for more than 60 years.

That era ends when Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island vacates his U.S. House seat next month, leaving a City Council post in California as Camelot’s sole remaining political holding.

The son of the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy says he has no qualms about walking away from politics. His departure marks the first time in 63 years that a Kennedy won’t be serving in elected office in Washington.

The 43-year-old Kennedy said that in his family, “the legacy was always public service, and that didn’t necessarily mean public office.”

Kennedy plans to continue the tradition by championing a national effort to boost brain research.

Octuplets’ mom facing eviction

LOS ANGELES – The man who owns “Octomom” Nadya Suleman’s La Habra home says he’s going ahead with eviction proceedings because she can’t come up with a $450,000 mortgage payment.

Amer Haddadin said he’ll proceed with an eviction if Suleman and her lawyer Jeff Czech don’t pay him the balance on the house by the end of the year.

Haddadin said Czech and Suleman became joint owners of the house after her father bought the home and transferred the deed.

Reached by phone Sunday, Czech said he hadn’t heard anything about the proceedings and had no immediate comment.

Suleman and her 14 children have lived in the house since her octuplets came home from the hospital nearly two years ago.