In brief: Man charged in Austin fire
AUSTIN, Texas – Authorities charged a 60-year-old homeless man with arson on Monday, saying he defied a nearly statewide burn ban and left a campfire untended Saturday when he went to a store to buy beer. Fire officials say wind-blown embers ignited the blaze, which spread quickly through southwest Austin and forced the evacuation of about 200 homes.
The blaze destroyed 10 homes in the affected area and significantly damaged 10 others, and those numbers were likely to rise as fire officials continued searching the affected area, said Austin Fire Department spokesman Palmer Buck.
One of the driest spells in Texas history has left most of the state in extreme drought, and wildfires in various parts of the state have burned more than 1,000 square miles of land in the past week.
Brewer rejects ballot, gun bills
PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed a bill that would have required President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names could appear on the state’s ballot.
The bill would have made Arizona the first state to pass such a requirement. Opponents had warned the bill would give another black eye to Arizona after last year’s controversy over the state’s illegal immigration enforcement law.
Also Monday, Brewer vetoed a bill that would have allowed guns on public rights of way on public university and community college campuses.
The governor said the measure didn’t define a public right of way and could have been interpreted to apply to K-12 schools in addition to universities and community colleges.
Pentagon clears general
WASHINGTON – A Pentagon inquiry into a Rolling Stone magazine profile of Gen. Stanley McChrystal that led to his dismissal as the top US commander in Afghanistan has cleared him of wrongdoing.
The probe’s results released Monday also called into question the accuracy of the magazine’s report last June, which quoted anonymously people around McChrystal making disparaging remarks about members of President Barack Obama’s national security team, including Vice President Joe Biden.
Another air traffic suspension
WASHINGTON – Federal aviation officials say another air traffic controller has been suspended, this time for watching a movie when he was supposed to be monitoring aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement on Monday that it had suspended a controller and a manager at a regional radar facility in Cleveland that handles high altitude air traffic.
The air traffic control facility became aware that the controller was watching a DVD early Sunday morning when his microphone was inadvertently activated. For more than three minutes, the movie’s soundtrack was transmitted over the radio throughout the area he was monitoring.
New Alzheimer’s rules issued
The first new guidelines for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease in nearly 30 years establish earlier stages of the mind-robbing disease, paving the way for spotting and possibly treating these conditions much sooner than they are now.
The change reflects a modern view that Alzheimer’s is a spectrum of mental decline, with damage that can start many years before symptoms appear. The new guidance describes three phases: early brain changes, mild cognitive impairment and full-blown Alzheimer’s.