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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

In brief: $119,000 added to Anthony’s bill

ORLANDO, Fla. – A Florida judge Friday increased the reimbursement costs Casey Anthony must pay to investigators for searching for her missing 2-year-old daughter three years ago.

Judge Belvin Perry added another $119,000 to the bill she owes four law enforcement agencies in central Florida, bringing the total to more than $217,000. That’s still short of the $500,000 prosecutors were seeking.

The additional amount comes from the Orange County Sheriff’s Office providing the judge with more details about their costs. The judge said in the earlier order that the Sheriff’s Office hadn’t sufficiently broken down the costs of its investigation from mid-July through September 2008.

Anthony was acquitted in July on charges of murdering her daughter, Caylee. But the 25-year-old was convicted of four misdemeanor counts of lying to authorities.

She told officers a baby sitter had kidnapped the child. Authorities later learned the baby sitter never existed.

NTSB suspects part fell off plane

LAS VEGAS – Federal investigators are looking at evidence that something fell off a modified World War II-era racing aircraft as it climbed, rolled and crashed nose-first into spectators, killing 11 during air races in Reno last week, according to a preliminary report released Friday.

The one-week National Transportation Safety Board summary of evidence collected after the Sept. 16 crash at Reno-Stead Airport puts the number of injured at 74.

The report made no conclusions and noted that investigators are trying to extract clues from an onboard data box and camera equipment believed to be from the plane. A final report with findings could take more than a year.

The NTSB cited photo and video evidence that a piece fell off the aircraft after the pilot completed several laps and made a steep left turn toward the home pylon and grandstand. The plane banked suddenly left, then right, turned away from the race course and pitched into a steep nose-high climb, the report said.

Former refugee tapped for bench

WASHINGTON – Judge Jacqueline Nguyen had never met a lawyer before attending law school at UCLA. She fled Vietnam during the fall of Saigon with her parents and five siblings, all younger than 11, and started life in the U.S. living in a tent city with other refugees at Camp Pendleton in California.

Now President Barack Obama has nominated Nguyen, who two years ago became the first Vietnamese-American woman to serve as a federal judge, to the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.

“Judge Nguyen has been a trailblazer, displaying an outstanding commitment to public service throughout her career,” Obama said.

After fleeing Vietnam, Nguyen’s parents saved enough money to open a doughnut shop in North Hollywood.

Her mother cleaned dental offices at night and peeled apples for a pie company, jobs Nguyen would often help with, as her father transitioned from being a major in the South Vietnamese Army to being an overnight-shift worker at a bank and a gas attendant.

She said that working with Asian immigrants while in law school “reminded me of how lost we were.”