In brief: Man crushes patrol cars with tractor
MONTPELIER, Vt. – A Vermont man apparently angry over his arrest for resisting arrest and marijuana possession charges has been arrested again after driving over seven police vehicles with a farm tractor.
State Police say 34-year-old Roger Pion was stopped by Newport city police in northern Vermont a short distance from where he allegedly crushed the Orleans County sheriff’s vehicles Thursday before driving away on the tractor.
Sheriff’s deputies were working inside their building and did not know what was happening on the parking lot until a neighbor called 911.
They said they could not pursue the man because their cars were crushed. Sheriff Kirk Martin said no one was injured.
Pion now faces numerous new charges. He was in custody Thursday evening. Authorities did not know if he had a lawyer.
One dead, 38 hurt in Illinois bus crash
LITCHFIELD, Ill. – Illinois State Police say the person who died in the crash of a double-decker Megabus was a 24-year-old female passenger, Aditi R. Avhad.
Trooper Doug Francis says 38 people were taken to hospitals for injuries following a Thursday afternoon crash on Interstate 55 near Litchfield. Of those, 33 were taken by ambulance to nearby hospitals, two were flown by helicopter to St. Louis hospitals and three were flown by helicopter to a hospital in Springfield.
Francis said investigators are trying to confirm a report that the bus blew a tire. He said a strong thunderstorm has made crash reconstruction at the site difficult.
Video is how-to on reacting to shooting
HOUSTON – The city of Houston has released a video designed to teach people how to react during a workplace shooting by emphasizing a three-word mantra: run, hide, fight.
The video was funded with $200,000 in federal grants and released following last month’s movie theater shooting in Colorado.
Houston Homeland Security official Richard Retz says the theater shooting convinced city officials to release the video early, though they still plan to make it part of a wider safety campaign.
In the video, ominous music plays before a narrator warns that life can occasionally feel “more like an action movie than reality.” Then, a man opens fire in an office building.
Murdock to keep house in island sale
HONOLULU – David Murdock has sold his Hawaiian island, but he’s keeping his seven-bedroom Lanai home, a woodworking shop containing koa furniture, two carved elephant tusks in a resort lobby, and 1,000 rare orchid plants.
The billionaire is holding on to those assets and others, while selling most of Lanai to Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison.
Lawyers for Murdock’s Castle & Cooke Inc. said redactions were necessary to protect business interests. The price Ellison paid for 98 percent of the island’s 141 square miles has not been revealed, though the Maui News previously reported the asking price was $500 million to $600 million.
Murdock’s seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom, 44,921-square-foot private residence on Kipihaa Place has an assessed value of $6,192,000, according to Maui County property records. Some of the other assets he will keep include a lot across the street from the home, assorted apartments, two carved wood Balinese sculptures in a resort lobby and Richard’s grocery store.