In brief: Tow line attached to Shell drilling ship
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Responders said a main tow line has been attached to a Shell oil-drilling ship that grounded on rocks near a remote Alaska island.
Unified Command spokesman Ignacio Gonzalez said Royal Dutch Shell’s Kulluk was attached to the towing vessel Aiviq on Sunday.
The command center said an attempt to tow the drilling ship off Sitkalidak Island would come today, weather permitting. Crews want to tow the ship 30 miles to shelter in Kodiak Island’s Kiliuda Bay.
Responders said there’s no sign the hull of the Kulluk has been breached or that oil has spilled from the vessel.
Teen brawls, stampede close mall
BATON ROUGE, La. – Large groups of brawling teenagers sparked a stampede at a Louisiana mall that led police to evacuate the shopping center and shut it down early.
More than 200 teens were in the Mall of Louisiana’s food court when a large fight broke out just before 6 p.m. Saturday, although it wasn’t clear how many were actually fighting.
No injuries were reported. The Advocate quotes the East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff’s office as saying it plans to charge a number of people.
Witnesses told the newspaper that the trouble started after Instagram users posted an invitation to their followers on social media telling them to come and meet them in person at the mall.
Police corralled unaccompanied youths until parents arrived to pick them up.
Clinton set to return to work today
WASHINGTON – The State Department says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will return to work today, a little more than a week after she was hospitalized with a blood clot in her head.
The department on Sunday released a schedule which has Clinton meeting with assistant secretaries this morning. The most significant items on her agenda are meetings in Washington on Thursday and Friday with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Clinton was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Dec. 30 after doctors discovered the blood clot while following up on a concussion she suffered earlier in December. She was released Wednesday.
Clinton is expected to resign from the State Department soon. President Barack Obama has nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to replace her.
Hearing may be ‘mini-trial’ in shootings
CENTENNIAL, Colo. – The suspect in the Colorado movie theater killings returns to court this week for a hearing that might be the closest thing to a trial the victims and their families will get to see.
James Holmes, a former neuroscience graduate student, is charged with killing 12 people and injuring 70 by opening fire in a darkened theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora last July.
At a weeklong preliminary hearing starting today, prosecutors will outline their case against Holmes, the first official public disclosure of their evidence. The judge will then determine whether to send the case to trial.
Legal analysts say that evidence appears to be so strong that Holmes may well accept a plea agreement before trial. In such cases, the preliminary hearing can set the stage for a deal by letting each side assess the other’s strengths and weaknesses, said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Preliminary hearings “are often the first step to resolving the case, a mini-trial so both sides can see the writing on the wall,” Levenson said.
Holmes, who faces more than 160 counts including first-degree murder and attempted murder, could have waived his right to a preliminary hearing, allowing lawyers on both sides to prepare for trial. But defense lawyers sometimes go through with the hearing because it gives them a clearer picture of prosecution evidence.
Court officials expect many survivors and family members of the dead to attend the preliminary hearing, along with scores of spectators and reporters. At least two overflow rooms are being prepared where the hearing can be observed by video and audio feeds.
District Judge William B. Sylvester has imposed a gag order on attorneys and investigators, and many court documents have been filed under seal, so little is known about Holmes’ path from promising graduate student to suspect in a mass murder.