In brief: FDA ads target youths, smoking

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration is launching an advertising campaign targeting at-risk youth highlighting the dangers of smoking.

The federal agency said today the campaign called “The Real Cost” is set to launch Feb. 11 and will include ads on TV and radio. It also will use print and social media.

Officials say the $115 million campaign will target more than 10 million young people ages 12 to 17 that are open to, or are already experimenting with, cigarettes.

The FDA said more than 700 kids under the age of 18 become daily smokers every day.

The ads will run in more than 200 markets throughout the U.S. for at least one year. Tobacco companies will foot the bill through user fees paid to the FDA.

Escaped murderer caught after chase

IONIA, Mich. – A convicted killer who peeled a hole in two fences with his hands to escape from a Michigan prison before abducting a woman and fleeing to Indiana was captured Monday evening, authorities said.

Michael David Elliot, who had a record of good behavior during his 20 years in custody, wore a white kitchen uniform Sunday night to evade security and blend in with snow at the Ionia Correctional Facility, a prisons spokesman said.

Once outside the prison, Elliot, 40, abducted a woman and stole her Jeep, authorities said. The woman, who was not hurt, escaped late Sunday when he stopped for gas in Middlebury, Ind., some 100 miles to the south. The Jeep was found abandoned nearby Monday.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Ron Galaviz said Elliot was captured in LaPorte County after a police chase.

That chase began after authorities got a report of a car stolen from a factory in the city of LaPorte, said sheriff’s Maj. John Boyd. A deputy nearby spotted the stolen Chevrolet Monte Carlo “within a few seconds,” Boyd said.

Authorities chased the car into a rural area several miles away, where law enforcement used stop sticks to disable the vehicle.

Educator arrested over claims in video

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A California school administrator charged with felony sexual abuse after a former student aired allegations in a YouTube video has been arrested.

Riverside County district attorney’s spokesman John Hall said a sheriff’s team arrested 40-year-old Andrea Cardosa in the city of Perris Monday night. She’s expected to be arraigned Thursday.

A $5 million arrest warrant was issued Monday after Cardosa was charged earlier Monday with 16 counts of sexually abusing two girls, including the now-28-year-old woman who posted the video, which has nearly a million views on YouTube.