National news
Hospital nurse dies of TB; patients notified
Chesapeake, Va. A nurse at Chesapeake General Hospital died of tuberculosis, prompting officials to notify hundreds of people who may have come in contact with her.
City health director Nancy Welch said patients and visitors who were on a medical-surgical unit on the second floor of the hospital between October and April will receive letters advising them to be tested for TB.
The nurse, who lived in Virginia Beach, died at a medical center in Norfolk on Saturday.
The nurse had been coughing, a key symptom of TB, since October. Officials said she thought she had an upper respiratory infection, and only recently sought treatment. She had resigned from her job at Chesapeake General in April.
Two of the nurse’s family members have tested positive for the bacteria, as have two Chesapeake General employees. None has developed an active case.
Blind man cited after driving golf cart in city
Peachtree City, Ga. A blind man was charged with reckless conduct after he drove a golf cart through the city with help from an inebriated friend.
Samuel McClain, 35, drove two miles through winding streets – also accompanied by his guide dog – before running into a parked car, police said.
No one was hurt, but McClain and Michael Johnston, 47, were charged with reckless conduct “due to the blatant disregard for public safety,” according to police reports.
The report said McClain drove the cart Saturday while Johnston gave directions after having six or seven beers.
Peachtree City, about 25 miles south of Atlanta, has about 80 miles of paved cart paths and 9,000 registered carts that residents use for daily errands.
Gorilla shot by police jumped from enclosure
Dallas A gorilla that was shot to death by police after breaking out of its enclosure at the Dallas Zoo in March escaped by leaping over a 12-foot-wide trench and a wall that separates animals from visitors, officials said Tuesday.
Jabari, a 340-pound western lowland gorilla, went on a 40-minute rampage March 18, snatching up a toddler with his teeth and injuring three other people.
The gorilla enclosure is constructed so that animals are roughly at visitors’ eye level, but they are separated from visitors by a 14-foot wall and the trench.
Zoo investigators believe the gorilla probably got a running start and sailed over the trench and the wall, clearing an electrical wire atop the wall that is supposed to give a mild shock.
“This is strictly a gorilla doing something that no one ever anticipated that a gorilla could do,” zoo Director Rich Buickerood said.
The wire was not broken and had no hair on it, suggesting the gorilla was airborne when it cleared the wall, zoo spokeswoman Ellen Villeneuve said.
Young gorillas such as 13-year-old Jabari sometimes engage in athletic displays for other animals, Buickerood said.
“We know gorillas are typically not leapers,” he said. “But we do know that particularly these younger guys like to do these display runs. And they charge around the habitat showing off. And we think that’s exactly what Jabari did.”
The zoo investigation found no errors that might have led to the gorilla’s escape, such as doors left open.
The zoo is raising the walls to 15 feet.
Teens who beheaded chickens to clean coops
Statesboro, Ga. Seven teenagers who beheaded two chickens because they were curious whether they would run around with their heads cut off will soon learn a lot more about the birds.
A judge ordered the five boys and two girls – ages 17 to 19 – to clean chicken coops and read a book about animals’ feelings as part of their sentence.
In September 2003, the seven teens went to a Wal-Mart and bought machetes, kitchen knives and a hatchet, then drove to a chicken farm and stole eight chickens. They beheaded two chickens, videotaping the carnage before the homeowner caught them.
The chickens “sort of ran a very short distance and they sort of flopped over,” said defense attorney Garland Moore, who attributed the teens’ behavior to youthful curiosity.
The teens were convicted of animal cruelty charges.
Judge John R. Turner on Friday instructed them to read a book about animal cruelty and turn in a report on it. They were also ordered to perform community service hours cleaning chicken houses.
Moore criticized the state for initially charging the teens with the deaths of eight chickens, not two, on the premise the other six died because of the stress of witnessing the beheadings.