Pipe spills oil into Kentucky River
Carrollton, Ky. A pipeline broke and spilled an estimated 63,000 gallons of crude oil into the Kentucky River early Wednesday, creating a 12-mile-long slick that crews were racing to contain to keep it from contaminating drinking water.
By afternoon the oil spill had crept within five miles of the Ohio River, which several communities in northern Kentucky rely on for their water supplies, said Environmental Protection Agency on-site coordinator Art Smith. The Kentucky River is not used for drinking water in the area.
It was not immediately clear what caused the rupture of the pipeline, which carries about 180,000 barrels of crude daily from the Gulf Coast to refineries in Ohio.
Incident on plane leads to man’s arrest
West Palm Beach, Fla. Passengers jumped in to help restrain an unruly traveler on a flight from Philadelphia to West Palm Beach before the plane landed, authorities said.
A flight attendant on Southwest flight 2161 asked Christopher Egyed, 37, to quiet down because he was disturbing other passengers, said Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokesman Paul Miller.
The man later made threats and headed toward the pilot’s cabin, and after an attendant tried to stop him in the aisle, a group of passengers helped detain him.
The FBI arrested him on a federal charge of interfering with the operation of a flight crew.
Man taken to morgue was still breathing
Raleigh, N.C. A medical examiner studying a body in a morgue was startled when the man took a shallow breath.
Emergency medical technicians had declared 29-year-old Larry D. Green dead almost two hours earlier, after he was hit by a car.
Medical examiner J.B. Perdue was documenting Green’s injuries when he noticed the man was breathing.
“I had to look twice myself just to make sure it was there, that’s how subtle it was,” Perdue said.
Green, 29, was taken to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, where he was in critical condition Wednesday.
Several members of the Franklin County emergency medical service have been suspended pending an investigation, said Darnell Batton, the county attorney.
Evicted man kills home’s new owner
Winston-Salem, N.C. A man who lost his home in a foreclosure sale was convicted of killing his home’s new owner as he was about to be evicted.
Bobby Leon Griffin, 60, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Tuesday after he was convicted of murder and other charges.
Frank Lama, who bought the foreclosed house, wanted Griffin to stay in it as a tenant and sign a lease. Witnesses testified that Griffin missed an appointment to sign a rental agreement, stopped returning phone calls and did not make any rent payments.
In June 2003, months after the home changed hands, Lama went there with a Forsyth County sheriff’s deputy to evict Griffin. Griffin opened the door, pointed a gun at the deputy, then shot Lama twice in the head before shooting himself through the cheek.
Attorney Kevin Mauney argued that Griffin was depressed and didn’t plan the murder.
But on the morning of the killing, Griffin had flooded the house and damaged the walls with an ax. And at the hospital, Griffin allegedly told officers, “I shot who I intended to shoot.”