Nation in brief: Alberto spawning rash of tornadoes
After splashing ashore in Florida without much punch, the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto churned northward Wednesday, bringing much-needed rain to the Southeast but also spawning damaging tornadoes.
By early Wednesday, Alberto had weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression over the Carolinas and all tropical storm warnings were discontinued.
But as it headed up the East Coast, the storm still pushed nasty weather ahead of it, and was blamed for at least one death. At least six small tornadoes were reported in South Carolina, one in downtown Charleston.
Greensboro, N.C.
Southern Baptists reject school exit
There will be no Southern Baptist exodus from the nation’s public schools – at least for now.
Leaders of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination Wednesday refused to support a resolution that would have urged the denomination to form an “exit strategy” for pulling Southern Baptist children from public schools in favor of home schools or private Christian schools.
The proposal, offered by Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., and Texas author Bruce Shortt, came as many of the nation’s 16.2 million Southern Baptists are concerned about how classrooms are handling subjects such as homosexuality and “intelligent design.”
Los Angeles
Surgeons separate conjoined twins
Ten-month-old conjoined twins attached from the lower chest to the pelvis were separated Wednesday after a daylong operation, a hospital spokesman said.
The last pelvic bone connecting Regina and Renata Salinas Fierros was cut at 6:20 p.m. PST after a long and complex surgery at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.
Doctors planned to work through the night reconstructing the girls’ chest walls and pelvis regions and sewing up surgical wounds.
New York
Stabbing suspect is homeless man
A homeless man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of stabbing four people, including three tourists, who were attacked in a 12-hour span in Manhattan.
Police said they were questioning the 21-year-old man, Kenny Alexis, but did not know a motive.
Two of the victims were stabbed near a Times Square hotel; the others were attacked inside the subway system. Three were hospitalized, and police said they were expected to survive. The fourth was treated and released.