Preacher accused of killing for money
A preacher was arrested at the Mexican border and accused of deliberately crashing his pickup truck and killing an 85-year-old farmer in a scheme to get his hands on the man’s multimillion-dollar trust fund.
Howard Douglas Porter, 55, of La Grange, Calif., was being held without bail Wednesday in San Diego on suspicion of murder, attempted murder and embezzlement from an elderly person.
Porter headed the Hickman Community Church, a nondenominational Christian church, when he befriended Frank Craig, a resident of the town of 450 people about 110 miles east of San Francisco.
Investigators said they believe Porter first tried to kill Craig in 2002 when he veered his truck off a rural road and struck an oak tree. The crash crippled Craig, but did not initially raise suspicions.
In 2004, Porter plunged his pickup truck into an irrigation canal and Craig drowned. Porter walked away from both crashes, and gave the eulogy at Craig’s funeral.
Porter was arrested Monday at the San Ysidro border station as he returned from Mexico, where he was starting a new mission.
Concord, N.H.
State will offer free HPV vaccinations
New Hampshire announced plans Wednesday to become the first state to offer the new cervical-cancer vaccine free to all girls.
Beginning in January, the vaccine against the human papilloma virus, or HPV, will be provided to girls ages 11 through 18 as part of a state program that offers various immunizations to children at no cost. The program is paid for by the federal government and insurance companies.
The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine in June for girls as young as 9. It prevents infection from some strains of HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer and genital warts.
Aliso Viego, Calif.
Principal ends ban on school dances
A high school principal lifted a nearly three-month-old dancing ban he instituted after seeing teenagers’ sexually suggestive moves at school dances that were “one step from events that should be occurring on wedding nights.”
Principal Charles Salter, who canceled Aliso Niguel High School’s homecoming dance earlier this year, is allowing the Orange County school’s winter formal to go forward as long as students and parents sign a lengthy contract with a long list of admonitions. Students, parents and administrators helped craft the new rules, which disallow “freak” dancing.
Freak dancing has gained widespread acceptance in recent years, propelled by rap music and the sexual images in hip-hop videos.
The new dance guidelines forbid students from straddling each other’s legs, bending over, dancing front-to-back, grinding, touching breasts, buttocks or genitals, or “making out,” and require students keep both feet on the floor and their hands on their partner’s waist or shoulders.
Lakeland, Fla.
Man pulled from alligator’s jaws
A 45-year-old man lost part of his left arm when an alligator attacked him Wednesday, but he was alive after four sheriff’s deputies jumped into muddy water and pulled him from the reptile’s jaws.
The deputies were responding to multiple calls about a man yelling for help around 4 a.m. They could not shoot the animal because it was too dark and they might have hit the victim, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said.
Adrian Apgar was taken to the hospital in critical condition with an apparent broken right arm, leg injuries and a partially amputated left arm. Deputies said Apgar had been using drugs.