9-year-old locked up for three years

A father was arrested and charged with keeping his 9-year-old son locked in a bedroom for much of the past three years and watching his every move with surveillance cameras.

The home of Randall Warren Piercy, 41, was like a prison that had cameras in almost every room, with the father monitoring the boy on TV and computer screens, sheriff’s Lt. Annie Smith said Thursday.

Over the past three years, the boy has not attended school, received medical attention or had contact with people outside the family, Smith said. Authorities said he was home-schooled but could not read children’s books.

Piercy was arrested Wednesday on charges that included aggravated child abuse. He was jailed on $1 million bail. Social workers took the boy from the home.

The arrest came after an investigator posing as a real estate investor went to the home earlier this month with the boy’s maternal grandfather, a real estate broker.

Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Ford undergoes medical tests

Gerald Ford, the nation’s oldest living former president, was in a hospital Thursday and undergoing medical tests, his office said.

Ford, 93, was doing well at Eisenhower Medical Center, spokeswoman Penny Circle said in a statement. She did not disclose the nature of the tests.

The former president has been hospitalized repeatedly this year. He underwent heart procedures in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He received an implantable cardiac pacemaker to regulate his heartbeat and underwent angioplasty, with stents in two of his coronary arteries to increase blood flow.

Buffalo, N.Y.

Snowstorm cuts power to 155,000

A rare early October snowstorm downed tree limbs and toppled power lines Thursday night, leaving about 155,000 customers without electricity.

Between 3 and 4 inches of snow fell in most areas around Buffalo, with some spots expected to receive 6 to 12 inches by this morning, officials said.

The heavy snowfall at this time of year is almost “unprecedented,” said Tom Niziol, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Buffalo Niagara International Airport, which received 5.1 inches, shut down for less than two hours late Thursday.

Columbus, Ohio

Man goes to prison to make ends meet

A man who couldn’t find steady work came up with a plan to make it through the next few years until he could collect Social Security: He robbed a bank, then handed the money to a guard and waited for police.

On Wednesday, Timothy J. Bowers told a judge a three-year prison sentence would suit him, and the judge obliged.

“At my age, the jobs available to me are minimum-wage jobs. There is age discrimination out there,” Bowers, who turns 63 in a few weeks, told Judge Angela White.

The judge told him: “It’s unfortunate you feel this is the only way to deal with the situation.”