Court justice has stent inserted
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy underwent surgery to clear a blocked blood vessel near his heart during the Labor Day weekend, the court announced Tuesday. But the court said there was no damage to his heart and Kennedy has returned to work.
In a brief news release, the court said that mild chest pains prompted Kennedy, 69, to check in to Washington Hospital Center. On Saturday, surgeons implanted a stent, a small metal device commonly used to prop open arteries that may have narrowed because of heart disease.
The court’s statement described the procedure as “routine” and noted that it was a revision to a previously undisclosed stent procedure Kennedy had in November.
Lanesville, Ind.
Python crushes 23-year-old owner
A 14-foot pet python crushed its owner to death, authorities said Tuesday after finding the snake loose in a southern Indiana shed with the man’s body.
Patrick Von Allmen, 23, was found Monday evening in the shed near Lanesville, about 15 miles west of Louisville, Ky. Von Allmen had told family members he was going to treat the snake for a medical condition.
Relatives said Von Allmen had 10 to 12 years of experience handling reptiles, according to authorities. The family got the snake as a pet five months ago.
Washington
New transportation secretary chosen
President Bush on Tuesday picked Mary Peters to be the nation’s new transportation secretary, a Cabinet position that took on more prominence after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
If confirmed by the Senate, Peters, a former federal highway administrator who had explored a run for governor of Arizona, will succeed Norman Mineta, who stepped down in July.
Peters spent three years directing the Arizona Department of Transportation, where she worked her way through the ranks during a more than 15-year career there. She was chief of the Federal Highway Administration from 2001 to 2005.
Newry, Maine
Cook kills four during weekend
A cook was charged Tuesday with shooting and dismembering the owner of a bed-and-breakfast and killing three other people in a grisly Labor Day weekend crime spree that shocked people across the Maine countryside.
State Police Chief Col. Craig Poulin refused to discuss a motive for what he called the worst homicide case in Maine in 14 years.
Christian Nielsen, 31, told detectives that his four-day rampage began with an Arkansas man on Friday and continued two days later with the slaying of the owner of the Black Bear Bed & Breakfast, where he was staying in Newry, according to state police. The daughter of the inn’s owner was then killed along with a female friend when they arrived there unexpectedly Monday, authorities said.
Nielsen had recently been renting a room at the Black Bear while working at another bed-and-breakfast in nearby Bethel.