Nation in brief: Vehicles pile up on slick interstate
More than two dozen cars and trucks piled up in a chain-reaction wreck Wednesday on a slippery section of Interstate 94 in northern Indiana, police said.
No serious injuries were reported, state police Sgt. Ann Wojas said.
Up to 3 inches of snow fell in the area during the night and snow was falling heavily at the time of the midmorning crash, which closed a six-mile stretch of I-94’s westbound lanes for about seven hours.
Wojas said the crash involved 15 cars and 12 tractor-trailer rigs.
DeKalb, Ill.
Gunman had been taking three drugs
Police Wednesday said they are now looking to FBI profilers to pore over reports – including interviews with more than 120 people – to try to come up with a possible motive for the shooting rampage at Northern Illinois University a week ago.
Profilers will remain in DeKalb for a few more days before returning to Virginia, and it could be weeks before their reports are written.
Also, the former girlfriend of gunman Steve Kazmierczak told CNN in an interview aired Wednesday that in addition to the anti-depressant Prozac, Kazmierczak had been taking Ambien, a sleeping aid, and Zanax, an anti-anxiety drug, prior to the shootings.
The three drugs are among the most commonly prescribed, according to an expert.
The three-drug cocktail is “not at all atypical,” said Dr. Martin Paisner, a psychiatrist at Chicago Lakeshore Hospital.
Honolulu
Officials suspect pilots were asleep
A go! airliner overshot Hilo International Airport by 15 miles last week, and the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating whether the pilots were sleeping.
Midmorning Flight 1002 drifted off course during the 214-mile trip from Honolulu to Hilo and had to turn back to get to the airport on the Big Island. The flight landed safely.
Air traffic controllers tracking the plane by radar were unable to contact the cockpit for 25 minutes, according to a report by KGMB-TV.
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Teachers strike over conditions
Puerto Rico’s teachers union declared a strike Wednesday, threatening to shutter schools across the island after a breakdown in long-stalled contract talks.
The strike, set to begin today, seeks improved conditions for the U.S. Caribbean territory’s 42,000 public school teachers, union chief Rafael Feliciano said. The teachers are seeking higher pay, smaller classes, school repairs and more autonomy in designing curriculum.
“We are going to make them respect us,” Feliciano told reporters outside the Education Department headquarters.
The starting yearly base salary for a teacher in Puerto Rico is $19,200 – lower than in any U.S. state and about a third less than the average on the mainland.
The government urged teachers who do not support the union’s decision to continue working. Some union members had expressed reluctance because strike participants could be fired under a Puerto Rican law forbidding the disruption of the public education system.