Campus shooting leaves one dead
A shooting on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas left one person dead and two people wounded.
University of Central Arkansas police said Sunday night the campus was locked down and that classes would be canceled today.
Little Rock television station KLRT reported that campus police say one person was killed and two wounded in the shooting just before 10 p.m. near Arkansas Hall.
The UCA Web site says one suspect is in custody and that three more people are being sought.
Washington
Juror dismissed in Stevens trial
A federal judge on Sunday dismissed one of the jurors at Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’ corruption trial after losing contact with the woman following her father’s death.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan plans to seat an alternate juror this morning and order the jury to start their deliberations over from the beginning, a setback for Stevens’ attempt to get a verdict before Alaskans vote on Election Day.
“I think we’ve been more than reasonable,” said Sullivan, who said court officials had not spoken with the juror since Friday despite repeated attempts to contact her.
Stevens is charged with lying on Senate financial disclosure documents to conceal $250,000 in home renovations and other gifts.
He has proclaimed his innocence. He is locked in a tight race with Democrat Mark Begich for his Senate seat, and had hoped for an acquittal before Election Day.
PHOENIX
Tony Hillerman, author, dies
Tony Hillerman, author of the acclaimed Navajo Tribal Police mystery novels and creator of two of the unlikeliest of literary heroes – Navajo police officers Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee – died Sunday of pulmonary failure. He was 83.
Hillerman’s daughter, Anne Hillerman, said her father’s health had been declining in the last couple years and that he was at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque when he died at about 3 p.m.
Hillerman lived through two heart attacks and surgeries for prostate and bladder cancer. He kept tapping at his keyboard even as his eyes began to dim, as his hearing faded, as rheumatoid arthritis turned his hands into claws.
“I’m getting old,” he declared in 2002, “but I still like to write.”
Hillerman’s commercial breakthrough was “Skinwalkers,” published in 1987. It sold 430,000 hardcover copies, paving the way for “A Thief of Time,” which made several best seller lists. In all, he wrote 18 books in the Navajo series, the most recent titled “The Shape Shifter.”
CHICAGO
Reward offered in Hudson case
Jennifer Hudson and her family offered a $100,000 reward Sunday for the safe return of her missing nephew as investigators looked for forensic evidence near the home where her mother and brother were found shot to death.
Mourners dressed in their Sunday best milled outside the childhood home of the singer and Oscar-winning actress, along with investigators seeking clues to the whereabouts of 7-year-old Julian King, the son of Jennifer Hudson’s sister, Julia.
In a statement Sunday evening from publicist Lisa Kasteler, Jennifer Hudson appealed to the public for help and offered the reward.
“Jennifer and her family appreciate the enormous amount of love, support and prayers they have received while she and her family try to cope with this tragedy and continue the search for Julian,” the statement said.