U.S. soldier killed in attack
KABUL – A U.S. service member was killed Thursday in an insurgent attack in the country’s volatile south, a U.S. military official said, raising to 35 the number of American troops to die in the Afghan war this month.
U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed the latest U.S. death but released no further details.
Helicopter crash kills four people
SMITHSBURG, Md. – A commercial helicopter crashed onto a western Maryland highway and burst into flames late Thursday night, killing all four people on board, emergency officials said.
The aircraft was engulfed when firefighters arrived at the scene minutes after receiving a call at 10:30 p.m., said Washington County emergency services director Kevin Lewis. No vehicles on the highway were hit when the helicopter crashed.
The crash happened west of the Washington County-Frederick County line. It wasn’t immediately clear what brought down the helicopter.
Lawmakers start voting on budget
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California lawmakers on Thursday began voting on a complex budget deal struck by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders that is designed to reverse the state’s slide toward insolvency.
The compromise before the 80-member Assembly and 40-member state Senate eliminates nearly 60 percent of a projected $26 billion deficit with spending cuts. The rest is reached by one-time raids on local government funding and accounting maneuvers, such as deferring state employee paychecks by one day for a savings on paper of $1.2 billion.
The Senate took the first step toward approving the massive legislative package. On a two-thirds vote, senators passed a bill that cuts higher education funding, college grants, health programs, welfare, in-home supportive services and state prisons.
It was the first of 31 bills that, if passed by both houses of the Legislature and signed by the governor, would close the state’s budget shortfall through June 2010.
$1.2 billion worth of pot seized
FRESNO, Calif. – Federal and state agents have arrested 83 people for growing more than $1.2 billion worth of marijuana in an ongoing crackdown on illegal pot gardens in California’s Sierra Nevada range.
Local officials said several Mexican marijuana-growing cartels helped set up the grow sites scattered throughout rocky mountainsides of eastern Fresno County, and warned more arrests were likely as the sweep continues.
More than 318,000 marijuana plants were destroyed in the operation, which also netted nearly $41,000 in cash, 25 weapons and two vehicles, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said Thursday.
“You can imagine looking from a helicopter down onto a forest, there are a lot of different shades of green. It took some specially trained personnel to spot where the marijuana was growing,” Mims said. “We found it planted on hillsides and gullies, and some of the plants had grown to be eight feet tall.”
“Operation Save Our Sierra” began several months ago, and has involved more than 300 personnel from 17 local, state and federal agencies.