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Two-phone driver crashes tow truck

Sgt. Kevin Locicero, left, and Capt. Bruce Elliot, of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department, examine a truck that drove into a pool in Lockport, N.Y., on Thursday. Police said the driver was juggling two cell phones. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
From Wire Reports
Sgt. Kevin Locicero, left, and Capt. Bruce Elliot, of the Niagara County Sheriff’s Department, examine a truck that drove into a pool in Lockport, N.Y., on Thursday. Police said the driver was juggling two cell phones. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Lockport, N.Y. – Police say a western New York tow truck driver was texting on one cell phone while talking on another when he slammed into a car and crashed into a swimming pool.

Niagara County sheriff’s deputies say 25-year-old Nicholas Sparks, of Burt, admitted he was texting and talking when his flatbed truck hit the car Wednesday morning in Lockport, which is outside Buffalo.

The truck then crashed through a fence and sideswiped a house before rolling into an in-ground pool.

Sparks was charged with reckless driving, talking on a cell phone and following too closely.

Jackson’s kids to live with grandma

Los Angeles – The mother of Michael Jackson will retain custody of his three children, and the biological mother of the two elder children will visit and maintain her legal parental rights under an agreement reached by both sides, lawyers said Thursday.

Katherine Jackson, 79, the late pop icon’s mother, and Deborah Rowe, 50, who bore Jackson’s two older children, also agreed to mutually hire a child psychologist to advise them on how, when and where Rowe’s visits should take place.

The agreement will go before a Los Angeles judge Monday, and both sides expect the judge to approve it.

No. 3 Republican backs Sotomayor

Washington – The Senate’s No. 3 Republican announced Thursday he’d break with the rest of his party’s leaders to support Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander said he was voting for President Barack Obama’s nominee despite his differences with her, particularly on gun rights.

“Even though Judge Sotomayor’s political and judicial philosophy may be different than mine, especially regarding Second Amendment rights, I will vote to confirm her because she is well qualified by experience, temperament, character and intellect to serve,” Alexander said in a speech on the Senate floor.

Alexander, a conservative, is the sixth Republican to line up publicly with majority Democrats to back Sotomayor, a New York City native and a federal appeals court judge.