In brief: Michigan shooting suspect kills self

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – A gunman opened fire in two Michigan homes Thursday, killing his daughter, ex-girlfriend and five other people before leading police on a high-speed chase and taking hostages inside a stranger’s home.

The five-hour standoff ended when he killed himself as authorities were telling him how to surrender.

The hostages were released unharmed, and 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, police said.

The manhunt for Dantzler began earlier in the day after four people were found dead in one Grand Rapids home and three were discovered in another across town. Two of the dead were children.

During the standoff, Dantzler fired sporadically at officers and inside the house. He vacillated between threatening to shoot the hostages and pleading with police to take him out, even asking negotiators whether there were snipers outside the home and where he should stand, Belk said.

But he changed course after several hours and asked how he could surrender. Belk said officers were talking with him on the phone about how to turn himself in when they heard the gunshot.

Records show Dantzler was released from state prison in 2005 after serving time for assault less than murder.

Small plane crashes into hospital, kills 2

WATSONVILLE, Calif. – Authorities say a small plane has crashed into a community hospital in central California, killing two people on board the plane.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says a single-engine plane crashed into an office building at the hospital shortly after takeoff from nearby Watsonville Municipal Airport around 7:30 p.m. Thursday. Lunsford says there were no injuries or fatalities on the ground.

Witnesses say the plane took a nose dive and landed partially into the first floor .

Air, soil, wells to be tested near oil spill

BILLINGS – Indoor air, cropland soils and residential wells downstream of a Yellowstone River oil spill will be tested for contamination after residents raised concerns about hazards from the tens of thousands of gallons of crude that poured into the watercourse, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday.

EPA and local officials said they do not expect to find significant health dangers but were acting as a precaution. Some residents in oil-stained areas have complained of nausea, dizziness and shortness of breath that have lingered for days.

An estimated 1,000 barrels of oil, or 42,000 gallons, have fouled areas along the scenic Yellowstone since Friday after a 12-inch pipeline operated by Exxon Mobil Corp. broke near the south-central Montana town of Laurel.

Police find stolen Picasso, arrest man

SAN FRANCISCO – The case of a stolen Picasso has been cracked – and police said Thursday it was a New Jersey man who walked into downtown San Francisco art gallery, snatched the drawing and fled in a taxi.

Police arrested Mark Lugo, 31, of Hoboken, N.J., on Wednesday at an apartment in Napa, and found the artwork stripped from its frame. The 1965 pencil-on-paper drawing – titled “Tete de Femme” – was purchased at a spring auction in New York. It’s worth about a quarter of a million dollars.