In brief: Suspect in highway shootings arrested
GRANDVIEW, Mo. – Police have arrested a male suspect in a string of random Kansas City-area highway shootings that have wounded three people.
Kansas City, Mo., police Chief Darryl Forte declined to identify the suspect during a Thursday night news conference near the suspect’s home in Grandview. He said he will discuss the case in further detail at another news conference today.
Police are searching the suspect’s single-story home, and a green Dodge Neon with Illinois license plates that was behind it has been towed away.
Police said last week that they had connected 12 shootings since early March in which vehicles were targeted on Kansas City-area highways and roads.
Most of the reported shootings were in the southern part of Kansas City, known as the Grandview Triangle, where several highways intersect.
Forfeited Iran assets in U.S. to be sold
NEW YORK – A federal judge has approved plans to sell a 36-story Manhattan office building and other properties owned by Iran nationwide in what will be the largest terrorism-related forfeiture ever, a prosecutor said Thursday.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Judge Katherine Forrest approved the deal between the U.S. government and 19 holders of more than $5 billion in terrorism-related judgments against the government of Iran, including claims brought by the estates of victims killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The deal calls for the Manhattan building and other forfeited assets to be sold by the U.S. Marshals Service, with the U.S. government receiving reimbursement for litigation expenses and any costs of the sales before the rest is distributed to victims of terrorist attacks. The agreement stems from a 2008 lawsuit by the government against the building’s owners.
Besides Sept. 11 victims, the settling creditors include families and estates of victims of the 1983 terrorist bombings of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, the 1996 terrorist bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and terrorist attacks in Israel and elsewhere.
The government said buildings also will be sold in Queens; Houston; Carmichael, Calif.; Catharpin, Va.; and Rockville, Md.
Noose prompts fraternity chapter closure
JACKSON, Miss. – A national fraternity group has closed its University of Mississippi chapter after three members were accused of tying a noose around the neck of a statue of the first black student to enroll in the Southern college that was all-white at the time.
The university announced Thursday that the national office of Sigma Phi Epsilon, based in Richmond, Va., had closed its Ole Miss chapter.
Besides the noose, someone draped a pre-2003 Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem in its design on the face of the James Meredith statue in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 16. Meredith’s enrollment in 1962 set off a violent attack by anti-integration protesters on federal authorities, leaving two people dead and scores injured.
The names of the three students from Georgia haven’t been released. They were kicked out of the chapter, which itself had been suspended pending the review.
Ole Miss spokesman Tom Eppes said university disciplinary proceedings against the three students are ongoing. He also said the FBI is still investigating.
Urine-tainted reservoir water tests clean
PORTLAND – There’s nothing wrong with the 38 million gallons of water being flushed away from a reservoir in Portland.
Portland Water Bureau spokeswoman Jaymee Cuti said Thursday that test samples of water taken from the reservoir came back clean.
The city of Portland decided to discard the water after a 19-year-old man was videotaped urinating into the reservoir early Wednesday.
Though acknowledging the urine posed little risk, Portland officials said they have plenty of water to meet demand and didn’t want to deliver deliberately tainted water to customers.
The teenager was cited for trespassing and public urination. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to pursue criminal charges.