In brief: Police say contractors’ tools used in prison escape

DANNEMORA, N.Y. – The two killers who cut their way out of a maximum-security prison apparently used tools routinely stored there by contractors, taking care to return them to their toolboxes after each night’s work so that no one would notice, a prosecutor said Sunday.

District Attorney Andrew Wylie also said that Joyce Mitchell, the prison tailoring shop instructor charged with helping the men escape, had agreed to pick them up in her car and drive off with them but backed out at the last minute because she still loved her husband and felt guilty for participating.

Wylie said there was no evidence the men had a “Plan B” once the getaway driver backed out, and no vehicles have been reported stolen in the area.

That has led searchers to believe the men are still near the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where the manhunt for Richard Matt and David Sweat was in its ninth day Sunday with hundreds of law enforcement officers slogging through mosquito-infested woods, fields and swamps close to the Canadian border.

Solo rower abandons trans-Pacific attempt

TOKYO – A steering system failure, bad weather and a sense that “things weren’t going right” has ended an American woman’s attempt to cross the Pacific by rowboat.

“The past eight days have been interesting and we knew we were taking a chance with the weather and late season, concerned more about the weather upon arrival in California in the fall,” Sonya Baumstein’s expedition support team said in a statement early today.

The 30-year-old Baumstein departed from Choshi, Japan, one week ago, heading for San Francisco, California, in hopes of becoming the first woman to row solo across the Pacific.

She spent several days after her departure relatively close to shore as she waited for her seasickness to subside, but then made progress and was able to get into the Kuroshio current that crosses the Pacific west to east as planned.

But Baumstein was rescued off the Japanese coast on Saturday after sending out a distress signal when about 155 miles offshore. At the time, she was approaching the limits of the Japanese Coast Guard’s normal range and decided with her team that it would be irresponsible to continue and potentially put rescuers’ lives at risk, the team said in a statement.

A freighter traveling nearby rescued her and a few hours later a Coast Guard vessel in the area picked her up and helped tow her boat back to shore.

Mayfly swarm forces closure of bridge

LANCASTER, Pa. – Authorities say a swarm of mayflies was so dense it caused motorcycle crashes and prompted the closing of a Pennsylvania bridge.

The LNP newspaper reported that mayflies swarmed around the lights on the bridge and then fell to the ground, forming piles several inches deep on the road.

Police in West Hempfield Township in Lancaster County said the Route 462 bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville was shut down about 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Chief Chad Livelsberger of the Wrightsville Fire Company said three motorcycle crashes occurred because of the flies. Details on any injuries were not immediately available.