In brief: Police say suspect shot at airport dies

KENNER, La. – A machete-wielding man who was shot during a bizarre rampage at New Orleans’ international airport died Saturday afternoon, shortly after authorities revealed he had also been carrying a bag of Molotov cocktails when the melee began.

Richard White, 63, had been shot Friday night as he chased an unarmed Transportation Security Administration agent through a concourse full of frightened travelers – and in the direction of a sheriff’s deputy, who drew her gun and fired three times.

Sheriff Newell Normand said earlier that investigators discovered after the shooting that White had been carrying a bag loaded with Molotov cocktails: six Mason jars with cloth wicks soaked in gasoline.

There was also a barbeque lighter and a letter opener in the bag, Normand said at a news conference at the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. White had dropped the bag during the attack.

The sheriff said White had a history of mental health problems but investigators were trying to determine the nature and extent of those problems. His family has been cooperating with the investigation.

White was a Jehovah’s Witness and had refused “certain types of medical care,” Normand said.

Joseph Pulitzer, heir of empire, dies at 65

Joseph Pulitzer IV, once an heir to the Pulitzer newspaper empire, has died at age 65.

He died Thursday at a hospital in California, where he had been visiting a daughter. He had a heart attack, a family spokesman said.

He called himself “Joe Four” but he was known as “Jay.” He was the great-grandson of Joseph Pulitzer, founder of Pulitzer Publishing Co. as well as the Pulitzer prizes.

Jay Pulitzer had been groomed to take over the family business. That did not happen.

For years, he made the rounds at the company’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, starting as a reporter.

After his father died in 1993, his uncle, Michael Pulitzer, took over as head of the company. Majority control of the stock eventually went to his stepmother, Emily Pulitzer.

The controlling family members forced Jay Pulitzer out of the company two years after his father’s death. Jay Pulitzer said he was offered a job as consultant but he was told that he didn’t have to do any work.

Hot plate suspected in deadly house fire

NEW YORK – Seven siblings from an Orthodox Jewish family were killed early Saturday when a fire tore through their Brooklyn home after they had gone to bed, a tragedy that authorities believe was caused by a malfunctioning hot plate left on for the Sabbath.

The blaze took the lives of three girls and four boys – ages 5 to 16 – and left their mother and another child in critical condition. Fire officials said the flames would have prevented the mother, who escaped out a window, from trying to rescue her children.

Fire investigators believe a hot plate left on a kitchen counter ignited the flames that raced up the stairs, trapping the children in their second-floor rear bedrooms, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said.

Many religious Jews do not use electricity on the Sabbath, among other prohibitions meant to keep the day holy. As a result, some families may leave appliances on so they are usable without violating any religious laws or traditions.