April 2012 Archives

The article, Long-gone lead factories leave poisons in nearby yards, by USA Today is a good example of a records/CAR article.

The article written by Alison Young describes how the EPA failed to tell people about or take action on many former lead smelting sites which the EPA has apparently known about for years. The soil in many people's yards and in parks was found to contain potentially dangerous levels of lead.

Young uses tips on how to make yards safer, video interviews with parents who have children who play in their lead-filled back yards, an interactive map which states where smelters once were, and site-related documents.

In order to write this article, Young had to be technology savvy. She needed to be able to search for sites, find pictures, and create/search for video interviews on the topic.

FBI officials are searching for any traces of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, in the basement of a building in New York City's SoHo neighborhood, the Associated Press said.

Utility workers began ripping up the basement in the building on Friday after an FBI dog indicated the scent of human remains in the room, Fox News said.

Patz vanished after leaving his family's apartment for a brief walk to the bus stop- his first time ever walking there alone.

The investigators are digging up the floor and the drywall in an attempt to find flood, clothing or human remains in the building which is down the street from the Patz's home,Fox News said.

The search temporarily stopped Sunday due to bad weather but will resume Monday morning.

Police in the Netherlands said that at least 120 people we injured when two commuter trains crashed head-on in Amsterdam Saturday.

There were not immediate reports of fatalities, but out of the people injured, 13 suffered major injuries while 43 or 44 were badly injured, Reuters said.

According to a spokesman for railways group NS, a helicopter was used to bring the injured to a hospital, Reuters said.

It was not immediately clear how the two trains ended up on the same track but police are investigating, Voice of America said.

A house fire killed a 4-year-old boy and injured two other children Saturday near the town of Stephen in northwestern Minnesota.

The boy's body was found in the destroyed house late Saturday afternoon after authorities received a 911 call shortly after 10 p.m. Friday, the Star Tribune said.

The call said that two children had been injured by the fire and a third was possibly still in the house, the Associated Press said.

The incident remains under investigation in the small town of about 660 people about 40 miles northeast of Grand Forks.

A 9-year-old boy from Oak Grove, Minn., died Friday night in a dirt biking accident.

The boy was identified as Nick Engel by the Anoka County Sheriff's Office. His father, Robert Engler, is the Oak Grove Assistant Fire Chief, WCCO said.

Police said Nick went out on his motocross bike just before 7 p.m. Friday in Oak Grove when his friends momentarily went inside. When they came back out, Nick owa on the ground without a pulse, WCCO said.

An autopsy report has not yet been released but police said it appears that he died of head injuries despite his helmet, the Star Tribune said.

An emergency helicopter was called, but the boy was pronounced dead before it arrived,WCCO said.

Mother of four was charged Sunday with four counts of negligent homicide after her children died in a mobile home fire in Louisiana.

Capt. Doug Cain, a spokesman for Louisiana Department of Public Safety, said the fire began just before midnight Saturday in a city roughly 70 miles west of Baton Rouge in southern Louisiana, the Associated Press said.

The children were ages 2, 5, 7, and 8 years old, The Town Talk said.

Shaqueta McDade, the mother of the children, was arrested and charged with four counts of negligent homicide and was being held at the Acadia County Jail, the Associated Press said.

Cain said the mobile home was in flames when firefighters arrived. The children were found inside the burnt remains of the mobile home after the fire was extinguished, the Associated Press said.

Cain said he is not sure where the mother was during the fire, the Associated Press said.

Bail was set at $450,000 Monday for the husband who was stalking his family, assaulting and threatening to kill his wife, and then having a man kidnap her and her three children outside of a Duluth church, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Beginning in Utah, the woman and her children fled to North Dakota, then to Montana, back to North Dakota, and finally Duluth as they tried to hide from her husband who "had been shooting up steroids" she said.

Nathaniel Michael Jaffe-Norris, 26, was arraigned in State District Court in Duluth on Monday on charges of kidnapping, pattern of stalking and four counts of aiding and abetting kidnapping, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Jaffe-Norris found his wife in Duluth and had an accomplice allegedly lure her away from a church close to Safe Haven Shelter, where she was staying, MSNBC said.

According to a report, the wife feared for her safety and left with the man from the Church. She was driven to Detroit Lakes where Jaffe-Norris was waiting for her, MSNBC said.

Local authorities arrested Jaffe-Norris and brought him back to Duluth.

The woman said that she believes her husband is capable of seriously injuring or killing her and the children, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Duluth police Sgt. Jeremiah Graves said the investigation is continuing.

Tornadoes hit at least four states in the midwest after the National Weather Service forecasted tornadoes early Sunday morning, BBC said.

The multiple tornadoes killed five people in one Oklahoma town, three which were young girls, Reuters said.

At least 29 others in the town were injured, BBC said.

In Woodward, high winds damaged houses, uprooted trees and brought down electricity lines the Associated Press reported, BBC said.

This is not the first tornado in the Oklahoma town of Woodward that has killed citizens. in April 1947 116 people were killed according to the National Weather Service, Reuters said.

Jody Lynmarvin Patzner Jr., 22, was delivering dinner to a neighbor when confronted by three boys who shot him and ran away.

The boys yelled at him that they wanted his bicycle and then shot him twice. According to a witness, he continued to bike for 30 feet before collapsing on the sidewalk and dying moments later, the Star Tribune said.

The 24-year-old suspect was arrested Wednesday night, only one block away from where the victim was gunned down, KARE 11 said.

According to a spokesman for the Hennepin County Attorney's office, no criminal charges will be filed Friday against the suspect, the Star Tribune updated.

The funeral for Patzner Jr. is scheduled for Wednesday, April 18 at St. Bridget's Catholic Church in Minneapolis, KARE 11 said.

Four people are missing and one person has died after a boating accident Saturday off the coast of Northern California.

The 38-foot sailboat was apart of a race around the Farallon Islands, 28 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The captain of the boat said that the yacht was hit by a series of large waves that rolled it over and threw several crew members overboard, the Coast Guard said Sunday CNN said.

A Coast Guard helicopter rescued two people from the rocks and an Air National Guard helicopter rescued another person, along with a body of a person who drowned, the Times reported in an article by KTLA.

Four more people from the boat were still unaccounted for as of Sunday afternoon while rescuers searched a 15-by-30-mile patch of the Pacific Ocean, CNN said.

The race that the yacht was in is called the Full Crew Farallon race, which began in 1907, according to the San Francisco Yacht Club.

After a prison in Pakistan was attacked by Islamist militants, 384 of the 944 prisoners in the facility escaped.

The prison is located is Bannu, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, an area known for a heavy militant presence, BBC said.

Iftikhar Khan, a senior police officer, said that four prison officials were wounded during the attack, which lasted longer than two hours, CNN said.

Minister of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said that at least 20 of the escaped prisoners are very dangerous and that one was on death row for attempting to kill ex-President Pervez Musharraf, BBC said.

The attack, done by Pakistan's Taliban, apparently aimed to free a senior Taliban commander buf prison records were destroyed during the attack and officials have had trouble verifying the names of those who escaped, CNN said.

The article in the Star Tribune, Society slowly learns to deal with autism, discusses how places around the state and country are beginning to be more "autism friendly."

Sammie Paust, a sophomore at the University of Minnesota, has a cousin who is autistic. She believes that although the article does seem to focus a lot on the stereotype of people who suffer from autism, it is both informative and "good to read."

Through quotes and data referring to autism, Paust believes that some comments made in the article could've been either worded better or left out entirely.

Two Minnesota children are dead and another is in critical condition after a small sail boat capsized Friday afternoon on Clearwater Lake in northern Minn., CBS Minnesota said.

The three brothers, 2-year-old Jacob, 6-year old Zechariah, and 8-year-old Isaiah Risland were thrown into the frigid 40-degree water after strong winds tipped the boat over at about 3 p.m. Friday, the Star Tribune said.

Both Jacob and Zechariah died in the accident and Isaiah is currently listed in critical condition at the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis with his father Dan Risland, 31, who was also in the accident.

The family was sailing on Clearwater Lake, about 30 miles northwest of Bemidji, when the boat flipped over. Risland attempted to bring himself and the boys, who were each wearing life jackets, to shore but quickly realized that it would take too long.

He swam rapidly to shore and called 911. Sheriff's dispatchers from Beltrami and Clearwater counties received the call at about 3:15 p.m., the Star Tribune said.

By the time crews reached the boys, hypothermia had already set in. Police said the first child was out of the water within 30 minutes of the call, but Risland said the kids had already been in the water 15 to 20 minutes, CBS Minnesota said.

None of the children were breathing or had a pulse when they were pulled from the water, CBS Minnesota said.

The Clearwater County Sheriff's Office will be providing counseling to the community starting Monday.

The nearly two-week-long search for a missing Northland boy and his father ended late Saturday night with the boy recovered safely and the father hospitalized with self-inflicted wounds.

Brookston, Minn. Residents, Wyatt Nordrum, 7, and his father James Leon Nordrum Jr., 41, were found in a cabin in St. Louis County's Stoney Brook Township, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Wyatt had been declared missing since March 27 after his father took him and hid in the rural cabin.

Nordrum Jr. and Wyatt's mother, Candice Nordrum of Fort Frances, Ontario, were in a custody battle over the boy when the kidnapping occurred, the Duluth News Tribune said.

According to the St. Louis County Sheriff, Nordrum Jr. is currently being treated at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth for self inflicted neck injuries, ABC Eyewitness News said.

Authorities say Nordrum Jr. faces a possible charge of kidnapping and depravation of parental rights.

An 80-foot deep, one-kilometer wide, Himalayan avalanche buried 124 Pakistan soldiers and 11 civilians Saturday near the Indian border.

Due to darkness and bad weather, rescuers had to postpone their search Saturday, Al Arabiya News said.

Over 150 soldiers with dogs, along with helicopters were sent to search after the avalanche engulfed the camp but after hours of searching, no bodies or survivors had been found, Al Arabiya News said.

The people are trapped in one of the harshest environments on Earth, the Chicago Tribune said. The Pakistani army battalion headquarters is located at an altitude of 15,000 feet near the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram Mountain range,and temperatures can drop to minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, the Chicago Tribune said.

According to military experts, the climate and avalanche-prone terrain has claimed more lives than gunfire, the Chicago Tribune said.

Five men have been charged in the kidnapping and slaying of two Michigan women, a prosecutor said Saturday.

The women, Abreeya Brown, 18, and Ashley Conaway, 22, were abducted Feb. 28 and their bodies were discovered March 25 in a wooded area in Detroit. They had each been bound and shot in the head, the Associated Press said.

The five men - Brandon Cain, 26, Miguel Rodriguez, 24, Reginald Brown, 24, Jeremy Brown, 19, and Brian Lee, 25,-- are each charged with two counts of premeditated first degree murder, two counts of felony murder, two counts of torture and two counts of unlawful imprisonment, CBS Detroit said.

Cain and Lee were previously charged with attempted murder for shooting at the two women in an incident prior to the kidnapping. They are expected to appear in court again for those charges, CBS Detroit said.

Witnesses have said Cain had been romantically pursuing Conaway, the Associated Press said.

If convicted as charged, the five men face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Tornadoes and storms wreaked havoc Tuesday throughout the Dallas area.

According to the Red Cross, 650 homes were damaged and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday, the Huffington Post said.

National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop told the Huffington Post that although April is typically the worst month throughout the tornado season, but after Tuesday's storms Bishop said, "We're on pace to be above normal."

The Lancaster police in suburban Dallas said 10 people had been hurt- two of whom were residents of a nursing home and were taken to a hospital with minor injuries, the Associated Press said.

Hundreds of flights were canceled at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and nearly 14,000 homes and businesses had lost electricity from Tuesday until early Wednesday. 


Meteorologists said the storms occurred from a slow-moving storm system that centered over northern New Mexico, the Huffington Post said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/29/world/meast/turkey-syria-land-mines/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

In CNN's article, "Syrians try to clear antipersonnel mines near Turkish border," numbers are used multiple times.

The numbers are used to reference the amount of antipersonnel mines placed between the boarders of Turkey and Syria, the amount of refugees from Syria that are in Turkey, the amount of countries that are apart of the Treaty which bans land mines, and distance such as 5 to 6 centimeters below the ground and "20 meters away."

The numbers used in the story are not overwhelming, but are easy to understand and informative.

It doesn't seem as if the numbers required any math, but hopefully the author double and triple checked to see if the numbers were correct according to sources.

A White Bear Lake man's body was found Saturday in the St. Croix River.

The man, 46, was pulled out of and found dead near an unattended boat at the Bayport Marina late Saturday afternoon, the Star Tribune said.

Washington County Sheriff's Office and Bayport police responded to a call just before 6 p.m., the Pioneer Press said.

The call said that an unmanned boat was doing circles near the marina and the operator was found in the water about 100 yards away from his boat, the Star Tribune said.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner and the Washington County Sheriff's Office Water Control Unit are investigating the incident, the Pioneer Press said.

Five people were arrested in connection with the death of an Ohio woman who police said was stabbed, suffocated and dismembered before some of her remains were taken about 90 miles to Kentucky.

Jessica Rae Sacco, 21, was found dead Friday in her apartment in Urbana, Ohio, which is about 40 miles northwest of Columbus, the Associated Press said.

Of the five arrested, police sad Matthew Puccio stabbed and suffocated Sacco Thursday, WKRC Cincinnati said. Police also said Andrew Forney then dismembered her body inside of a bathtub, WKRC Cincinnati said.

Police said Kandis Forney, Christopher Wright and Sharon Cook were inside of the apartment during the murder and possibly helped cover up the crime.

Puccio is charged with murder, felonious assault, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence, the Associated Press said. His bond in $532,500.

All five arrested will appear in court Monday.

A 76-year-old Minnesota native survived 10 days in the Nevada desert by melting snow and using skills he learned as a Boy Scout.

James Klemovich, Cloquet, Minn. native, was recently found Tuesday in good health by military personnel after being stranded for 10 days in the Nevada desert, the Duluth News Tribune said.

Laszlo Szabo, a friend and buisness partner of Klemovich, did not survive, USA Today said.

Klemovich and Szabo were on a trip to inspect a gold mine when their car became stuck on a road with no cell phone service, the Duluth News Tribune said.

The men tried to dislodge the car and lit flares and fires in hopes that someone would see them. Unfortunately, the car wouldn't move and in an area where fewer than 7,000 people are spread over 6,000 square miles no one saw their signals, the http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/227292/ said.

Drinking water regularly from melted snow was a huge factor in the survival of Klemovich, who is a diabetic, USA Today said.

Klemovich is currently still in Nevada waiting for his car to be recovered, USA Today said.

A 20-year-old woman died Thursday after plummeting from a 14th-floor balcony in New York City.

Sienna Edwards, 20, died shortly after 9:30 p.m. in the Bronx after falling 14 stories off of a balcony, KTLA said.

Edwards was delivering a birthday present to the daughter of her boyfriend's cousin. When she arrived at the apartment, she met three other women- one of which who is the cousin's ex girlfriend and the mother of the child, the New York Times said.

Soon after Edwards entered the apartment, she dialed 911 seeking help. According to police, there were voices in the background of the phone call saying, "You're not going to leave here alive," the New York Times said.

Shortly after Edwards had called the police, another call was placed by a woman from the apartment notifying them that Edwards jumped from the 14th floor balcony, KTLA said.

Detective determined that Edwards had also make two phone calls to friends before calling 911 telling them she was trying to escape from women who were trying to kill her.

By late Friday, police said they arrested Kenya Edmonds, an occupant of the apartment, on charges of murder and manslaughter, the New York Times said.