The week at a glance...United States

Loveland Pass, Colo.

Fatal avalanche: Four snowboarders and one skier were killed last week in Colorado’s deadliest avalanche in 50 years. The 200-yard-wide and nearly 400-yard-long avalanche was triggered when the five men and one other snowboarder ventured into an off-trail zone above the Loveland Pass ski area in the Rocky Mountains, around 50 miles west of Denver. Two of the deceased snowboarders were found wrapped around each other under about 8 feet of snow, and the other three were located nearby. The lone survivor, Jerome Boulay, was buried for an hour with only his head and an arm poking out of the snow and ice before he freed himself. “These weren’t guys who were reckless and didn’t care,” said Tim Brown of the Colorado Avalanche Information Center. “You can do a lot of things right but still be caught in a dangerous situation.”

Denver

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Pot rally shootings: Shots fired during the country’s largest marijuana festival last week injured three and caused a human stampede as thousands ran for cover. To celebrate the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana use last fall, tens of thousands of people had gathered in Civic Center Park on April 20—or 4/20, a number that has become code for the drug’s use. As rapper Lil’ Flip was performing, gunshots rang out near the stage, hitting a man and a woman in their legs and grazing a juvenile. Police say the shootings were gang-related, and detectives in the gang unit are using video footage to aid their search for the primary suspect. The shootings came less than a year after gang gunfire killed a Denver police officer at a crowded jazz concert in another municipal park.

West, Texas

Fertilizer blast: As authorities investigated a huge fertilizer plant explosion that killed at least 15 people and injured 200 more last week, the facility’s owner came under scrutiny for failing to inform the Department of Homeland Security about how much potentially explosive fertilizer was stored there. Around 270 tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make bombs like the one used in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, were on hand at the West Fertilizer plant last year—1,350 times more than the 400-pound storage limit allowed without notification. “It seems this manufacturer was willfully off the grid,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) of the House Committee on Homeland Security. The blast has also raised questions about whether Texas should allow industrial facilities to be located so close to schools and homes. Investigators have yet to find a cause for the blast.

Oxford, Miss.

Ricin plot thickens: Investigators dropped all charges against the Mississippi man accused of sending letters containing the poison ricin to President Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and a Mississippi judge. Part-time Elvis impersonator Paul Kevin Curtis had been charged with sending the poisoned letters, but FBI agents were unable to find traces of ricin in Curtis’s home or car, or related searches on his computer. Federal authorities are now looking into whether he may have been framed by a longtime rival, J. Everett Dutschke, a local martial arts instructor. FBI agents conducted a search of Dutschke’s house, but did not immediately bring charges against him. Another possibly contaminated letter was discovered this week at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.

Manchester, Ill.

Mass shooting: Five family members were shot to death and a young girl was wounded this week in a small town that had been untouched by homicide for at least a generation. Joanne Sinclair, 65, her granddaughter Brittany Luark, 22, Luark’s boyfriend Roy Ralston, and their sons Noah, 5, and Brantley, 1, were all killed; daughter Kassidy, 6, suffered gunshot wounds and is in serious condition. All of the victims lived in a home in a public housing complex. Police named the shooter as Rick Odell Smith, who died in a local hospital from injuries sustained during a high-speed car chase and an exchange of gunfire with police. “It’s a tragedy,” said Ronald Drake, mayor of the town of 350 people. “I’ve lived here for 43 years and my wife’s lived here for all of her life, and there’s never been a homicide.”

Washington, D.C.

No knives on planes: The Transportation Security Administration has postponed its plan to allow passengers to carry small pocketknives aboard domestic flights this week after encountering fierce resistance from the public and the flight attendants’ union. The rule, which would have allowed fliers to carry knives with blades shorter than 2.36 inches and thinner than half an inch for the first time since the 9/11 attacks, was to take effect on April 25. After arguing for weeks that the relaxed rules would help free up screeners to focus on preventing bombs from getting past checkpoints, the TSA this week announced that it needed more time to incorporate feedback from its advisory committee, made up of passenger advocates, airline unions, and law enforcement experts. A coalition representing 90,000 flight attendants praised the delay and said it would continue to lobby members of Congress to permanently keep all knives off planes.