Albuquerque
Record forest blaze: Two lightning-sparked fires that merged in the mountains of southwestern New Mexico have burned more than 265 square miles in the Gila National Forest and this week became the largest fire in state history, fire officials said. A “record-breaking dry air mass” and continuing drought have fed the fire’s growth. Though it is burning far from population centers, the Gila blaze has not been contained, and officials worry that shifting winds may cause it to grow even more. “We are still facing adverse weather conditions that are posing a challenge,” said fire information officer Jerry Perry, who added that smoke has spread across New Mexico and parts of Arizona, putting cities as far away as Albuquerque under health alerts. More than 1,100 firefighters and nine helicopters from around the state were fighting the blaze.
Chicago
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Memorial Day massacre: In a grim kickoff to summer, 43 people were shot and 10 killed over a scorching Memorial Day weekend, police said. At least 200 homicides are on the books since the start of the year, a jump from 134 in 2011 during the same period. Shootings are up, too, 14 percent over last year, police said. Seventy percent of the gun violence is gang-related, city officials claim, though that figure has been dismissed as speculation by Harold Pollack of the University of Chicago crime lab. What’s labeled gang-related violence often falls “in the gray zone when you have a lot of gang-affiliated youth who are having teenage disputes,” said Pollack. Gangland killings “are not a new problem” in Chicago, said police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, whose officers are trying new strategies, including “gang audits,” which track known members via Twitter and Facebook.
New York City
Charges in Etan Patz case: A man who confessed to killing 6-year-old Etan Patz 33 years ago was charged last week with second-degree murder, but the resolution of one of the most influential child-disappearance cases ever is still in doubt. Pedro Hernandez, 51, told police last week that he was working in a bodega in the then seedy Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo in May 1979 when he lured Etan with a soda into the store’s basement. Hernandez said he strangled the boy, put his body into a bag, and dumped it in the trash. Police have found no physical evidence to corroborate Hernandez’s account. His lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, said Hernandez is mentally ill and has “a history of hallucinations.” Hernandez has no police record and has lived in the Camden, N.J., area for decades. Asked for a comment, Etan’s mother, Julie, who still lives in the now upscale neighborhood, said, “I just wish this could be over.”
New Brunswick, N.J.
Ravi to jail: A day after apologizing to “everyone affected” by his actions, Dharun Ravi, who was convicted in the Rutgers “spycam” case, said he was ready to begin his 30-day jail term. Ravi, 20, was convicted in March of bias intimidation, invasion of privacy, and other crimes for setting up a webcam to record his roommate, Tyler Clementi, 18, kissing another man. Ravi then joked about the encounter in emails, text messages, and Twitter posts to friends. Days later, Clementi committed suicide by throwing himself from New York City’s George Washington Bridge, leading gay-rights advocates to accuse Ravi of a lethal form of bullying. Though he had never publicly expressed remorse, Ravi this week called his actions “thoughtless, insensitive, immature, stupid, and childish.”
Washington, D.C.
Jobless checks ending: Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans will receive their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected, it was reported this week. In February, Congress renewed the extended-benefit program until the end of the year, but reduced the number of weeks of assistance and made it difficult for states to get the maximum amount of federal aid. Because of these changes, roughly 500,000 people—including 70,000 this month—are now expected to lose their jobless benefits sooner than expected. Most states offered unemployment benefits for 26 weeks, after which federal extensions continued jobless assistance up to 99 weeks. Kevin A. Hassett of the conservative American Enterprise Institute is not a supporter of extended benefits but is troubled by the abrupt cutoff. “If you just reduce the weeks of unemployment for people already unemployed but don’t do anything else, it’s a bad deal,” he said, “because they’re already about the worst-off people in society.”
Miami
Face-eating attack: Searching for the motivation behind a shocking act of cannibalism, police this week said they suspected that the 31-year-old man who was shot to death while gnawing the face of a homeless victim may have been under the influence of a powerful street drug known as “bath salts.” Toxicology tests will take weeks, but experts said Rudy Eugene was exhibiting the classic signs of someone high on the amphetamine-like drug. An old friend of Eugene’s said, “Drugs did this to him.” A police officer shot Eugene last week after pleading with him to stop his assault on Ronald Poppo, 65. Dr. Paul Adams of Jackson Memorial Rider Trauma Center says psychotic episodes linked to this new drug have spiked during the last year.
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