Gearhart, Ore.
Crash kills five: Five people, including three children, died this week when a small plane crashed into a vacation house in the seaside town of Gearhart. Police said that the plane’s pilot, Jason Ketchson, and passenger, Frank Toohey, died in the crash, as did Julia Reimann, 10, Hesam Farrar Masoudi, 12, and Grace Masoudi, 8, who were in the house. Three other people, including two children, are being treated at a burn center in Portland. The cause of the crash is unknown, but authorities said that the four-seat Cessna had just taken off from a nearby airfield in heavy fog. “I heard the plane above and thought, Gosh, it’s awfully low,” said neighbor Rebecca Herren. Small-plane
crashes in the U.S. claim about five lives every week.
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Santa Cruz, Calif.
Scientists terrorized: The home and car of two research scientists at the University of California at Santa Cruz were firebombed this week, and police suspect the bombers are animal-rights militants. One explosion destroyed the car of a scientist whose name was not released; minutes later, a second explosion at a nearby home forced researcher David Feldheim and his wife and two children to flee through a second-story window. Police say they’ve collected “an enormous amount of forensic evidence” that points to militant animal-rights groups. Local animal-rights blogger Jerry Vlasak denied knowledge of the attacks, but said they were “not unpredictable or untenable.” Feldheim, Vlasak said, put “himself and his family in harm’s way by continuing to abuse animals.”
Washington, D.C.
‘Dream ticket’ just that: Any remaining hope among Hillary Clinton supporters that she would be Barack Obama’s running mate evaporated last week, after the Obama campaign said Clinton would address the Democratic National Convention a day before the vice presidential nominee is scheduled to speak. Obama has said that Clinton would be “on anybody’s shortlist” of potential running mates, but the timing of her speech strongly suggests he has other candidates in mind. In another clear sign that Clinton is out of contention, a group that was pushing for an Obama-Clinton ticket disbanded. Clinton will speak at the Denver convention on Aug. 26, the 88th anniversary of the ratification of the constitutional amendment granting women the right to vote.
Huntsville, Texas
Mexican national executed: In a case that has drawn international condemnation, Texas authorities this week executed Mexican citizen Jose Ernesto Medellin for the 1993 rapes and murders of two teenage girls in Houston. Medellin’s case stirred global controversy after an international court ruled in 2004 that Medellin and 50 other Mexicans on death row in the U.S. were denied access to their consulate, in violation of a decades-old treaty with the U.S. Lawyers for Texas argued that individual states are not bound by the treaty, a position upheld in March by the U.S. Supreme Court. Medellin’s execution was the first of six scheduled in Texas this month; he was killed by lethal injection.
Boston
Cyberthieves busted: Federal prosecutors in Boston and San Diego this week unveiled indictments against 11 people, accusing them of stealing more than 40 million credit and debit card numbers. The case is believed to be the largest computer-hacking case ever brought by the Justice Department. The 11 accused, who include citizens of the U.S., Belarus, China, Estonia, and Ukraine, allegedly used “sniffer” programs to steal credit card numbers, passwords, and account information from the credit card processing networks of U.S. retailers. The stores include Barnes & Noble, Marshall’s, OfficeMax, Sports Authority, and T.J. Maxx. The case ties together several cases in various jurisdictions that were previously thought to be unrelated.
Atlanta
AIDS undercount: The U.S. has underestimated the number of new AIDS infections that occur each year by as much as 40 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week. The agency recently adopted improved statistical techniques that indicate that 56,300 people in the U.S. contracted AIDS in 2006, up from the estimate of 40,000 that the agency has commonly cited as the annual infection rate. Officials stressed that the higher figure represents a more accurate estimate of the infected population, not necessarily an increase in the rate of infections. If the revised figures are accurate, epidemiologists say, the U.S. has underestimated the number of people living with AIDS by about 15,000 people a year for 15 years.
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