Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Nation in brief

Storms kill 1 in Ala.; 13 hurt in Fla.

By wire services
Published January 14, 2006

BAKER - Severe storms and tornadoes swept across two states Friday, killing a woman in Alabama, damaging dozens of homes and tearing a section of roof off a Florida school where 13 children were injured, authorities said.

The children at Baker School had minor cuts and bruises, said Ken Wolf, emergency management director for Okaloosa County.

A post office and several mobile homes also were damaged in the Panhandle town, about 50 miles northeast of Pensacola, the National Weather Service reported.

In the small community of Belleville, Ala., at least 18 homes and the fire department building were damaged or destroyed by a tornado, state officials said.

The Conecuh County, Ala., Sheriff's Office confirmed the death of a woman who was killed in her home by a chimney collapse.

MINNEAPOLIS - A tribal chairman's teenage son was sentenced Friday for exchanging threatening messages with the gunman in last year's shootings on the Red Lake Indian reservation, but the closed hearing frustrated victims' family members.

Louis Jourdain's father, Floyd Jourdain Jr., would not disclose the 17-year-old's sentence. He said his son "feels extremely terrible about what happened at Red Lake."

A judge barred victims of the shooting or their survivors from the closed juvenile proceedings, ruling that they were not victims of the crime for which Jourdain was being sentenced.

Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and the man's companion, then headed to Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before killing himself in the nation's worst school shooting since Columbine.

ALASKA VOLCANO ERUPTS: A volcano on an uninhabited island 180 miles from Anchorage erupted three times Friday, sending plumes of ash more than 6 miles into the sky. The National Weather Service warned about 16,000 residents in nearby areas about the ash cloud. But the Alaska Volcano Observatory said it did not expect a heavy accumulation of ash.

EX-PRIEST GETS 111 YEARS: A former Roman Catholic priest convicted of child molestation was sentenced Friday to 111 years in prison. Paul LeBrun abused multiple boys while at the Phoenix Diocese from 1986 to 1991.

PRISON RIOT: A riot broke out in a crowded dining hall at California's San Quentin State Prison, injuring at least 23 inmates and two staff members, prison officials said Friday. Officers armed with pepper spray and batons were able to quickly quell the riot Thursday night, and authorities Friday were investigating what had sparked it.

[Last modified January 14, 2006, 01:39:15]