Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Digest

Extremists drive school buses, officials warn

By TIMES WIRES
Published March 17, 2007

WASHINGTON

Suspected members of extremist groups have signed up as school bus drivers in the United States, counterterror officials said Friday in a bulletin asking law enforcement agencies around the country to watch out for kids' safety. FBI spokesman Rich Kolko said, "Parents and children have nothing to fear. ... There are no threats, no plots and no history leading us to believe there is any reason for concern." The bulletin did not say how often foreign extremists have sought to acquire licenses to drive school buses, or where. It noted "recent suspicious activity" by foreigners who either drive school buses or are licensed to drive them, according to a counterterror official. Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the government has no credible information to suggest terrorists are "involved in buying school buses or seeking licenses to drive them." He said there was no indication of any immediate threat to the country.

SALT LAKE CITY

Honored teacher accused of abuse

A first-grade teacher honored last year as among the best in Utah was charged with sexually abusing three students in his suburban classroom, authorities said Friday. Frank L. Hall, 36, is accused of putting his hand inside the pants of three girls between June and this month at Rosamond Elementary School in Riverton, according to court documents. Sheriff's Chief Deputy Shane Hudson said authorities were notified after a student who witnessed the touching told his parents.

NEW YORK

Slain men's families could get $400,000

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday that the families of two unarmed NYPD volunteers, Auxiliary Officers Eugene Marshalik and Nicholas Todd Pekearo, who died trying to stop a gunman are ineligible for police line-of-duty death benefits but could qualify for more than $400,000 from other programs. Marshalik, a college sophomore weeks away from his 20th birthday, and Pekearo, 28, an aspiring writer, were killed along with 35-year-old pizzeria bartender Alfredo Romero when David Garvin went on a rampage Wednesday night in Greenwich Village. Police fatally shot Garvin.

Elsewhere

Kansas City, Mo.: Lorenzo Gilyard, 56, a former trash company supervisor, was convicted Friday of murdering six women whose strangled bodies were found scattered around the area two decades ago. Under a deal with prosecutors, the only possible sentence was life in prison.

Phoenix: A prosecutor said Friday that he will seek the death penalty against a man accused of being the Baseline Killer, a serial predator who terrorized residents here for more than a year. Mark Goudeau, 42, is charged with 94 crimes in all, including nine counts of first-degree murder, 15 counts of sexual assault and 11 counts of kidnapping. Goudeau has pleaded not guilty.

[Last modified March 17, 2007, 01:58:20]