Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Digest

Kansas rejects coal-fired plantover emissions

By TIMES WIRES
Published October 19, 2007

TOPEKA, KAN.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment on Tuesday became the first government agency in the United States to cite carbon dioxide emissions as the reason for rejecting an air permit for a proposed coal-fired electricity generating plant, saying that the greenhouse gas threatens public health and the environment. The decision marks a victory for environmental groups that are fighting proposals for new coal-fired plants around the country. It may be the first of a series of similar state actions inspired by a Supreme Court decision in April that asserted that greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, should be considered pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

CHARLESTON, W.Va.

Autistic hiker safe after 4-day ordeal

An autistic 18-year-old lost in the wilderness for four days was found sleeping under a bush Thursday, weak but apparently fine, and reunited with his family, searchers said. "To the best of our knowledge, he was just hungry and thirsty and fatigued," said Jim Reneau, one of the nine searchers who found Jacob Allen. Allen, who wandered away from his parents while hiking Sunday, was found lying in a clearing about a mile from where his hat was found Monday.

MOKANE, Mo.

Schoolboy, 11, goes on crime binge

A fifth-grader walked out of class and went on a crime spree, stealing weapons from a central Missouri farm and shooting at three people who tried to confront him, wounding a school official, authorities said Thursday. School staff alerted authorities when the 11-year-old boy never returned to class for a bathroom break and could not be found on campus Wednesday afternoon, South Callaway superintendent Dustin Storm said. Callaway County Sheriff Dennis Crane told the Columbia Daily Tribune the boy walked a mile to a hog farm, where he stole several weapons from a building. When he was confronted by the landowner and a neighbor, the boy shot at the two men but missed, the sheriff said. He then shot Donnie Debrodie, who is the school district's transportation director and was out looking for him, in the wrist, Storm said. The boy's motive was not clear.

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

Meth sales net principal 2-4 years

A former middle school principal who pleaded guilty to selling crystal methamphetamine from his office was sentenced Thursday to two to four years in state prison. John Acerra, 50, apologized to students, teachers and parents at Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, where he was arrested in February after he tried to sell the drug to an informant. "I take full responsibility for my actions," Acerra said Thursday. "I have a disease called addiction, but I don't blame my wrongdoing on my disease or society."

[Last modified October 19, 2007, 01:15:48]