Mississippi River flood peaks in Wisconsin

Mississippi River floodpeaks in Wisconsin
PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, Wis. -- The muddy waters of the Mississippi River engulfed homes and pushed sandbag walls to the limit after cresting short of predictions 60 miles upriver at La Crosse.
Dorothy and Al Reed moved furniture out of their home in this southwest Wisconsin river town Wednesday, then spent the night in the two-story structure despite water that filled the basement and covered a porch.
"It's not easy to watch your house go under water," Dorothy Reed said. "It's all you own, you don't have any choice. It gives you a sick feeling in your stomach."
The Mississippi crested at 16.41 feet Wednesday morning at La Crosse, a foot and a half below the record set in April 1965. Officials said it could take weeks for the river to slip back into its banks and below the flood stage of 12 feet.
"Our dikes are still holding," said Pat Caffrey, public works director in La Crosse. "Our biggest concern is the weather forecast."
A chance of showers or storms was forecast for the region from tonight into early next week, though the rain wasn't expected to be heavy.
Scores of homes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa are already surrounded by water or partly flooded, and residents further downstream are watching the river rise as they wait for the crest, expected in Iowa over the next week.
Aging fugitive orderedto finish sentence
EUGENE, Ore. -- A 70-year-old Oregon man has been ordered to return to California to finish serving a life sentence for murder 27 years after Oregon's governor freed him from prison.
Lane County Circuit Judge Bryan P. Hodges ruled Wednesday that Robert Lee Burns was a fugitive, despite arguments that California failed to follow up on extradition in 1982 and 1983 when Burns was arrested on a California fugitive warrant in Nevada and Alaska.
Burns, suffering from heart disease and cancer, said he will appeal the ruling. A hearing to block extradition was tentatively set for Friday.
Burns was sentenced to life in 1964 after one of his partners in a Sacramento, Calif., bank robbery killed a highway patrolman. After being transferred to Oregon to serve the remainder of his robbery sentence, he was deemed rehabilitated. Then-Gov. Robert Straub refused to send him back to California.
Since then, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling eliminated the right of governors to grant sanctuary. Burns was arrested Jan. 4.
State faces boycottafter vote on flag
JACKSON, Miss. -- With the possibility of an economic boycott looming, Confederate heritage groups called on people to accept Mississippi's decision to keep its state flag with the Rebel emblem.
"The voice of the people has been heard. The people of Mississippi do not want another flag. Mississippians are proud of their families, this state and its rich history," William Earl Faggert, a leader of the state Sons of Confederate Veterans, said Wednesday.
The NAACP raised the threat of a boycott Wednesday after voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal that would have replaced the Confederate symbol on the flag with a cluster of 20 stars signifying Mississippi's admission as the 20th state.
Eugene Bryant, president of the Mississippi chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said a decision on a boycott could be made by May. The national organization used the tactic against South Carolina, where a Confederate flag flew for decades atop the Statehouse dome until it was moved to the front of the building.
Dad dies after shooting
DALLAS -- A man who pleaded with his 6-year-old son to shoot him died Wednesday, three days after a gun went off as Ronald Moore and the boy held the gun to Moore's head.
Moore, 42, had been in critical condition since Sunday night's shooting at the family's south Oak Cliff home. A spokeswoman at Methodist Medical Center said he died Wednesday afternoon.
A police report said Moore held the .22-caliber derringer in his 6-year-old son's hands Sunday and pleaded with the boy to shoot him. The boy resisted, but the report said the weapon discharged as they both held the gun. Moore was struck in the left temple.
The report did not say who pulled the trigger, but the boy later told his mother and investigators, "My daddy made me shoot him."
Police said no charges would be filed in the case. The shooting is being investigated as a suicide.
The boy's mother told police that Moore had been drinking vodka all day and that by Sunday afternoon he "began to go through mood swings."