Thursday, April 20, 2006
Mumps cases spread
DES MOINES, Iowa -- In the worst outbreak in nearly 20 years, mumps cases are spilling out of Iowa, popping up in at least seven other Midwestern states and perhaps seven more -- leading to promises of extra vaccine from the U.S. stockpile.
There are no deaths and few hospitalizations being reported from the disease, which health officials say might have been helped by air travel.
But the nation's federal health agency said Wednesday it's the largest outbreak in almost two decades with more than 1,000 cases and it's expected to keep growing.
More than 800 of the cases are in Iowa. The CDC has pledged to provide 25,000 doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to the state from the agency's stockpile. And Merck & amp; Co., the vaccine maker, is giving another 25,000 doses to the CDC for distribution to other states, Gerberding said in a briefing in Atlanta.
Priest confesses killing
TOLUCA, Mexico -- A Mexican priest has confessed strangling his pregnant lover after Easter Mass and cutting her body into pieces, a state attorney general said Wednesday.
The Rev. Cesar Torres, 42, admitted killing the 22-year-old woman at his parish on Mexico City's eastern outskirts, Mexico state Attorney General Abel Villicana said.
Villicana read from a statement signed by Torres in which the priest described his affair with the woman, Veronica Andrade Salinas, and said she came to his home at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the city of Nezahualcoyotl to say she was pregnant and ask for money.
According to the statement, the two fought and Torres strangled Salinas to death. He then dragged the body to a nearby bathroom and, according to the statement authorities say he signed, used a kitchen knife to cut off her head and hack her body to pieces. He packed the pieces into plastic bags.
According to the confession, Torres loaded the bags into a pickup truck and dumped them near a cemetery in Chimalhuacan, which like Nezahualcoyotl is in Mexico state.
Remembering victims
OKLAHOMA CITY -- In a moving roll call, loved ones of the 168 victims of the Oklahoma City bombing read their names during a ceremony marking the 11th anniversary of the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
Survivors and relatives of those killed placed photographs of the victims, personal mementos and other reminders on the empty bronze chairs that mark the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Gov. Brad Henry reminded mourners of the outpouring of support from around the world after the attack, and he again thanked rescue workers who saved lives in the building's wreckage.
"The legacy of April 19, 1995, is goodness overcoming evil," the governor said. "That's what we must remember."
At least 4 die from storm
BISMARCK, N.D. -- A powerful spring storm swept through the northwestern Plains on Wednesday, dumping up to 2 feet of snow that closed major highways, cut power to hundreds and was blamed for at least four deaths.
More than 2,000 homes and businesses lost power in South Dakota's Black Hills, and many schools were closed. Some customers in North Dakota could be without electricity until Friday, said the Mountrail-Williams County Electric Cooperative.
The heaviest snow was reported in the Black Hills, with 24 inches at Lead and Rochford, the weather service said. Sundance, Wyo., reported 13 inches of snow by midmorning with wind gusting to 60 mph. A foot had fallen at Bowman, in North Dakota's southwest corner, which was under a blizzard warning in the afternoon, the weather service said.
Widow wins big at slots
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- For 84-year-old Josephine Crawford, the golden years just got a lot more golden.
After a night playing the slot machines, the retired waitress widow was about to call it quits Tuesday when she hit a $10 million jackpot -- the biggest in the history of casino gambling in Atlantic City.
Crawford, who gambles here twice a week and has been going to the casinos since the first one opened in 1978, had never won more than $1,000 before she came into the big money at the nickel slots at Harrah's Atlantic City.
The widow from Galloway Township lives with her daughter, drives a 2006 Honda Civic and has no plans to buy a new car or a new house. But she always wanted to see Italy, where her parents grew up, and wants to share the wealth with her two daughters, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
"Somehow, I'll spend it. I'll spend it at the casino, and I might go to Vegas," she said.
Associated Press