Trucker sentenced

Trucker sentenced

PORTLAND, Ind. — A truck driver was sentenced to four years in prison Tuesday for causing a crash that killed five people and sparked a highly publicized case of mistaken identity. Robert F. Spencer, 38, could have faced up to 24 years in prison. On May 29, he pleaded guilty to five counts of reckless homicide and four counts of criminal recklessness. Spencer’s semitrailer collided with a Taylor University van April 26, 2006. Authorities said Spencer had fallen asleep at the wheel after failing to take required rest breaks.

Four students and a school employee were killed; five other people were injured. Five weeks after the crash, the family of student Laura VanRyn realized that she was dead and the injured woman they thought was their daughter actually was Whitney Cerak, another Taylor student. Cerak, of Gaylord, Mich., has since recovered and returned to classes.

Spencer could be eligible for release in about a year, the prosecutor said. He also must pay a $5,000 fine and spend 500 hours doing community service. He also will permanently lose his commercial driver’s license. Authorities say he had driven at least nine hours more than allowed under federal rules before he fell asleep behind the wheel.

Garbage truck shortage

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — It’s tough times for trash haulers in West Virginia’s second-largest city, which is down to three working garbage trucks. Eight of Huntington’s 11 garbage trucks are out of service, along with two flatbed trucks used to pick up loose trash in alleys, said Public Works Director Chuck Cornett.

The average age of trucks in Huntington’s garbage fleet is about 15 years. The trucks are driven five days a week to a landfill about 17 miles away, near Cannonsburg, Ky., Cornett said. The city uses seven garbage trucks on a normal schedule. Cornett said the city of about 49,000 residents should have one more truck in service by the end of this week and two more back on the road by sometime next week.

Residents are being asked to have their trash at curbside the night before their scheduled collection days. Crews are collecting garbage as early as 4 a.m., with a second shift working until midafternoon, Cornett said.

Digging at mine continues

HUNTINGTON, Utah — As frustration mounts over the slow pace of the digging to free six trapped miners, more questions arose Tuesday about whether risky mining methods may have left parts of the coal mine dangerously unstable. Some mining companies consider the “retreat mining” methods used at Utah’s Crandall Canyon so dangerous, they will leave behind coal rather than risk the safety of their workers.

Video images taken early Tuesday showed miners working to clear a heavily damaged mine shaft. They were only a third of the way to the presumed location of the trapped miners — eight days after a thunderous collapse blew out the walls of mine shafts. A top mining executive estimated the digging would take up to another week.

Appeal in pants ruling

WASHINGTON — A judge who lost a $54 million lawsuit against a dry cleaner over a missing pair of pants continues to press his suit. Roy Pearson, a District of Columbia administrative law judge, filed a notice of appeal Tuesday.

Jin Nam Chung and Soo Chung, the owners of Custom Cleaners, had hoped Pearson would back off the case after withdrawing their demand Monday that he pay their legal fees, their attorney said.

175 die in bombings

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Four suicide bombers hit Kurdish Yazidi communities with nearly simultaneous attacks on Tuesday, killing at least 175 people and wounding 200 others, said Iraqi military and local officials in northwest Iraq. The death toll was the highest in a concerted attack since Nov. 23, when 215 people were killed by mortar fire and five car bombs in Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City.

The bombs tore through the districts near Qahataniya, 75 miles west of Mosul, Iraq’s third-largest city, said Abdul-Rahman al-Shimiri, the top government official in the area, and Iraq army Capt. Mohammed Ahmed. They said at least 30 homes were destroyed in the bombings. Yazidis are members of an ancient, primarily Kurdish, religious sect that worships an angel figure that some Christians and Muslims believe to be the devil.

Netanyahu leads in Israel

JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu easily defeated a radical Jewish settler in the race to lead Israel’s hardline Likud Party on Tuesday, a party official said, boosting his ambitions to reclaim the country’s premiership. Though Netanyahu’s victory had been all but assured, a strong showing by challenger Moshe Feiglin could have shored up Israel’s extreme right and hurt Netanyahu’s efforts to rehabilitate Likud after it was trounced in national elections last year. Recent polls have crowned Netanyahu, Likud’s leader 4since late 2005, as the front-runner for Israel’s top job. With more than 80 percent of the primary votes tallied, Netanyahu was out way ahead with 73 percent, party executive director Gad Arieli said.

Associated Press