Helicopter crash probe

Helicopter crash probe

REDDING, Calif. — Investigators recovered the cockpit voice recorder from the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed Tuesday night after picking up firefighters in a Northern California forest, killing nine people, officials said Friday.

The recorder is bound for the National Transportation Safety Board laboratory in Washington, D.C., where experts were begin working on it today, board member Kitty Higgins said.

The Sikorsky S-61N was ferrying 10 firefighters, two pilots and a U.S. Forest Service employee when it crashed after takeoff in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. Four of those aboard were rescued and taken to hospitals.

Lucky 8’s for baby

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. — Hailey Jo Hauer was born on the eighth day of the eighth month in 2008 at 8:08 a.m. So it wouldn’t make sense for her to weigh anything other than 8 pounds, 8 ounces.

Lindsey Hauer thought staff at Lake Region Hospital in Minnesota were joking when they told her the time of her daughter’s birth. Then she got a call from the birthing suite noting Hailey’s weight.

Nurse Jenny Harstad joked that she tried to shrink the baby to 18 inches from her actual 19.5 inches.

Girl dies in flash flood

ASHLAND, N.H. — A flash flood roared through a central New Hampshire campground, sweeping a Rhode Island family’s SUV downstream, killing a 7-year-old girl, and leaving her mother and 5-year-old brother clinging for life to a tree until they were rescued, authorities said.

The flood Thursday evening at the Ames Brook Campground followed a powerful storm that dumped several inches of rain on parts of the state.

Witnesses said the girl’s father had left the vehicle when it was swept into the current about 6 p.m., said Chris Harris, who led the rescue team that took the girl’s mother and brother to safety.

The man screamed for help from the banks as the vehicle was pushed downstream, witnesses said.

Mayor charged with assault

DETROIT — For anyone keeping score, the leader of the nation’s 11th-largest city now faces 10 felony charges in two separate cases.

Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged Friday with assaulting two investigators who were trying to deliver a subpoena to the mayor’s friend last month. The two felony counts carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine of $2,000.

Kilpatrick spent Thursday night in jail after violating bond conditions in the other case against him. He is accused along with a former top aide of perjury and other charges over their testimony in a lawsuit.

Mayor cleared in raid

BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A small-town mayor whose dogs were killed in a drug raid was cleared of any wrongdoing after police had been reluctant to rule out his involvement in drug smuggling or apologize for the violent incident.

Prince George’s County Police Chief Melvin High said Friday he called Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, on Thursday to say they were no longer suspected in a drug smuggling scheme.

A SWAT team raided the mayor’s home July 29 after intercepting a FedEx package shipped to Tomsic that was filled with 32 pounds of marijuana. Officers broke down the door, shot the two dogs and kept Calvo and his mother-in-law bound for nearly two hours.

Police now believe the drug delivery was part of a scheme that sent packages to the homes of unsuspecting recipients. The packages would then be picked up by someone else shortly after delivery. Two suspects have been arrested in the case.

Marine faces murder trial

SAN DIEGO — A Camp Pendleton Marine sergeant was ordered Friday to stand trial on charges of unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty in the killing of an unarmed detainee in Fallujah, Iraq.

Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland ordered the court-martial of Sgt. Ryan Weemer after finding there was sufficient evidence to send him to trial.

Weemer is one of three current and former Marines accused of breaking rules of engagement and killing four men they had captured after a platoon commander radioed to ask whether the Iraqis were “dead yet.”

A telephone message left by for Weemer’s attorney, Paul Hackett, was not immediately returned.

The killings occurred in November 2004 during the invasion of Fallujah, one of the fiercest ground battles of the Iraq war.

Associated Press