Girl struck by lightning; wins lottery the next day

Girl struck by lightning; wins lottery the next day

BLANCHARD, Mich. — No one quite understands the term “striking it lucky” better than 16-year-old BreAnna Helsel. The Michigan teen survived being struck by lightning and went on to win $20 in the lottery the next day.

BreAnna was at her home in Blanchard, watching thunderstorms roll by June 6 when she noticed rain entering an open kitchen window.

“She went to close the window, and the lightning came through and hit her,” her mother, Linda Johnson, told The Daily News of Greenville. “We think it must have hit the house or something.”

“Everyone said I’m really lucky,” BreAnna said. Hospital employees suggested that she was on such a lucky streak, she should immediately play the lottery. She’s too young, so her mother went out the next day and bought a Michigan lottery ticket for her.

“And we won $20,” Johnson said, laughing. “What a way to start the summer.”

NASA: Missing clip is no threat to shuttle

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A metal clip broke off Discovery’s rudder, and only four hours passed before the seven space shuttle astronauts got the good news: The missing part poses no danger for today’s re-entry and landing.

Ever since the Columbia tragedy five years ago, any shuttle part seen floating away in orbit gets NASA’s attention — fast.

Mission Control reassured commander Mark Kelly and his crew Friday that their spaceship was safe for coming home, and that the missing clip would not jeopardize anything. Good weather is expected for today’s landing in Florida.

British warship found

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the “Holy Grail” shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday.

Shipwreck enthusiasts Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville used side-scanning sonar and an unmanned submersible to locate the HMS Ontario, which was lost with barely a trace and as many as 130 people aboard during a gale in 1780.

The 80-foot sloop of war is the oldest shipwreck and the only fully intact British warship ever found in the Great Lakes, Scoville and Kennard said.

Blackout hits Washington

WASHINGTON — A power outage brought much of the nation’s capital to a standstill for more than two hours Friday as the White House went to a backup generator, stranded commuters escaped the snarled Metro by trudging up stalled escalators and federal workers milled outside darkened buildings.

Frustrated officials muttered darkly about the “Friday the 13th” blackout as some government employees were given the rest of the day off. Pepco, the utility provider, reported that power was restored to all customers before 11 a.m.

The power went out at 7:25 a.m., idling arriving office workers outside darkened workplaces. Two small fires on Metro tracks snarled morning subway commutes. It wasn’t clear whether the fires were caused by power problems, which have been blamed in the past for track fires.

Police release sketch in murder of two girls

WELEETKA, Okla. — Authorities released a sketch Friday of a “person of interest” investigators want to interview about the slayings of two girls along an eastern Oklahoma country road.

The man, looking “a little suspicious,” was seen standing near a white pickup truck around the time and place the youngsters were shot to death Sunday afternoon, said Jessica Brown, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

He was described as an American Indian, about 6 feet tall, with black hair and a pony tail. He was driving a white Ford or Chevrolet single-cab pickup with chrome stripping and an Oklahoma license tag.

Michigan governor vetoes ban on abortion procedure

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm has vetoed a ban on the medical procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion.

Granholm’s veto Friday was expected. The Democrat has said she won’t support the law because it doesn’t allow the abortion method to be used if a mother’s health is in danger.

The Legislature wrote the bill to mirror a federal law that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was constitutional last year.

Associated Press