Tap water confirmed as source of salmonella

Tap water confirmed as source of salmonella

DENVER — It could be three more weeks before residents of a southern Colorado town can drink water straight from the tap after dozens of cases of salmonella poisoning were linked to municipal water, putting seven people in the hospital.

An analysis indicates the municipal water system in Alamosa is the source of the bacterial outbreak, as suspected, said Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the state health department.

Gov. Bill Ritter declared an emergency Friday in Alamosa County, activating the National Guard and providing as much as $300,000 for response efforts.

The city and county have also declared emergencies as officials scrambled to provide safe water and disinfect the system with chlorine.

Astronauts check shuttle’s thermal skin

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Endeavour’s astronauts inspected their ship’s thermal skin Friday for any possible damage from orbital debris, using a laser-tipped boom that will be left behind at the international space station.

The slow and meticulous survey normally is conducted after a space shuttle leaves the space station. This time, it was done with the shuttle still docked. That’s because the 50-foot inspection boom will be left behind for the next shuttle crew.

There won’t be room in Discovery’s payload bay for an inspection boom in May; Japan’s enormous Kibo lab will take up almost every square inch. Two astronauts will attach the boom to the outside of the space station tonight during the fifth and final spacewalk of the shuttle mission.

Students on spring break help out in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — The spring break snapshots coming out of the Big Easy aren’t of tabletop dancing and beer-drinking contests. No, the photos making it onto student blogs and personal Web pages this spring show hard hats and hammers.

Hundreds of students from across the nation are streaming into New Orleans this spring break to lend their time and an air of hope to a city where years of repair work remain.

One after another, students said they’ve come because they haven’t forgotten about New Orleans and how 80 percent of the city was flooded when the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“The 20-somethings — we’re a lot more aware politically, socially, culturally,” said Melissa Licastro, a New Jersey architecture student helping out Friday in the funky but flood-wrecked Lower 9th Ward neighborhood of Holy Cross. Clad in a T-shirt and blue work trousers, she pulled crooked and blackened nails from old cypress planks, just a few blocks from Fats Domino’s house.

Doughnut delivery van leads police on chase

TOLEDO, Iowa — A bevy of officers chased a doughnut delivery van at speeds up to 100 mph before arresting the driver at gunpoint, authorities said.

But the cops weren’t simply hankering for doughnuts.

The van, owned by Donut Delite of Moline, Ill., was stolen early Thursday while the driver was making deliveries at a hospital in nearby Rock Island. The driver had left the van running, and a man jumped in and headed for Iowa, just over the Mississippi River.

A Benton County, Iowa, deputy sheriff spotted the van later in the morning, and eight other officers eventually joined the chase. Authorities finally cornered it in neighboring Tama County.

Officials: Obese relative may have crushed toddler

LA JOYA, Texas — A 2-year-old boy who died with a fractured skull may have been accidentally crushed by a morbidly obese relative, authorities say.

Investigators believe the woman fell on the child, who was pronounced dead Tuesday, said Bobby Contreras, Hidalgo County justice of the peace.

“It didn’t look like there was any foul play from what I saw,” he said.

An autopsy was scheduled, with the cause of death to be released Monday.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino, who called the death “suspicious,” said he would wait for an announcement on the cause before deciding whether to file charges.

The child was believed to have been dropped off by his mother to spend the day with the bedridden relative, The McAllenMonitor reported Friday.

Associated Press