Officer estimates enough in speeding

Officer estimates enough in speeding

COLUMBUS

Ohio’s highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer’s visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy and experienced in watching for speeders. The court’s 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver’s speed is not necessary.

The court upheld a lower court’s ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from a police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.

Israeli PM defends blockade on Gaza

JERUSALEM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hotly rejected calls to lift a blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Wednesday, insisting the ban prevents missile attacks on Israel and labeling worldwide criticism of his navy’s bloody raid on a pro-Palestinian flotilla as “hypocrisy.”

“This was not the ‘Love Boat,’” Netanyahu said in an address to the nation, referring to the vessel boarded by commandos, setting off clashes that led to the deaths of nine activists. “It was a hate boat.”

Hundreds of activists deported from Israel after the bloody raid returned to a hero’s welcome in Turkey early today. Nine bodies were on the first plane.

Calif. moves to ban plastic bags at stores

SACRAMENTO, Calif.

It could soon cost California shoppers at the checkout aisle if they forget to bring their own bags to the store under what would be the nation’s first statewide plastic-bag ban.

The California Assembly on Wednesday passed legislation prohibiting pharmacies and grocery, liquor and convenience stores from giving out plastic bags. The bill also calls for customers to be charged for using store-issued paper bags.

Buffett defends rating agencies

NEW YORK

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett on Wednesday defended credit-rating agencies that gave overly positive grades to mortgage-related investments before the housing bust. He said the agencies were among many who missed warnings signs of the crisis.

But he said he counted himself among those who failed to foresee the collapse of the housing bubble.

“The entire American public was caught up in a belief that housing prices could not fall dramatically,” Buffett told a congressionally chartered panel investigating the financial crisis. Had he known how bad it would get, Buffett said he would have sold his company’s stake in rating agency Moody’s Corp.

Holloway suspect sought in slaying

LIMA, Peru

A young Dutchman previously arrested in the 2005 disappearance of Alabama teen Natalee Holloway is the prime suspect in the weekend murder of a Peruvian woman, police said Wednesday.

Joran van der Sloot is being sought in Sunday’s killing of 21-year-old Stephany Flores in a Lima hotel, police chief Gen. Cesar Guardia told a news conference. He said the suspect crossed into Chile the next day by bus.

The Dutch government said Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for van der Sloot.

Guardia said the 22-year-old Dutchman, in Peru for a poker tournament, appears with the young woman in a video taken at a Lima casino early Sunday, and the two later were seen entering the hotel by one of its employees.

Associated Press