Thursday, August 23, 2012
Cops: Man called girlfriend from car
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.
The girlfriend of a man who was fatally shot in the back of an Arkansas patrol car told an investigator that he called her from the car and said he had a gun with him, police said Wednesday.
Jonesboro police offered those and other new details in a four-page statement about the investigation into the July 28 death of 21-year-old Chavis Carter. The death was ruled a suicide in an autopsy report released earlier this week.
Carter’s girlfriend also told the investigator that Carter said he loved her and that he was scared, according to the police statement, which did not identify the woman. Phone records showed Carter made two calls, at least one of which was from the back of the patrol car, police said.
Lawmaker in sex scandal out of race
ST. PAUL, Minn.
A Minnesota Democrat who had a rest-stop sexual encounter with a 17-year-old boy dropped his re-election bid Wednesday, hours after declaring he would stay in the race in defiance of party leaders who wanted him out as they fight to regain control of the state Legislature.
Rep. Kerry Gauthier, 56, told The Associated Press the decision was his own after multiple conversations with Democratic leaders pressing him to withdraw. He said he has been going back and forth about running “every 20 minutes for a week.”
Isaac churns into eastern Caribbean
ROSEAU, Dominica
The churning center of Tropical Storm Isaac spun over tiny islands at the eastern entrance to the Caribbean, where many seafront bars and restaurants stubbornly remained open Wednesday evening as lightning and thunder crackled and choppy surf slapped against piers and seawalls.
U.S. forecasters said Isaac was likely to approach Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, as a hurricane late today or early Friday after intensifying over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea. It was predicted to move on to Cuba as a tropical storm and perhaps eventually menace Florida as a hurricane later in the week.
Feds: Wash. threat suspect had arsenal
SEATTLE
A Washington state man accused of threatening to kill President Barack Obama raised a pump-action shotgun at officers who came to his door, but one managed to grab the barrel before any shots were fired, a Secret Service agent wrote in charging papers Wednesday.
Special Agent Bryan Molnar and Federal Way police officer Andy Hensing went to Anton Caluori’s apartment Tuesday afternoon, after a profanity-laced email landed in an FBI inbox stating: “I will kill the president!!!!! ... ‘I’ want you to come and get me ... you can’t afford to call my bluff.”
Caluori, 31, didn’t answer the door for several minutes when the officers knocked, but when he did, he was wearing a black bandolier filled with 12-gauge shotgun shells, Molnar wrote.
Attached to the bandolier was a large knife, the complaint said. A revolver rested in a holster on his ankle, and his right hand was behind his back.
Rover takes drive
PASADENA, Calif.
Curiosity took its first test drive around the gravel-strewn Martian terrain Wednesday, preparation for the ultimate road trip to find out if the red planet’s environment could have supported life.
The six-wheel NASA rover did not stray far from the spot where it landed more than two weeks ago. It rolled forward about 15 feet, rotated to a right angle and reversed a short distance, leaving tracks in the ancient soil.
Associated Press