Obama declares emergency in La.

Obama declares emergency in La.

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on Monday as that state and others along the Gulf Coast prepared for Tropical Storm Isaac.

The White House said Obama informed Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal of the emergency declaration in a phone call. The declaration makes federal support available to save lives, protect public health and safety and preserve property in coastal areas.

Jindal, a Republican, shot back late Monday in a letter to the Obama administration that the declaration fell short of the help he was requesting.

NTSB blames pilot for fatal Reno crash

RENO, Nev.

The World War II-era P-51 Mustang hurtled over the race course in Nevada at more than 500 mph, its skin wrinkling and canopy separating from the sheer force of the flight. A crucial tail control fluttered, its screws loosening.

At the stick was 74-year-old pilot Jimmy Leeward who had listed his age as 59 on a race entry form and made changes to his plane to make it fly faster than it ever had before. It did for several seconds before taking a deadly plunge into spectators.

Nearly a year later, and just weeks before organizers stage the race again Sept. 12, federal investigators Monday blamed Leeward and his aircraft modifications for the crash.

Along with Leeward, 10 people on the ground were killed and more than 70 were hurt in the September 2011 crash.

Man killed trying to spark Bigfoot report

KALISPELL, Mont.

A man dressed in a military-style “ghillie” suit and apparently trying to provoke reports of a Bigfoot sighting in northwest Montana was struck by two cars and killed, authorities said.

The man was standing in the right-hand lane of U.S. Highway 93 south of Kalispell on Sunday night when he was hit by the first car, according to the Montana Highway Patrol. A second car hit the man as he lay in the roadway, authorities said.

Flathead County officials identified the man as Randy Lee Tenley, 44, of Kalispell. Trooper Jim Schneider said motives were ascertained during interviews with friends.

Ghillie suits are a type of full-body clothing made to resemble heavy foliage and used to camouflage military snipers.

Pianist Cliburn has bone cancer

FORT WORTH, Texas

Renowned classical pianist Van Cliburn has been diagnosed with advanced bone cancer and is resting comfortably at his Texas home, his publicist said Monday.

The 78-year-old Cliburn is under excellent care and his spirits are high, said longtime friend and publicist Mary Lou Falcone.

Cliburn skyrocketed to fame in 1958 when he won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow at age 23. He triumphantly returned to a New York ticker tape parade, the only one ever for a classical musician, and a Time magazine cover proclaimed him “The Texan Who Conquered Russia.”

2 recent hotel guests die of Legionnaires’

CHICAGO

Two recent guests of a downtown Chicago Marriott have died after contracting Legionnaires’ disease, Chicago Department of Public Health officials said Monday.

Those are among eight cases of Legionnaires’ in people who stayed at the JW Marriott, 151 W. Adams St., between mid-July and mid-August.

None of the eight people who contracted the disease lives in, or is being treated in, the Chicago area.

Combined dispatches