Probe places blame in firefighters’ deaths

Probe places blame in firefighters’ deaths

PHOENIX

An Arizona commission that oversees workplace safety blamed the state’s Forestry Division on Wednesday for the June deaths of 19 firefighters, saying state fire officials knowingly put protection of property ahead of safety and should have pulled crews out earlier.

The ruling by the state Industrial Commission came after its investigative agency, the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health, released its findings and recommended citations and financial penalties. The commission levied a $559,000 fine.

Stolen cobalt-60 recovered in Mexico

MEXICO CITY

A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico, the country’s nuclear safety director said.

The highly radioactive material had been removed from its container, officials said, and one predicted that anyone involved in opening the box could be in grave danger of dying within days.

The cobalt-60 was left in a rural area about a half-mile from Hueypoxtla, an agricultural town of about 4,000 people, but it posed no threat or a need for an evacuation, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

Commission physicist Mardonio Jimenez said it was the first time material like this had been stolen and extracted from its container. The only threat was to whoever opened the box and later discarded the pellets of high-intensity radioactive material that was being transported to a waste site. It had been used in medical equipment for radiation therapy.

Suspect in custody in school shooting

WINTER GARDEN, Fla.

Two Orlando-area high- school students got into a fight Wednesday at the bus-pickup area, and one of them opened fire, wounding the other, police said.

A 17-year-old student from West Orange High School was taken into custody while a 15-year-old had injuries to his face and stomach, police and school officials said. The younger teen, Ja’Roderick Smith, was alert when he was taken to a hospital, where he was in stable condition.

The shooting took place shortly before 1:30 p.m. as students were being dismissed for the day, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said.

Rockwell painting sells for record $46M

NEW YORK

A Norman Rockwell painting titled “Saying Grace” sold at an auction Wednesday for $46 million, a record for the Saturday Evening Post illustrator and for any work sold at an American art auction, Sotheby’s said.

Two people on the telephone bid against each other for nine minutes before the hammer came down, the auction house said. The buyer’s identity wasn’t disclosed.

The painting had a pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $20 million. In 2006, the auction house sold Rockwell’s “Breaking Home Ties” for more than $15 million, then a record.

Not-guilty plea

SALEM, Mass.

A 14-year-old boy accused of killing his high-school math teacher pleaded not guilty to murder, aggravated rape and armed robbery charges Wednesday.

Philip Chism is charged in the Oct. 22 death of Colleen Ritzer, a popular teacher at Danvers High School. Ritzer’s body was found in woods near the school with her throat slit and a note reading, “I hate you all.”

Associated Press