C8 illness suit likely going to jury soon

C8 illness suit likely going to jury soon

COLUMBUS

A former spokeswoman for DuPont’s Ohio River plant in West Virginia testified she never knew of any concerns about a chemical dumped into the river when she was telling residents the water was safe to drink.

Dawn Jackson took the stand Friday in a federal court in Columbus in one of the 3,500 lawsuits alleging a link between illnesses and the company discharging the chemical C8 into the Ohio River.

The case against the Delaware-based chemical company alleges a Washington County man got testicular cancer because of C8, a chemical used to make Teflon.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberations in the coming week, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Possible human remains found in fire

LAKE ISABELLA, Calif.

Authorities may have found human remains Saturday within a voracious wildfire in central California that has claimed two lives and burned 150 homes.

The tally rose from 80 homes as firefighters began going through neighborhoods to count houses and mobile homes incinerated by the blaze.

In one mobile home, they found what appears to be a set of human remains, but because they were so badly burned forensic investigators will have to determine whether they belonged to a person or animal, Kern County Sheriff’s spokesman Ray Pruitt said.

Search suspended for missing family

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

The Coast Guard on Saturday suspended the search for a Florida family last seen on a sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ace Kimberly and his three teenage children were last in contact last Sunday while sailing from Sarasota to Fort Myers for repairs to the vessel they lived on in Sarasota Bay.

The bodies of Kimberly, 45, and his 17-year-old daughter Rebecca were recovered this week, but the bodies of Kimberly’s sons, 13-year-old Roger and 15-year-old Donny, remain missing, Coast Guard Capt. Gregory Case said.

Gangs suspected in dance studio melee

FORT WORTH, Texas

Officers are preparing to make arrests in connection with the suspected gang-related shootings that left two people dead and at least five others injured Saturday morning during an unauthorized party at a Texas dance studio, a police spokesman said.

Fort Worth police spokesman Mark Povero told The Associated Press arrests are imminent and that investigators believe gang activity was involved.

Officers found one victim dead outside Studio 74 in Fort Worth, and several people were transported to hospitals – one of whom died from his injuries, police said.

Laura Reyna, owner and artistic director of the studio, called it an unauthorized event.

At least 14 killed in Somalia hotel attack

MOGADISHU, Somalia

Gunmen stormed a hotel in Somalia’s seaside capital Saturday, taking guests hostage and “shooting at everyone they could see,” before security forces pursued the grenade-throwing assailants to the top floor and ended the hours-long assault, police and witnesses said. At least 14 people were killed.

Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the latest in a series of hotel attacks in Mogadishu, one that began with a powerful explosion at the entry gate.

Police said at least four gunmen were involved in the attack, and two were killed.

Associated Press