Ohio wind-turbine project gets grant

Ohio wind-turbine project gets grant

CLEVELAND

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $3.7 million grant to a company doing engineering work on a proposed wind-turbine project in Lake Erie.

Lake Erie Energy Development Corp. is aiming to build a 20-megawatt demonstration wind farm in the lake northwest of downtown Cleveland. Current cost estimates are between $120 million and $128 million.

The DOE grant is the third the department has given LEEDCo, bringing the total in federal funding to $10.7 million, Cleveland.com reported.

Landowners challenge pipeline’s authority

DES MOINES, IOWA

Landowners have filed two lawsuits in northwest Iowa in an attempt to block construction of a $3.8 billion oil pipeline.

The Des Moines Register reports the landowners are trying to keep the pipeline company from being able to use eminent-domain powers to secure access to their land for the project.

Houston-based Dakota Access LLC wants to build the pipeline from northwest North Dakota to a storage facility in south-central Illinois. The pipeline would transport up to 570,000 barrels of crude oil a day from the Bakken oil field in western North Dakota.

Cop-slaying suspect dies after shootout

AUBURN, MASS.

The suspect in the fatal shooting of a Massachusetts police officer died after an exchange of gunfire Sunday as authorities closed in on him at an Oxford residence, police said.

The man, identified as 35-year-old Jorge Zambrano, burst out of a closet and opened fire on the officers as they approached him inside the apartment, authorities said. He was taken to a hospital where he died.

A Massachusetts State trooper also was wounded, officials said. His name wasn’t released.

The manhunt began after Auburn Police Officer Ronald Tarentino was fatally shot during a traffic stop about 12:30 a.m. Sunday.

Police: Criminals use imitation weapons

DALLAS

Police in Texas say more crimes are being committed with imitation weapons such as BB guns, likely because they’re cheap, easy to obtain and criminals may believe – mistakenly – that if they’re caught, they’ll avoid the severe punishment that can come with illegally possessing a real one.

Police Lt. Christopher Cook in the Dallas suburb of Arlington says his officers are being told by arrested suspects of their preference for the imitation weapons. They can be purchased for as little as $25 and no background check is required.

But if the victim of a crime in Texas believes a weapon pointed at them is real, that’s enough to warrant a first-degree felony charge – and a maximum sentence of life in prison. New Jersey has a similar law, though the punishment is less harsh, while others states, including California, draw a greater distinction between real and imitation weapons.

Suit-wearing girl invited to other prom

DATELINE

A central Pennsylvania high-school student barred from attending prom at her Catholic high school because she wore a suit has had her prom night – at a different school.

Aniya Wolf, a student at Bishop McDevitt High School in Harrisburg, attended William Penn High School’s prom Saturday in York.

Wolf says she learned at the last moment that girls were required to wear dresses to Bishop McDevitt’s prom. She went anyway but was thrown out. The school says the dress code was sent to parents three months earlier.

William Penn principal Brandon Carter says he invited Wolf because “we do embrace all.”

Associated Press