Authorities: Texting driver strikes, kills two teen girls

July 15, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

AKRON

Authorities say an Ohio woman was texting on her phone when she struck and killed two 14-year-old girls with her car.

Twenty-four-year-old New Franklin resident Natasha Boggs was arrested and jailed Friday. She’s charged with voluntary manslaughter, vehicular homicide, driving while texting and other offenses.

Court records don’t indicate if she has an attorney.

Boggs is accused of hitting three teens in Coventry Township in May, killing Taylor Galloway, of Akron, and Amber Thoma, of Coventry Township. A 15-year-old boy was seriously injured.

Civil-rights activists call on prosecutor for third trial

CINCINNATI

Civil-rights activists and other community leaders are joining the family of an unarmed black man killed during a traffic stop in calling for a third trial of a white former police officer.

Black Lawyers Association of Cincinnati President Donyetta Bailey said in a press conference Friday that the Ray Tensing case shouldn’t end without justice being done.

Prosecutor Joe Deters’ could announce next week a decision on whether Tensing will be tried again. The judge has scheduled a July 24 meeting. Tensing’s attorney has asked her to dismiss the charges after two hung juries on murder and voluntary manslaughter charges.

The since-fired University of Cincinnati officer says he feared for his life when motorist Sam DuBose tried to drive away from the July 19, 2015, stop.

Fair hogs to be destroyed after swine flu found

WILMINGTON, Ohio

State officials have ordered the slaughter of nearly 300 hogs at a county fair in Ohio after at least two animals tested positive for swine flu.

WLWT-TV reports a Clinton County fair representative confirmed Thursday that hogs had tested positive and would be slaughtered.

An Ohio Department of Agriculture spokesman said Friday that the fair will disinfect the barn and its contents to stop any spread of the virus. Department spokesman Mark Bruce says any equipment inside the barn will be released to owners after disinfection.

Hog breeder Joey Johnson says it’s been difficult, especially for children whose animals will be slaughtered.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says when humans are infected with swine flu it’s typically transmitted by prolonged exposure to hogs at agricultural fairs.

Arab gunmen kill 2 Israeli policemen at Jerusalem shrine

JERUSALEM

Arab assailants struck at ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict Friday, opening fire from inside a major Jerusalem shrine and killing two Israeli policemen before being shot dead.

The rare attack from within the sacred site, revered by both Muslims and Jews, raised new concerns about an escalation of violence. The three attackers were Arab citizens of Israel, also a rarity in a rash of Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers that erupted about two years ago, in part over tensions at the holy site.

Jerusalem police commissioner Yoram Halevy said the attack was well planned: The assailants had obtained automatic weapons and stayed at the holy compound the night before. He said they marked their targets in advance and after shooting them ran back inside the compound.

Associated Press