Friday, October 27, 2017
NY woman missing since ’75 found alive in Massachusetts
MONTICELLO, N.Y.
A woman who disappeared from upstate New York after being dropped off for a doctor’s appointment 42 years ago has been found suffering from dementia and living in an assisted-living facility in Massachusetts, authorities said.
The sheriff’s office in Sullivan County, N.Y., said Flora Stevens, 78, was using the last name Harris when detectives tracked her down this week at the residence in Lowell, near Boston. Officials said they’ve been unable to figure out details of what happened to her between the time she disappeared in August 1975 and when she was finally found.
Police periodically reviewed her missing person case but kept hitting dead ends. They got a break in September, thanks to a query from a New York State Police investigator working on a different cold case. The unidentified remains of a woman had been found in neighboring Orange County, and the investigator said they roughly matched Stevens’ general characteristics.
Experts blame Syria for chemical weapons attack
UNITED NATIONS
Experts from the U.N. and the chemical weapons watchdog are blaming the Syrian government for an attack in April using the nerve gas sarin that killed more than 90 people.
Their report’s key findings and conclusions, obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, state that leaders of the expert body are “confident that the Syrian Arab Republic is responsible for the release of sarin at Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017.”
The report by the experts supports the initial findings by the United States, France and Britain that a Syrian military plane dropped a bomb with sarin on the town of Khan Sheikhoun.
Weinstein sues former company over emails, records
NEW YORK
Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein sued his former company Thursday, seeking access to emails, his personnel file and other records he contends may exonerate him from multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault.
Weinstein’s lawsuit filed Thursday in Delaware seeks access to the records that Weinstein’s lawyers argue are key to the Oscar-winner’s defense from the avalanche of harassment claims made against him since an Oct. 5 report by The New York Times.
His lawsuit makes clear that if he is able to obtain the records, he may use them to pursue a wrongful termination case or other legal actions against the company.
Cedar Point removing hotel, outdoor stadium
SANDUSKY
Cedar Point amusement park is tearing down one of its hotels along Lake Erie and also removing an outdoor arena that’s played host to dolphin and diving shows over the years.
The park in Sandusky said this week that it’s also expanding a boardwalk that runs along the lake.
A Cedar Point spokesman says this is the last year for the Sandcastle Suites hotel. But the park isn’t sharing what it plans to do with the site that’s at the tip of the park’s peninsula.
The hotel that opened in 1990 offered close to 190 rooms.
The park’s outdoor arena that was built in 1980 and in recent years hosted a bicycle stunt show also is coming down this year.
Associated Press