WICHITA, Kan.

Foster parent arrested after 10-month-old dies in car

A 10-month-old Kansas girl died after being strapped for more than two hours inside a sweltering car, and police arrested a foster parent who said he’d forgotten about her until something on TV jogged his memory, an official said Friday.

The 29-year-old man was booked on suspicion of aggravated endangerment but has not been charged, said Lt. Todd Ojile of the Wichita Police Department. The case will be presented early next week to prosecutors.

The girl’s distraught maternal grandmother, Cindy Poe of Topeka, Kansas, went to police headquarters Friday demanding to see her granddaughter’s body and to find out where her other two grandchildren had been taken.

HARRISBURG, Pa.

Advertisement

Criminal case against Penn State president goes on

A federal judge in Pennsylvania said Friday she will not halt the criminal case against former Penn State president Graham Spanier, who is accused of a criminal cover-up of child sex abuse complaints against former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.

U.S. Middle District Judge Yvette Kane dismissed the legal action brought by Spanier against state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, whose office is prosecuting him and two other former university administrators.

Spanier claimed he was the victim of selective prosecution and said the federal court should also intervene because prosecutors had improperly used testimony from a university lawyer he says was representing him when he appeared before a grand jury.

WASHINGTON

Iranian official confirms news reporter is in custody

Advertisement

An Iranian judicial official confirmed Friday that The Washington Post’s correspondent in Iran is in government custody, according to a report from a state news agency, but officials shed no light on the nature of an investigation that also led to the detention of his wife and two American citizens earlier this week.

Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, the head the Justice Department in Tehran Province, was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency saying officials would release more information about Post correspondent Jason Rezaian’s detention “after technical investigations” are complete.

Martin Baron, The Washington Post’s executive editor, said officials at the newspaper were “mystified” by Rezaian’s arrest and remain “profoundly concerned” for his well-being and the others in custody.

MIAMI

Fungus threatens trees in Everglades National Park

A fungus carried by an invasive beetle from southeast Asia is felling trees across the Everglades, and experts have not found a way to stop the blight from spreading.

Then there’s a bigger problem – the damage may be leaving Florida’s fragile wetlands open to even more of an incursion from exotic plants threatening to choke the unique Everglades and undermine billions of dollars’ worth of restoration projects.

Since first detected on the edge of Miami’s western suburbs in 2011, laurel wilt has killed swamp bay trees scattered across 330,000 acres of the Everglades, a roughly 2 million-acre system that includes Everglades National Park. The fungus is spread by the tiny redbay ambrosia beetle, which likely arrived in this country in a shipment of wood packing material. The same fungus also plagues commercial avocado trees and redbay trees elsewhere in Florida and the Southeast.

– From news service reports


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.