Man charged in fiery Ohio crash ADVERTISING Man charged in fiery Ohio crash FREMONT, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio motorist traveling at more than 125 mph was charged Friday with vehicular homicide after his car struck a minivan, killing a
Man charged in fiery Ohio crash
FREMONT, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio motorist traveling at more than 125 mph was charged Friday with vehicular homicide after his car struck a minivan, killing a couple inside, the State Highway Patrol said.
Andrew D. Gans, of Kent, faces two counts of vehicular homicide with a reckless specification after Thursday night’s crash on the Ohio Turnpike, where both vehicles burst into flames.
The victims, Wilbur and Margaret McCoy, both 77, of Toledo, were wearing seatbelts when they were hit and were trapped inside of the minivan, the patrol said.
Gans, 24, suffered injuries that are not life-threatening and was hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation at a Toledo hospital, said staff Lt. Anne Ralston, a patrol spokeswoman.
Gans has spoken with investigators, but Ralston declined to comment on what he said or whether he offered any explanation for the erratic driving that was reported.
He will be taken to jail following his release from the hospital. No court date has been set and the case will go to a grand jury.
The patrol said the incident remains under investigation.
Two troopers separately spotted Gans’ car but weren’t able to catch or keep up with it before the crash near Fremont, about 40 miles southeast of Toledo, Ralston said.
Other drivers began calling dispatchers about the speeding, weaving vehicle just before 7 p.m., about 20 minutes before it crashed into the back of the minivan. The driver covered roughly 60 miles in that time and passed two troopers, each of whom tried to pull behind the westbound car but lost sight of it as it sped away, Ralston said.
Latinos are suing over voting rights
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is aggressively pursuing lawsuits over minority voting rights in Texas and North Carolina, but the Justice Department has not moved on evidence that the latest round of redistricting in Los Angeles County unfairly reduces the influence of Latino voters.
Nearly half the 10 million people in the nation’s largest county are Latino. But political boundaries redrawn in 2011 make it possible for Latino voters to elect just one of the five supervisors.
The administration has resisted calls to sue the county, despite the county’s history of discrimination against Latino voters in earlier redistricting efforts. The inaction rankles some Latino activists who count themselves as strong backers of President Barack Obama.
“I support the Obama administration and the president, but frankly, Obama and the top people around him seem to be unaware on this issue. Obama is somewhat blind to the issues of Latinos,” said Cruz Reynoso, a former California Supreme Court justice and member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Reynoso said the administration seems more attuned to voting rights complaints of African-Americans.
Dog lives under rubble for 9 days
WASHINGTON, Ill. (AP) — A six-month-old pit bull that was buried under a pile of rubble for more than a week after a tornado ripped through a central Illinois city has been coaxed to freedom with hot dogs and reunited with his owner.
Jacob Montgomery, a member of the Illinois National Guard, was separated from the dog, Dexter, when the Nov. 17 tornado destroyed his third-floor apartment in Washington. Montgomery combed through the wreckage multiple times but turned up no sign of Dexter.
Nine days after the storm, a neighbor who was looking for his cat, also missing, with the help of a group called Rescuing Animals in Need sent Montgomery a Facebook message to tell him Dexter had been found partially buried in debris where the apartment building used to stand.
“He said, ‘I’ve got your dog right here,’” Montgomery recalled in a statement released by the Illinois National Guard. “As soon as Dexter saw me, his tail started going.”
The pooch was in relatively good shape.
“The vet said he has no real injuries — just a few scrapes and cuts,” said Montgomery.
who got Dexter as a puppy to keep him company when he moved from Champaign. “He was malnourished, but he’s going to be fine.”
The Washington tornado was part of a band of heavy storms that brought rain, high winds and a rash of twisters to Illinois, and left seven people dead in its wake.
S&P 500 gains 9th straight week
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market fizzled Friday at the end of a holiday-shortened trading day, but still logged its longest streak of weekly gains in a decade.
The Standard &Poor’s 500 index ended down one point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,805.81. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 10 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,086.41.
Investors watched for early trends in holiday sales as the busiest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, got underway. Retailers were one of two industry groups in the S&P 500 to rise.
Stocks overall have surged this year as the economy maintains a slow but steady recovery and corporations keep earnings growing. Demand for stocks also has been bolstered by Federal Reserve policies that have held down interest rates, making bonds less attractive investments than stocks.
Stocks rose for most of the day Friday, but petered out in the last half hour of trading. The New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq closed early, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, and activity was lower than average a day after Thanksgiving. Thin trading can lead to sudden swings in markets.
Although the S&P 500 and Dow slipped, the Nasdaq composite rose 15 points, or 0.4 percent, to end at 4,059.89. The index has surged 34 percent this year, more than the other two indexes.
And even though the S&P 500 eased Friday, it still rose for an eighth straight week, its longest stretch of weekly advances in a decade.
