LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY
“You have shut down the people’s government, and that is not acceptable.”
Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald
to Democratic senators who left the state to prevent a vote on a budget repair bill Article, this page Stepmom charged with murder of girl
HICKORY, N.C. - The stepmother of a 10-year-old disabled girl was indicted Monday on a charge of second-degree murder in the child’s death.
Medical examiners said Zahra Baker’s death was caused by “undetermined homicidal violence.” An autopsy was done even though authorities haven’t recovered many bones, most notably the girl’s skull, months after she was reported missing. Several bones showed cutting tool marks consistent with dismemberment.
Authorities said Elisa Baker, who has been jailed since the weekend the girl was reported missing, desecrated Zahra’s remains to cover up the slaying.
Prosecutor James Gaither Jr. said at a news conference about the murder charge that there was no credible evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in Zahra’s slaying.
Attorneys for Elisa Baker did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
Zahra, who used a prosthetic leg and hearing aids after being stricken with cancer, disappeared four months ago. Police eventually found the girl’s remains in different locations around western North Carolina.
School bus crash kills at least 2
LOS ANGELES - The California Highway Patrol reported Monday that there were at least two fatalities and other serious injuries after a school bus filled with teenagers collided with another vehicle and went down a snow-covered embankment in the San Bernardino Mountains.
The highway patrol’s website said the coroner’s office had been called to the scene east of Los Angeles as crews tried to rescue trapped teens inside the bus.
Several of the youths were extricated from the bus, and a makeshift triage center was set up nearby, according to KCAL-TV. Authorities said they believe that at least 20 students were on board, with half of them immobilized in the crash.
Two teens involved in the crash were transported to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center. One teen was listed in critical condition, hospital nurses said. The staff did not know the condition of the second hospitalized teen.
Emanuel rivals
predicting runoff
CHICAGO - Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel’s main rivals in the race to succeed Chicago Mayor Richard Daley spent Monday doing some last-minute campaigning.
Former Chicago schools president Gery Chico and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun both predicted they would receive the votes necessary to deny Emanuel an outright victory today and to force a twoperson runoff. Polls have shown Emanuel in the lead.
The fourth major candidate, City Clerk Miguel del Valle, also has pleaded with voters throughout the campaign to send the race to a runoff so they have more time to decide.
Two other candidates - William “Dock” Walls and Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins - are also running.
Front Section, Pages 3 on 02/22/2011