QUOTE OF THE DAY “We are very
concerned about the rapidly
escalating cost of
health care.This
is not healthy for
the country, and something has to be done.” Dr. Bruce Sigsbee, president of the American Academy of Neurology Article, 1APlane crash kills 5,
hurts 2 in Georgia
THOMSON, Ga. - A small private jet carrying a surgeon and members of his clinic staff aborted its landing at a Georgia airport before it hit a 60-foot utility pole and crashed in a flaming wreck, killing five people onboard and injuring two, federal authorities said Thursday.
National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said fuel leaking from the plane ignited in flames Wednesday night after it hit the concrete pole with enough force to shear off the left wing. He said investigators found pieces of the plane strewn over 100 yards.
Investigators don’t yet know why the Hawker Beechcraft 390/Premier I aborted its landing at Thomson-McDuffie Regional Airport, a small terminal with a 5,500-foot runway about 30 miles west of Augusta.
Sumwalt said investigators would interview air traffic controllers to see if the pilots made a distress call and search for a flight-data recorder from the plane that might yield clues. He also said authorities had obtained video from a security camera at the airport.
Sentence 38 years in 3rd wife’s death
JOLIET, Ill. - Drew Peterson - the former suburban Chicago police officer who gained notoriety after his much-younger fourth wife vanished in 2007 - was sentenced to 38 years in prison on Thursday for murdering his third wife.
Illinois does not have the death penalty, and Peterson, 59, had faced a maximum 60-year prison term.
Jurors convicted Peterson in September in Kathleen Savio’s 2004 death. Neighbors found the 40-year-old’s body in a dry bathtub at home with a gash on her head, her hair soaked in blood.
Peterson is also a suspect in the disappearance of Stacy Peterson - who was 23 years old when she vanished - but he hasn’t been charged in her case. It was her disappearance that led authorities to take another look at Savio’s death and eventually reclassify it from an accident to a homicide.
Reserve to be split for drilling, nature
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A new management plan for the vast National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska splits the Indiana-size area roughly in half between conservation areas and land available for petroleum development, and allows pipelines carrying oil or gas to be constructed through the federal reserve.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Thursday that he had signed a record of decision for the reserve west of Prudhoe Bay and south of Barrow on Alaska’s North Slope.
He said the balanced approach under the plan was the result of extensive local testimony.
The management plan provides “explicit confirmation” that potential pipelines carrying oil or gas can be constructed through the reserve, Salazar said.
The reserve, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, covers 23 million acres.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 02/22/2013