The nation in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“While big data is revolutionizing commerce and government for the better, it is also supercharging the potential for discrimination.”

Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, on concerns about how the government and private sector use data collected from American citizens Article, 1A

200 homes damaged in N.C. twisters

MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. - Residents, meteorologists and emergency officials in eastern North Carolina were surveying the damage Saturday from multiple tornadoes that damaged more than 200 homes the previous day and sent more than a dozen people to the emergency room.

Meteorologists said Saturday that tornadoes with winds of more than 111 mph touched down in Pitt and Beaufort counties Friday, and they were continuing to investigate storm damage.

Beaufort County Emergency Management Director John Pack said 16 people were taken to the emergency room when the storms passed through his city Friday night.

Pack said 200 homes were either heavily damaged or destroyed. Pictures on news websites showed residents salvaging items from crushed mobile homes, along with snapped trees and a mangled utility pole in eastern North Carolina.

At one point, Pack said, 8,000 people were without power, but most had regained it by Saturday.

Retirees, Detroit strike tentative deal

Retired public workers reached a tentative agreement with Detroit that shores up their health benefits, removing another obstacle to resolving the city’s record $18 billion municipal bankruptcy.

Michigan’s largest city filed for bankruptcy in July, saying it couldn’t meet financial obligations and provide adequate services. Since then, it’s been negotiating with creditors, including public pension systems and unions.

Detroit has been seeking to build support for a debt-adjustment plan ahead of a creditor vote that could begin as early as next month.

A committee of retirees announced Friday evening that it had reached a deal with the city. Shortly after that, Detroit filed a new debt-cutting proposal, describing agreements with the two pension funds that operate the retirement plans for 30,000 active and retired municipal workers.

If enough city workers and retirees support the revised plan, police and firefighters would receive all of their normal monthly retirement payments, while general employees would see their monthly payments reduced by 4.5 percent.

Supremacist to face N.C. cold-case query

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - North Carolina authorities are planning a trip to Kansas to question the man accused of killing three people in Overland Park about a decades-old killing in their state.

Cleveland County Sheriff Alan Norman told the Charlotte Observer that cold-case officers will attempt to interview Frazier Glenn Miller, the white supremacist charged in the April 13 shootings that killed a doctor, his teenage grandson and a mother of three outside the Jewish Community Center and the nearby Village Shalom senior living center.

Miller, founder of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Patriot Party, testified for the prosecution in the 1989 trial of a man charged with helping kill three men at an adult bookstore in Shelby, N.C., in 1987. The bookstore’s clients included gay and bisexual men.

The defendant, white supremacist Douglas Sheets, was acquitted, and the case against a second man was dropped.

While some testimony at the trial linked Miller to the homicides, he was never charged. Miller, now 73, also goes by Frazier Glenn Cross.

Teen stabbing suspect gets mental exam

MILFORD, Conn. - The young man whom authorities have accused of fatally stabbing a classmate in the hallway of a Connecticut high school is being held in a medical facility under psychiatric evaluation, his lawyer said Saturday.

The lawyer, Richard Meehan, said his client, who is 16, could be held there for up to 15 days. After that, Meehan said, he will probably be charged as an adult.

The victim, Maren Sanchez, 16, a popular honors student and athlete, was attacked in a hallway at Jonathan Law High School on Friday. The authorities said she had stab wounds and cuts to her face, neck and chest.

The suspect was initially charged as a youth, but Connecticut law allows the authorities to try minors as adults for murder and other serious crimes, Meehan said.

Officer Jeffrey Nielsen said Milford police were still investigating. The authorities said they were looking into whether a dispute over an invitation to junior prom, which was scheduled for that evening, had anything to do with the attack.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 04/27/2014

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