The nation in brief

Sunday, February 23, 2014

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“For some people, it probably was a huge reprieve, just not my clients.”

Andres Benach, a Washington attorney, on the delays of immigration hearings by months or years, leaving some in limbo, while others, who face deportation, get more time in the country Article, 5A

House fire leaves 4 of 6 in family dead

INDIANAPOLIS - A fire swept through a small home in Indianapolis on Saturday morning, killing a couple and two of their children and leaving two surviving siblings in “very critical” condition, a fire official said.

The home is adjacent to a busy Interstate 70 overpass, and a motorist on that highway reported the fire about 9:10 a.m., Capt. Rita Reith said. Subsequent 911 calls led crews to the home’s exact location in an east-side neighborhood.

Firefighters found the parents and their four children - ages 14, 11, 8 and 6 - unconscious inside the small bungalow-style home and took them outside, starting efforts to resuscitate them on the lawn, Reith said.

Authorities said Lionel “Leo” Guerra, 47, and his wife, Brandy Mae Guerra, 33, were pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Eskenazi Hospital.

The couple’s 11-year-old son, Esteban Guerra, and 8-yearold daughter, Blanquita Guerra, were pronounced dead at Riley Hospital for Children, where their two siblings - a 14-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy - remained in critical condition late Saturday afternoon.

Investigators do not suspect any foul play was involved in the fire, but Reith said its cause remains under investigation.

There’s no sign the home had working smoke detectors.

Study shows Americans barely exercise

Americans are stuck in chairs and on the couch, spending eight hours a day with their metabolic engines barely idling, according to data from sensors that scientists put on nearly 2,600 people to see what they actually did all day.

The results were not encouraging: Obese women averaged about 11 seconds a day at vigorous exercise, while men and women of normal weight exercised vigorously (on the level of a jog) for less than two minutes a day, according to the study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Including moderate exercise, such as yoga, folks of normal weight logged about 2.5 to 4 hours weekly, according to the data. In part, that’s good news: Federal recommendations for adults include 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity aerobic activity coupled with muscle-strengthening exercise.

Still, the data sketch a nearly supine population profile, with days marked by long hours of sedentary behavior, particularly for those who are overweight or obese.

“We’ve engineered physical activity out of our daily lives and that’s causing the health disparities that we have in this country,” said the study’s lead author, Edward Archer, a nutrition and obesity researcher at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Carbon monoxide at N.Y. mall fatal to 1

HUNTINGTON STATION, N.Y. - Police said a 55-yearold restaurant manager died and more than two dozen others were taken to hospitals after being overcome by carbon monoxide at a New York mall.

A Suffolk County police spokesman identified the man who died Saturday as Steven Nelson, a restaurant manager at the Walt Whitman Shops in Huntington Station on Long Island.

Police said 28 others affected by carbon monoxide were taken to hospitals.

Police said earlier that three officers were among those overcome by carbon monoxide at the mall, which is about 35 miles east of New York City. They responded to a call shortly after 6 p.m.

Carbon monoxide is odorless and colorless and can lead to death by suffocation.

Several restaurants at the mall were evacuated as a precaution.

More cookies sold at ‘pot’ dispensary

PHOENIX - Customers of some medical marijuana dispensaries discovered last week that they didn’t have to go far if they had a case of the munchies.

A few days after a teenager sold dozens of cookie boxes outside a San Francisco dispensary, 8-year-old Lexi Menees was at TruMed Dispensary in Phoenix on Saturday for the same purpose.

The girl’s mother, Heidi Carney, got the idea after hearing about what happened in San Francisco.

“For me, this isn’t anything controversial,” Carney said.

“It’s medication. It’s no different than standing in front of a Walgreens or a CVS.”

Lexi and her parents went Friday with between 100 and 150 boxes to sell. Her family said they sold more than 50.

Susan de Queljoe, a spokesman for the Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, said selling in front of marijuana dispensaries isn’t something the organization would encourage, but that it’s up to the parents.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 02/23/2014