Fugitive dead, 3 pursuers hurt in NYC
NEW YORK -- A California man who skipped town after being accused of molesting a child was killed and three law enforcement officers trying to arrest him were wounded in a daytime shootout inside a New York City smoke shop, officials said Monday.
Officials didn't disclose details of the injuries sustained by the two U.S. marshals and a New York City detective, but Police Commissioner William Bratton and Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters all three were in stable condition.
The suspect was identified by federal and police officials as Charles Richard Mozdir, whose case had recently been featured on CNN. He was wanted in a San Diego case and charged with five counts of lewd acts upon a child younger than 14, according to a criminal complaint. His weapon had been recovered, the mayor and commissioner said.
The shootout between Mozdir and a fugitive apprehension task force happened just after 1 p.m. in the West Village not far from New York University in a highly trafficked tourist area bounded by jazz clubs, restaurants, a subway station and basketball court.
Near-Boston twister caps lashing of East
REVERE, Mass. -- A storm system that wreaked havoc across the eastern half of the U.S. spawned a tornado just north of Boston on Monday, ripping roofs off homes, uprooting dozens of large trees and forcing businesses to close.
The tornado -- a rarity in Massachusetts and virtually unheard of in the Boston area -- touched down in Revere, a coastal city of nearly 52,000. City officials said there were no immediate reports of serious injuries, but several people suffered minor injuries, including a baby who was in a car and was hurt by flying glass and an elderly woman who suffered cuts.
Communities across the U.S. were cleaning up Monday after strong storms destroyed homes, knocked out power for thousands of people and toppled power lines and trees.
In eastern Tennessee, officials said there were no reports of any deaths or injuries from Sunday's storms, though at least 10 homes were destroyed.
In Kentucky, National Weather Service forecaster Tony Edwards said some areas got softball-sized hail Sunday.
Hail also was reported in Michigan, where winds toppled trees and ripped the roofs off buildings. And in Ohio, some roads had been blocked by flash flooding. In Pennsylvania, nighttime storms knocked out power to thousands.
FBI: No more videos of Oklahoma attack
SALT LAKE CITY -- The FBI has done a thorough search of its archives and found no evidence that more Oklahoma City bombing videos exist, federal attorneys told a judge Monday during the first day of a trial that has rekindled questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 attack.
Additional searches for videos that Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue believes are being withheld would be burdensome and fruitless, FBI attorney Kathryn Wyer said.
The agency already has provided videos and paper documents that correspond with Trentadue's Freedom of Information Act request, she said.
The trial was triggered by a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Trentadue filed in 2008. Unsatisfied by the FBI's previous explanations, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups ordered the FBI to explain why it can't find videos from the bombing that are mentioned in evidence logs, citing the public importance of the tapes.
FBI attorneys intend to call bureau employees to testify the agency did a thorough search.
The trial is scheduled to last three days. There is no jury, and the judge will make a ruling.
N.Y.'s Cuomo: Talk with panel mundane
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Monday defended his office's dealings with a panel he appointed to root out public corruption, asserting that his aides offered only "advice" to the commission meant to be helpful.
The governor described the panel, which he disbanded in March in exchange for the passage of a modest package of new ethics laws, as a phenomenal success.
Although his aides were in communication with the commission, he said, the panel's leaders "exercised their independent judgment" in pursuing investigations.
"The conversation and dialogue is good," Cuomo, a Democrat seeking re-election this fall, told reporters. "Independence doesn't mean you get holed up in an ivory tower and you don't talk to anyone."
Cuomo fielded questions for the first time since The New York Times reported last week that the governor's office had deeply compromised the commission's work, objecting whenever it focused on groups with ties to Cuomo or on issues that might reflect poorly on him.
-- COMPILED BY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE STAFF FROM WIRE REPORTS
A Section on 07/29/2014