Remains found in funeral home ceiling
DETROIT -- An anonymously written letter led Michigan inspectors to find the badly decomposed remains of 11 infants hidden in a ceiling compartment of a shuttered Detroit funeral home, police say.
Inspectors with the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs found the remains Friday at the former Cantrell Funeral Home, just hours after receiving the letter telling them where the bodies were located, Detroit police Lt. Brian Bowser told reporters. The funeral home has been closed since April, when state inspectors suspended its license after the discovery of bodies covered with what appeared to be mold.
The remains of the infants, some of them apparently stillborn, were in a false ceiling between the first and second floors, Bowser said. Investigators have not determined who might have left the bodies there.
"Obviously, it was either an employee or someone who had knowledge" of the funeral home and the building, Bowser said.
Jameca LaJoyce Boone, the funeral home's designated manager for a year before its closure, said she was shocked by the discovery of bodies in the ceiling.
"I didn't know anything about that," Boone told The Detroit News.
Clinton's security clearance withdrawn
WASHINGTON -- The State Department says former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's security clearance has been withdrawn at her request.
Clearances for five other people Clinton designated as researchers have also been withdrawn, including for aide Cheryl Mills.
The State Department disclosed Clinton's request in a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The committee chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, authorized the letter's disclosure after consultation with the department. The letter blacks out the names of the four other Clinton researchers whose security clearances were withdrawn last month.
The Iowa Republican has been critical of Clinton's handling of classified information and has urged administrative sanctions. The committee says the update on Clinton's security clearance is part of an ongoing State Department review related to her use of a nongovernment email server.
Idaho official criticized for Africa hunt
BOISE, Idaho -- An Idaho Fish and Game Commission member is being criticized by some after he shared photos of himself posing with a family of baboons, including young baboons, he killed while hunting in Africa.
Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter spokesman Jon Hanian told the Idaho Statesman in a story Friday that the governor's office is looking into the matter involving Commissioner Blake Fischer.
Fischer and his wife shot at least 14 animals in Namibia, according to the photos and descriptions included in an email he sent to more than 100 recipients. That included a giraffe, leopard, impala, sable antelope, waterbuck, kudu, warthog, gemsbok and eland.
"I didn't do anything illegal. I didn't do anything unethical. I didn't do anything immoral," Fischer said.
The photo causing some to question Fischer's judgment and ability to remain a commission member is one of him smiling broadly with four dead baboons propped in front of him, blood visible on the abdomen of the smallest baboon. Fischer killed them using a bow and arrows.
Former commission member Fred Trevey called on Fischer to resign.
"Sportsmanlike behavior is the center pin to maintaining hunting as a socially acceptable activity," he wrote in an email obtained by the newspaper through a public records request.
School band barred from competition
JACKSON, Miss. -- A Mississippi high school band is being barred from a state competition and some performances after a halftime skit depicting three police officers being held at gunpoint was performed in a community where two officers were shot to death last month.
Jackson Public Schools Superintendent Errick Greene said Friday evening that the Mississippi High School Activities Association notified the district at midweek of the sanctions against the marching band at one of Jackson's schools, Forest Hill High.
He said the association has prohibited the band from taking part in the yearly state competition that began Saturday with regional evaluations. The band also is prohibited from wearing its regular uniforms or marching at football games the rest of the season, though Greene said members can play at games while sitting in the stands.
Greene said the district is considering an appeal.
Gov. Phil Bryant described the performance as "unacceptable in a civilized society." On Friday night, the Republican tweeted that "The adults who were involved with this disaster should be fired immediately. We will not accept a cover-up." Bryant didn't elaborate and a spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
A Section on 10/14/2018