Mudslide traps 20 people in tunnel
GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. -- About 20 people had to spend the night inside a highway tunnel after rain over an area burned by a wildfire once again triggered mudslides in western Colorado, authorities said Friday.
The people were caught with their vehicles Thursday night in the tunnel along Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon for about nine hours until crews could carve out a path through the mud to reach them about 6:30 a.m. Friday, Garfield County sheriff's office spokesperson Walt Stowe said. The tunnel serves as a 24-hour operations center for the Colorado Department of Transportation, so it is relatively well-lit and has telephones, Stowe said. No injuries were reported.
Some vehicles remained stuck in the mud that slid on the open section of the highway, but it was not clear how many people may be in them, Stowe said. The Transportation Department was working to reach them.
Glenwood Canyon has cliffs towering up to 2,000 feet above the Colorado River, making it prone to rockslides and mudslides. In recent weeks, rain over the area burned by a wildfire last summer has triggered frequent slides, resulting in closures of I-70, Colorado's main east-west highway.
On Thursday, the canyon had been closed earlier in the day as one storm cell approached but had been reopened by the time a second one moved in, Stowe said.
Accused spy asks for mental exam
HONOLULU -- A former CIA officer accused of spying for China is asking for a mental competency evaluation after telling his attorney he believes he is suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease and is having trouble remembering things.
Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, a former CIA officer and contract linguist for the FBI, was arrested last year after an undercover operation in which prosecutors say he accepted thousands of dollars in cash in exchange for his past espionage activities.
He told a law enforcement officer who was posing as a Chinese intelligence officer that he wanted to see the "motherland" succeed and that he was eager to resume helping China after the coronavirus pandemic subsided, prosecutors said.
Ma's court-appointed attorney, Birney Bervar, said Thursday that he felt compelled to file a motion for a mental competency evaluation after meeting with Ma a couple of weeks ago.
"Ma said he just can't remember things and that he believes it impairs his ability to assist properly in his defense," the motion said.
Bervar's motion also notes that Ma's older brother developed Alzheimer's 10 years ago and is now completely disabled by the disease. The brother is referred to as a co-conspirator in the indictment against Ma, but prosecutors didn't charge him because of his incompetency because of the Alzheimer's, the motion said.
A magistrate judge scheduled a hearing on the motion for Aug. 12.
Culprit in boy's fatal shooting sought
MINDEN, La. -- Police in Louisiana are looking for whoever fired dozens of bullets into a house and killed a 3-year-old boy.
Investigators hoped to arrest someone Friday, Minden Police Lt. Chris Cheatham said.
"We're waiting for some records that we've subpoenaed and gotten search warrants on," he said.
The child's mother took the boy, identified by Minden Mayor Terry Gardner as Aldravion "King" Taylor, to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead late Wednesday, KSLA-TV reported.
Cheatham said investigators are trying to verify reports that the shooting was related to a homicide earlier that night in neighboring Bienville Parish.
Sheriff's deputies there have arrested two men, both from Arcadia, where the earlier shooting occurred in a fast-food parking lot, KTBS-TV reported.
More than 25 bullets were fired into the house in Minden, police told KSLA-TV.
"The sound of gunfire in Minden is becoming so common that people are not reporting it," the city's police union, the Minden Police Association, said Thursday on its Facebook page. It said the little boy's shooting changed that.
Lindell pulls Fox News pillow ads
NEW YORK -- One of Fox News' most visible advertisers, Mike Lindell and his MyPillow line of products, has pulled commercials from the network over a refusal to air an ad promoting claims of election fraud.
Fox confirmed the moves Friday, which were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Lindell's face is well-known to Fox viewers. He told the Journal he spent $50 million advertising on Fox last year alone.
Lindell has promoted Trump's allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden and had sought to promote a symposium next month at which some of the claims are to be presented.
"It's unfortunate Mr. Lindell has chosen to pause his commercial time on Fox News given the level of success he's experienced in building his brand through advertising on the number one cable news network," Fox said in a statement.
A representative for Lindell did not immediately return a message seeking comment.