National Roundup

South Dakota
AG: No evidence KKK surgery scar was intentional

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley said Monday an investigation by law enforcement agencies found no evidence to substantiate allegations that a Rapid City hospital intentionally carved the letters “KKK” into a patient’s chest during heart surgery.

Vernon Traversie, 69, of Lakota, has alleged that surgeons at Rapid City Regional Hospital carved scars with the letters into his chest last year. He has filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital, surgeons and others, but the hospital’s lawyer has denied the allegations.

Jackley said after the case was referred to state and federal law enforcement agencies, investigations found no evidence of criminal or intentional conduct. The investigations found the marks on Traversie were the result of a skin reaction to the medical grade tape used to secure tubes that remained in place after the surgery, he said.

A state Health Department investigation also was unable to substantiate the allegations of patient abuse, neglect or improper care, Jackley said.

“The serious allegation that someone intentionally engaged in the hate crime of carving ‘KKK’ into a South Dakotan, if true, would justify criminal prosecution to the fullest extent of the law,” Jackley said in a written statement. “The independent investigations have produced no evidence of such criminal or intentional conduct.”

Traversie’s spokesman, Pastor Ben Farrar, of Eagle Butte, said other investigations are pending and he expects they will find wrongdoing by the hospital. Even if the scars were caused by surgical tape, that could indicate negligence by medical personnel, he said.

“It will be the courts who will be deciding whether there was wrongdoing here, and not the attorney general,” Farrar told The Associated Press.

“I think it will be discovered that someone based on some form of hatred has carved letters into the torso of Vernon Traversie,” Farrar said.

California
San Francisco mayor abandons stop and frisk

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco’s mayor has abandoned a police stop and frisk proposal designed to get weapons off the streets.

There was an outcry after Mayor Ed Lee told the San Francisco Chronicle in June that he was considering stop and frisk, which involves officers stopping and searching suspicious people for weapons.

Stop and frisk is popular in New York City, but critics liken it to racial profiling.

The mayor now says he will instead rely on targeted police enforcement, crime-tracking software and increased involvement by ministers to combat the gun violence.

Lee is announcing details of his alternative plan on Tuesday at Bayview’s Calvary Hill Community Church.

New York
Girl, 6, found clinging to dead adult in water

CARMEL, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a 6-year-old girl was pulled to safety after boaters spotted her clinging to a corpse in an upstate New York lake.

Town of Carmel Sgt. John Dearman said three people were fishing in Putnam County’s Lake Gleneida around 5 p.m. Monday when they saw the girl holding on to an unidentified object in the distance.

They soon realized she was clinging to the floating body of a woman in her 50s.

They pulled the girl to safety and called 911. An autopsy would be performed to determine the woman’s cause of death.

The girl was uninjured.

It appeared the two had been wading into the water before the incident.

The Journal News reports that the woman was a friend of the girl’s mother. Their names weren’t immediately released.

Ohio
Police: 2 Ohio boys, 13, drove stolen car to Mo.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Two 13-year-old Ohio boys who stole a parent’s car and drove it hundreds of miles to Kansas City, Mo., were found sleeping in a downtown alley, police said.
Police had known the runaways from the Columbus area might pass through Kansas City because of information posted to Facebook, Capt. Steve Young said.

The boys were taken into custody on Monday by officers investigating a suspicious vehicle that matched the description of the BMW taken early Saturday from the mother of one of the boys.
“They were fine, fortunately,” Young said. “I think there are definitely a whole lot of things that could have gone wrong for them, and having the police find them probably would be one of the better outcomes.”

Catherine Johnson was relieved her son Cole and his friend Raheem Harris were safe, but she was surprised that the boys took off in her vehicle — for a trip that likely amounted to more than 650 miles. She said Cole had wanted to go to California and she believes that’s where he and Raheem were headed.

“How it went on for two days and no one noticed boggles my mind,” Johnson said Monday by phone from Chicago as she waited for a flight to Kansas City to retrieve the boys, who had been turned over to the Jackson County Family Court.

Johnson said authorities told her the boys would not be charged in Kansas City. The car was towed.

New York
2 small planes enter Obama’s  restricted space

NEW YORK (AP) — F-15 fighter jets have intercepted two small airplanes in the New York metropolitan area after they entered airspace temporarily restricted because of President Barack Obama’s campaign visit to Connecticut.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command says the first incident was at 7 p.m. Monday over Long Island. The plane was followed until it landed, where local law enforcement was waiting.

NORAD says the second incident was at 7:30 p.m. near New Haven, Conn. That plane was allowed to continue to its destination.

Obama was in Connecticut on Monday night for fundraising events.

Similar airplane interceptions have happened in other locations, including several in Los Angeles and one near Camp David in Maryland.?