Delaware
Cemetery copes with deer eating gravesite flowers
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Administrators of one Delaware cemetery are asking visitors to bring artificial flowers to gravesites, saying hungry deer are eating fresh floral arrangements there.
The News Journal of Wilmington, Del. reports that All Saints Cemetery has installed signs suggesting visitors bring faux foliage. Artificial floral arrangements are also being sold now at a cemetery office.
An assistant superintendent at the cemetery says groundskeepers have tried to keep the pesky deer away from funeral flowers by spraying them with a deer deterrent and covering them at night. But the official says problems with the hungry deer seem to have only gotten worse this year.
The plea comes at a peak cemetery visitation time for relatives and others paying respects to deceased loved ones around Christian observances of Palm Sunday and Easter.
North Carolina
FBI: Kidnapping victim rescued in Atlanta complex
ATLANTA (AP) — A North Carolina man reported missing from his home days ago was the target of a kidnapping plot, and he was rescued Wednesday from an apartment complex in Atlanta, the FBI said Thursday.
An elite FBI team safely rescued Frank Arthur Janssen shortly before noon Wednesday, FBI spokeswoman Shelley Lynch said in a statement.
Moments after sunrise Thursday, three officers wearing body armor left the complex of townhomes in SUVs, but several federal agents remained in the area.
Two mangled, charred doors lay in a courtyard area in front of one of the townhomes. Through the space where the doors once were, a washer and dryer and kitchen area were visible.
The two-story townhomes with brick and wood siding are next-door to a federal penitentiary, and the razor wire that rings the prison can be seen from the townhomes.
More than half a dozen federal agents were still at the scene about 8 a.m. Most were FBI agents; one was with the Department of Homeland Security.
Janssen was reported missing April 5 from his Wake Forest, N.C., home, according to the FBI.
New Hampshire
Dartmouth gets an anonymous $100M donation
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — Dartmouth College has received an anonymous gift of $100 million, the largest single donation in its 244-year history.
College officials say half of the amount will support the “Cluster Initiative” proposed by President Philip Hanlon, which includes adding 30 to 40 new faculty positions over the next decade.
Professors have been hired by specific departments. Under the new program, professors would be hired under multidisciplinary clusters, such as sustainable energy and financial markets.
Part of the donation is being called a challenge grant, with a goal of raising an additional $100 million in donations.
New Mexico
Medical chopper crashes on roof of trauma center
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Investigators are trying to determine what caused a medical helicopter to crash while taking off from the roof of New Mexico’s only top-level trauma center. Officials said all three people aboard escaped serious injury.
The male pilot was reported in satisfactory condition and the two crew members, a man and a woman, were under observation after the crash at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, authorities said. No further information was available on their conditions.
No patients were aboard the chopper when it went down during takeoff Wednesday.
Federal Aviation Administration investigators were beginning an investigation, agency spokesman Lynn Lunsford said.
Though the cause of the crash wasn’t immediately clear, witnesses said they felt a gust of wind at about 5:45 p.m. and saw the PHI Air Medical helicopter wobble as it started to take off from the helipad atop the six-story building. It came to rest on its side, and the damaged tail section could be seen hanging over the edge of the roof.
Images from TV news helicopters showed the roof around the wrecked chopper soaked as firefighters sprayed the tail section with water.
The hospital’s fifth and sixth floors were evacuated as a precaution. Authorities were working to determine if there was any structural damage to the building.
California
Man charged in 9 deaths says he actually killed 40
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Authorities say that a man charged with carrying out nine contract killings in Central California has confessed that he actually killed 40 people over several decades.
Jose Manuel Martinez, 51, allegedly told investigators he carried out the crimes working as an enforcer for a drug cartel, said Errek Jett, the district attorney in Lawrence County, Ala. Jett said they believe Martinez because of the details he gave investigators.
Martinez was arrested last year shortly after crossing the border from Mexico into Arizona and sent to Alabama, where he awaits trial on one murder charge. Once word got out, a steady stream of investigators from across the country came to question Martinez, Jett said.
Defense attorney Thomas Turner, who represents Martinez in that lone case, said his client is eager to start a June trial in Alabama, so he can return to California. Turner said Martinez maintains his innocence to the charge there and doesn’t seem to be a hardened killer.
Prosecutors in California say otherwise.
The California charges would make Martinez eligible for a death sentence, if he is convicted.
Rhode Island
Ex-professor is accused of lying about diploma
NORTH SCITUATE, R.I. (AP) — A former University of Rhode Island professor is charged with forging his doctorate diploma to get a consulting deal then lying under oath about his credentials.
State police say retired adjunct professor Frederick Meli misrepresented himself to get hired to examine stone mounds on a North Smithfield property that was slated for development. Meli determined the mounds were part of a Native American burial ground.
Police say the 64-year-old Narragansett man also lied about his diploma when the developer sued. An archaeologist determined the mounds were likely built for agrarian use.
Meli was arrested Wednesday on charges including forgery and perjury and released on his own recognizance. A phone listing couldn’t immediately be located early Thursday.
