New York
Court considers PLO pre-trial challenge
NEW YORK (AP) - A New York federal appeals court says it will consider the Palestine Liberation Organization's pre-trial challenge of a $1 billion lawsuit filed by U.S. terrorism victims.
The PLO doesn't want the lawsuit to go to trial. It says that would undermine its ability to govern and worsen tensions in the region.
On Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ordered the plaintiffs to file a response next week.
A Jan. 12 trial is set over litigation brought by victims of seven shootings and bombings near Jerusalem between January 2001 and February 2004. The attacks killed 33 people and wounded hundreds more, including scores of U.S. citizens.
Georgia
Bus battery thefts leavekids stranded
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. (AP) - Thieves have given students in metro Atlanta a new excuse for missing class: The battery was stolen from my school bus.
Dekalb County Schools police say a total of 90 batteries have been stolen from the school buses since October.
WSB-TV reports (http://bit.ly/1wbetJ6) that some students at Stone Mountain Middle School were late or didn't make it to school at all after the latest theft was discovered.
Authorities say the motive for the thefts is a mystery, though batteries can be resold on the black market.
DeKalb County Schools public safety director Don Smith says a suspect vehicle was caught on surveillance video: an older-model, black Ford Expedition. Police haven't identified the driver.
Smith says a task force has been created to investigate.
Massachusetts
MIT pulls online lectures over harassment case
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology says it has removed a retired physics professor's lectures from an online learning platform after a school investigation found he had sexually harassed a woman.
MIT said in a statement that it began investigating after receiving a complaint in October from a woman who said Walter Lewin had sexually harassed her online.
Lewin could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday. A message was left at a phone number listed for Lewin in Cambridge.
Lewin taught at MIT for more than three decades and his popular physics lectures drew wide acclaim. He retired in July 2009 and last taught an online course in 2013.
MIT said the woman provided information about Lewin's interactions with her and his interactions with other female online learners.
Ohio
Third man cleared in 1975 Cleveland slaying
CLEVELAND (AP) - An Ohio man walked out of a courthouse a relieved man Tuesday morning after spending nearly 40 years of his life as a convicted felon for a murder that he, his brother and a friend did not commit.
A judge dismissed aggravated murder and robbery charges against Kwame Ajamu, who was convicted under the name Ronnie Bridgeman.
Ajamu, Wiley Bridgeman and Ricky Jackson were sentenced to death in 1975 for the slaying of a businessman. All three have been exonerated after prosecutors learned that the 13-year-old boy who identified them as the killers recanted and said he was coerced by police.
Ajamu was freed from prison in 2003. An assistant prosecutor on Tuesday said Prosecutor Tim McGinty has acknowledged what happened to the men was a "terrible injustice."
North Dakota
Man who tried toimpersonate FBIto plead guilty
FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A man who tried to pass himself off as an FBI agent in the North Dakota oil patch says he will plead guilty to an illegal weapons charge.
Steven Goldmann is charged in federal court with six counts, including four counts of impersonating an officer. Investigators say he regularly displayed a gun, holster, mace and badge, and showed up one day at a Williston coffee shop with a passenger who was handcuffed.
Under the plea agreement, Goldmann would plead guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. The remaining five charges would be dropped.
Goldmann had pleaded guilty to a theft of services charge in Tennessee in 2013. He was accused of swindling several Nashville businesses out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Vermont
Man seeks delay in sentence in teacher death
ST. JOHNSBURY, Vt. (AP) - A man convicted of luring a prep-school teacher out of her Vermont home and then killing her is asking that his sentencing be delayed until after the trial of his wife, who also is charged in the death.
Allen Prue was convicted in October of first-degree murder and other charges in the March 2012 killing of 32-year-old Melissa Jenkins, a St. Johnsbury Academy teacher. Sentencing is set for Dec. 17.
Caledonia State's Attorney Lisa Warren objects to the delay and plans to ask for a sentence of life without parole.
The Caledonian Record reports a hearing on Prue's request is scheduled Wednesday.
Prue's wife, Patricia Prue has pleaded not guilty and faces trial in March.
California
Couple held in Qatar sue firm that sent them
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Southern California couple who were held in Qatar for nearly two years before they were cleared in the death of their 8-year-old daughter have sued the engineering firm that sent them overseas.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Matt and Grace Huang filed the negligence and wrongful termination suit against MWH Global on Monday.
It claims the Colorado-based company failed to provide security or cultural training and fired Matt Huang.
The Huangs were arrested in January 2013 on charges of starving their African-born adopted daughter, Gloria. They spent nearly a year in jail. Their child endangerment convictions were overturned and they were allowed to leave Qatar last week.
MWH says it checked on the family's welfare and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Matt Huang's defense. It also says Huang resigned.
Published: Wed, Dec 10, 2014
