STUDENT TAKES PLEA BARGAIN IN THE DEATH OF HER NEWBORN
MONTICELLO, Ark. (AP) -- A college student charged with stuffing her newborn into a campus trash bin has pleaded guilty to abuse of a corpse and negligent homicide.Prosecutors are asking that Tremaine Ingram get six years in prison at sentencing April 19. Her baby boy was found dead at the University of Arkansas-Monticello in June.
The former pre-law student pleaded guilty Tuesday. She was originally charged with manslaughter.
According to her lawyer, Ingram went into a state of emotional turmoil after she was rebuffed by the reputed father of her child. She gave birth June 1 while standing, and the baby fell headfirst on her dormitory room floor, the lawyer said.
Believing the baby to be dead, she placed him in a paper bag, then went to dinner and a meeting before she put the body in the trash, where it was discovered the next day, the lawyer said.
USDA TO BUY BUFFALO MEAT FOR SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAM
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- That mystery meat might be bison.
In an effort to help the emerging bison industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to buy $6 million worth of the shaggy mammal for its school lunch program.
The buffalo buy was welcomed by the New Rockford-based North American Bison Cooperative, which has 350 bison ranchers as members.
"It's a good promotion tool. It gets people who haven't had a chance to eat it before to eat it," Chad Bullinger, sales manager for the co-op, said Wednesday.
The buffalo industry has recently experienced a surplus of bison trim, which is inexpensive meat often used to make burgers. The government plans on buying 1.6 million pounds of meat.
This is the second government buffalo meat purchase; last year, the USDA bought about $2.5 million, Bullinger said.
SNOWMOBILER'S BODY FOUND; ONE SLIDE VICTIM STILL MISSING
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Searchers have recovered the body of a fifth snowmobiler killed in a weekend avalanche.
Air Force Tech Sgt. Victor Jones was among six people buried by a mile-wide wall of snow that roared down a mountainside Sunday. Still missing is Aaron Arthur, 29, of Palmer.
Jones was found Wednesday after searchers discovered his snowmobile under 4 feet of densely packed snow, said State Trooper spokesman Greg Wilkinson.
274,000 CHILDREN'S VEHICLES RECALLED OVER ELECTRICAL FLAW
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Peg Perego USA Inc. is recalling 274,000 battery-powered children's vehicles for repair after receiving more than 300 reports of electrical components overheating or accelerator pedals getting stuck.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Wednesday electrical components in the vehicle can cause it to overheat, posing fire and injury hazards to children.
The recalled vehicles run on two 6-volt batteries and were manufactured before December 1997. They are made of plastic and have been sold under the following names, which appear on the vehicle: Corral 270, Diablo, Dragon, Gaucho, Gaucho Grande, Gaucho High Torque, Gaucho Sport, Magica, Magnum, Ranger GT, Thunderbolt, Thundercat and Tornado.
INS AGENT SAYS ALIEN'S TALE OF AFFAIR, SMUGGLING ISN'T TRUE
BOSTON (AP) -- An immigration officer accused of having an affair with an illegal immigrant and smuggling him from Canada into the United States says the man made up the story.
Paula Jesmer, a 12-year veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, pleaded not guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to charges that she knowingly and recklessly transported an illegal alien into the country.
Prosecutors say Jesmer, 34, began a romantic affair in 1996 with Jose Cabral-Simas while he was a prisoner under her supervision at an INS processing center in Boston.
After Cabral-Simas was convicted on drug charges and deported to his native Portugal, the two allegedly arranged a rendezvous in Montreal. They crossed into the United States in August and traveled to Jesmer's home north of Boston, prosecutors said.
But defense lawyer Charles Balliro denied that his client had a romantic relationship with Cabral-Simas, who lived in New Bedford as a legal permanent resident for nearly 20 years before his conviction for drug distribution in 1995.
SMOKE HINDERS THE EFFORTS TO CONTAIN N. FLORIDA BLAZE
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Blinding smoke hampered firefighters' efforts Thursday to contain a blaze that has charred more than 1,000 acres in northern Florida.
"They really can't do much with it," said Peggy Cane, a duty officer with Florida's Division of Forestry. "The smoke's coming right back on them."
Although firefighters had mostly contained the blaze that has burned about 1,050 acres midway between Gainesville and Tallahassee, the smoke inversion made it difficult for them to see, Cane said.
In southwest Florida, 1,400 acres in Cape Coral burned before firefighters brought it under control during the night.
"At first, we thought it was just a brush fire," said resident Jeff Santella. "Next thing I know, I see the flames. What a mess. It burned right to our property line."
N.Y. UNION STAFFER PLEADS GUILTY TO VOTE RIGGING, THEFT
NEW YORK (AP) -- A former top staff member in New York's largest union of city workers has pleaded guilty to helping rig a 1995 contract ratification vote and to stealing thousands of dollars.
Mark Shaplo, former assistant to District Council 37's associate director, pleaded guilty Wednesday to grand larceny and a scheme to defraud.
Shaplo, 70, admitted to a role in rigging the citywide ratification vote of Local 1549 to guarantee approval of a proposed contract. The local represents city clerical workers.
Shaplo said he and others had extra ballots printed, marked the ballots in favor of the contract and added these ballots to the tally.
The contract was approved and is now in force.
He is expected to be sentenced to up to six years in prison and ordered to repay $80,000 to the union representing 120,000 city workers.