2 adults, 3 children killed in Missouri fire

PLYMOUTH, Mo. (AP) — Fire killed five people, including three children, in a home in rural northern Missouri on New Year's Day, authorities said.

Carroll County Sheriff Troy Hofstetter said the blaze started early Friday in the basement of the house near the small, unincorporated town of Plymouth. He said the cause of fire was under investigation, but an unattended fireplace may be to blame.

The Kansas City Star reported that Judy Silkwood and a teenage granddaughter, Lindsey Russell, were asleep on the first floor and escaped. One of them ran to a neighbor's home and called 911 around 5 a.m.

Firefighters rushed to the home and extinguished the blaze, which was mainly contained to the basement. The Star reported that the victims all lived nearby and were visiting Silkwood. They were found huddled in a basement bathroom.

Immigrant students marching to D.C.

MIAMI (AP) — While their fellow college students recovered from the night's revelry, four South Floridians celebrated the New Year with a more active — and activist — approach.

The group set out Friday to begin a 1,500 mile journey they are calling the "Trail of Dreams," from Miami's historic Freedom Tower to Washington, D.C. The goal is to raise support for legislation that would include a path to citizenship for eligible illegal immigrants.

The four, all immigrants themselves, plan to walk the entire distance, no matter the weather. They expect students and other supporters to join them along the way and plan to arrive in the capital May 1, which has become a day of immigrant rights rallies in recent years.

All are campus leaders and top students at local colleges. Some are now here legally, some are not. All say they are willing to take the risks that come with bringing attention to the plight of students who, like themselves, were brought to the U.S. as children and are now here illegally.

Juan Rodriguez, president of the student government at Miami Dade College's InterAmerican Campus, and the others say they were inspired by the migrant farm workers who walked the length of California in the 1970s. Rodriguez's family brought him to Florida on a tourist visa from Colombia when Rodriguez was 6 because his father feared the surge in kidnappings in their homeland.

The others in the group have similar stories. Carlos Roa, 22, Felipe Matos, 23, and Gabby Pacheco, 24, all were brought to the U.S. as young children, excelled in school and have advocated on behalf of immigrant teens. Pacheco is from Ecuador, Roa is from Venezuela and Matos is from Brazil.

Assisted suicides upheld in Montana

HELENA (Bloomberg) — Physician-assisted suicide is legal in Montana, and doctors who help terminally ill patients die are shielded from prosecution, the state Supreme Court ruled this week.

Montana is the third state, after Oregon and Washington, to allow physicians to help such patients end their lives, and today's decision is the first from a U.S. state high court to protect the choice, said Steve Hopcraft, a spokesman for Compassion and Choices, a group that advocates the practice.

A lower court in Montana ruled last year that the state's constitutional privacy and human dignity rights allow a terminally ill patient to "die with dignity." The court ruled patients may use a doctor's prescription, and that the physician is protected from prosecution under Montana's homicide laws. Montana appealed that ruling to the state's high court. "We find nothing in Montana Supreme Court precedent or Montana statutes indicating that physician aid in dying is against public policy," the high court said Thursday in its opinion.

Hotel moves guests after Pasadena fire

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — The Hilton Pasadena had to move hundreds of guests, including some who had attended the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, after an electrical malfunction sent heavy smoke billowing through the hotel's upper floors on New Year's Day, authorities said.

The malfunction knocked out power at about 5:30 p.m. Friday, just as several tour buses full of fans from the Rose Bowl game were arriving back at the hotel, Pasadena Fire Department spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said. A blown-out transformer likely caused the problem.

N.C. to end indoor smoking Saturday

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — In dozens of states, Gary Richards wouldn't have been able to light up a Marlboro before tucking into his meat-lover's pizza, as he did at Satisfaction Restaurant & Bar this week. But in North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, limits on indoor smoking have lagged behind those in much of the country.

That changes Saturday, when smoking in restaurants and bars is banned in the state that is home to two major tobacco companies and where the golden leaf helped build Duke and Wake Forest universities.

The dangers of secondhand smoke to employee health and complaints from patrons about the smell finally won out when the Legislature approved the ban in 2009 after years of failures.

EPA, N.Y. don't want shale drilling

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WASHINGTON (MCT) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has expressed concern about the prospect of energy companies drilling for shale-based natural gas around New York City's key water supply.

The EPA "has serious reservations about whether gas drilling in the New York City watershed is consistent with the vision of long-term maintenance of a high-quality unfiltered water supply," a letter dated Dec. 30 from the EPA to New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation says.

The EPA said it has "concerns regarding potential impacts to human health and the environment that we believe warrant further scientific and regulatory analysis."

The state environmental department was seeking comments as it reviews whether to permit development of the section of the so-called Marcellus Shale formation, which the state agency says contains potentially enormous quantities of natural gas. New York City has urged the state not to allow natural-gas drilling within the watershed.

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