Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
In the news
■ Lee Upchurch, chief deputy sheriff of Choctaw County, Miss., said a 16-yearold was home alone when he fired a single shot from a .270-caliber rifle to kill his hatchet-wielding uncle, who was on the front porch trying to get into the house after making threats two weeks ago.
■ Patrick Callahan, a Boston firefighter, said he was just doing “what we do” by standing precariously at the top of a too-short ladder to grab a little boy being dangled by his mother from a third-floor window of a burning home.
■ Paige Burnett, 10, said she was at first excited but then became “so scared” about a possible explosion when she and 9-year-old friend Sage Menzies found a World War I-era practice bomb while swimming at a lake northwest of Detroit, but authorities later determined that it was harmless.
■ Dana Lombardo, spokesman for the Philadelphia Zoo, said one of the four peacocks that escaped onto a nearby interstate Wednesday and snarled traffic for hours, was found dead, likely hit by a car, as authorities continued hunting for the other three birds.
■ Jonathan Bayle said he initially thought a television show or movie was being filmed when he saw a softtop Porsche Carrera crash under another vehicle in Sydney, Australia, with the driver, a hotel valet who was parking the car, having to be cut free of the wreckage.
■ Joe Onosko, police commissioner in Portsmouth, N.H., said it’s “not a good work environment,” but everyone is “soldiering on” as consultants prepare a plan to deal with rats, mold and roof leaks at the city’s Police Department.
■ Shane Foley, an Indianapolis police sergeant, said officers used a drone to drop a flotation device to a 41-year-old theft suspect who dove into a pond as officers were chasing him, but then struggled to tread water.
■ Ryan Barr, 24, of Moundsville, W.Va., was arrested, accused of child neglect after authorities received calls about videos posted on social media reportedly showing Barr putting his two children in a dryer one at a time, shutting the door and turning it on.
■ Toni Whaley and her husband, Jeff, of Douglas County, Kansas, who adopted five siblings ranging in age from 3-12, said they were lucky to learn about the children’s desire to stay together before a story about the kids went viral and generated so much interest that it crashed the “Adopt Kansas Kids” website.