Week in review
Another week has passed, and here is your chance to catch up on what you might have missed.
- Tropical Storm Gabrielle made landfall on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, packing 50 mph winds and rain. The storm, however, wasn’t enough of a threat to scare vacationers from the shore and surfers from the beach.
- In a case that would seem unthinkable in the Jewish state, police cracked a cell of young Israeli neo-Nazis. The group of immigrants from the former Soviet Union was accused in a string of attacks on foreign workers, religious Jews, drug addicts and gays.
- Pope Benedict XVI ended a pilgrimage to Austria by urging Austrians “to bring the traditional values of the continent — values shaped by the Christian faith — to European institutions.” He also urged the faithful to set aside Sundays to devote themselves to Christ’s teachings and “create oases of selfless love in a world where so often only power and wealth seem to count for anything.”
- The Oklahoma Corporation Commission voted to reject a $1.87 billion coal-fired power plant near Red Rock. A final vote is expected this week on the plan by Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co., Public Service Co. of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority.
- The mother of Kelsey Smith-Briggs was ordered to serve 27 years for enabling the child abuse that killed her 2-year-old daughter. Instead of asking the judge for mercy, Raye Dawn Smith stood in court and addressed her former mother-in-law, saying, “Kathie, I forgive you.” Kathie Briggs said afterward, “She’s demented.”
- Former state Sen. Gene Stipe reported to a Missouri prison hospital for a battery of tests to determine whether he is mentally competent.
- A survey found that 1 in 4 voters were unlikely to vote for a Mormon as president and even more would decline to pick an atheist or a Muslim.
- Despite the end of his U.S. prison sentence for drug trafficking, former Panamanian President Manuel Noriega remained jailed as legal fights continued over whether he would be extradited to France to face other charges.
- Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi troops were not ready to fight without support from American forces. As U.S. troop deaths have risen to more than 3,770 in the 4½-year war, Iraq’s leadership has been blamed for moving too slowly toward reconciliation and in assuming security responsibilities.
- Speaking to the nation, President Bush said 5,700 U.S. troops now in Iraq would be home by Christmas and at least 21,500 service members would return by July. He rejected calls to end the war and repeated that American forces must remain in the battle to protect U.S. security. When the reductions are completed in July, about 132,000 U.S. troops will still be in Iraq.
- Family and friends gathered in a Pauls Valley church for the funeral of Marine Cpl. Bryan J. Scripsick, 22. He was killed in
Iraq on Sept. 6 by a suicide bomber. The former high school football player and wrestler was serving the last few months of his second Iraqi tour when he and three other Marines were killed in Anbar Province. - Hurricane Humberto hit the Texas-Louisiana coast with 85-mph winds and heavy rain. It’s growth from a tropical depression to hurricane surprised forecasters, who were at a loss to explain the rapid 16-hour genesis of the first hurricane to hit the
U.S. this year. - All Oklahoma newborns will be routinely screened for 19 additional genetic and metabolic disorders, members of the state Board of Health ruled. Ten tests now are given after birth, including ones for cystic fibrosis and hearing loss.
- State Regents for Higher Education approved several new degree programs intended to increase the number of nurses in
Oklahoma by creating more faculty. - A former Edmond police officer was accused of trying to bribe a former colleague to miss a court date in order to help an airline pilot keep his license. Former officer Christopher Caplinger was charged with conspiracy and bribing a peace officer. He is accused of asking another Edmond officer if he was willing to miss a hearing for up to $1,000.
- More than 70 Tulsa high school students were suspended for five days after they protested a clothing policy established this year for students at Rogers High School. The policy requires students to tuck their shirts.
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