NATION
Deadly twister hits Illinois town
FAIRDALE, Ill. — A tornado hit the tiny northern Illinois town of Fairdale, killing one person, injuring seven and sweeping homes off their foundations as large storm system swept across a large swath of the country.
The vast storm system brought high winds and rain to east Texas, ripping off a church rooftop there and damaging a nursing home, prompting an evacuation, authorities said.
In the Illinois town, a 67-year-old woman was found dead inside her home, DeKalb County coroner Dennis Miller said at a news conference early today. Seven others were taken to hospitals with injuries after the National Weather Service first tweeted about 7 p.m. Thursday that a tornado was on the ground in the region.
In Fairdale, an unincorporated town of about 200 residents about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, “17 structures have been determined to be destroyed,” Matthew Knott, division chief for the Rockford Fire Department, told The Associated Press. “All of the others have sustained damage of some sort.”
The town’s power was out early today, and everyone had been evacuated.
Questions persist about shooting
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Questions persist about the shooting death of a black South Carolina motorist after the release of dashboard video of a traffic stop that led to a white officer being charged with murder.
The dash cam footage released by state police on Thursday showed North Charleston Officer Michael Thomas Slager pulling over motorist Walter Scott for a broken brake light last weekend.
Saturday’s traffic stop opens routinely as Scott is stopped in a used Mercedes-Benz he had bought days earlier, footage from the patrol car showed. The white officer is seen walking toward the driver’s window, requesting Scott’s license and registration. Slager then returns to his cruiser. The video also shows Scott beginning to get out of the car, his right hand raised above his head. He then quickly gets back into the car and closes the door. After Slager goes back to his patrol car, minutes later, Scott jumps from his car and runs. Slager chases him.
What’s missing is what happens from the time the two men run out of the frame of dashboard video to the time picked up in a bystander’s cell phone video a few hundred yards away. The cell phone footage starts with Scott getting to his feet and running away, then Slager firing eight shots at the man’s back.
The dashboard camera is in stark contrast to the cell phone footage of the later moments of the encounter. On the dash cam video, Slager never touches his gun during the stop. He also makes no unreasonable demands or threats.
“It is possible for something to happen in that gap to significantly raise the officer’s perception of risk,” Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and criminal law professor.
Commissioner will mull utility break up
SAN FRANCISCO — On the heels of a record $1.6 billion penalty against Pacific Gas & Electric, California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker said he will study whether the state’s biggest power utility should be broken up to improve safety.
The penalty, and the warning that even tougher action might be coming, occurred Thursday, as the commission meted out the utility’s punishment in a fiery 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in a San Francisco suburb.
PG&E, the state’s largest utility, said it would accept the penalty without appeal and pledged to make its operations safer. PG&E CEO Tony Earley released a statement saying the utility was “deeply sorry” for the explosion. “The lessons of this tragic event will not be forgotten,” he said.
Federal investigators blamed both safety failings by the utility and lax oversight by state regulators for the disaster.
