Baltimore

Federal charges filed in deadly arson case

Federal prosecutors filed seven charges of murder-by-arson against a man Wednesday for a blaze police say was set in retaliation against a mother crusading against neighborhood drug dealers.

The charges against Darrell Brooks, 21, carry the death penalty, though prosecutors said they had not decided whether to pursue it.

“If you firebomb a house and you kill seven people — if that’s not a federal case, what is?” U.S. Atty. Thomas DiBiagio said. “Seven people were burned alive in their home.”

Angela Dawson and her five children died when fire tore through their three-story rowhouse Oct. 16. Dawson’s husband, Carnell Dawson, was burned over 80 percent of his body and died a week later.

Police said Brooks set the blaze in retaliation for the family’s repeated complaints about area drug dealers.

Boston

Supremacist sentenced for plot on landmarks

A mixed-race white supremacist was sentenced to almost 22 years in prison Wednesday for plotting to blow up black and Jewish landmarks in Boston and Washington.

Prosecutors accused Leo Felton, 31, and his girlfriend, Erica Chase, 22, of trying “to ignite a racial holy war … that would promote chaos among the races.”

Felton, son of a black father and white mother, has said he blames his parents for “contaminating” him with black blood.

Felton and Chase were convicted in July of charges including conspiring to make a bomb, conspiring to make counterfeit bills and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison. Chase’s sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 31.

Virginia

District sets MLK Day as snow make-up day

Students in a Richmond suburb will make up a snow day on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, prompting protests from the NAACP and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Chesterfield County School Supt. Billy K. Cannaday Jr., who is black, announced the decision this week. He said rigorous new state graduation requirements made it necessary for the schools to make up snow days before testing periods begin in the spring. King Day, a federal and state holiday that falls on Jan. 20, was the first available date after the Christmas vacation.

“It reinforces for me, as an African-American, Dr. King’s strong belief in education as an equalizer,” Cannaday said.

King Salim Khalfani, state director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called the decision “shortsighted and insensitive.”

“To totally dismiss (the holiday) for a snow day and say that Dr. King was a supporter of education makes a mockery of King,” he said.

Seattle

Settlement reached in pipeline blast

Two oil companies will pay $112 million to settle federal criminal charges over a 1999 gasoline pipeline explosion that killed three people.

Equilon Pipeline and Olympic Pipe Line Co. agreed Wednesday to pipeline safety plans that will cost a total of $76 million. Additional penalties included $25 million for Equilon and $11 million for Olympic.

Equilon, which is owned by Shell, ran Olympic Pipeline Co. at the time of the explosion. It pleaded no contest to one felony count of violating the federal Pipeline Safety Act by failing to provide continuous training programs and one misdemeanor count of violating the Clean Water Act.

Olympic pleaded guilty to the same charges, plus one misdemeanor count of violating the Harbors and Rivers Act.

The agreement settles all government criminal and civil proceedings against the companies except one: a proposed $3.1 million fine by the U.S. Transportation Department.