Nevada: Firefighters work to save subdivision

Firefighters turned their focus Tuesday to the Sierra Nevada, where firebreaks had been bulldozed around homes threatened by an 8,600-acre wildfire burning amid the worst drought in 30 years.

Nearly 1,000 firefighters, three air tankers and two National Guard helicopters were assigned to the blaze on the California-Nevada state line. The fire threatened 250 homes in Topaz Lake but was growing only slightly late Tuesday and was estimated to be 30 percent contained.

“The wind is the biggest concern,” spokeswoman Laura Williams said from the Sierra Front Interagency Fire Dispatch Center in Minden, Nev. “It is very low humidity. The soil moistures are at the lowest level they have been for this time of year since Nixon was president.”

Illinois: Old indictment names President Taylor

Old legal problems have surfaced to taint another president. But the problems are really old try 188 years.

Historians said Tuesday that they had found an 1814 indictment of Maj. Zachariah Taylor on charges of assault and battery. Taylor went on to become the 12th U.S. president in 1848, though he served less than 500 days before dying in office.

Taylor served in Illinois during the War of 1812, leading a force of 340 men up the Mississippi River to destroy American Indian crops and build a fort near what is now Rock Island. Taken by surprise and outnumbered, Taylor was forced to retreat and he returned to St. Louis in September 1814.

The assault took place shortly afterward just across the Mississippi River in Illinois.

A man named Simon Bartrane said he was assaulted by Taylor and two other men. The charges against Taylor and, apparently, one of the other accused were dismissed. The third, Byrd Lockhart, was convicted.

North Carolina: Sen. Helms goes home

U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms returned home Tuesday for the first time since his heart surgery almost three months ago.

Jimmy Broughton, a Helms spokesman, said the 80-year-old senator on Tuesday left a rehabilitation center in Raleigh. “He said he was looking forward to being in the same home with Mrs. Helms for the first time in three months,” Broughton said.

Helms, R-N.C., had surgery April 25 to replace a worn-out pig valve that was installed in his heart 10 years ago. The original pig valve replaced Helms’ mitral valve, which guards the opening between the upper and lower chambers of the heart.

Helms announced last year that he would leave the Senate when his fifth term expires in January.