West Virginia: Drifter questioned in kidnapping case

A hospitalized drifter sought for questioning in the disappearance of a teenager in Utah was alert and talking with investigators Saturday.

Bret Michael Edmunds, 26, remained in serious condition in a secure section of intensive care at City Hospital in Martinsburg under the watch of U.S. marshals. He is being treated for a possible drug overdose.

Salt Lake City Police have said Edmunds is wanted for questioning in the June 5 disappearance of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. They have not called him a suspect.

Edmunds is being held on a federal warrant charging him with fleeing to avoid prosecution for a probation violation. The charges are unrelated to the Smart case.

Edmunds, who was living out of his Saturn sedan, had been seen in the Smart neighborhood the week the girl vanished.

Minneapolis: Northwest to sever ties to Priceline.com

Northwest Airlines has stopped selling discounted tickets on Priceline.com, the name-your-own-price Internet company.

The airline has grown “increasingly concerned with the changes in Priceline’s business model,” Northwest spokeswoman Mary Beth Schubert said Friday. Schubert did not explain the concerns and said she didn’t know if it might resume using the company in the future.

Nearly all the major airlines sell distressed seats those that are not likely to be sold through traditional sales channels through the site.

The New York Times reported Friday that some airlines were angry when Priceline began selling fixed-priced fares on eBay.

Brian Ek, a spokesman for Priceline, said he did not expect other airlines to follow Northwest’s move.

New York: Report: Mailed anthrax was made in laboratory

Scientists have concluded that anthrax sent through the mail last year was less than 2 years old, leading investigators to believe that whoever sent the germs could make more, according to a published report.

“It’s modern,” a government official told The New York Times in a story to be published today. “It was grown, and therefore it can be grown again and again.”

The age of the anthrax that killed five people and sickened more than a dozen last fall gives credence to the theory that the person who put anthrax-laced letters in the mail is connected to a microbiology laboratory and may have used new equipment, government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity told the newspaper.

Establishing the age casts doubt on a theory that the mailer obtained an old laboratory sample of anthrax from a strain identified in 1981, the Times reported.

Wisconsin: 9-inch rain deluge forces evacuation

Heavy downpours flooded roads, damaged a bridge and forced the evacuation of a trailer park on Saturday in central Wisconsin, officials said.

The National Weather Service reported 6 to 9 inches fell in some areas from storms that began Friday and intensified overnight.

“Some of my neighbors are coming in via canoe,” said Shelly Wisecarver, owner of Charlies Emporium and Cafe in Wautoma.

A continued chance of showers and thunderstorms was forecast for the central and northern portions of the state through the weekend.

The same storm system also hit parts of Michigan, hampering cleanup efforts from earlier storms. About 9,000 Consumers Energy Co. lost power statewide on Friday and about 1,150 remained without service Saturday, spokeswoman Leslie Roth said.