New Jersey

Car crashes into McDonald’s, kills three employees

A car careened out of control and smashed into a McDonald’s restaurant early Wednesday, killing three workers inside and injuring a fourth worker and the driver, authorities said.

The crash happened at 4:20 a.m. while six workers were inside the 24-hour restaurant in Mount Ephraim, about 10 miles southeast of Philadelphia.

No customers were in the restaurant at the time, said Jim Lynch, first assistant Camden County prosecutor.

The car, driven by Frank Nastasi, sped through an intersection and jumped a curb, narrowly missing a utility pole, then crashed through the restaurant’s front window, Lynch said.

The car plowed through an unoccupied children’s play area and seating areas, then smashed through the counter and came to rest in the food preparation area, where it burst into flames, Lynch said.

Nastasi, 50, of Haddon Heights, had not been charged. The prosecutor wouldn’t comment on whether drugs or alcohol were involved.

Indiana

National Guard sent to aid in flooded areas

High water covered roads and fields and kept some people out of their homes Wednesday as Indiana National Guard members were called in to help victims.

Flood warnings remained in effect for much of central and southern Indiana on Wednesday because of heavy rain during the weekend, and the National Weather Service said there was a chance of more rain Wednesday night. Nine Indiana counties had declared local emergencies by early Wednesday.

Gov. Frank O’Bannon said Wednesday that he was sending 80 Guard members to the hardest hit areas, mostly in southern Indiana.

Florida

Governor signs bill on falsifying records

Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill Wednesday making it a felony for state workers to falsify records related to children, the elderly or disabled in state care.

The measure, passed last week in a special legislative session, follows accusations that a child welfare caseworker falsely claimed to be maintaining contact with a girl who has been missing more than a year.

Rilya Wilson, 5, disappeared 16 months ago but wasn’t reported missing until April 25. The Department of Children & Families believed her caretaker had the girl.

The department says caseworker Deborah Muskelly filed false reports of monthly visits with the child while her supervisor, Willie Harris, failed to review the case. Both resigned in March over the mishandling of another case.

Philadelphia

Suspect arrested for package bomb

A man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion that he placed an explosive inscribed with the words “Free Palestine now” in a corner mailbox this week.

Preston H. Lit, 53, is also being investigated about a threatening note placed with a pair of sneakers in another mailbox Tuesday, FBI Special Agent Rosanne Russo said.

Lit is being held on a preliminary charge of threatening to use explosive devices. He is scheduled to appear in federal court today.

Police said they had identified Lit as a suspect Wednesday after he dumped garbage in a neighbor’s yard. Among the trash was a box containing writing similar to the notes left on the bomb and sneakers, the FBI said.

Arizona

Jailhouse plot to kill governor is foiled

A career criminal, a prison chaplain and a sex offender were arrested and accused of hatching a bizarre jailhouse plot to kill Gov. Jane Hull and the man known as America’s toughest sheriff.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said the three had planned to kidnap Hull, stuff her into a trunk and not let her out until she agreed to sign a pardon that would release one of the men from jail. Then they allegedly planned to kill the governor and bury her under a tree.

The scheme also involved paying a sniper $100,000 to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio in retaliation for harsh jail conditions, authorities said.

Arpaio, sheriff of Arizona’s most populous county since 1992, is known for housing inmates in tents to reduce crowding, dressing them in pink underwear, and re-establishing chain gangs in old-fashioned striped uniforms.

The plot was foiled when police were tipped off by a jail inmate last month, authorities said.

Florida

Oxygen generator on space station breaks

The international space station’s three residents are using a backup method of producing oxygen while trying to fix a broken generator.

The primary oxygen generator on the orbiting outpost has been working intermittently over the past few weeks and, as of Wednesday, was not operating at all.

Space station commander Yuri Onufrienko and his two American crewmates have been using solid-fuel canisters to produce oxygen; a similar canister erupted in flames aboard Russia’s Mir space station in 1997.

In Cape Canaveral, NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said the crew, whose six-month mission ends in June, had plenty of oxygen to breathe because of the backup sources. He said the on-board supply was good for three months or more.

Seattle

Teacher’s young lover seeking $1.9 million

After nine weeks spent examining Vili Fualaau’s sexual relationship with his former teacher, Mary K. Letourneau, under a legal magnifying glass, Fualaau’s attorney told the jury how much his family is asking in damages: between $1.7 million and $1.9 million.

That amount includes $500,000 for Fualaau’s mother, Soona, and would provide for long-term psychiatric care for the 18-year-old, who fathered two children with Letourneau.

Letourneau is serving a prison term for child rape. She and Fualaau began their relationship when he was 12 and she was 34, married with four children.

Fualaau and his mother are suing the Highline School District and the city of Des Moines, Wash., for not doing enough to keep Letourneau from Fualaau.

Jurors began deliberating the case Wednesday.