Chicago: Water main break causes sinkhole

A water main broke Friday on the city’s North Side, sending thousands of gallons of water gushing onto streets and causing a 30-foot-wide sinkhole, above.

Police shut down a three-mile stretch of nearby Lake Shore Drive after getting a report of the broken main at 3:20 a.m. The drive reopened four hours later.

Witnesses said the break in the 36-inch main sent water gushing up to eight feet in the air.

The Chicago Water Department said it would dig up a section of the ruptured main for testing to determine why the main broke.

Repair crews pumped out the sinkhole that opened at the intersection of Addison Avenue and Marine Drive, frequently called Inner Lake Shore Drive. Two cars were partially submerged and other vehicles tilted along its edge.

Michigan: Judge admits pot use, now on voluntary leave

A judge went on indefinite voluntary leave after admitting smoking marijuana at a Rolling Stones concert.

A woman told court officials she saw District Judge Thomas Gilbert smoke a joint passed along a row of people at an Oct. 12 concert in Detroit, 250 miles from Traverse City, where Gilbert works.

The woman was from Elk Rapids, a town near Traverse City that lies within Gilbert’s district.

Gilbert, 45, admitted to the allegations during a meeting this week with Chief District Judge Michael Haley and District Judge Thomas J. Phillips. He left the bench on Wednesday.

“He’s full of shame and regret, and it’s just a very sad day for the district court,” Haley said.

“I broke the law by twice puffing on a marijuana cigarette during a rock concert,” Gilbert said in a statement. “I deeply regret this error in judgment.”

Gilbert will be on voluntary leave until at least Nov. 15. Once he returns, he will be limited to civil cases indefinitely, Haley said.

After an investigation by a state judicial commission, Gilbert could be censured, suspended or removed from the bench.

North Carolina: Report: Mental experts needed in combat units

Mental health workers must be assigned to combat units if the military is to head off problems like those that led to five marital murders this summer, an Army report says.

The report, released Thursday, said the killings were likely due to existing marital strife made worse by frequent separations of military families as the soldiers trained and fought. It said early intervention was the way to prevent future tragedies.

Col. Dave Orman, a psychiatrist who led the study team, said a pilot program was being created to put mental health workers in combat battalions so “the troops can access us casually.”

If mental health workers, now available at clinics, were in combat units, they might gain the confidence of soldiers and help them before problems escalate, he said.

Authorities say four Fort Bragg soldiers killed their wives in June and July. Two of the men committed suicide and the other two are charged with murder. Three of those cases involved Special Operations soldiers who had served in Afghanistan.

Florida: ‘Stupid’ author arrested in Internet sex case

A man who has written two books on stupidity was arrested for allegedly trying to arrange sex with a 15-year-old girl over the Internet. The girl turned out to be an undercover male detective.

James F. Welles, the 61-year-old author of “The Story of Stupidity” and “Understanding Stupidity,” was taken into custody last week after arranging to meet the girl at a restaurant, investigators said.

He was charged with soliciting a minor over the Internet and was released on bail. He did not immediately return a call to his Pompano Beach home Friday.

According to police, Welles was aware of the possibility of a sting, saying in one message that he worried about “the state of Florida looming in the background.”

Florida: ‘Pedro Pan’ Cuban claims priest abuse

A 14-year-old boy was taken from his home in Cuba 40 years ago, brought to South Florida under the protection of the Catholic Church and repeatedly raped by a priest, according to a lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court on Friday.

The suit, which lists no monetary damages, names Father Joaquin Guerrero and the Archdiocese of Miami as defendants, saying the archdiocese failed to protect the boy from sexual abuse.

Now a 54-year-old social worker in Miami, the alleged victim, identified in the lawsuit as “R.E.,” came to the United States in 1962 under the Pedro Pan program, sponsored by the archdiocese to provide a better life for Cuban children.

R.E. was assigned to live in a camp in Kendall, Fla., overseen by Guerrero, who for six months raped and sodomized the alleged victim, according to the lawsuit.

Adam Horowitz, an attorney representing the Archdiocese of Miami, declined to comment, saying he hadn’t seen the suit.

Guerrero is believed to still be in South Florida, said R.E.’s attorney, Jeff Herman, although that could not be confirmed.