Texas: Co-pilot’s plunge no accident

A man who plunged 9,000 feet from a small plane as it made a steep bank apparently jumped, authorities said Monday.

Russell Filler, 47, the plane’s co-pilot, turned the controls of the single-engine Cessna 152 over to his flight instructor Sunday afternoon, then asked him to turn the plane sharply so he could get a better look at the ground, Waller County Sheriff Randy Smith said.

Smith said Filler then opened the cockpit door and unfastened his seat belt as the plane flew over a rural area about 45 miles northwest of Houston.

Filler’s body had not been found Monday and there was no indication he had a parachute, said Lt. John Kremmer of the county Sheriff’s Department.

“There was no accidental exit from the aircraft,” Kremmer said.

Louisiana: 7-year-old calls 911 to report drunken baby sitter

A baby sitter with five children in her car was arrested for drunken driving after she passed out at a Covington rest stop and one of her charges, a 7-year-old girl, used a cell phone to call 911.

Linda Hebert, 40, of Picayune, Miss., was found slumped over the steering wheel Sunday and the car was still running, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Hebert’s blood-alcohol level registered 0.27 on a breath test, well over the 0.10 limit, the report said. Deputies said they had to use pepper spray when Hebert became “combative,” and she remained jailed Monday.

Two of the children, ages 5 and 9, were Hebert’s. The others, 4, 6 and 7, were left in her care by a woman who expected Hebert to keep them in Picayune, more than 20 miles from the rest stop.

Alabama: Governor concedes race two weeks after election

Saying he didn’t want to hurt Alabama, Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman gave up his bid for a second term Monday and conceded the nation’s last undecided governor’s race to Republican Rep. Bob Riley.

Riley, 58, will become just the third Republican governor in Alabama since Reconstruction when he is inaugurated in January.

Siegelman, who announced his decision at the state Capitol in Montgomery, said he felt he could have won a recount, but it would have taken months of legal wrangling.

Siegelman and Riley spent months and more than $22 million trading attack ads and, since Election Day, each had acted as if he was Alabama’s next governor.

San Francisco: Court blocks challenge on Guantanamo detainees

A federal appeals court Monday rejected a challenge to the detention of 600 or so Afghan war prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, ruling that a group of clergy members and professors have no legal standing to intervene.

The Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers and Professors sued on behalf of the prisoners, many of whom have been detained at the U.S. base in Cuba for about a year. The lawsuit alleged they have been denied access to lawyers and have been held without being charged, in violation of the Constitution.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to address that issue, and instead ruled 3-0 that the clergy do not have legal standing to seek redress for the prisoners.