Wyoming: Icy conditions cause dozens of crashes

Icy conditions caused dozens of accidents Sunday on the highways in the Rocky Mountain foothills, injuring at least five people and causing authorities to temporarily close a 90-mile stretch of Interstate Highway 80.

At least 110 accidents, including some rollovers, were reported after midnight Sunday morning, the Wyoming Highway Patrol said.

Authorities closed the eastbound lanes from Sinclair to Laramie by late morning but reopened them in the afternoon. Traffic had to be escorted to Laramie on U.S. Highway 30 in groups of 100 vehicles.

The same storm system caused a handful of wrecks across the border in western Nebraska, where a 9-year-old girl was killed Sunday morning in a one-car crash on I-80. The girl was a passenger in a pickup driven by her father, who lost control on the ice and went into a ditch.

Washington, D.C.: Patrols step up seat-belt checks

During the busy Thanksgiving travel week, police will be looking out for motorists who are not wearing seat belts.

More than 12,000 law enforcement agencies are participating in the stepped-up enforcement of seat-belt laws.

In the campaign that runs from today through Dec. 1, officers will set up checkpoints, increase highway patrols and ticket drivers who do not buckle up or properly restrain children.

The Pentagon is joining the effort this year because men age 18 to 25 make up a large percentage of military personnel and are less likely to buckle their seat belts. The National Safety Council says more military personnel are killed in crashes than in combat and training combined.

Massachusetts: Reinstated priest returns to parish

Monsignor Michael Smith Foster made an emotional return Sunday to his former parish in Newton for the first time since he was cleared of child sexual abuse allegations.

“Your letters, cards, phone calls and prayers kept my spirit alive,” he said, thanking friends and strangers for their kindness. “You will never know how grateful I am.”

Foster was the highest ranking clergy member accused of abuse since the crisis erupted in January, when court documents revealed that the archdiocese shuffled abusive priests between parishes. He is the presiding judge of the archdiocesan tribunal that handles annulments and canon law issues.

In August, a former altar boy, Paul Edwards, accused Foster of sexually molesting him in his rectory bedroom at Newton’s Sacred Heart parish between 1980 and 1985.

Foster then took a leave of absence and was suspended from his pastoral duties. But the charges were placed in doubt after acquaintances of Edwards pointed to factual errors in his account.

Nebraska: Implosion damages neighboring structure

One of four historic buildings slated for preservation near the site of a new $90 million performing arts center was severely damaged Sunday when a neighboring food plant was imploded.

Debris from the razing of the Pinnacle food plant smashed through the roof and caused the west wall to cave in at the Frankie Pane building in downtown Omaha.

“I’m sick, my stomach hurts, I’m shaking, I’m sick, I’m sick,” said Frankie Pane, who uses the building as a private party and catering facility.

Officials with Dore & Associates Contracting, the contractor for the implosion, had no comment.

The buildings to be preserved near the center are Pane’s, the Christian Specht building, the Happy Hollow Coffee building and the T.H. Smith Co./Marshall Paper Co. building. They date from the 1880s to 1916.