Chicago

Higher exercise pace boosts heart benefits

Moderate physical activity is good for preventing heart disease, but revving up the pace may be better especially if combined with weight training, a Harvard study of more than 40,000 men suggests.

The new study found that men who exercised at high intensity were 17 percent less likely to develop heart disease than those who did low-intensity exercise.

High-intensity exercise includes running or jogging at 6 mph, while low-intensity activities include walking at a pace of about 2 mph.

The Harvard School of Public Health study also found that men who engaged in weight training for 30 minutes or more weekly had a 23 percent lower risk of heart disease than men who did not pump iron. The researchers said the benefits may result in part from reductions in blood pressure and body fat achieved through weight training.

The study appeared in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Assn.

Texas

Tornado kills one, damages campus

A tornado caused extensive damage and killed one person at a hard-hit college campus Thursday afternoon in Corpus Christi.

“We have extensive damage along the path of the tornado,” Mayor Loyd Neal said.

Flooding also was reported as a cluster of storms moved through the area.

One person died when a wall collapsed at Del Mar College, Assistant Police Chief Ken Bung said.

College spokeswoman Claudia Jackson said four other people were taken to hospitals for injuries. Damage to buildings was being assessed on campus, she said.

The tornado touched down about 3 p.m., and the National Weather Service said the storms cleared out of the area by late afternoon.

Chicago

Federal agency fires airport screeners

Two federal security screeners were fired for turning their backs on their posts while a man entered an O’Hare International Airport terminal without going through security, officials said.

The firings, announced Wednesday by Transportation Security Administration, are the first among the 44,000 security screeners hired by the federal government to safeguard airports after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The man was seen on surveillance tape entering through the checkpoint’s exit Oct. 15; officials said an investigation found it took security agents six minutes to call police and shut down the terminal. Police never found the man.

O’Hare security chief Isaac Richardson would not discuss the incident other than to say the two guards were “no longer with us.”

Chicago

‘Baby formula’ drug ring leaders sentenced

Two leaders of a ring that smuggled liquid cocaine in baby-formula cans and rented babies from their parents to lend realism were each sentenced Thursday to 10 years in federal prison.

Orville Wilson, 31, and Selena Johnson, 30, were among 48 defendants convicted in the case.

Female couriers carrying rented babies and formula cans regularly breezed through customs en route from Panama and Jamaica until a customs inspector in Atlanta opened one of the cans.

Inspectors discovered rock heroin in the can and liquid cocaine in another taken from the same courier, who was returning to Chicago from a trip to Panama.

Six parents who rented their babies to the drug couriers have been convicted and sentenced, prosecutors said. Wilson and Johnson received reduced sentences for cooperating with investigators.