Cold front hits East, fair skies grace West

The outer bands of Hurricane Isidore moved toward southwest Florida Saturday, but locally heavy rains and wind were the worst effects expected from the system.

A cold front pushed across the eastern United States, with increasing clouds and dry weather expected ahead of the front from Maine to northern Florida.

In the Plains and Rockies, a cold front was expected to slide south across the region after violent storms during the weekend.

Above, a dog stands on debris in a flooded parking lot in Martinsville, Ind. Saturday’s tornado resulted in no deaths or serious injuries.

Florida: Couple suspected of starving 7-year-old

A mother and her boyfriend were arrested for allegedly locking the woman’s 7-year-old daughter in a room for four months and giving her so little food she looked like “a walking skeleton.”

The girl weighed just 25 pounds, less than half the normal weight for a child her age, when Tampa police found her this month, according to a police report.

Connie Warrington, 23, and David LaPointe, 36, were arrested Friday on multiple counts of abuse, including caging, food deprivation and medical neglect, police said.

The girl told police that LaPointe hated her and deprived her of food because she “was bad.” He punished her by biting her in the back, the police report said.

Colorado: Vandals strike shelter built for Jewish holiday

Swastikas were drawn on a temporary wooden shelter built on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder to celebrate the Jewish harvest festival of Sukkot.

“My first response was shock and terrible sadness, and I would not want my daughter to go to CU and come to the sukkah and find this,” said Joshua Fallik, an art teacher who reported the vandalism Saturday.

The Sukkot holiday began Friday and lasts for a week. Students probably won’t be able to pray at the sukkah because of the desecration, Fallik said.

An officer said the crime was classified as defacing property. “The swastikas looked like they were written in ball point pen and can be easily removed with sandpaper,” policeman Ronnie Schwartz said.

Florida: Blacks decry criticism of election supervisor

Black leaders in Broward County weren’t pleased with the problem-plagued primary. But to them, what happened afterward was even worse.

Elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant, the only countywide black elected official, was publicly criticized for her handling of the election, and calls came for her removal from office.

Keith Clayborne, publisher of the black-oriented Broward Times weekly newspaper, called the frenzy over Oliphant a “modern-day lynching.”

He and other black leaders were satisfied for now with the deal struck Thursday under which Oliphant keeps her job while the county takes a major role in helping her conduct the next election.

U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, said he is focusing on fixing things for November. But he was one of many drawing a comparison with former Secretary of State Katherine Harris, who kept her job despite the bungled 2000 election.

California: War memorial honors S. Vietnamese soldiers

After six years of political bickering and fund raising, a 12-foot bronze sculpture depicting two soldiers an American and a South Vietnamese was unveiled in honor of those who died in the Vietnam War.

“My image for this sculpture is so anyone can think, ‘This is my son, or it could be my neighbor or brother who fought in the war,”‘ Tuan Nguyen, the sculptor who escaped Vietnam by walking through Cambodian jungles, said Saturday.

The bronze will be installed today in a 1.4-acre park in Westminster, the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam.

South Dakota: Measure would allow jury to ignore law

A measure on the South Dakota ballot this November would allow defendants to tell juries they can disregard a law if they don’t like it a prospect that has the legal profession aghast.

Amendment A would let people accused of crimes argue that a law should not apply to their circumstances or that is has no merit.

The proposed amendment to the South Dakota Constitution was put on the ballot after more than 34,000 signatures were gathered by a group that includes at least one advocate of legalizing marijuana use.

Opponents say the measure would cripple the legal system.

“It is very offensive to those of us who believe in the constitutional form of government and common law,” said Robert Miller, a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court.

California: Prison officials ban porn

Prison inmates have been banned from receiving pornography because of complaints from female prison guards that the material prompted inappropriate behavior.

In imposing the ban Sept. 10, prison officials said the materials fueled a hostile working environment.

“This is not a question of the inmates enjoying a little private time in their cells. They are doing it to make the officers angry,” state corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich told the Los Angeles Times for editions Sunday.

Inmate advocates and civil libertarians called the ban an overreaction and said it violates an inmate’s First Amendment rights.

“This is like banning ‘Catcher in the Rye’ because it might induce a prisoner to say something disrespectful,” said David Fathi, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

New York: NYU cancels course about ground zero

New York University has canceled a course about rebuilding ground zero, where the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists, because of concern about publicity the class might generate.

The course, called Ground Zero Lab, was canceled after its organizers were asked by David Finney, the dean of the School of Continuing and Professional Studies, to guarantee it would not attract media attention, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The organizers said they could not make the guarantee in part because a press release about the course had already been issued.

The course was to focus on the politics, finance, design and culture involved in redevelopment in lower Manhattan, where the twin towers collapsed after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.