North Dakota

Officials stop search for missing student

Investigators put the search for a missing University of North Dakota student on indefinite hold Saturday after two weeks of scouring the fields and rural roads across two states turned up no sign of her.

Police Capt. Mike Kirby said authorities had no plans to resume the search for Dru Sjodin unless something new developed in the case. Instead, they were concentrating on the evidence collected so far in her apparent kidnapping and trying to piece together clues to her whereabouts.

A convicted rapist released from prison earlier this year is charged with kidnapping Sjodin, 22, from the parking lot of the Grand Forks shopping mall where she was working on Nov. 22. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 50, remained in jail Saturday and is not talking with authorities, his lawyer said.

Colorado

Senate to hear victims of academy assaults

The U.S. Senate’s Armed Services Committee will hear from victims of Air Force Academy sexual assaults at a special hearing, Sen. Susan Collins announced Saturday.

“The hearings that Senator (John) Warner has held already have been very helpful but we haven’t heard from victims,” Collins said in a telephone interview.

An independent investigation of sexual assaults at the academy found that 142 had been reported from 1993 through 2002. Top commanders were replaced in April after the scandal erupted.

Lawyers Joseph Madonia and James Cox represent seven female cadets who said they were assaulted and then punished for reporting the attacks. The lawyers said all of the women wanted to testify.

Alaska

Judge approves hunting for wolf control program

An Alaska judge has rejected an attempt by an animal rights group to stop a state-sponsored program allowing hunters to shoot wolves from airplanes in Alaska.

The move Friday opens the door to a threatened nationwide tourism boycott targeting Alaska’s $2 billion tourism business, the same tactic that halted a similar wolf eradication effort a decade ago.

Connecticut-based Friends of Animals and seven Alaska plaintiffs asked Superior Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the shooting, part of a wolf control program intended to boost the moose population in some areas.

Gleason refused to grant the injunction and lifted a temporary restraining order that had kept three pilot-and-hunter teams grounded since Nov. 26.

Pennsylvania

University student dies in elevator shaft fall

A Penn State University student died after falling more than 40 feet down an elevator shaft at a dormitory, State College authorities said Saturday.

Katherine Ibanez had been trying to get out of an elevator that had stopped between the third and fourth floors Friday night in Atherton Hall. University police said seven people were in the elevator and had forced the doors open rather than waiting for help.

Two students jumped out safely, but Ibanez, 21, slipped and fell backward into the open shaft, officials said.

Atherton Hall is home to Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College. Ibanez, who was from West Palm Beach, Fla., had an off-campus address and did not live there.

Cincinnati

Rally protesting death canceled by family

A weekend rally planned to protest the death of a black man following a struggle with police was canceled Saturday at the request of the man’s family.

The Rev. Calvin Harper, president of the Baptist Ministers Conference of Greater Cincinnati and Vicinity, said the minister’s group would no longer march on city hall today to protest the death of Nathaniel Jones.

At a memorial service Saturday, Jones, 41, was remembered for his kindness and quick smile. About 500 people, including his two sons, Tyriq and Tyrell Holley, attended the service at Allen Temple AME Worship Center.

Outside, a man held a sign that read, “Cincinnati police are murderers.”

Jones, 41, died after a scuffle with police early last Sunday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

The coroner ruled Jones’ death a homicide but cautioned it did not imply that police used excessive force. The direct cause of death was the struggle, the autopsy showed, but Jones suffered from an enlarged heart, obesity and had intoxicating levels of cocaine, PCP and methanol in his blood.

Ohio

Beltway closed for shooting investigation

Authorities closed nearly half of the beltway around Columbus for two hours after dusk Saturday as federal agents investigating 14 shootings there used lasers to take ballistic measurements.

Officials said the measurements were concentrated on a four-mile stretch of road, but 23 miles of highway were closed between the two places where Interstate 70 intersects with the outerbelt of Interstate 270. Franklin County Chief Deputy Steve Martin would not say whether authorities also used the time to install security cameras.

Also Saturday, 40 investigators went door-to-door to talk to residents near a school that was the site of one of the shootings, Martin said. He would not say what investigators learned.

The shootings around a seven-mile stretch of I-270 began in May but have happened mainly in the past two months. Authorities say they have gotten more than 1,000 tips from the public.

The two latest shootings were Nov. 25 and Nov. 30.