Utah

Deadly lightning strikes hit in U.S., Canada

A couple was killed and their three small children injured by lightning that struck a mountain campground where the family sought shelter under trees.

A day after the Saturday lightning strike, a 14-year-old Maine girl died after being struck by lightning while playing in a soccer tournament in Canada.

The couple killed Saturday and their children had taken cover when a storm hit near the shore of Crystal Lake, about 60 miles east of Salt Lake City. The parents, Richard and Lisa Goff, were sitting on metal chairs when lightning struck.

The parents, both 34, were from the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan. KUTV reported that the children were Dakota Goff, 9, and his sisters Makenzie, 5, and Megan, 18 months.

In Fredericton, New Brunswick, Sarah McLain of Springfield, Maine, died after being hit by lightning Sunday on a field during the championship game of an annual youth soccer tournament.

Texas

Families break ground on bonfire memorial

Families and friends of the 12 Texas A&M University students killed in the 1999 collapse of a massive bonfire broke ground for a memorial over the weekend.

Construction on the $5 million memorial — at the spot where the bonfire’s center pole once stood — is set to begin in the fall at the College Station campus.

The bonfire, a wedding-cake like stack of more than 5,000 logs, was a Texas A&M tradition, ignited on the eve of the school’s football game against archrival University of Texas. The stack was being assembled when it came down Nov. 18, 1999, killing 12 Aggies and injuring 27 others.

The memorial, which will be dedicated next year, will consist of a plaza, a historical walk and a “spirit ring” of portals dedicated to each person who died.

Pennsylvania

Foster care system fooled by fake identity

Using a false Social Security number, a convicted pedophile in Allentown escaped detection and gained custody of a 12-year-old foster child, according to a published report.

Ira Butt kept the boy in his home for three months in 2001, The Morning Call of Allentown reported Sunday, until the boy told caseworkers that Butt had computer images of child pornography, court records show. The boy did not allege sexual abuse.

Butt was convicted of molestation in 1996 and was accused of sexual abuse four times in 1997.

The Northampton County Children and Youth department had checked what they thought was Butt’s criminal history and child-abuse record, but turned up nothing suspicious because the Social Security number Butt gave actually was that of his adult son.

Washington, D.C.

Bill proposes naming center for Thurmond

The Visitor Center under construction at the U.S. Capitol could be named after the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C.

But don’t count on it.

A bill filed last week by U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-S.C., aims to name the $350 million project after Thurmond, who died June 26, five months after he retired from the Senate. Thurmond served longer than any senator in history — 48 years. He was 100 years old when he retired, the oldest senator ever.

However, Thurmond is a controversial figure; many associate him most with his 1948 run for president on a segregationist platform.

One official closely associated with the project doubted Congress would name the center after anyone. “It’s an extension of the Capitol, just like the Capitol dome is an extension of the Capitol, and it belongs to the people.”