Minnesota

Two arrested in killings of mother, teens

Robbery was the motive for a triple murder here, as well as the slayings by the same suspects a week earlier of two other people in Minneapolis, authorities alleged Thursday.

Christopher Earl, 20, and Jonathan Carpenter, 21, were charged with second-degree murder in the Long Prairie killings Thursday, and the prosecutor said he would ask a grand jury for first-degree murder indictments.

Police believe Holly Chromey, 49, and her children, Katie Zapzalka, 18, and Jerrod Zapzalka, 16, were killed early Monday in their home in Long Prairie, about 100 miles from Minneapolis.

The criminal complaint said the three were beaten and stabbed, and Chromey and her son were bound with electrical tape.

Authorities said the two men would be charged at a later date in the deaths of William Schwartz, 88, and his daughter Claudia Schwartz, 50, who were found dead April 17 in their northeast Minneapolis home.

Oklahoma

Settlement reached in bridge collapse suits

A tentative settlement has been reached in lawsuits stemming from a barge crash that brought down an interstate highway bridge and killed 14 people, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said.

Survivors and victims’ relatives had sued barge owner Magnolia Marine Transport Co. and its parent company Ergon Inc. for the May 26, 2002, accident over the Arkansas River.

U.S. District Judge Lee West sealed the details of the proposed settlement.

Towboat pilot William Joe Dedmon was also named in the lawsuits. His attorney, Joel Wohlgemuth, cited West’s gag order in not confirming details of the proposed settlement.

Maine

Church poisoning case probed as homicide

Homicide investigators interviewed residents of a tiny northern Maine community to find out why coffee laced with arsenic was served to church members last weekend, killing a 78-year-old man and sickening a dozen other people.

Authorities on Thursday declared the death of Walter Reid Morrill a homicide, saying there was no evidence the arsenic was added accidentally. Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Public Safety Department, said officials had no motive or suspects.

News of the homicide investigation shocked New Sweden’s 650 residents.

Members of the Gustaf Adolph Lutheran Church became sick on Sunday, after they shared coffee, sweets and sandwiches left from a bake sale the day before.

Washington, D.C.

Democrats filibuster Bush judicial nominee

Senate Republicans suffered a second loss Thursday in their push to confirm a contested judicial nominee when Democrats blocked a Texas Supreme Court justice picked by President Bush for a federal appeals court.

Democrats already have thwarted majority Republicans by stalling the nomination of Hispanic lawyer Miguel Estrada and now are also delaying a vote on Priscilla Owen.

Democrats contend Bush’s nominees are too conservative and say they have enough votes to bottle up the two nominees for months.

Republicans say Democrats are unfairly blocking them from letting Bush make judicial appointments.

Republicans could not get the 60 votes on Thursday they needed to break the filibuster on Owen, nominated for the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The vote was 52-44.