Kentucky

Jefferson Davis statue at Capitol protested

Black leaders are demanding the removal of Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ statue from the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort, questioning its place in a state that was officially neutral in the Civil War.

“It’s offensive,” said Raoul Cunningham, a former state NAACP official. “Even in the days when he was alive, this state did not follow him. So why do we honor him today?”

Davis’ statue, one of five honoring famous Kentuckians, has stood in the Capitol Rotunda since its 1936 unveiling. It was built through donations from the United Daughters of the Confederacy and a $5,000 appropriation from the Legislature.

Kentucky remained in the Union and officially stayed neutral throughout the war, although a significant part of the population sympathized with and fought for the Confederacy.

Illinois

Several girls injured in hazing incident

A touch football game between suburban Chicago high school girls turned into a brutal hazing in which players were slapped, punched, doused with paint and splattered in the face with mud and feces.

Police and school officials in the well-to-do community of Northbrook are investigating.

Officials at Glenbrook North High in Northbrook were examining videotapes taken by students who had gone to a park Sunday to watch the annual “powder puff” football game between junior and senior girls.

Five girls ended up in the hospital, one with a broken ankle and another who needed 10 stitches in her head.

“I guess there was some football involved, but then it was pushing, punching, hitting, putting buckets on heads … showering people with debris and, according to one report, human excrement,” said Northfield Township District Supt. Dave Hales. “It was hazing.”

Officials said up to 100 students were involved in the incident.

Michigan

Broken beaver dam blamed in derailment

A freight train derailed early Wednesday after a beaver dam apparently collapsed and water washed out a culvert, authorities said.

The southbound CSX train, going from Saginaw to Walbridge, Ohio, went off its tracks about 1:15 a.m. near Holly Township, according to CSX spokeswoman Jane Covington.

The engineer and conductor suffered minor injuries.

Police Chief Greg Hansmeier said beavers might share the blame with a heavy rainstorm.

“Apparently, there was a beaver dam in the area that was backing up water in a field,” Hansmeier said. “For whatever reason, it gave, and the water rushed out.”

Illinois

Tests show girl not missing Florida child

An Illinois couple will turn their attention back to adoption now that DNA tests have revealed the 6-year-old girl they’ve been raising is not a child who disappeared in Florida five years ago, authorities said.

An FBI laboratory determined Tuesday that DNA from the Pontiac girl did not match a sample from Sabrina Aisenberg, who disappeared from her suburban Tampa home in November 1997, said Lt. Harold Winsett of the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Department.

A DNA sample from the Pontiac girl, known as Paloma, was collected Thursday after the couple who has raised her since 1998 voluntarily agreed to cooperate with the investigation.