Haiti

Troops, agencies send help as flooding death toll surges

U.S. and Canadian troops rushed medical supplies, drinking water and chlorine tablets Thursday to flood-battered towns, where bodies were seen floating in still-rising waters. Haitian and Dominicans braced for a death toll that could reach well over 1,500.

But an estimated 10,000 people in villages surrounding the submerged Haitian town of Mapou remained in urgent need of help and cut off by roads devoured in the mud and landslides, according to Michel Matera, a U.N. technical adviser.

“We are still having difficulty reaching them even by helicopter,” said Matera, who traveled to Mapou on Thursday.

To make matters worse, forecasters predicted more rain in the coming days for the southern region between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

One of every 75 U.S. men in prison or jail, report finds

America’s prison population grew by 2.9 percent last year, to almost 2.1 million inmates, with one of every 75 men living in prison or jail.

The inmate population continued its rise despite a fall in the crime rate and many states’ efforts to reduce some sentences, especially for low-level drug offenders.

The report issued Thursday by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics attributes much of the increase to get-tough policies enacted during the 1980s and ’90s, such as mandatory drug sentences, “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” laws for repeat offenders, and “truth-in-sentencing laws” that restrict early releases.

PHOENIX

First cases of West Nile virus for 2004 reported in West

Arizona and New Mexico have reported this year’s first human cases of the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, health officials said.

On Wednesday, New Mexico reported its first human case. At a news conference Thursday, Dr. Jonathan Weisbuch, director of the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, said an adult from the county developed symptoms May 8 and was admitted to a hospital.

Weisbuch said that person had now fully recovered.

South Dakota

Former governor pardoned son-in-law, documents show

Former Gov. Bill Janklow pardoned his son-in-law in 2002 for three drunken-driving and marijuana-possession convictions, according to documents unsealed Thursday on orders from South Dakota’s highest court.

All together, 218 previously sealed pardons were made public, after the practice of keeping such actions secret was challenged by news organizations.

Janklow was elected to Congress in 2002 but resigned last year after being convicted of manslaughter in an auto accident that killed a motorcyclist. He served 100 days in jail and was released last week.

Among the records released Thursday was Janklow’s 2002 pardon of William Gordon Haugen II, who is married to Janklow’s daughter, Shonna. The pardon covered drunken-driving convictions in 1983 and in 1997, and a 1993 conviction for marijuana possession.