Rhode Island

Detective killed by his own gun

A Providence detective was killed with his own gun at police headquarters Sunday by a suspect who was not handcuffed and managed to get hold of the weapon, the police chief said.

James Allen, 50, was shot in the detective conference room while questioning Esteban Carpio about the stabbing of an 84-year-old woman who survived the attack, Chief Dean Esserman said. Carpio was not under arrest and had been taken out of handcuffs, he said.

Carpio, 26, allegedly grabbed the officer’s gun, shot him, broke a third floor window in an adjacent office and jumped onto a service road, Esserman said at a news conference. He was captured after a struggle a few blocks away and charged with murder on Sunday night.

Allen was a 27-year veteran of the force.

Utah

Desert town prepares for snowmelt flooding

As the weather warms, the high-desert town of Cedar City is rushing to make preparations before an enormous accumulation of waterlogged snow begins to melt in the mountains and creates a threat of spectacular flooding.

Crews have started raising the bed of a state highway and fortifying ditches, city officials are praying for gradual warming that would melt the snow slowly, and officials of two counties already have declared states of emergency they may not need for a month.

Snow has accumulated to as much as 372 percent of normal at some higher elevations, nearly 13 feet deep at some spots on the high sprawling plateau above Cedar City, home of more than 20,000 people and Southern Utah University.

“That snowpack, it’s scary,” City Manager Jim Allan said of Midway Valley, a 9,800-foot mountain saddle near Cedar Breaks National Monument, which is still snowed in.

Pacific storms this past winter favored the drought-weary Southwest, piling snow on southern Utah and giving Arizona and New Mexico their wettest winter in a century, while the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies were uncharacteristically dry.

“We got Washington’s snowpack, is what it boils down to,” said Randy Julander, Utah’s federal snow survey supervisor.

Washington, D.C.

High-speed train back in service today

Amtrak, scrambling to cover the Acela Express trips in between Washington and Boston after brake problems were discovered, will have one high-speed train back in service today.

Spokeswoman Tracy Connell said the 8 a.m. Acela Express from New York to Washington would operate today and be turned around to make a 2 p.m. run from Washington to Boston.

She said crews were working around the clock to inspect and repair other express equipment and hoped to be able to place a second high-speed train back in service today.

On Sunday, the railroad ran three out of its 10 Acela trips with substitute trains and Connell said about half the 15 Acela trips normally run on weekdays would be covered with alternative equipment today.

New York City

Ex-Nebraska senator may run for mayor

Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey has thrown a cornhusker curveball at New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — saying instead of helping Hizzoner keep his job, as promised, he might be out to take it himself.

Kerrey backed away from his offer to head “Democrats for Bloomberg,” then let slip he has his own designs on Gracie Mansion.

The could-be carpetbagger, president of the New School University, didn’t tell Bloomberg of the about-face before floating his mayoral trial balloon in The New York Times on Sunday.

“No one from the campaign has spoken to him,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey said. “We haven’t spoken to him, and the mayor is out of the country.”

Bloomberg was pitching the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics in Berlin.

Kerrey, who played a key role on the federal 9-11 commission, complained that Bloomberg’s focus on the proposed West Side stadium was distracting him from lobbying Washington for more security funds. The blunt-talking former governor of Nebraska will make his decision over the next few days, his spokesman George Arzt said Sunday.