Tennessee

NOW rallies as Supreme Court fight looms

Chanting “Not the church, not the state; women must choose their fate,” hundreds of members of the National Organization for Women rallied for abortion rights Saturday as President Bush prepares to select a new U.S. Supreme Court justice.

NOW shifted the agenda for its three-day annual convention after the announcement Friday that Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was retiring.

The first woman on the Supreme Court, O’Connor refused in 1989 to join four other justices who were ready to reverse the landmark 1973 decision that said women have a constitutional right to abortion.

Her retirement gives the court its first vacancy since 1994 and leaves Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the only woman on the court.

Demonstrator Kathy Miller, 58, of Philadelphia, said she wanted to see a moderate justice in the same vein as O’Connor replace her.

“It’s not like we’re asking to go in the extreme other direction,” she said.

Oregon

Step-grandma charged with murder of boy

The step-grandmother of a 4-year-old boy who had been missing for three days was charged with murder Saturday after leading police to his body in the wooded foothills of the Cascades.

Matal Zachery Sanchez was reported missing Wednesday afternoon from his home in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, where he lived with his mother and step-grandmother, Christine Coffman, 43.

He was last seen at about the same time Coffman had left the home to run an errand, Officer Kevin Krebs said Saturday.

“Naturally, people thought maybe he’s with grandma,” Krebs said. When Coffman returned without the child, police began to question her, Krebs said. He said Coffman’s shirt was stained but declined to say if the substance was blood.

Police did not immediately say how the boy died but a medical investigator determined the cause of death was homicide.

“There is no indication that this was an accident,” Krebs said.

Coffman was charged with aggravated murder, which allows prosecutors to seek the death penalty if they choose. Her first court appearance was set for Tuesday.

Indiana

9-year-old killed in fall from carnival ride

A 9-year-old boy died after falling more than 25 feet from the gondola of a rotating carnival ride during a Fourth of July festival at a town park.

“Rider error, operator error, equipment failure – we don’t know at this point,” Highland Police Chief Peter Hojnicki said. “His death was caused by unknown reasons.”

Dakota Stevenson of Gary was pronounced dead at a Munster hospital shortly after falling Friday night from the Wind Shear, a ride in which passengers are strapped into a rotating gondola with over-the-shoulder restraints.

All of the carnival rides remained shut down Saturday while the festival continued.