Connecticut

Study underscores teen driving risks

The youngest, least experienced drivers have an increased risk of accidents at night and on local roads – especially if they have a large number of passengers in their cars, according to a new Connecticut study.

The study by the Connecticut Transportation Institute at the University of Connecticut School of Engineering evaluated the driving records of 16- to 20-year-old drivers in the state. Sponsored by the state’s Department of Transportation, it found young drivers 47 percent more likely to be involved in crashes on local roads than other types – and 66 percent more likely to crash at night.

It also found that 37 percent of those drivers are more likely to have a crash when they drive with three or more passengers. Also, more young male drivers (59.3 percent) than female drivers (40.7 percent) were involved in single- and two-vehicle accidents.

The Connecticut study supports restrictions on young drivers – the idea behind graduated licensing, which forces young drivers to wait between receiving their learner’s permits and their full licenses. Since 1996, all 50 states have adopted graduated licensing.

Florida

Cuban exile promises $1M for indictment of leader

Jose Basulto, the president of the Cuban exile organization Brothers to the Rescue plans to use $1 million in Cuban government funds to reward anyone who brings about the indictment of Raul Castro, head of Cuba’s military.

Basulto, who recently won a $1.7 million judgment against Cuba in federal court, does not have the money yet. Like others who have won default judgments against Cuba in U.S. courts, he will have to pursue various channels to get the money, such as seeking a disbursement from frozen Cuban funds in the United States.

Basulto wants U.S. authorities to indict Raul Castro, Fidel Castro’s brother, for either the 1996 Cuban MiG attack of two Brothers to the Rescue planes that killed four men or drug trafficking. He said such a move would keep Raul Castro from succeeding his brother.

“For democracy in Cuba to commence, the Castro brothers’ present regime must come to an end,” Basulto said Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Basulto announced an 11-person board of trustees to oversee the reward, which will go to the persons or entities whose efforts result in an indictment. The trustees will determine the conditions for the reward and make decisions involving the money.

Basulto and his attorneys did not say how they will try to collect that money.

Milwaukee

Eight more police officers fired in beating

Eight more police officers have been fired in connection with a racially charged beating at a house where off-duty officers were having a party, the police chief said Tuesday.

The firings bring to nine the number of officers who have lost their jobs over the incident last October.

Frank Jude Jr., 26, has said he was beaten by men who identified themselves as off-duty officers and accused him of stealing a police badge and wallet. He said the men punched, kicked and choked him while using a racial slur.

Jude is biracial, and all eight officers fired are white. No badge was found on Jude, and he was never charged with theft. The incident inflamed tensions between the police department and the city’s blacks.

The eight officers were accused by the department of either joining in the beating or witnessing it and not trying to stop it.

Those fired include three officers charged with crimes for their alleged involvement: Jon Bartlett, Daniel Masarik and Andrew Spengler, Police Chief Nan Hegerty said. The party was at Spengler’s house.

The police chief already had fired one officer for refusing to answer department investigators’ questions about the attack. Four officers have also been suspended or demoted in the case.

California

Husband charged in alleged chili scam

The chili-finger saga – a family affair.

Jaime Plascencia, husband of already accused Anna Ayala, was charged Tuesday with two felony counts for his alleged role in the suspected swindle.

David Boyd, a lawyer for the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, filed counts Tuesday that mirror those against Plascencia’s wife – conspiring to pull off the fraud, and attempting it.

Plascencia, 43, is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday on the new charges, as well as the four felony counts on which he was arrested May 4 in Las Vegas: failure to pay child support, child abandonment, identity theft and fraudulent use of official documents.

None of those is related to the suspected chili con.

Plascencia – who was not with his wife at the fast-food outlet that day – allegedly purchased the severed digit from a co-worker at a paving plant who lost it when it was clipped off by the lift on the back of a truck.