Arkansas: Presidential podium mistakenly sold off

The podium President Bush used while addressing the nation after the Sept. 11 terror attacks was mistakenly sold as surplus property for $75 to a high school in rural Arkansas.

The podium will be retrieved by the government this week for display at the military base where Bush spoke, officials said.

“We’re such a small school to have something like that,” said Kirbi Fletcher, the Arkansas City High School valedictorian, before giving her speech behind the podium Monday night at commencement for the school’s nine graduates.

Bush made a brief statement at Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, La., after deciding not to return to Washington from Florida the day of the attacks. From the podium, Bush announced that the military was on high alert and said: “Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward, and freedom will be defended.”

Indiana: Flooding strands bus; boat rescues students

Up to 4 inches of rain pushed Indiana rivers over their banks Tuesday, prompting evacuation of part of a town and stranding a school bus carrying elementary students on a flooded roadway near Waverly.

No injuries were reported following the morning thunderstorms.

Officers used a boat to retrieve the 14 Waverly Elementary School students and their driver, who stopped the bus as a precaution in high water in central Indiana’s Morgan County.

The youngsters were taken to safety without injury as water lapped at the bottom of their bus.

Milwaukee: ‘Dr. Chaos’ accused of 53 vandalism acts

A man who called himself “Dr. Chaos” and was accused of storing cyanide in the Chicago subways was charged Tuesday with committing 53 acts of vandalism in Wisconsin.

Joseph Konopka, 25, was accused in an indictment Tuesday of targeting power installations, telecommunications equipment and air navigation systems in 13 counties.

U.S. Atty. Steven Biskupic said Konopka caused more than $800,000 in damage and about 28 power outages and other service interruptions affecting more than 30,000 power customers.

Konopka, who went by the online name “Dr. Chaos”, was charged March 11 in Chicago with possession of a chemical weapon.

The FBI said he claimed to be the leader of a Wisconsin group of vandals known as the Realm of Chaos.

Texas: White supremacist’s execution halted

A white supremacist convicted of killing a man in 1991 won a reprieve from the U.S. Supreme Court two hours before his scheduled execution Tuesday in Huntsville.

The court halted the execution after attorneys for Brian Davis, 33, said he is mentally retarded. The court has stopped a number of executions as it considers a Virginia case that challenges the constitutionality of executing retarded inmates. A ruling is expected before July.

Davis denied killing Michael Foster, 31, who met Davis and Davis’ wife at a Houston bar. Davis said his wife was responsible for stabbing Foster 11 times and beating and robbing him after they drove him home.

Roe Wilson, a Harris County assistant district attorney who handles capital case appeals, said nothing in the case suggests Davis is mentally retarded.

“Ultimately, I think he’ll be executed,” Wilson said.

Ohio: Mother sentenced in pregnancy scheme

A woman who helped her husband impregnate her 16-year-old daughter with a syringe of his semen was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison.

Narda Goff, 43, was convicted in a non-jury trial in March of child endangering and complicity to commit sexual battery. She could have gotten 10 years behind bars.

Her 40-year-old husband, John Goff the girl’s stepfather has been charged with rape and sexual battery and is awaiting trial.

Paternity tests confirmed that Goff fathered his stepdaughter’s baby. The boy, born in 1999, is in foster care.

Connecticut : Mother charged in son’s suicide

A mother was arraigned Tuesday on charges she contributed to the suicide of her 12-year-old son, who hanged himself in his closet after being teased by his schoolmates about his body odor.

Police said that Judith Scruggs of Meriden refused to get her son, Daniel, the counseling he needed, and that the boy lived in an appallingly filthy home where the bathtub looked as if it had not been used in some time.

Scruggs, 51, pleaded innocent to a charge of risk of injury to a minor, which carries up to 10 years in prison, and was free on bail.

She and her supporters have claimed Daniel’s death on Jan. 2 was the result of bullying in school.

In court papers, police said school officials confirmed that Daniel was teased because of extremely poor hygiene, strong body odor and bad breath. Police also said the boy soiled his pants in school; his mother said he did that to get sent home.

San Diego: Judge denies defendant access to victim’s home

A judge Tuesday refused to order Damon and Brenda van Dam to let attorneys and investigators for the man accused of killing the couple’s daughter into their home to look for evidence that might be helpful in his defense.

David Westerfield, a neighbor of the Van Dams, is charged with kidnapping and murdering their 7-year-old daughter, Danielle.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Jeff Dusek said the Van Dams are adamantly opposed to a request by Westerfield’s defense team for access to their home in suburban Sabre Springs.

“They do not want that evil in their home again,” Dusek said.

Westerfield, 50, a self-employed engineer, is accused of kidnapping Danielle from her bedroom on Feb. 1 and killing her. The child’s body was found Feb. 27 in a wooded area 25 miles from her home.