FORT COLLINS, Colo. – Hurricane researcher William Gray lowered his 2007 forecast slightly Friday, calling for 15 named storms, with eight becoming hurricanes and four becoming intense. On May 31, at the outset of hurricane season, Gray had called for 17 named storms and nine hurricanes, five of them intense. The new forecast calls for three named storms, two hurricanes and one intense hurricane in August; five named storms, four hurricanes and two intense hurricanes in September; and five named storms, two hurricanes and one intense hurricane in October and November combined. The devastating 2005 season set a record with 28 named storms, 15 of them hurricanes.
Texas: Volunteer firefighters die
The roof of a burning house collapsed Friday, leaving two volunteer firefighters dead in the small East Texas community of Flint. The two men were part of the Noonday Volunteer Fire Department, which was helping fight the blaze in this town about 10 miles south of Tyler, Smith County Fire Marshal Jim Seaton said. The family that lived in the house was not injured, Seaton said.
Georgia: Prison transfers militant
A 1960s black militant sentenced to life in prison for killing a deputy in 2000 has been transferred to federal custody because his high-profile status presented “unique issues,” Georgia corrections officials said. State officials declined to specify why they transferred Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who gained fame when he was a Black Panthers leader known as H. Rap Brown. Al-Amin, 63, was taken to the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ transfer center in Oklahoma on Wednesday, a bureau spokeswoman said. He remained there Friday.
California: Dogs kill caretaker
A caretaker at the Los Angeles home of actor Ving Rhames was found dead early Friday after being mauled by at least two of the actor’s dogs identified by authorities as bullmastiffs, Los Angeles police said. The body of the man, whose name was not immediately released, was found about 7 a.m. in the front yard of the actor’s home in the west side neighborhood of Brentwood by one of Rhames’ relatives, police said. The victim, believed to be in his 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Florida: Armless driver sentenced
A man with no arms and one leg who wouldn’t stop driving despite a long list of traffic violations was sentenced to five years in prison Friday on felony driving and drug charges. Michael Francis Wiley, 40, also was sentenced to 15 years of drug offender probation. Wiley taught himself to drive after losing both arms and a leg in an electrical accident when he was 13. He has already spent more than three years in prison for habitually driving without a license, kicking a state trooper and other charges. “I’d just like to say I know what I did was wrong,” Wiley said in a New Port Richey court Friday.
Pennsylvania: Sex tourism verdict
A wealthy motel owner was convicted in Philadelphia on Friday of traveling to Europe to molest impoverished boys in exchange for money and gifts. Anthony Bianchi, 45, was convicted of having sex with, or attempting to have sex with, at least six teenage boys in the Moldovan village of Trebujeni. He faces more than 20 years in prison, prosecutors said. Several Moldovan boys testified that Bianchi invited them to have dinner or go bowling with him, then made sexual advances.
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