SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Defense Department will revive an education grant program for military spouses that was suspended after an overwhelming surge of applicants, but new restrictions will exclude families of higher-ranking officers. Defense officials had to halt the program in February after a spike in applications threatened to bust its $174 million budget. The department on Tuesday announced plans to resume the Military Career Advancement Accounts, or MyCAA, for new applicants in October. Officials said eligibility will now be limited to spouses of servicemen and women in the five lowest enlisted ranks as well as junior officers.
Wyoming: Teton climber dies
Rescue workers on Thursday found the body of a missing climber who fell from a cliff when a thunderstorm struck his climbing party on an exposed mountainside in Grand Teton National Park. Searchers using a helicopter found the body of 21-year-old Brandon Oldenkamp, of Sanborn, Iowa, in an area off the northwest face of Grand Teton mountain, park officials said. Rescue workers recovered his body in the early afternoon and brought it to the Teton County coroner, a park spokeswoman said.
Nevada: Ex-governor dies
Former Gov. Kenny Guinn, a two-term moderate Republican whose tenure marked a prosperous era in a state now facing severe budget problems, died Thursday after falling from the roof of his Las Vegas home while making repairs. He was 73. The predecessor to current Gov. Jim Gibbons was pronounced dead at University Medical Center, where he was taken after the fall, the coroner said. Authorities were investigating whether the death was from natural causes or an accident.
New York: Kennedy pleads
The wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. settled her drunken-driving case without jail time Thursday night by pleading guilty to a minor charge. Mary Kennedy, 50, admitted in court that her driving ability was impaired when she drove over a curb outside a school in Bedford, 30 miles north of New York City, in May. Robert Kennedy, who reportedly has filed for divorce, was not in court. The judge fined Kennedy $500, suspended her driver’s license for 90 days and ordered her to attend two drunken-driving programs.
California: Greyhound crash
Authorities were investigating the cause of a deadly crash Thursday in the Central Valley that killed six people and seriously injured nine others when a Greyhound bus slammed into an overturned SUV. The bus, carrying 31 passengers on a route from Los Angeles to Sacramento, struck the SUV in front of it, skidded into a concrete center divider and clipped another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. a few miles from downtown Fresno, the Highway Patrol said.
iPhone theft is short-lived
A man accused of swiping an Apple iPhone out of a woman’s hand in San Francisco may have been shocked when police found him only nine minutes later. It turns out the phone had been tracking his every move. The iPhone was being used to test a new, real-time GPS tracking application, and the woman holding it was an intern for the software’s maker, Mountain View-based Covia Labs. Covia had sent the intern into the street to demonstrate the software. Police said Horatio Toure snatched it and sped away on a bicycle.
Missouri: Wild girls verdict
A jury on Thursday rejected a young woman’s claim that the producers of a “Girls Gone Wild” video damaged her reputation by showing her tank top being pulled down by another person in a St. Louis bar in 2004. A St. Louis Circuit Court jury deliberated 90 minutes before ruling against the woman, 26, on the third day of the trial. Lawyers on both sides argued the key issue was consent, with her side saying she absolutely refused to give it and the defense claiming she silently approved by taking part in the party.
Canada: Prison riot deaths
Two inmates are dead and six injured in a riot that broke out at a prison in Orsainville, north of Quebec City. A corrections service spokeswoman, said Thursday that the incident, involving 14 inmates, erupted in one of the wings of the prison Wednesday night. Some of the prisoners set fire to a mattress and clothing during the scuffle. The bodies of two inmates were found after the blaze was extinguished.
From Herald news services
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
