Around the nation

ALABAMA

County nixes record default

BESSEMER | Commissioners in Alabama’s most populous county voted against filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history Tuesday and the federal government refused to guarantee the county’s $3.2 billion sewer bond debt.

The Jefferson County Commission rejected a resolution to file for bankruptcy with a 3-2 vote during a meeting that lasted less than 10 minutes.

Afterward, the governor’s office said the Treasury Department had refused to intervene in the looming crisis, which started when the county made risky deals to pay for massive sewer system improvements after being sued over failure to meet federal clean water standards.

Officials said the area’s water is safe after 12 years of work, but payments on the county’s debt ballooned when the mortgage crisis struck and banks began tightening up on lending.

ARKANSAS

Teen admits $140,000 theft

LITTLE ROCK | A 19-year-old partygoer accused of stealing $140,000 from the Arkansas home of the chairman of Tyson Foods Inc. pleaded guilty Tuesday to transporting stolen goods.

The Dec. 27 theft occurred during a party thrown by John Tyson’s daughter at the family’s home in Johnson, a rural town about 141 miles northwest of Little Rock. Ryan Matthew Silvey, 19, was arrested Feb. 13 in Olathe, Kan., and police recovered about $30,000 of the missing money on him.

Silvey appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville. Prosecutors said he could face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Authorities are still searching for Bryce Kelly Anderson, 19, who is accused of taking the money with Silvey at the party.

CALIFORNIA

Winds hinder, help firefighters

LOS ANGELES | Ferocious desert winds pushed one of three major wildfires burning across Southern California to nearly double its size overnight, firefighters said Tuesday, the third day of the blazes that have destroyed dozens of homes and forced thousands to flee.

One person was killed by the flames; another died in a car crash as a blaze neared the freeway.

The fires have charred more than 25 square miles in suburban Los Angeles and northern San Diego County, with the fiercest blazes burning in the San Fernando Valley.

Investigators are looking into the cause of all three fires.

The whipping winds caused a fire in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, in the Porter Ranch area, to double in size from 5,000 to nearly 10,000 acres overnight, fire officials said.

But 10 miles away, the erratic Santa Ana winds subsided, allowing firefighters to contain nearly 70 percent of a blaze burning at the northeast end of the valley. Hours earlier, that fire had been only 5 percent contained. Authorities reduced the acreage on that fire to 4,800 acres from 5,300 acres.

Firefighters worried the erratic winds could return to the area. In other parts of the valley, they were gusting to 50 mph, fire officials said.

CONNECTICUT

Not guilty plea in son’s shooting

NORWICH | The parents of a 2-year-old boy who died after accidentally shooting himself with a gun he found at home pleaded not guilty to charges related to the death.

Jason Matteau, 27, and Rebecca Matteau, 24, of Jewett City, were arraigned Tuesday in Norwich Superior Court on charges of negligent storage of a firearm and risk of injury to a minor. If convicted of both felonies, they face up to 15 years in prison.

Their son, Wyatt, died Aug. 28, about two hours after he shot himself in the head with his father’s .40-caliber handgun, state police said. The Matteaus were at their apartment with their son and infant daughter at the time, but Wyatt was alone in a room when the gun fired, troopers said.

His mother had told him to stay away from the gun moments before the accident, warning him that it was “Bad boo boo’s,” according to a police report.

FLORIDA

Missing girl’s mother indicted in killing

ORLANDO | The mother of a missing 3-year-old girl was accused Tuesday in an indictment of killing her daughter, prosecutors said, even though the child’s body has not been found during an exhaustive four-month search.

A grand jury returned charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators against Casey Anthony, 22, in the death of her daughter, Caylee, State’s Attorney Lawson Lamar said.

The mother is being held without bond.

GEORGIA

King kin in court over book deal

ATLANTA | The children of Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King faced off in an Atlanta courtroom Tuesday in a dispute over their mother’s personal papers that could derail a lucrative book deal.

The Rev. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III and Dexter King have looked more like adversaries than siblings in recent months. The surviving three King children are involved in three lawsuits.

Dexter King, as the head of his father’s estate, is seeking his mother’s papers, which are in his sister’s possession. Bernice King is refusing to turn over the papers, claiming her mother did not want to participate in the $1.4 million book deal.

New York-based Penguin Group is threatening to end the deal this week without the documents.

ILLINOIS

Authorities halt spam operation

CHICAGO | Federal authorities in Chicago said they have shut down one of the largest spam e-mail operations in the world.

The Federal Trade Commission said the group generated e-mails promoting sales of prescription drugs and “male enhancement” pills.

The FTC said authorities closed the operation by working with their counterparts in New Zealand.

The FTC plans to provide more details at a news conference in Chicago later in the day.

NEW JERSEY

Settlement OK’d in pet food recall

CAMDEN | A federal judge Tuesday approved a $24 million settlement for owners of dogs and cats who were sickened or died after eating pet food contaminated with an industrial chemical.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman clears the way for U.S. pet owners with claims to start receiving checks next year. A Canadian judge has scheduled a hearing for Nov. 3 to determine whether the settlement can also apply in that nation.

Under the deal, pet owners have until Nov. 24 to file claims.

The settlement is to compensate owners for many expenses, including: the cost of the food, medical and burial expenses for their animals, the value of the animals or the cost of replacement pets, checkups for animals who ate the food but did not get sick, replacing carpets ruined by sick pets, and time the owners took off work to seek treatment for their animals.

OHIO

State executes obese inmate

LUCASVILLE | Ohio executed a 5-foot-7, 267-pound double murderer Tuesday who argued his obesity made death by lethal injection inhumane.

Richard Cooey, 41, had argued in legal challenges that his weight problem would make it difficult for prison staff to find suitable veins to deliver the deadly chemicals, a problem that delayed previous executions in the state.

There were no such difficulties, said Larry Greene, a spokesman for the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

During preparations, though, Cooey shouted for one of his attorneys as prison staff tried to insert a shunt in his left arm. He was worried the staff would botch the execution, said Greg Meyers, an attorney with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.

Cooey, who killed two University of Akron students in 1986, walked into the death chamber wearing gray pants and a black short-sleeve shirt and was strapped onto the gurney.

Cooey tapped the fingers of his left hand several times before he died.

Six family members of one of his victims quietly watched the execution. His death was announced at 10:28 a.m.

WISCONSIN

Polar bear falls into moat again

MILWAUKEE | Officials with the Milwaukee County Zoo said one of their polar bears took his second tumble into the moat surrounding his enclosure in 15 years.

Laura Pedriani, the zoo’s marketing director, said the bear, Zero, was caught by the safety net in the moat just as he was during his tumble 15 years ago, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday.

“There’s a wire mesh toward the bottom of the moat for just this kind of thing,” Miss Pedriani said.

Miss Pedriani said Zero, who is nearly 19 years old, fell into the 17-foot-deep moat about 12:30 p.m. Monday while playing with a plastic toy. She said the polar bear had apparently not noticed how close he was to the moat when he took his fall.

Miss Pedriani said the bear climbed out of the net uninjured and continued to play with his toys in the moat.

From wire dispatches and staff reports