American Scene

ALASKA

Park rangers on missing plane

ANCHORAGE | A small plane carrying four people including three park rangers is missing in southwest Alaska.

A Coast Guard HC-130 crew is among searchers looking for the de Havilland Beaver between Swikshak Bay and King Salmon, about 285 miles southwest of Anchorage.

The Coast Guard says the plane was carrying Katmai National Park rangers. It was reported missing after it did not arrive in King Salmon as expected. Coast Guard officials say the plane left Swikshak Bay at 2:45 p.m. Saturday for a flight that takes less than an hour.

LOUISIANA

Feinberg defends ‘no suing BP’ rule

NEW ORLEANS | The new administrator for damage claims from Gulf oil-spill victims said Sunday it was his idea, not BP’s, to require that anyone who receives a final settlement from the $20 billion compensation fund give up the right to sue the oil giant.

But Ken Feinberg told reporters that he has not yet decided whether the no-sue requirement will extend to other companies that may be responsible for the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

He insisted that payouts from the claims facility he will run will be more generous than those from any court. Mr. Feinberg also ran the government compensation fund created after the 9/11 attacks, and there was a similar no-sue provision.

“It is not in your interest to tie up you and the courts in years of uncertain protracted litigation when there is an alternative that has been created,” he said, adding, “I take the position, if I don’t find you eligible, no court will find you eligible.”

MISSOURI

City refusing to pay in wrongful conviction

LEE’S SUMMIT | A former Missouri man who was wrongfully convicted of molesting his 12-year-old stepdaughter is trying to get a Kansas City suburb to pay a multimillion-dollar court judgment against a former detective.

Ted White Jr. spent six years behind bars before he was released after an appeals court threw out his original conviction and a jury acquitted him. It turned out the detective who led the investigation was having an affair with Mr. White’s estranged wife.

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