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Firefighters battle a fire at the Marysville Elementary School in Portland, Ore., on Tuesday. Bruce Ely/The Oregonian/AP

By Wire Reports
Published: 11/11/2009 2:26 AM
Last Modified: 11/11/2009 5:23 AM

Students, teachers flee fire at Oregon school

PORTLAND, Ore. — More than 400 students escaped a three-alarm fire that heavily damaged a southeast Portland elementary school Tuesday.

Portland Fire Bureau spokeswoman Kim Kosmas said the school's 17 teachers also made it out safely.

The cause of the fire at Marysville Elementary School was not immediately determined. The fire started in a part of the school known as the Discovery Zone, an area used for applied physics and engineering projects.

The school is more than 80 years old and serves 460 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade.

Dozen people charged in library book thefts, sale

WASHINGTON — Authorities threw the book at 12 people Tuesday, accusing them of checking out pricey textbooks from a public library system outside Washington to sell for quick cash.

The Prince George's County Memorial Library System in Maryland lost $87,000 worth of material from thefts between November 2008 and July 2009, county prosecutors said.

Textbooks and other works were sold to used book stores at a fraction of their original value, investigators said.

Prince George's County authorities said the suspects, at least some of whom were related, withdrew the limit of 75 books from 12 of the library system's 18 locations. Each is charged with theft over $500 and faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

Gunman surrenders after school hostage incident

PINE PLAINS, N.Y. — A 42-year-old man reportedly upset by the treatment of U.S. military personnel sneaked a disassembled shotgun into a middle school just after classes began Tuesday, put it together in a bathroom, then held the principal hostage for more than two hours before surrendering without firing a shot, police said.

At 7:45 a.m., after the bell signaled a start to the school day at Stissing Mountain Middle School, Christopher Craft Sr. loaded a single round into the shotgun, walked into the main office and confronted Principal Robert Hess, police said. Students were herded into the cafeteria or huddled under desks.

Craft ordered Hess at gunpoint into an office where he restrained him and threatened to kill him to try to compel officials to talk to the media about his message "concerning the wrongful treatment of United States Military personnel," court documents said.

Students and staff were locked in other rooms, part of the school's safety procedures.

Craft surrendered peacefully at 9:52 a.m. and was taken away in handcuffs.

Police then began going room to room to clear out about 700 students from the combined middle and high schools. No one was injured.

Judge tosses restrictions on Colorado medical marijuana

DENVER — A judge overturned tight restrictions Tuesday on Colorado medical marijuana providers, saying state health officials had ignored the needs of patients and violated open meetings laws while imposing the rules.

The ruling by Denver District Judge Larry Naves means medical marijuana providers can continue supplying the drug to registered users without having to provide any other care, as a state Board of Health vote last week would have required.

It was another setback for health officials struggling to regulate Colorado's growing medical marijuana industry, which sprang up after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2000.

Colorado now has at least 11,000 people registered with the state as medical marijuana users.

Ex-NYC police commissioner freed from jail for holidays

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Bernard Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and one-time candidate for Homeland Security chief, was freed from jail Tuesday for the holidays to await sentencing on federal crimes.

Kerik, who pleaded guilty last week to eight felonies, was released on $1.5 million bond by federal Judge Stephen Robinson after the former top cop spent three weeks in jail.

He is expected to receive a prison term of about 2 1/2 years at his sentencing in February for crimes including lying to the White House when he was being considered for the federal security post.

Before releasing Kerik, the judge warned him that by leaving prison for three months, he was just postponing the inevitable.

During the three months, Kerik, 54, is to remain at home in Franklin Lakes, N.J., and wear an electronic monitoring device.

Suspicious powder delivered to U.K. diplomatic building

NEW YORK — A fifth foreign mission to the United Nations has received an envelope with a suspicious white powder inside, police say.

The mission to the United Kingdom reported receiving the envelope Tuesday at its One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza offices.

Hundreds of workers were evacuated from the office tower.

The German mission to the U.N. got a similar package earlier Tuesday. Three other envelopes arrived Monday at the missions of France, Austria and Uzbekistan.

Initial tests show none of the envelopes contain anthrax or any hazardous substance, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

He says three of the five envelopes contained notes referring to the al-Qaida terror network and mentioned the FBI. At least four of the envelopes had Dallas postmarks. By Wire Reports

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