Georgia
High-wire walker sets sights on Tallulah gorge
ATLANTA – Daredevil tightrope walker Nik Wallenda is setting his sights on a new goal: the nearly 1,000-foot-deep Tallulah Gorge in the northeast Georgia mountains.
The Georgia gorge holds special meaning for him because his great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, crossed it on a high wire on July 18, 1970, but later plunged to his death while trying to walk a cable between two buildings in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1978.
Nik Wallenda says he’s already visited the gorge near the Georgia town of Tallulah Falls, and he’s considering attempting the feat within the next three years.
Montana
Man found dead in river was in meth documentary
BILLINGS, Mont. – A 24-year-old man whose body was found in the Missouri River behind Black Eagle Dam was featured in the 2006 HBO documentary “Montana Meth.”
Toward the end of the film, the then 16-year-old Graham Macker is asked by his mother, “How does it end?”
Macker says, “I don’t know.”
On Wednesday, his body was found as PPL Montana workers broke up ice near the dam. Cascade County officials said he drowned.
“Our condolences, thoughts and prayers go out to his family,” Amy Rue, executive director of the Montana Meth Project, told the Billings Gazette on Friday. “Meth use continues to be a serious issue in our communities. It is a highly addictive substance that destroys lives.”
California
San Diego chapter of Sierra Club suspended
SAN DIEGO – The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club has been suspended from the national environmental group over “ongoing conflicts and divisions” among local activists.
Thirteen members of the 15-person national board voted Friday to suspend the chapter for four years, U-T San Diego reported. One member voted against it and one abstained, said Mark Westlund, deputy communications director for the national environmental group.
Sierra Club President David Scott said after the vote the board had received many complaints about strife within the chapter, which had seen the resignation of key local staff and volunteer leaders.
The organization’s leaders have provided few details about the nature of that conflict. But San Diego members and former officials attributed it to the Sierra Club’s micromanagement of its San Diego chapter, refusal to fill key staff positions there and failure to mediate disagreements among local activists.
Missouri
Firefighter killed at walkway collapse scene
COLUMBIA, Mo. – A 23-year veteran firefighter was killed Saturday while helping evacuate students from a University of Missouri-run apartment complex after a second-story walkway collapsed, according to Columbia Fire Department officials.
Columbia Fire Chief Chuck Witt said at a news conference Lt. Bruce Britt became entrapped beneath rubble while responding to the collapse at University Village Apartments and was pronounced dead at University Hospital.
Firefighters responded at 4:45 a.m. to a structural collapse at the central Missouri apartment complex, Witt said. Some second-floor residents had to climb out of their windows and down ladders to get to safety. No residents were injured.
Frankie Minor, residential life director, said the university was trying to assess when, if ever, residents would be allowed to move back into the building.
Associated Press
