Washington
3 missing in 2 avalanches in mountains east of Seattle
SNOQUALMIE PASS, Wash. Authorities in Washington state say three people are missing after two avalanches in the mountains near Snoqualmie Pass on Saturday afternoon.
One avalanche happened on Granite Mountain, off Exit 47 from Interstate 90. Sgt. Cindi West of the King County Sheriffs office said two skiers were injured and one is missing.
Two people also are missing from the second avalanche, on Red Mountain, near the Alpental Ski Area off I-90. Authorities believe both were snowshoeing in the area.
Both avalanches occurred as heavy snow was falling in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle.
New York
Teacher who assigned Nazi letter put on leave
ALBANY, N.Y. A high school English teacher who had students pretend to be Jew-hating Nazis in a writing assignment has been placed on leave.
The teacher at Albany High School caused a storm of criticism after having students practice the art of persuasive writing by penning a letter to a fictitious Nazi government official arguing that Jews are evil.
District Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard held a news conference Friday to apologize for the assignment.
The district has not named the teacher, who was described as a veteran.
The writing assignment was done before a planned class reading of the memoir Night by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
Georgia
Authorities identify man killed in police shooting
ALPHARETTA, Ga. Investigators worked Saturday to piece together why a man shot an officer five times during a suburban traffic stop, wounding a bystander and sparking a police shootout that ended in his death.
Alpharetta police officer David Freeman and the wounded woman, whose name was not released, were in stable condition at a hospital Saturday, said George Gordon, a police spokesman.
Authorities identified the slain suspect as Curtis Hicks, 52, of neighboring Marietta. Gordon said Hicks was being pulled over for a tag violation Friday night when he drew a gun and opened fire. Freeman was shot in the lower abdomen, a shoulder and one of his legs while another bullet grazed his back, Gordon said.
Hicks fled in his truck into the neighboring city of Roswell while firing at pursuing patrol cars, Gordon said. The chase ended as Hicks crashed his truck and kept shooting at police as he exited the vehicle, Gordon said. Officers returned fire and killed him.
Virginia
Two mall-shooting victims in stable condition at hospital
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. Two women who were shot by a gunman at a community college in a mall in southwest Virginia, causing students and shoppers to flee in a panic, were reported to be in stable condition Saturday.
Both women were being treated at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Christiansburg Police Department spokeswoman Becky Wilburn said. Roanoke is about 35 miles from Christiansburg.
The shootings occurred Friday at a satellite campus of New River Community College. Wilburn did not give any other details about the shooting or about suspect Neil Allan MacInnis, an 18-year-old student at the college who has been charged with two counts each of malicious wounding and using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Investigators said Friday that they dont know what motivated the shootings.
Associated Press
