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Bus Driver Had History Of Substance Abuse

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 7, 2008

WASHINGTON

Deceased POWs Now Eligible For Purple Heart

An estimated 17,000 deceased U.S. prisoners of war could be awarded Purple Hearts under a new Pentagon policy announced Monday.
Purple Hearts are awarded to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines wounded by enemy action. But the awards have been denied in the past to POWs who died in captivity if it could not be proven they had been wounded or killed by the enemy.

The new policy is retroactive to Dec. 7, 1941.

Questions? Contact the services: Army, (703) 325-8700; Navy, (314) 592-1150; Air Force, (800) 616-3775; Marine Corps, (703) 784-9340.

Ex-Goldman Sachs Executive To Head Bailout Agency

WASHINGTON - The Treasury Department moved swiftly Monday to implement the financial rescue package, naming a former Goldman Sachs executive to oversee spending the $700 billion earmarked for the plan and pledging to work with other countries to calm global financial markets.

The administration announced it had tapped Neel Kashkari, 35 - an assistant Treasury secretary for international affairs - to head the Treasury's new Office of Financial Stability on an interim basis.

Kashkari helped draft the legislation as one of Paulson's close advisers on the crisis. Kashkari joined the government after working at Goldman Sachs, the firm Paulson headed.

GEORGIA

Ex-Hostage Testifies In Court-Shooting Trial

ATLANTA - She was a young, single mother struggling with a drug addiction and hers was only one of many lives transformed by the fatal shootings of four people that began with a courthouse rampage.

When Ashley Smith Robinson was taken hostage by accused gunman Brian Nichols, she said watching his life fall apart inspired her to take control of her own. Testifying Monday at Nichols' murder trial, Smith Robinson told jurors that she had decided to do whatever she could to get out of her apartment. She cooked Nichols breakfast, talked about her faith and read to him from religious books.

She even gave him drugs from her illegal stash - and then, in a turning point, refused to take them herself.

"I said whatever was necessary to get on his good side, I guess," she testified.

Nichols has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to murder charges.

KYRGYZSTAN

Earthquakes Kill 100 In Central Asia, China

BISHKEK - A powerful earthquake struck the mountains of Central Asia, destroying a village in Kyrgyzstan and killing at least 72 people, emergency officials said Monday.

The 6.6-magnitude quake near the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan hit the remote village of Nura hard, bringing down dozens of buildings and injuring more than 100 people in addition to the confirmed deaths, Emergency Situations Minister Kamchybek Tashiyev said.

Two earthquakes also jolted the capital of Tibet and surrounding areas, killing more than 30 people and collapsing hundreds of houses. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first quake measured magnitude 6.6, the second 5.1.

SWITZERLAND

Faulty Wiring Grounds Collider Until Spring

GENEVA - A bad electrical connection likely caused the malfunction that sidelined the world's largest atom smasher days after it was launched with great fanfare, a senior scientist said Monday.

The fault was probably a poor soldering job on one of the particle collider's 10,000 connections, said Lyn Evans, project leader of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Nuclear Research Organization.

Only one fault in 10,000 isn't bad, "but it cost dearly," Evans said. It will take at least two months for the repair, meaning the collider cannot be restarted until spring, after its mandatory shutdown because of high electricity costs during the winter.

A wire report

WILLIAMS - A bus driver with a string of motor vehicle offenses and a history of substance abuse was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence Monday after his casino-bound charter bus ran into a ditch, killing eight people.

Investigators also said the bus had an invalid license plate, and they were looking into whether the driver had proper permits to operate the vehicle. The bus ran off the road Sunday while taking passengers to a gambling hall in northern California. About 30 people were injured.

Records show 52-year-old Quintin Watts had been cited for speeding and other violations that resulted in loss of his license for nearly two years. He regained his driving privileges in January.

Watts was arrested as he lay critically injured in his hospital bed. His mother said he had wrestled with drug and alcohol problems, and was jailed several times on drug charges.

He was a longtime truck driver, but had been unable to find a job since being released from jail on a domestic violence charge six months ago, his mother said.

Chaney Mae Watts said she thinks the crash came on her son's first day behind the wheel of the bus after several training trips watching the owner drive. She and her husband told their son they were uncomfortable with him driving a vehicle that carried people instead of cargo.

"He wasn't the best driver," she said. "He knew we didn't want him to drive."

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