Some of Today's State News Headlines
Today is Tuesday March 25, 2008
Student from Ohio found after going missing in Ecuador national park
MIDDLETOWN (AP) - Authorities have found a college student from Ohio who had disappeared while hiking at a national park in Ecuador.
Lester Dornon of Middletown said his son, Luke Dornon, was found unhurt Monday and has been transported to a camp inside Cajas National Park about 20 miles from Cuenca in the South American country.
His father said he does not know when his son will return home.
Luke is a freshman at Taylor University in Upland, Ind. The university's Web site says a search party was looking for him after he failed to return from the hike Sunday.
Taylor's Web site said Dornon was in Ecuador on a spring break mission trip with the school's hand bell ensemble.
(Refer to page 5 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
10-year-old faces competency hearing in fatal fire
GREENVILLE (AP) - A judge is poised to hear arguments today on whether a 10-year-old boy accused of deliberately setting a fire that killed his mother, younger sister and three other children is competent to face juvenile delinquency counts of murder.
Timothy Douglas Byers was charged with five delinquency counts of murder and one delinquency count of aggravated arson in the Sept. 16 duplex apartment fire. Darke County Juvenile Judge Michael McClurg in October ordered a psychological evaluation of Byers.
Police say the boy confessed to setting the fire but did not mean for anyone to die. He was charged with murder because the deaths occurred as a result of the arson, authorities said.
His attorney, David Rohrer, said Byers denies the charges. Rohrer has said he will try to block use of the alleged confession, saying the boy was pressured into it.
Killed were the boy's mother, Chanan Palmer, 30, and his sister Kaysha Minnich. The other victims were Kayla Winans, 6, Je'Shawn Davis, 5, and Jasmine Davis, 3.
(Refer to page 1 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
Rare chestnut tree in northern Ohio no longer a state secret
SANDUSKY (AP) - For about seven years, the state’s natural resources leaders have harbored a secret.
They still will not reveal the exact location of it or allow outsiders to see it.
This Ohio treasure’s existence was closely guarded until last week when the director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources revealed that a full-sized American Chestnut tree still stands in a marsh near Lake Erie.
For tree experts, it is a big deal.
American chestnuts that grew up to 120 feet once accounted for about 25 percent of the forests in the eastern half of North America until a fungus wiped out all but a few.
"They are often referred to as the redwood of the east because of their tremendous size," Gary Obermiller, a regional manager for the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves.
The fungus first was detected in 1904 in trees in New York City, and by 1950 some 3.5 billion trees - about 90 percent of the species - were dead.
Only a few trees had resistance to the fungus and survived.
(Refer to page 5 of today's Daily Chief-Union)
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