NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
_1 Plane crash: A small cargo plane contracted by UPS went off the runway and over a steep, wooded hillside Friday at a West Virginia airport, killing the pilot and copilot, officials said. The Air Cargo Carriers plane had departed from Louisville, Ky., and arrived at Yaeger Airport in Charleston, W.Va., at 6:51 a.m., said Yeager airport spokesman Mike Plante. The plane was a twinengine turboprop. Plante said officials did not immediately know why the plane crashed. The weather in Charleston was sunny and clear. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.
_2 Tourist assaulted: Police searched Friday for a man who punched and sexually assaulted a German tourist in New York City in a violent robbery caught on video. The attack occurred around 3 a.m. Thursday as the 31-year-old woman walked back to her Airbnb rental in Harlem. Surveillance video shows the man yanking away the woman’s bag. He then punches her in the head and she falls to the sidewalk. He continues to hit her as she lies on the ground. Police said he tore off her pants and sexually assaulted her. The woman was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.
_3 Trains blocked: Officials with the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway said Friday that mudslides forced the suspension of train traffic on a heavily traveled section of rails between Portland, Ore., and Seattle. The slides struck just north of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, said spokesman Gus Melonas. The multiple slides came hours after a series of thunderstorms rolled through western Washington. On its website, Amtrak said it was seeking alternative transportation. Crews were using excavators and cranes to remove debris. About 60 trains per day from Amtrak, BNSF and Union Pacific use the tracks, Melonas said.
_4 Immigrant arrests: U.S. agents continue to arrest immigrants in New Jersey courthouses despite a high-ranking judge’s request that they stop. New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner asked the Homeland Security Department last month to add courthouses to a list of “sensitive locations” immigration enforcement agents avoid. Otherwise, Rabner said, immigrants due in court to provide testimony but afraid of deportation won’t show up, posing a safety risk to everyone. Middlesex County Sheriff Mildred Scott said agents arrested an immigrant in a courthouse last week. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said courthouse arrests happen when ICE exhausts all other options.
_5 Garcia guitar: Jerry Garcia’s custom-made Wolf guitar will be auctioned this month in New York City. Guernsey’s auction house said the Grateful Dead front man’s guitar will be offered May 31. The proceeds will go to the Alabamabased Southern Poverty Law Center. The guitar is being sold by devoted Deadhead Daniel Pritzker who bought it in 2002 at Guernsey’s for $790,000. Garcia played Wolf everywhere from San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom to New York’s Palladium.