NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Lennon assailant: John Lennon’s killer will remain behind bars after being denied parole for the ninth time. The New York state Board of Parole on Monday said it has again denied parole to Mark David Chapman, who on Dec. 8, 1980, shot and killed the former Beatle outside his luxury Manhattan apartment. Chapman, 61, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in Wende Correctional Facility in western New York. The board concluded that the factors supporting Chapman’s parole were outweighed by the premeditated and “celebrity-seeking” nature of the crime.
2 Election hacking: The FBI is warning state officials to boost their election security in light of evidence that hackers targeted related data systems in two states. In a confidential “flash” alert, the agency said it’s investigating the incidents and advised states to scan their systems for specific signs of hacking. The FBI didn’t name the states that were targeted. State election websites in Arizona and Illinois experienced hack-related shutdowns earlier this summer. In both cases, the parts of the websites attacked involved online voter registration. Federal officials are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility that hackers, particularly those working for Russia or another country, could breach U.S. elections systems and wreak havoc on the November presidential election.
3 Home invasion: A 19-year-old man who smashed through the front window of a home in Stuart, Fla., and attacked a woman and her adult son said he was on the powerful street drug flakka, Sheriff William Snyder said Monday. Niko Gallo told the woman he had taken flakka and LSD. Snyder said the case appears similar to one two weeks ago where Austin Harrouff, also 19, randomly beat and stabbed a couple to death at their Martin County home and then bit the dead man’s face. Both he and Gallo demonstrated incredible strength and a high tolerance to pain, Snyder said. In the latest attack early Sunday, the woman’s son, who weighed 100 pounds more than Gallo, fought him from one end of the house to the other. Meanwhile, his mother hit Gallo on the head several times with a metal baseball bat. The woman was treated at a hospital after being injured by broken glass. Her son wasn’t injured. 4 Plane crash: A plane crash in western Montana killed its pilot and a star of the History channel reality series “Ice Road Truckers.” Pilot Mark Melotz and Darrell Ward, 52, of Deer Lodge, died in the fiery crash Sunday on the shoulder of Interstate 90 southeast of Missoula. Melotz appeared to be trying to land at a small airstrip when “something went drastically wrong,” said sheriff ’s Capt. Bill Burt. Witnesses said the airplane appeared to stall, then went through a stand of trees, Burt said. Ward appeared on five seasons of “Ice Road Truckers,” which follows drivers taking supplies in big rigs across frozen lakes to work camps and remote towns. He drove in Alaska and Canada.