NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
Bus scare: A Greyhound bus passenger got behind the wheel and steered the bus to safety Friday after the driver began passing out on a Utah highway. Everette Elliott, 49, took over as the driver suffered a medical problem on Interstate 15 south of Salt Lake City, the Utah Highway Patrol said. He brought the bus to a stop along the side of the highway. About 20 people were on board and no one was seriously hurt. The driver, a 30year-old man, was taken to a hospital. “He was going from side to side,” Elliott said. The bus drifted into the median of the highway and careened off a wall back onto the highway. That’s when Elliott grabbed the wheel and safely brought the bus to a stop. “My adrenaline was pumping,” he said.
Justice injured: Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to her home Friday after being released from the hospital for treatment of broken ribs she suffered in a fall at the Supreme Court. Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Ginsburg, 85, was “doing well” and working from home. The justice fell in her office on Wednesday evening and went to George Washington University Hospital in Washington early Thursday after experiencing discomfort overnight. Ginsburg broke two ribs in a fall in 2012. She had two prior bouts with cancer and had a stent implanted to open a blocked artery in 2014.
Molestation case: The body of a man who was on trial for child molestation was found in a park in Macon, Ga., officials said Friday. Jermaine Bernard Anthony, 39, was present when his trial started Monday, but missed court sessions Wednesday and Thursday. Georgia law doesn’t require a defendant to be present once a trial has begun, and Anthony had posted bail. The jury was deliberating his fate when his body was found Thursday. The Macon Telegraph reported that he killed himself with a gunshot to the head.
Hate crime plea: A Southern California man on Friday pleaded not guilty to charges he murdered a gay University of Pennsylvania student in a hate crime. Samuel Woodward, 21, entered the plea Friday during a hearing in Santa Ana. He is being held without bail. Woodward is charged in the January stabbing death of college sophomore Blaze Bernstein. Bernstein went missing after going with Woodward to a park in Lake Forest. His body was later found in a shallow grave in the park. Prosecutors have said DNA evidence links Woodward to the crime and his cell phone contained anti-gay, anti-Semitic and white hate group materials.
Principal accused: An elementary school principal in Land O’Lakes, Fla., is accused of stealing $900 from a mentally disabled 9-yearold. Edward John Abernathy, 50, was arrested Thursday. Sheriff ’s deputies were told the child brought $2,100 of his parents’ money to school in October. Teachers told deputies they found the cash and locked it in the principal’s office. A probe showed Abernathy gave the student’s mother only $1,200 when she went to collect. Chronicle News Services