NEWS OF THE DAY
From Across the Nation
1 Colorado fires: One of two Rocky Mountain wildfires fanned by strong winds has become the largest in Colorado history. Firefighters expected windy weather to continue into the weekend but said they were wellpositioned to keep the Cameron Peak Fire from burning more cabins in the mountains west of Fort Collins. About 90 fire engines and 500 firefighters were in place to protect homes and other buildings. As of Thursday, the fire had burned 256 square miles, making it 40 square miles bigger than one north of the city of Grand Junction in western Colorado that held the previous record and was fully contained on Sept. 15. _ 2 Deadly chase: A driver was killed in a crash after reaching speeds of 170 mph during a police chase in North Carolina, officials say. Andreas Darden, 19, of Cary was behind the wheel of a Porsche in Wake County when officials say they tried to stop the luxury car for speeding. The pursuit, which started early Thursday on Interstate 87, went into Nash County, where the driver reached 170 mph, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol said. The Porsche ran off the road near the town of Middlesex and slammed into trees. The teen was then ejected from the car and died at the scene. _ 3 New species: Researchers have discovered fossils of a tiny burrowing reptile among a vast expanse of petrified wood in eastern Arizona. The new species has been named Skybalonyx skapter, a part of a group known as drepanosaurs from the Triassic Period, about 220 million years ago. Petrified Forest National Park outside Holbrook is considered one of the premier places to study plants and animals from that period, sometimes known as the dawning age of dinosaurs. The researchers say the ancient reptiles had enlarged second claws, birdlike beaks and tails with claws. They likely looked like a cross between an anteater and a chameleon. 4 Life sentence: A Black man whose life sentence for stealing a set of hedge clippers in a 1997 burglary drew scathing criticism from the chief justice of Louisiana’s Supreme Court was granted parole Thursday. The 30 vote during an online meeting of the Committee on Parole means freedom, with conditions, for Fair Wayne Bryant. Louisiana’s Supreme Court had denied release for Bryant, 63, earlier this year for the burglary from a carport storage room. The case drew national attention for a dissent by Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, the high court’s only Black justice. She said the habitual offender law under which Bryant was sentenced was a “modern manifestation” of Jim Crow era laws aimed at jailing Black people for simple crime.
Editor suspended: CSPAN suspended its political editor Steve Scully indefinitely Thursday after he admitted to lying about his Twitter feed being hacked when he was confronted about a questionable exchange with exTrump aide Anthony Scaramucci, who is now a Trump critic. Scully was to moderate the second debate between President Trump and Joe Biden, which was canceled after Trump wouldn’t agree to a virtual format. After Trump had criticized him as a “never Trumper,” Scully tweeted “@ Scaramucci should I respond to Trump.”