CALIFORNIA
Battle brews over recycling-bin raiders
SAN FRANCISCO — A recycling war is breaking out on the Bay Area’s curbsides.
Those ubiquitous, colorful recycling bins set out each week for pickup stand on a battle line between growing numbers of organized crews who snag cans and bottles and the official waste haulers who say “poachers” are increasingly hostile and dangerous.
Caught in the crossfire are residents. Reports about noise, litter and trespassing have risen so dramatically in recent years that a state lawmaker wrote a bill that would make it illegal for recycling centers and salvage yards to buy goods totaling $50 or more without asking for identification and paying by check.
For those on the economic fringe, the recycled goods can bring in needed cash amid a faltering economy, a shortage of jobs and the soaring costs of food, gas and rent. Prices for aluminum run more than $3,700 per ton, glass $210, plastic $180 and cardboard $130, according to Sunset Scavenger, a division of giant Norcal Waste Systems Inc.
FLORIDA
Snail kites vanish from Everglades
MIAMI — A measure taken to protect one endangered bird in the Florida Everglades, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, might be driving out the Everglades snail kite.
The most recent survey of the kites found few of them living in the Everglades or Lake Okeechobee, the source of the Everglades, the Miami Herald reported. Most of the nesting pairs spotted were 100 miles to the north in a chain of lakes in Central Florida.
The counters said numbers might have dropped by two-thirds since 2000, to fewer than 1,000 birds.
“The situation is dire. It’s critical,” said Wiley Kitchens of the University of Florida, who heads the annual surveys. “The birds are simply not replacing themselves.”
HAWAII
Volcano spews more lava than usual
VOLCANO — More lava than usual is spilling from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano into the ocean.
The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said Saturday that the lava is emerging near the Pacific on the southeastern side of the Big Island.
Lava can be seen from a viewing area a few hundred feet away.
Kilauea has been erupting for 25 years.
IOWA
Misfired shell hurts 37 at fireworks show
DES MOINES — A Fourth of July fireworks shell misfired in a northern Iowa town, sending a fireball skidding down a street into a crowd of spectators and injuring 37 people, officials said Saturday.
Most of the people treated after the Friday night accident in Charles City suffered minor injuries, city fire department spokesman Eric Whipple said.
It appears that there was a misfire involving 13 racks of firework tubes during the finale of the city-sponsored show, Assistant Fire Chief Dave Boehmer said Saturday.
Officials didn’t know why the fireworks malfunctioned, he said. Inspectors from the state fire marshal’s office in Des Moines visited Charles City on Saturday.
Witnesses told the Charles City Press that a large fireball veered toward the crowd gathered downtown on lawn chairs and blankets.
TEXAS
Suspect caught fleeing in wheelchair
EL PASO — Police arrested a man on a charge of attempted murder Saturday after he was caught fleeing the scene of a stabbing in his motorized wheelchair.
The man is accused of stabbing his neighbor in an El Paso apartment complex after several days of feuding, El Paso police spokesman Darrel Petry said.
Officers arrived at the complex around Saturday morning and found Billy Cheeks inside his apartment bleeding from a stab wound to his chest.
Police said the attacker was James Grady, 52. Mr. Grady is accused of riding up to Mr. Cheeks’ apartment in his motorized wheelchair, walking into the apartment through a partially opened door and stabbing Mr. Cheeks with a knife, police said.
Police arrested Mr. Grady on a street corner about a half-mile away in his motorized wheelchair, Mr. Petry said.
WISCONSIN
Woman, 91, stuck under car for 2 days
GREENDALE — A 91-year-old woman who had crawled under her car to look for her keys ended up stuck beneath an axle for two days until her mail carrier noticed letters piling up, police said.
Betty Borowski, of the Milwaukee suburb of Greendale, was found Tuesday and remained in a hospital in critical intensive care Friday, her niece Nancy DiMarco said. The hospital would not give an update on her condition Saturday.
Miss Borowski, who lives alone, became stuck June 29 while looking for her keys; her head apparently got pinned by the axle, Greendale Police Chief Rob Dams said.
• From wire dispatches and staff reports
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