American Scene

MISSOURI

Teen gets life term in killing of 9-year-old

JEFFERSON CITY | A central Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old girl because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, a small rural town west of Jefferson City.

The judge also ordered the teen to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.

Bustamante was 15 years old when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl’s throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth’s body under a blanket of leaves in the woods behind their neighborhood.

NEW YORK

Man fatally shot after opening fire at courthouse

MIDDLETOWN | Authorities say a man killed in a gunfight with security officers at an upstate New York courthouse was angry at the city’s mayor and faced charges he menaced the mayor’s daughter last year.

Timothy Mulqueen, 43, of Middletown, opened fire with a 12-gauge shotgun on the lobby of his hometown court at about 9 a.m. Wednesday. Officers returned fire as people in the building dove under desks and scrambled for the rear door.

A court officer suffered a graze wound to the arm, and two other officers were treated for shock.

A state courts spokesman praised the officers for heading off the attack before others could be hurt.

Mr. Mulqueen was fined $129 last week after his conviction for harassing the daughter of Mayor Joseph DeStefano.

LOUISIANA

Plan to waive debts of disaster victims proposed

NEW ORLEANS | The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Wednesday that it is rolling out a plan to waive debts for many victims of Hurricane Katrina and other disasters who may have mistakenly received millions of dollars in aid.

The debts, which average about $4,622 per recipient, represent slightly less than 5 percent of the roughly $8 billion that FEMA distributed to victims of Katrina and other 2005 storms. Some of the overpayments were caused by FEMA employees’ own mistakes, ranging from clerical errors to failing to interview applicants, according to congressional testimony.

FEMA is expected to mail out roughly 90,000 letters next week to inform disaster victims that they may be eligible for debt waivers. The recipients will have 60 days to respond and request a waiver.

WEST VIRGINIA

Hackers post personal data of police officers

CHARLESTON | Hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous obtained personal information for more than 150 police officers from an old website of the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association and posted the data online.

The FBI is investigating, said William Roper, the association’s president and the police chief of Ranson.

He said the hackers obtained the home addresses, home phone numbers and cellphone numbers of current and retired police chiefs from a website that has not been used in two years. The association has a new website, but some information was still stored on the old one.

A group called CabinCr3W posted the information and included a link to it in a Twitter post on Sunday.

In an online message by CabinCr3w addressed to “citizens of West Virginia,” the hacking group says it has been monitoring cases of police brutality.

ARIZONA

Tribe votes to take over canyon skywalk management

FLAGSTAFF | A northwestern Arizona tribe has voted to take over management of the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the Las Vegas developer who built it.

David Jin partnered with the Hualapai Tribe to build the horseshoe-shaped glass bridge that juts out from the Grand Canyon on the reservation. But the two sides have been locked in a contract dispute for the past year over revenue shares and an incomplete visitor center.

The Tribal Council voted Tuesday to declare eminent domain over the management contract and provide $11 million in compensation to Mr. Jin. The amount is about one-tenth of what Mr. Jin has said is fair market value for his $30 million investment.

The Tribal Council passed an eminent domain ordinance last year that Mr. Jin had suspected was aimed at him. He went to federal court to try to keep the tribe from severing the Skywalk contract under the ordinance, but the judge said the tribe had not sought to enforce it and told Mr. Jin he must first exhaust tribal-court remedies.

RHODE ISLAND

Researchers probe 200-year-old shipwreck

WESTERLY | Researchers from the U.S. Navy and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are looking for clues to the identity of a 200-year-old shipwreck lying just off the Rhode Island coast.

The two recreational divers who found the wreck are confident that the ship is the USS Revenge, commanded by navy hero Oliver Hazard Perry. The Revenge sank in 1811 after striking a reef.

Researchers are using a torpedo-shaped robot to survey the wreck. They hope to use the data to locate artifacts that could confirm the ship’s identity.

Rhode Island native Perry was cleared of responsibility for the loss of the Revenge. But his career stalled until he was sent to the Great Lakes, where he commanded U.S. forces to victory over the British navy in the War of 1812.

• From wire dispatches and staff reports