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Inspector in Philadelphia Building Collapse Commits Suicide

Courtesy Photo
Courtesy Photo

(AP) — Philadelphia officials have identified an inspector who fatally shot himself a week after a building collapse that killed six people as a dedicated 16-year veteran of the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison says 52-year-old inspector Ronald Wagenhoffer was found dead in his truck Wednesday night with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

City officials say he was the Department of Licenses and Inspections employee who conducted a May 14 inspection of the building, weeks before the June 5 collapse.

Gillison says the department is in mourning and Wagenhoffer “did nothing wrong.” Wagenhofferleaves behind a wife and son.

The downtown building was being demolished when it collapsed onto a neighboring Salvation Army Thrift Store, killing two employees and four customers. Police allege a heavy equipment operator had been high on marijuana.

NE Mom Accused of Misusing Disabled Son’s Money

social_security_fraud(AP) — A 59-year-old northeast Nebraska woman has been accused of misusing nearly $11,600 of her son’s Social Security disability payments.

Margaret Hunt, of Battle Creek, is charged with felony theft by deception and intentional abuse of a vulnerable adult.

The Office of the Inspector General for Social Security says Hunt was not living in Nebraska for several months while her disabled son, 30-year-old Leroy Tomes, was living alone in a trailer in Battle Creek. The office’s report says Tomes was in poor health, had little heat during the winter, and not much food or medicine.

A public phone listing for Hunt couldn’t be found. An attorney for Hunt, Brad Ewalt of Norfolk, declined to comment on Thursday.

May 31 Oklahoma Storms Death Toll Rises to 22

el-reno-tornado(AP) — The Oklahoma medical examiner’s office has confirmed a 22nd fatality from the May 31 tornadoes and flash floods after a girl’s body was recovered from the Oklahoma River.

The office said Thursday the cause of the girl’s death has not been determined.

Oklahoma City Fire Department Deputy Chief Marc Woodard says the girl’s body was recovered Wednesday in Oklahoma City, about two miles from where she and her family sheltered from the tornado in a storm drain. Woodard says she hasn’t been formally identified.

He says another child is still unaccounted for after the May 31 flooding.

A total of 48 deaths have been blamed on storms that raked across central Oklahoma in May, including two people who died on May 19 and 24 who were killed on May 20.

Audit Finds Deficiencies in NE Supreme Court

ne-supreme-court(AP) — A new state audit has found problems with travel expenses and deficit spending within the Nebraska Supreme Court.

State Auditor Mike Foley released a report Thursday that said the court incurred expenses roughly $220,000 above the amount appropriated by state officials in fiscal 2012. Foley says the court covered those excess expenditures with funds from fiscal 2013, contrary to state law.

Auditors also identified more than $3,800 in improper travel expenses, mostly due to hotel expenses for court employees that the audit team considered unnecessary.

In a written response, court officials say they are reviewing their accounting procedures and making improvements to their travel policies.

Columbus Officials Moving Ahead with Digital Grave Site Directory

grave-site(AP) — Officials in Columbus are moving ahead with an effort to ease the search for grave sites at a city-owned cemetery.

The city’s cemetery board on Wednesday unanimously supported buying a digital directory that stores burial plot information.

Board members had hoped officials overseeing two Catholic cemeteries would join in a cost-sharing plan, but that effort fell through.

The board recommends the city spend up to $30,000 to buy a digital directory and place it in a kiosk at Columbus Cemetery. If that effort is a success, the board could propose another one at Roselawn Cemetery.

The money would come from local sales tax revenue.

The Columbus City Council will need to approve the project before it moves forward.

1,000 Colorado Springs Homes Evacuated Due to Wildfire

co-wild-fire(AP) — Residents of 1,000 homes in Colorado Springs are being ordered to evacuate because of a wildfire that’s already destroyed at least 360 houses.

Thursday’s evacuation order is the first within the city limits. About 38,000 people were previously told to leave because of the fire that started in a populated, wooded area east of the city.

Colorado’s second-largest city of about 430,000 people is also asking residents of 2,000 more homes to be ready to evacuate because the fire has reached a designated trigger point.

The blaze in the Black Forest area is now the most destructive in Colorado history.

High Lead Levels Discovered in Lincoln Neighborhood

ndeq(AP) — A former lead recycling company may have left behind higher-than-normal lead levels in residential yards in a Lincoln neighborhood.

Recent state testing showed lead in the soil under the parking lot next to the Nebraska Champions Club at Memorial Stadium and in the yards of some homes in the North Bottoms neighborhood to the northwest.

Dirt from nine of the 20 homes had lead content above 400 parts per million, the level the federal government says could be dangerous for small children.

The old Northwestern Metal Co. once stood near the stadium, at Ninth and T streets.

Nebraska’s Department of Environmental Quality says more tests will be necessary to determine the scope and seriousness of any contamination.

Ashland City Councilman Accused of Stealing Water

ashland,-ne(AP) — A city councilman in the eastern Nebraska city of Ashland has been accused of stealing water from the city.

Councilman Chad Yochum was cited Tuesday for misdemeanor theft.

Investigators say the 39-year-old Yochum is suspected of disconnecting his home’s meter so he didn’t have to pay for the water. City officials say other residents are suspected of doing the same, but so far only Yochum has been cited.

City Attorney Mark Fahleson says he didn’t know how much water was involved in Yochum’s case.

A public phone listing for Yochum couldn’t be found. Online court records don’t list the name of his attorney.

Woman Kills Boyfriend With Stiletto High Heel

stiletto-homicide(AP) — Prosecutors say a Houston woman was at a bar with her boyfriend when another man offered her a drink, causing an argument that escalated into her fatally beating her boyfriend with a stiletto high-heel shoe.

Forty-four-year-old Ana Trujillo is charged with murder in the death of 59-year-old Alf Stefan Andersson. She was being held Wednesday in the Harris County Jail on $100,000 bond. Her attorney says Trujillo acted in self-defense.

The Harris County District Attorney’s office says the couple had wine and tequila before the argument erupted.

District attorney spokeswoman Sara Marie Kinney says Trujillo told police the fight escalated when they returned to her apartment and Andersson grabbed her. Trujillo told police she hit him with her shoe.

Kinney says Andersson was dead when police arrived.

Ohio Boy Admits to Killing Mom During Argument Over Chores

crime-scene(AP) — An Ohio boy has admitted he fatally shot his mother when he was 10 after what a relative described as an argument over chores.

The boy, now 13, entered the equivalent of a guilty plea in juvenile court. A second charge and two weapons specifications were dismissed.

In January 2011, the boy told a 911 dispatcher he shot his mother at home, near the rural town of Big Prairie.

He’ll be sentenced later and could be held in a youth facility until he’s 21. A defense attorney says he’ll ask that the boy go to a residential treatment facility with access to counseling.

A prosecutor told The Repository in Canton the plea deal avoids a trial that benefits no one.

The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify juveniles accused of crimes.

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