The oldest person in the United States has died at age 113, just weeks before her 114th birthday.

A spokeswoman from Elsie Thompson’s church in Clearwater, Fla., said she died March 21.

The Gerontology Research Group, which verifies age information for Guinness World Records, listed Thompson as the oldest living U.S. citizen after January’s death of 114-year-old Mamie Rearden of South Carolina.

Thompson was born in Beaver Falls, Pa., on April 5, 1899. Her husband, Ronald Thompson, was a Republican state senator in Pennsylvania, and in 1971, the couple moved to Clearwater, Fla. Mr. Thompson died in 1986.

Mrs. Thompson is survived by her son, who is in California, and four grandchildren.

She often said the secret to her longevity was loving people and greeting each day with a smile.

A hearing on whether a reporter should be ordered to testify about how she obtained confidential information in the Colorado theater shooting case is being continued until next week.

New York-based Fox News reporter Jana Winter cited anonymous law enforcement officials in reporting that suspect James Holmes had sent a psychiatrist a notebook of drawings that foreshadowed the July 20 attack.

Prosecutors and Holmes’ lawyers argued about the issue in court Monday, but the defense wants to again question a detective about whether he might have told someone else about the notebook, who may have then talked to Winter.

The judge agreed and scheduled another hearing for April 10. He raised the possibility that Winter’s source was from outside Colorado, and not subject to the case’s gag order.

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from former University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill in his effort to reclaim his job.

The justices did not comment Monday in refusing to review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling in favor of the university.

Churchill faced condemnation and calls for his dismissal over an essay describing some victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to Adolf Eichmann, the Nazi leader who helped orchestrate the Holocaust.

The university investigated whether the piece was protected under the First Amendment and found that it was.

But while the investigation was under way, other academics accused Churchill of plagiarism and fraud in scholarly writings, which led to his termination in 2007. None of the allegations concerned the Sept. 11 essay.

Chelsea Clinton will follow the example of her parents by speaking in Omaha at a fundraising lunch for the nonprofit Girls Inc. group.

Chelsea Clinton will speak about service and youth engagement at the CenturyLink Center in downtown Omaha on May 10.

Both former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among the prestigious speakers Girls Inc. has attracted in the past.

Current President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, billionaire Warren Buffett and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have all spoken at the event.

Chelsea Clinton is working on her doctorate at Oxford University while working as a special correspondent for NBC and serving on the board of her father’s charitable foundation.

Girls Inc. offers educational and recreational programs for girls.

The New Jersey man who just won a $338 million Powerball jackpot has resolved a child support debt.

Pedro Quezada appeared Monday afternoon in state Superior Court in Paterson.

Authorities had said the 44-year-old Passaic resident owed about $29,000 in back support for three of his five children.

During the court hearing, officials said Quezada had paid $30,000 to settle the debt. He also told the judge that the three children would now be living with him.

Quezada claimed a lump-sum payment last week worth $221 million, or about $152 million after taxes.

The unpaid child support payments date to 2009.

A state audit has found that Nebraska improperly sent nearly $8 million in federal energy-assistance money directly to customers, including some who were known to be dead.

State Auditor Mike Foley said Monday that the payments were made in haste in August 2011, just five weeks before the federal deadline to use the money.

Auditors found that the state made nearly 19,000 payments of either $250 or $500 directly to customers who had previously qualified for “crisis assistance.” The payments should have gone to their energy companies, to ensure they were used as intended.

Auditors say there’s no way to confirm how the money was spent. But some checks were cashed at a keno parlor, grocery stores and funeral homes.

State officials say they’ve added safeguards to prevent future occurrences.

One of the stars of MTV’s “BUCKWILD” has been found dead along with two other people in an apparent off-road accident in West Virginia.

Twenty-one-year-old Shain Gandee, his uncle David Gandee, and a third person who has not been identified were last seen around 3 a.m. Sunday at a bar in Sissonville. They had told people that they were going four-wheeling.

The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department says their 1984 Ford Bronco was found in a ditch near Gandee’s home about 15 miles outside of Charleston with the three men inside. Search teams had to use all-terrain vehicles to reach the site, which they described as “very muddy” and “very rough.”

Gandee had become a breakout star of the reality show that follows the antics of a group reality star of young friends enjoying a wild country lifestyle. MTV announced in February that “BUCKWILD” would be picked up for a second season, after pulling in an average of 3 million viewers per episode in its first season.

MTV issued a statement saying it was shocked and saddened to learn of Gandee’s death, describing him as “a magnetic personality, with a passion for life that touched everyone he met.”

 

The New York City medical examiner says it has started sifting construction debris from the World Trade Center site in an effort to find any human remains from the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The work began Monday. It’s expected to continue for about 10 weeks on Staten Island.

Deputy Mayor Cas Holloway said in a memo Friday that DNA testing will continue until every possible identification can be made.

City officials say about 60 truckloads of construction debris have been collected around the site over the past 2½ years. A skyscraper will replace the twin towers.

Some 2,750 people died at the World Trade Center in the 2001 attacks. So far, 1,634 people have been identified.

Over the 30 years of its the bone marrow/stem cell transplantation program, researchers at University of Nebraska Medical Center and its hospital partner, The Nebraska Medical Center, have forged strong partnerships with researchers around the world. As a result, many patients come from all over the U.S. and world to see medical center experts.

One example of how research plays a critical role in advancing treatment and care of patients is a recent study that shed new light on T-cell lymphoma.

“We don’t see a lot of cases of this rare kind of lymphoma, so our partnership with others around the world is one way everyone can share to advance our knowledge and help patients,” said Julie Vose, M.D., chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology. “T-cell lymphoma is more common in other parts of the world. It’s very important that we have the resources and expertise to be able to do these types of studies. There has not been adequate information on it.”

Several different clinical trials for T-cell lymphoma currently are ongoing.

Dr. Vose, also a physician on staff at The Nebraska Medical Center,  was involved in an international study that looked at 1,300 cases of T-cell lymphoma to identify which treatments were helpful and which ones weren’t. In the United States, there are about 85,000 new cases of lymphoma annually of which about 10 percent are T-cell.

It produced surprising results.

“We found that our current treatments for T-cell aren’t very helpful and that we have to look for new treatments,” said Dr. Vose, the Neumann M. and Mildred E. Harris Professor. “We were surprised to learn patients did so poorly on current treatments. We also found some new types of T-cell lymphoma from genetic information that previously hadn’t been described.”

As a result of the study, she said there will be changes in treatment.

“It’s important to tailor treatment since not all T-cell lymphomas are alike,” she said. “Some are aggressive, some slow growing. Some patients do better with certain combinations of therapies while others do better with other types of treatment. We need to understand why.”

In the past few years, Dr. Vose said two new drugs have been approved for T-cell lymphoma.

She said treatment of lymphomas have come a long way in 30 years, thanks to research. There are 50 different types of lymphoma.

“Physicians used to treat many lymphoma patients with the same treatments,” she said. “We didn’t understand that different types of lymphoma can benefit from different types of treatment. Now we know.”

A Wisconsin man has admitted slashing his three daughters to death. Now, a jury will decide whether they believe his claim that he was insane when he did it.

Aaron Schaffhausen goes on trial Monday in St. Croix County, just east of Minneapolis. Schaffhausen last week admitted cutting the throats of his daughters — 11-year-old Amara, 8-year-old Sophie and 5-year-old Cecilia — last July in their River Falls home.

Prosecutors say Schaffhausen was bitter over his divorce from his ex-wife, Jessica, and angry because he thought she had begun seeing another man. A criminal complaint says he called his ex-wife the day the girls were slain and told her: “You can come home now because I killed the kids.”

Schaffhausen’s attorney says his client has a “major depressive order.”