National Roundup

Virginia
Navy says it plans random alcohol tests for sailors

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The Navy said Wednesday it will conduct random blood-alcohol tests on its sailors in the United States starting next month, a sign of how concerned the service’s leaders have become about the effects alcohol abuse is having on the force.
The tests are part of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus’ 21st Century Sailor and Marine Initiative, an expansive program intended to improve the well-being of sailors and Marines after more than a decade at war.
The Marines announced it would carry out its own random alcohol tests last month. While alcohol has long played a part in the Navy’s culture, Navy officials stressed they aren’t trying to stop sailors from drinking altogether, but are concerned about their health and safety.
The Navy said it will use the blood-alcohol tests to determine whether someone is fit for duty or may need counseling. Any sailor whose blood-alcohol level is .04 or higher when reporting for duty won’t be allowed to work. In all 50 states and the District of Columbia, a driver with a 0.08 percent blood-alcohol is considered drunk.
A positive test result for a sailor reporting to work — a reading of 0.02 percent or higher — won’t be used to punish sailors. But the Navy said it could be used to refer him or her to a drug and alcohol program adviser.

Hawaii
Coast Guardsman in custody after disappearance

HONOLULU (AP) — A Coast Guardsman who disappeared more than three months ago and showed up at his home over the weekend was in military custody at Pearl Harbor on Wednesday after being released from the hospital.
Tripler Army Medical Center medically cleared and released Petty Officer 1st Class Russell Matthews on Tuesday night, Coast Guard spokesman Chief Warrant Officer Gene Maestas said.
When the 36-year-old vanished in October, he was in the process of being discharged from the Coast Guard for illegal use of marijuana, Maestas said.
He hasn’t been arrested. But Maestas said Matthews’ unauthorized absence for three months and the circumstances surrounding his disappearance make him a flight risk, so his commanding officer ordered him into pretrial confinement at the Naval Brig on Ford Island while the Coast Guard investigates his case.
The Coast Guard will decide what step to take next after a legal review and an independent review are conducted over the next seven days, Maestas said.
Matthews is a rescue swimmer with 15 years of experience in the Coast Guard. He’s been stationed at Air Station Barbers Point on Oahu for five years.
Honolulu police said Matthews returned home Sunday, but he was incoherent and taken to a hospital for observation. He later called his command.

Virginia
Bus driver to serve 6 years for deadly crash

BOWLING GREEN, Va. (AP) — The driver of a bus that crashed on Interstate 95 in Virginia, killing four passengers and injuring dozens, was sentenced Wednesday to spend six years in prison.
Kin Yiu Cheung was given 40 years with 34 years suspended for his conviction last November on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, Commonwealth’s Attorney Tony Spencer said.
The bus was en route from Greensboro, N.C., to New York early on May 31, 2011, when it swerved off the road, hit an embankment and overturned about 30 miles north of Richmond.
The crash cast national attention on a growing industry of inexpensive buses that travel the East Coast offering cheap fares, convenient routes and, in some cases, free wireless Internet. Last June, government safety officials shut down more than two dozen similar curbside bus operations for safety violations in the largest single federal crackdown on the industry.
Survivors at trial spoke of a harrowing early-morning ride, testifying that the low-fare Sky Express bus swerved from side to side and changed speeds erratically before careening off the interstate. The witnesses said the erratic driving lasted up to an hour as Cheung drank coffee and energy drinks before nodding off and losing control.

Pennsylvania
Arrest made in young Philly doctor’s killing

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An arrest has been made in the slaying of a young doctor found bound and burned inside her downtown Philadelphia home. Police say she’d been strangled.
Police spokeswoman Officer Tanya Little said Thursday morning that a person is in custody. Authorities did not immediately release details on the charges being filed or the person’s name.
The burning body of 35-year-old Melissa Ketunuti was found in her basement Monday afternoon, with her ankles and wrists bound. She was a second-year infectious-diseases fellow and researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The police department says it will be releasing updated information on the case Thursday.
Investigators had been viewing surveillance video from security cameras near Ketunuti’s home to see if she was being followed.

New York
Woman, blinded in infamous NYC crime, dies at 75

NEW YORK (AP) — Linda Pugach, who was blinded in 1959 when her lover hired hit men to throw lye in her face — and became a media sensation after later marrying him — has died, her husband said Thursday. She was 75.
The infamous New York City crime was detailed in the 2007 documentary “Crazy Love.”
Pugach, who hid behind dark glasses for the rest of her life, died Tuesday at the Long Island Jewish Hospital in Queens. The cause was heart failure, said her husband, Burton Pugach, who spent 14 years in prison for hiring the thugs to attack his then-girlfriend Linda Riss after she spurned him.
After his release, Pugach divorced his first wife and convinced Riss to marry him in 1974. He proposed to her on live television.
“This was a very fairy tale romance,” a sobbing Pugach told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Two decades after his release from prison, Pugach was accused in another case with chilling similarities but acquitted of the charges in 1997. He had been accused of threatening and harassing another lover after she tried to end their five-year affair. That woman testified that he threatened to make it “1959 all over again.”
He told the AP in an interview at the time: “Haven’t you ever threatened to kill your husband? Did you mean it? Of course not. ... This has been blown out of proportion like I’ve never seen.” P