National Roundup

Washington
No charges for man who shot home intruder

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) — An Edmonds homeowner will not face criminal charges in the February shooting death of a suspected burglar.
Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Roe says the fatal encounter between the 54-year-old homeowner and Kenneth Talley was tragic, but the shooting wasn't a crime.
The Everett Herald reports Monday that Talley had been drinking heavily in the hours before he was shot.
Friends and relatives reportedly told detectives that Talley didn't have any mental illness or drug addiction. But they said he acted irrationally when he was intoxicated.
Court documents say Talley knocked on the homeowner's door, but was told to go away. The homeowner then armed himself with a handgun and dialed 911. The man told the dispatcher that the front door had been kicked in. That's when he fired.

Mississippi
Mother, daughter to plead guilty in bank robbery

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — A mother and daughter have notified court officials of their intent to accept a plea agreement in the armed robbery of a Gulfport bank.
The Sun Herald reports Evie Mearlene Herrin, 57, and Amelia Darci Crew, 30, have been in custody since March 26, when Gulfport police arrested them minutes after the holdup of a Regions Bank.
The weapon apparently was a BB gun.
Court papers allege the mother robbed the bank while wearing a wig, sunglasses and a hospital mask, and her daughter drove the getaway car with a Texas tag.
The women, who were living in Cleveland, Texas, are accused of taking $12,641.Authorities said the money, a BB gun and a wig were recovered from their car.
A similar federal indictment in Louisiana alleges the women robbed two other banks while Herrin wielded a BB gun. They are accused in the Feb. 13 holdup of an Iberia Bank branch in Kinder, La., where about $6,000 was taken, and the March 15 holdup of a MidSouth Bank branch in Sulphur, La., where about $4,730 was taken.
Court papers don't show if their guilty pleas in Gulfport, set for Oct. 1, will include the Louisiana robberies.
The Louisiana indictment said Herrin also is known as Evie Bowen Herrin and Evie Fancher.
She is a retired worker for the U.S. Postal Service in Jasper, Texas, and her daughter is disabled, according to testimony in previous court appearances in Gulfport.

Pennsylvania
Businessman buys enormous Gettysburg map

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — The massive light-up map depicting the Battle of Gettysburg will head to a nearby town after being saved from the scrap heap.
A businessman from Hanover placed the winning bid of $14,010 to claim the 12-ton Gettysburg Electric Map last week. Scott Roland says he hopes to use the 30-by-30-foot map as the centerpiece of a conference center in the middle of town.
The plaster-and-steel topographical map shows how Union and Confederate troops moved during the three-day battle in July 1863. The map went on display for the battle’s centennial but officials at the Gettysburg National Military Park pulled the plug on it when they opened a new visitor’s center in 2008.
Roland isn’t sure how long it will take to get the map on display.

New York
Munch’s ‘The Scream’ going on view at MoMA

NEW YORK (AP) — Edvard Munch’s “The Scream,” which sold for nearly $120 million at auction, will go on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The museum announced Tuesday that the iconic image will be on display from Oct. 24 to April 29.
The painting is the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction. It was purchased by an anonymous private collector at Sotheby’s in May.
Munch created four versions of “The Scream” between 1893 and 1910. This is the only one in private hands. The others are in Norwegian museums.
MoMA Director Glenn Lowry calls it “a rare opportunity” to see the artwork.
The image of a man holding his head and screaming under a streaked, blood-red sky has become a modern symbol of human anxiety.

Oregon
Dramatic rescue ends with 8 kids pulled from water

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A family gathered for a reunion pulled eight Oregon children from a lake with a steep drop-off where two girls already had sunk to the muddy bottom, a fire official said.
The family pulled the children from danger by passing each one from person to person until they reached shore.
The dramatic rescue occurred Saturday after the children, none of whom could swim, entered Henry Hagg Lake, Gaston Fire Chief Roger Mesenbrink said Sunday at a news conference.
“I have been through every kind of rescue scenario you can probably dream,” Mesenbrink said. “Never have I seen this sort of outcome. A trained team would have done no better.”
The children, who range from 6 to 13, were taken by ambulance to hospitals with what appeared to be non-life threatening injuries, The Oregonian reported.
Two of the girls were unconscious when members of the family pulled them from the lake bottom, the newspaper said.

Virginia
FBI says it’s investigating mosque graffiti

HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — The FBI is investigating after a mosque in Virginia was spray-painted with obscene graffiti that included a misspelled reference to Iraqis and the phrase “This is America.”
Lawrence Barry of the FBI office in Richmond said Monday the agency is helping local authorities investigate the vandalism. He said the FBI was called in at the request of officials at the Islamic Center of the Shenandoah Valley, one of three Harrisonburg buildings targeted by vandals late last week.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said it was clear the mosque had been deliberately targeted by vulgar, “racist language.”
Obscene graffiti also was reported at a high school and a Christian school. Rockingham County Sheriff Bryan Hutcheson said the three incidents of vandalism appeared to be related.