EAST SELMA, Ala. (AP) — A man suspected of shooting and wounding his girlfriend, infant son, and the pastor of an Alabama church is being held without bond.
Police say 26-year-old James Junior Minter was likely upset over a recent breakup and visitation issues.
Police say Minter opened fire Sunday morning during a church service at Oasis Tabernacle Church in East Selma.
Police say Pastor Earl Carswell was shot when he tried to intervene.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says nearly 500,000 Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars built in the past seven year are intentionally violating clean air standards by using software that evades EPA emissions standards.
The EPA says the cars include a device programmed to detect when the car is undergoing official emissions testing. The cars only turn on full emissions control systems during that testing. The EPA says the controls are turned off during normal driving situations.
The EPA called the company’s use of the device illegal and a threat to public health.
The EPA called on VW to fix the cars’ emissions systems, but said car owners do not need to take any immediate action.
VW said in a statement it is cooperating with the investigation.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toyota is recalling about 421,000 RAV4 vehicles because of potential corrosion in their windshield wipers could make them inoperable.
The vehicles include model years ranging from 2009 to 2012 and about 2,500 vehicles from model years 2012 to 2014.
The company said Thursday that water dripping onto the windshield wiper link can cause corrosion over time and wear at the wiper link joint. This could cause the wiper link to separate from the wiper motor crank arm in some cases. If separated, the wipers could become inoperative.
Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. said owners of vehicles involved in the recall will be notified by first class mail. The automobile maker’s dealers will replace the water channel, wiper link and wiper motor crank arm with new ones.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California company has recalled several brands of soft cheeses after they were linked to 24 illnesses around the country and a death in Ohio.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that Karoun Dairies, Inc. has voluntarily recalled and stopped production of several cheeses, including those sold under the brand names Karoun, Arz, Gopi, Queso Del Valle, Central Valley Creamery and Yanni.
The CDC said that five of the illnesses were in pregnant women, and one resulted in a fetal loss. Fourteen of the listeria illnesses were in California. The other illnesses were in Ohio, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Tennessee and Washington.
Listeria generally only affects the elderly, people with compromised immune systems, and pregnant women and their newborn infants.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri is adding another 47.5 miles to the Katy Trail, providing hikers and bikers from the Kansas City area greater access to the nation’s longest rail-to-trail conversion.
Gov. Jay Nixon announced Thursday that the extension will stretch from Windsor to Pleasant Hill along the Rock Island Trail State Park. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2016. Currently, the 240-mile Katy Trail spans from Clinton to St. Charles County.
The announcement comes as the trail marks its 25th anniversary. Nixon said in a written statement that one of his priorities as governor has been to “improve and expand our outstanding park system.” He says the parks draw tourists and that usage is one the rise.
PRINCETON, Ky. (AP) — A woman has pleaded not guilty after police say she was uncooperative during their investigation into the shooting death of a Kentucky state trooper.
The Paducah Sun reports 18-year-old Ambrea Shanks of Florissant, Missouri pleaded not guilty Thursday in Caldwell District Court in Princeton. Shanks is charged with first-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension.
Thirty-one-year-old Trooper Joseph Cameron Ponder was shot to death late Sunday in western Kentucky after a high-speed chase that reportedly started with the trooper pulling over Joseph Johnson-Shanks for speeding.
Police say Shanks was in the car with Johnson-Shanks, also of Florissant, Missouri, during the police pursuit. She was arrested on Monday.
Authorities say 25-year-old Johnson-Shanks was shot to death by other Kentucky troopers after he refused to surrender.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) — Three people are charged with murder in the June 2014 killing of a southwest Missouri man they suspected of being a drug informant.
Thirty-five-year-old Christopher Younes of Marshfield was found shot to death in June 2014 at the Mark Twain National Forest near Chadwick. His death came during an investigation into a drug distribution ring in the Springfield area.
On Thursday, 40-year-old Albert Romero; 28-year-old Timothy Murray; and 27-year-old Gabriella Shields were each charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Authorities say Shields and Murray are at large and considered armed and dangerous. Romero is serving a 20-year prison sentences after pleading guilty this summer to a federal drug conspiracy charge.
Nineteen-year-old Terell Dixon of Clinton, Missouri, was charged Thursday with second-degree murder. Prosecutors say he shot 24-year-old Winston Dowling of Atchison, Kansas, Wednesday at the convenience store.
Dixon is being held in the Henry County, Missouri, where he was arrested after the shooting. He refused to waive extradition earlier this week.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — An HIV-positive man says in a federal lawsuit that he was wrongly removed from his job as a St. Louis-area air ambulance paramedic because of his illness.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Clinton Moore alleges in his St. Louis lawsuit that the decision by Air Evac Lifeteam to reassign him to a dispatch center was driven by “misconceptions, outdated beliefs, and irrational fears.”
Insisting he poses no threat, Moore accuses Air Evac of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Missouri Human Rights Act.
Air Evac counters in a statement that it “strongly believes its actions were in full compliance with the law and in keeping with its commitment to patient safety and to treating its employees fairly.”
CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — St. Louis County’s police board has signed off on a policy forbidding the use of police dogs for crowd control.
The policy change Wednesday follows a federal report that strongly criticized the practice used to contain protests following protests involving the August 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown in nearby Ferguson.
St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar insists his department did not use dogs that way in Ferguson.
A Justice Department analysis of the department’s patterns and practices is due to be released later this month. It’s the latest Justice Department report scrutinizing St. Louis-area law enforcement since Brown’s death.
