NEVADA
City east of Vegas considers toll road
BOULDER CITY — This southern Nevada city is considering charging tolls to fund a highway bypass to a bridge being built over the Colorado River near Hoover Dam.
A portion of U.S. 93 through Boulder City would become Nevada's first toll road under a plan the City Council agreed Tuesday to study.
Tolls collected from motorists using the highway, which links Las Vegas and Phoenix, would speed construction and defray the estimated $385 million cost of a bypass skirting the quiet community about 25 miles east of Las Vegas, officials said.
The first phase of the bypass, with an estimated cost of $150 million, is tentatively set to begin in summer 2009 and take two to three years to complete.
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The second phase has not been scheduled, partly because funding has not been secured to cover its $235 million-plus cost.
CALIFORNIA
State wines again show up the French
NAPA — French and California winemakers marked the 30th anniversary of the storied Paris tasting with another sip-and-spit showdown Wednesday.
California won — again. Native wines took the top five of 10 spots, with a 1971 Ridge Monte Bello cabernet sauvignon from the Santa Cruz mountains coming out on top.
The May 24, 1976, tasting known as the Judgment of Paris is considered a milestone in the American wine industry because it shattered the perception that the New World was capable only of producing cheap bulk wines.
At that time, it was a complete surprise when California wines outclassed the French. A Stag's Leap 1973 cabernet sauvignon was top red, and another Napa Valley wine, a Chateau Montelena 1973 chardonnay, took top white.
FLORIDA
Air marshals shot 'bomber' 11 times
MIAMI — The federal air marshals who killed a mentally ill man at Miami International Airport in December shot him 11 times, according to an autopsy report released a day after state prosecutors declared the shooting "legally justified" and said no charges would be filed.
The autopsy found that Rigoberto Alpizar, 44, of Maitland, Fla., was wounded in the chest, abdomen, shoulder, hand, wrist and forearm.
It was the first case of an air marshal opening fire since marshals became a common presence on flights after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In a report released Tuesday, the State Attorney's Office said both air marshals heard Alpizar yell that he had a bomb as he ran onto the jetway, then started moving back toward the plane.
All the while, the marshals told investigators, Alpizar ignored their commands in Spanish and English to drop to the ground.
NEW YORK
19th Fleet Week sails into harbor
NEW YORK — Flying a huge American flag from its mast, the guided missile cruiser USS Anzio led nearly a dozen Navy ships and Coast Guard craft up New York Harbor on Wednesday to open the city's 19th annual Fleet Week observance.
About 4,000 sailors and Marines were expected to spend time — and money — taking in Gotham's sights and sounds over the next week.
This year's event was more low-key than usual, with fewer ships and only one foreign entrant, the British navy's ocean survey vessel HMS Scott.
The biggest entry this year is the USS Kearsarge, a 40,500-ton amphibious assault ship that carries a crew of 1,000, a contingent of 1,800 combat-ready Marines and a variety of helicopters and jump jets.
MISSOURI
Car fumes kill 2
NEOSHO — A woman who killed herself by carbon monoxide poisoning accidentally killed her teenage son as well when fumes from her running car seeped out of the garage and into his bedroom.
The two bodies were discovered Tuesday evening by a family friend, police said.