MINNESOTA
300-foot fall results in only broken leg
MINNEAPOLIS — A man crashed through a double-paned window in a hotel on Saturday and plummeted 16 floors — but survived when he was caught by a roof overhang.
Joshua S. Hanson, 29, of Blair, Wis., was taken to a hospital. Police said his most serious injury from the fall was a broken leg.
The man must have "an angel on his shoulder or something," said Minneapolis police Lt. Dale Barsness. "He's a lucky guy."
According to a police report, Hanson and two friends returned from a night of drinking about 1:30 a.m Saturday. When the elevator reached the 17th floor, Hanson ran down a short hallway toward a floor-to-ceiling window, Barsness said. He apparently lost his balance and crashed through the glass, then fell 300 feet.
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CONNECTICUT
Crews demolish New Haven arena
NEW HAVEN — Crews set off a thunderous explosion Saturday to demolish Veterans Memorial Coliseum, a 35-year-old arena that held sporting events and concerts by Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
Crowds filled a nearby 10-level parking garage to watch the demolition, which makes way for a downtown redevelopment project.
"I've seen many hockey games and concerts at the coliseum, and it's sad to see a landmark in New Haven leaving us," said Ed Seward, 50.
Others have considered the building an eyesore.
"The first time I came to New Haven, I thought it was so very ugly. I'm glad to see it go," said Linda Young, 32.
NORTH CAROLINA
Ex-Duke prosecutor gets top legal help
WINSTON-SALEM — The prosecutor who removed himself from the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case has hired a well-known law firm to defend him against ethics charges before the North Carolina State Bar.
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has retained Winston-Salem lawyers David Freedman and Dudley Witt, law partners known for defending lawyers facing professional misconduct charges.
"Years ago, I just started helping out lawyers who got in trouble for various things," said Freedman, a 1982 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's law school. "I have a firm belief that you look out for your own."
The state bar filed ethics charges against Nifong in December, accusing him of violating rules of professional conduct. The bar said Nifong made misleading and inflammatory remarks to the media about the lacrosse players.
The punishment for ethics violations can range from admonishment to disbarment.
FLORIDA
Ex-senator, JFK pal Smathers dies at 93
MIAMI — George Smathers, a former U.S. senator and a confidant of the late President John F. Kennedy, died Saturday. He was 93.
Smathers served two terms in the House Representatives before spending three terms in the Senate, retiring in 1969.
Smathers was born in 1913, in Atlantic City, N.J., and moved with his family to Miami in 1919.
After graduating from the University of Florida law school and World War II service in the Marines, Smathers was elected to Congress in 1946, in the same election that sent Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon to Congress. He moved to the Senate four years later.
A noted foe of civil rights legislation, he voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and opposed the first version of a 1965 Voting Rights Act before voting in favor on final passage. In 1989, he told a Senate historian that he and other Southern senators opposed civil rights legislation out of political necessity.
Duck shot, but lives to quack about it
TALLAHASSEE — Neither gunfire nor two days in a refrigerator could slay this duck.
When the wife of the hunter who shot it opened the refrigerator door, the duck lifted its head, giving her a scare.
The man's wife "was going to check on the refrigerator because it hadn't been working right and when she opened the door, it looked up at her," said Laina Whipple, a receptionist at Killearn Animal Hospital. "She freaked out and told the daughter to take it to the hospital right then and there."
The 1-pound female ring-neck ended up at Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary, where it has been treated since Tuesday for wounds to its wing and leg.
