Nebraskan chosen as next poet laureat
The new poet laureate is Ted Kooser, a retired vice president of Lincoln Benefit Life insurance company in Nebraska, Librarian of Congress James Billington will announce today. The businessman-turned-bard writes straightforward verse about stars and cows and office secretaries and everything in between. He has published 10 books, including the collections ''Delights & Shadows" (2004) and ''Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison," which won the 2001 Nebraska Book Award for Poetry. (
ILLINOIS
Trucker in derailment convicted of violations
KANKAKEE -- The trucker involved in a 1999 Amtrak derailment that killed 11 people was convicted yesterday of felony charges for violating rules governing hours truckers can be on the road. The crash near Bourbonnais also injured 122 others aboard Amtrak's City of New Orleans and pushed federal officials to change truckers' hours-of-service rules for the first time since 1939. John R. Stokes was found guilty by Circuit Judge Clark Erickson of willfully violating the maximum time limit for commercial truckers and of willful failure to keep an accurate logbook, said prosecutor Bill Elward. Stokes faces a possible prison term of one to three years, Elward said. (AP)
