The Nation Today
NEW YORK - A registered nurse has asked a judge to block New York state’s requirement that all health care workers get vaccinated against the flu. An attorney for Suzanne Field, a nurse in Dutchess County, said she filed the lawsuit to protect the rights of nearly 60,000 medical workers covered by an emergency rule put in place in the wake of this year’s H1N1 virus scare. Field’s request for a restraining order is now before a judge in Manhattan. A hearing is planned for Wednesday. This fall, New York became the first state to require most health workers to get shots for both the seasonal flu and the new swine flu. (AP)
LOUISIANA
In-air collision kills 2, injures 2 others
PINEVILLE - Two small planes collided in the air in central Louisiana yesterday, killing two people and injuring two. The Federal Aviation Administration said each of the single-engine Cessna 150s was carrying two people when they hit about 2:30 p.m. The collision happened less than a mile from Pineville Regional Airport and both planes crashed into woods. The two people who died were in the same plane. The occupants of the second plane were taken to a hospital. Their conditions were not immediately known. (AP)ARIZONA
2 dead after hours in sweat lodge ID’d
PRESCOTT - Two people who died after sitting for hours in an Arizona spiritual resort’s sauna-like sweat lodge were identified yesterday as a 40-year-old Wisconsin man and a 38-year-old New York woman. James Shore of Milwaukee and Kirby Brown of Westtown, N.Y., died Thursday night after being overcome during a spiritual cleansing ceremony. Nineteen others were hospitalized with burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest, kidney failure or elevated temperature. Most were released, but one remained in critical condition yesterday. Authorities have not yet determined the cause, but they have ruled out carbon monoxide poisoning. (AP)CALIFORNIA
Man convicted of kidnapping woman
RIVERSIDE - A California man accused of kidnapping a woman, holding her in a makeshift casket and demanding $140,000 ransom has been convicted and faces up to life in prison. Mark Herbert Warren of Victorville was convicted Friday of kidnapping for ransom, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon in the 2007 attack. Prosecutors say the 50-year-old contractor attacked the woman with a stun gun at her Riverside home, handcuffed her, covered her head with a hood, and placed her in a casket-like box inside his van. (AP)
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