WEST VIRGINA
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Eight people, including a woman celebrating her 26th birthday and six young children who stayed over for a family slumber party, died Saturday when fire tore through a two-story home while they slept, officials and witnesses said. A seventh child was on life support after the blaze, the deadliest in West Virginia’s capital city in more than 60 years, said Charleston’s mayor, Danny Jones. The cause was under investigation. The fire appeared to have started on the first floor of the home, Charleston Assistant Fire Chief Bob Sharp said. Jones said the home had no functioning smoke detectors.
OHIO
Facility shut down after meth lab fire
ASHTABULA - A nursing home in northeast Ohio where a methamphetamine lab fire in a resident’s room killed a man has apparently closed. The March 4 fire at Park Haven Home in Ashtabula killed a man who police say was not a resident or employee. Six others were hurt. The Star-Beacon newspaper in Ashtabula reported that Park Haven closed Friday and had more than 30 residents relocated to other care facilities. The facility had been found to be violating federal regulations. State agencies were trying to revoke the facility’s license and end its Medicaid provider agreement. )
CALIFORNIA
Police investigate deaths of 5 people
SAN FRANCISCO - Police investigating the killings of five people in a San Francisco home were still trying Saturday to determine if the suspect is at large, or whether the killer’s body may lie among the victims’ remains. Police initially were investigating the deaths of three women and two men in the Ingleside District as a possible murder-suicide. But police spokeswoman Commander Lyn Tomioka told The San Francisco Chronicle that authorities do not know whether the body of the killer or killers is inside the home, nor do they know what weapons were used.
GEORGIA
Test scores suggest possible cheating
ATLANTA - Hundreds of school systems nationwide exhibit suspicious test scores that point to the possibility of cheating, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The newspaper examined test results for 70,000 public schools and found high concentrations of scores in school systems from coast to coast. The analysis does not prove cheating. It reveals that scores in hundreds of cities followed a pattern that, in Atlanta, indicated cheating in multiple schools.