THE UNIVERSITY DARY KANSAN
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2007
NEWS
7A
NATIONAL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stepfather David Spears and his friend Chris Collins were charged with first degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape in the death of 9-year-old Rowan Ford. Police said both men raided the girl before one man stranded her.
Stepfather charged with murder of girl
ASSOCIATED PRESS
CASSVILLE, Mo. — Two men were charged Saturday with murder and rape in the death of a 9-year-old girl whose body was found the day before in a hillside cave in southwest Missouri.
Barry County prosecutors charged the girl's 24-year-old stepfather, David Spears, and his friend, Chris Collings, 32, with one count each of first-degree murder, forcible rape and statutory rape in the death of Rowan Ford.
Rowan's body was found Friday in a cave in a remote part of McDonald County, about 10 miles south of the village of Stella, where she lived with her mother and David Spears. Her disappearance last weekend led to an intensive search by dozens of officers from three counties and 50 FBI agents and specialists.
Barry County Sheriff Mick Epperly said Collings confessed to authorities on Friday. Based in part on Collings' statement, the affidavit Everson sent to the prosecutor
alleges that the men took Rowan from her home to a camping trailer where Collings lived in Barry County, Epperly said.
There, Epperly said, both men raped Rowan and one of them then strangled her with a cord. Epperly did not say which one of the men strangled the girl.
Collings' brother, Greg Horton, 44, said he didn't believe the allegations.
"I don't believe he could do something like this. He has three kids of his own," Horton said. Collings' children are all younger than 10 and live in Arkansas with their mother, who is separated from Collings, Horton said.
Collings was being held in Barry County jail. Epperly said he didn't know if Collings had an attorney.
Myrna Spears. David Spears' mother, said Saturday her son did not have a lawyer. He was being held in Newton county jail.
David Spears initially told investigators he had gone out with friends the night of Nov. 2, leaving Rowan alone after she fell asleep. He said he returned around midnight but did not check on the girl, authorities said.
Authorities said he later acknowledged he had gone out a second time, around 1:30 a.m. on Nov. 3, after calling his mother and asking to borrow her sport utility vehicle. His mother has said she watched TV but did not check on Rowan while she waited for Spears to return. He was gone for 5 1/2 hours.
Spears previously said that it was wrong for him to leave the girl alone and that he initially withheld some information about his whereabouts that night because he was afraid authorities would suspect him in her disappearance.
Colleen and David Spears reported Rowan missing about 6:50 p.m. on Nov. 3, after spending much of the day looking for the girl at the homes of acquaintances where they thought she might have gone.
NATIONAL
Plates reveal 'vain Virginians Vehicle vanity tags most popular in Virginia, least in Texas
ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. URSOVAIN Virginia.
You, too, New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada and Montana.
A state-by-state survey of the popularity of vanity license plates has found that car and truck owners in Virginia are the vainest of them all.
Of the 9.3 million personalized plates on the roads of America, about one in 10 are in Virginia, according to rankings provided to The Associated Press by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.
That's 16 percent of the plates issued by Virginia. New Hampshire came in second with nearly 14 percent. Illinois had about 13.4 percent, but that amounted to nearly 1.3 million plates, the most of any state.
"If you've got 9.3 million people across the U.S. sporting vanity plates, you've got a cultural phenomenon," AAM spokesman Jason King said.
Mechanicsville. "You get to know something about the person in front of you or who passes you."
Lonce — author of the upcoming book "LCNS2ROM — License to Roam: Vanity Plates and the Stories they Tell" — worked with AAMVA to survey vehicle licensing agencies in each state.
Stefan Lonce calls it "minimalist poetry in motion" — telling a story in eight or fewer characters.
"I think a lot of people have stories to tell and they really want pieces of those stories out there," said Lonce, who admits he initially thought it was silly for people to spend extra money to personalize their license plates.
Ion Bogdan Vasi, an assistant sociology professor at Columbia University, calls people who personalize their plates "the narcissistic-materialist poets of the iGenera-
"It's a personality thing. You get to know something about the person in front of you or who passes you."
Texas had the fewest, with only about a half percent of drivers personalizing their plates.
KATHY CARMICHAEL Real estate agent
tion."
"It's a personality thing," said Carmichael, 58, a real agent in action.
Kathy Carmichael drives around with the plate COFENUT, although she is down from eight to 10 cups of java a day to just three.
"Most people buy personalized plates simply because they want to tell the world they are special." Vasi said in an e-mail. "They wrote an ode to themselves and they want to share it with everybody on the highway."
Some plates are cryptic, like Brittany Diaz' EN PWANT. It's a reminder of the summer when she studied ballet in New York and her French teacher pronounced the "en pointe" style of dance as "en pwant."
entertained because pwant is just a funny thing to say," said Diaz, 17, of Midlothian.
"Most balliners get it, and those who don't dance I figured would be
》 HEALTH
Doctors say health, planet may benefit from exercise
Others are personal, like those of Ally and Rudy Masry of Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. She donated a kidney to her husband in 2003, so her car has the tag DONOR and his reads DONEE. Some offer quirky takes on professions, like EYEMAN and 2THDR, BYTE1 reflects the computer science degree held by Vonn Campbell of Greenville, S.C., but he also chose it "to provide a somewhat abrasive message to those individuals who follow too closely".
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - America's obesity epidemic and global warming might not seem to have much in common. But public health experts suggest people can attack them both.
by cutting calories and carbon dioxide at the same time.
How? Get out of your car and walk or bike half an hour a day instead of driving. And while you're at it, eat less red meat. That's how
unlikely to happen. One numberscrunching scientist calculates that if all Americans between 10 and 74 walked just half an hour a day instead of driving, they would cut the annual U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas
Americans can simultaneously save the planet and their health, say doctors and climate scientists.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering public promotion of the "co-benefits" of fighting global warming and obesity through everyday exercise.
The payoffs are huge, although
by 64 million tons.
About 6.5 billion gallons of gasoline would be saved. And Americans would also shed more than 3 billion pounds overall, according to these calculations.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering public promotion of the "co-benefits" of fighting global warming and
obesity-related illnesses through everyday exercise, like walking to school or work, said Dr. Howard Frumkin, director of the CDC's National Center for Environmental Health.
"A simple intervention like walking to school is a climate change intervention, an obesity intervention, a diabetes intervention, a safety intervention," Frumkin told The Associated Press. "That's the sweet spot."
Climate change is a deadly and worsening public health issue, said Frumkin and other experts. The World Health Organization estimated that 160,000 people died in 2000 from malaria, diarrhea, malnutrition and drownings from floods — problems that public health and climate scientists contend were worsened by global warming. Officials predict that in
the future those numbers will be higher
T he American Public Health Association, which will highlight the health problems of global warming in April, is seeking to connect obesity and climate change solutions, said executive director Dr. Georges Benjamin.
The key is getting people out of the car, Patz and Frumkin told the
"This may present the greatest public health opportunity that we've had in a century."
JONATHAN PATZ President International Association for Ecology and Health
"This may present the greatest public health opportunity that we've had in a century" said University of Wisconsin health sciences professor Jonathan Patz, president of the International Association for Ecology and Health.
public health association at its annual convention. Reducing car travel in favor of biking or walking would not only cut obesity and greenhouse gases, they said, it would also mean less smog, fewer deaths
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