Gwinnett Daily Post

Girl found dead after reported missing in Ky.

TRENTON, Ky. — Police said a 9-year-old girl who was found dead in western Kentucky a few hours after she was reported missing was killed by multiple blows.

A Kentucky State Police news release said an autopsy ruled the cause of death was blunt force trauma and the investigation is continuing.

Todd County investigators found the child’s body before dawn Saturday along a road between Trenton and Guthrie. The girl’s name has not been released.

Police said she had been reported missing late Friday.

Officer in cruiser hit during traffic stop dies in NY

OLD WESTBURY, N.Y. — A police officer sitting in his cruiser with lights flashing during a traffic stop on the Long Island Expressway died Saturday after being hit by a flatbed truck.

Nassau County Officer Michael Califano had pulled a vehicle over near exit 39 in Old Westbury for having insufficient lights and was sitting in his car when it was struck from behind shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, authorities said.

The impact propelled the cruiser under a stopped box truck, while the flatbed mounted the police vehicle’s roof. It took rescuers a half-hour to remove the roof and free the severely injured officer, who was declared dead about an hour later at a hospital.

Califano was 44 and a member of the police Highway Patrol Unit. He had been on the force for 12 years, the department said.

The flatbed truck driver was charged Saturday in Califano’s death.

Nasdaq hackers target service for boards

NEW YORK — The company that runs the Nasdaq stock market said Saturday that hackers had penetrated a service that handles confidential communications between public companies and their boards.

The service run by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. carries strategic information for about 300 companies. The company said it appears no customer data was compromised.

Nasdaq OMX said the hacking attempts did not affect its trading systems. Nasdaq is the largest electronic securities trading market in the U.S. with more than 2,800 listed companies.

The targeted application, Directors Desk, is designed to make it easier for companies to share documents with directors between scheduled board meetings. It also allows online discussions and Web conferencing within a board.

NY dog dies in fire a month after river rescue

NEW YORK — A German shepherd who was pulled from the frigid waters of New York’s Hudson River last month after falling off her owner’s yacht has died in a fire.

Chloe died early Friday in a fire on the same yacht at Chelsea Piers on Manhattan’s West Side.

The dog’s owner, Mark Stoss, was treated for smoke inhalation and hypothermia. He said he tried desperately to get to the dog but was overcome by flames.

‘‘I couldn’t get to her. I couldn’t,’’ a grieving Mark Stoss told the Daily News in the emergency room of Bellevue Hospital.

In early January, Chloe made headlines when she fell into the river and was trapped under a dock, whimpering and paddling to stay afloat.

A police scuba diver pulled her from the icy waters.

Oregon mulls statewide ban on plastic bags

GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Oregon lawmakers will consider whether the state should become the first to pass a ban on plastic bags, a measure recycling advocates believe would trigger a domino effect among other states.

A bill co-sponsored by two Republicans and two Democrats would outlaw throwaway plastic check-out bags at all retail stores in Oregon, a state that is already a leader in passing green legislation. Shoppers would be forced to bring their own bag or pay a nickel apiece for recycled paper bags.

Catholic bishops seek to end death penalty in Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati and Bishop Frederick Campbell of Columbus are among 10 Catholic church leaders in Ohio who have signed a statement urging the state to stop using the death penalty, weeks after an Ohio Supreme Court justice issued the same call.

Ohio put eight people to death last year, the most since 1949.