Gwinnett Daily Post

Woman stranded for weeks now on solid food

BOISE, Idaho — A Canadian woman hospitalized after surviving seven weeks of near-starvation in the remote Nevada mountains has been upgraded from a liquid diet to solids, while the search for her husband continues.

Hunters found 56-year-old Rita Chretien of Penticton, British Columbia, on Friday after they spotted her van mired in mud on a national forest road in Elko County, Nev., near the Idaho border.

On Monday, hospital officials in Twin Falls, Idaho, said she was upgraded to a regular diet and had been enjoying yogurt and dairy products.

Chretien and her husband, 59-year-old Albert Chretien, own a commercial excavating business and were headed to a Las Vegas trade show when they got stuck.

Albert Chretien set off on foot March 22 to get help, and searchers are still looking for him. Rita Chretien survived on just water and the snacks they carried for the road trip.

Ariz. appeals to Supreme Court on immigration

PHOENIX — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Monday she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.

The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court’s order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.

The panel said federal officials were likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.

Court in Va. to hear health care law challenge

RICHMOND, Va. — President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul will get its first oral arguments in federal appeals court today when a three-judge panel hears two Virginia cases — one that upheld the law and another that struck down its key provision.

Nine lawsuits challenging the law are pending on appeal, but the Virginia cases before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are the first to reach the oral argument stage. Thirteen cases have been dismissed with no appeal filed, and nine are pending in district courts, according to federal officials.

In the most prominent of the two Virginia cases, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson struck down the health care law’s key provision: a requirement that individuals buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014. Thirty-one lawsuits challenging the law have been filed nationally, and Hudson — a 2002 appointee of President George W. Bush — was the first judge to strike down any of its provisions. Hudson left the rest of the law intact.

Teacher out after mocking student over bin Laden

FRIENDSWOOD, Texas — A Texas school district said a teacher won’t return to work after being accused of mocking an American-born Muslim student by asking if she was grieving because her “uncle” had died, a reference to Osama bin Laden.

The teacher was put on leave after making the alleged remark May 2, hours after bin Laden was killed in a U.S. military raid.

The incident involved a female student in a ninth-grade algebra class at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, located 23 miles southeast of Houston.

District spokeswoman Elaina Polsen on Monday declined to say if the teacher was fired or resigned.

Polsen said the comment did not reflect school or district staff attitudes. Houston-area Muslim leaders said last week they were pleased with the district’s response.

FAA: Two dead after two planes crash in NY

WAWAYANDA, N.Y. — Authorities said two small planes have crashed in a wooded area in upstate New York, killing two people and critically injuring a third.

State Trooper Arthur Worden said the two single-engine planes crashed about 3 p.m. Monday in the hamlet of New Hampton, about 60 miles north of New York City. He said authorities don’t know yet if the aircraft, both Pipers, collided.

Arlene Salac, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said two people are dead. Because the bodies were found outside the planes, investigators don’t yet know which plane the victims were in when they crashed.

Boy clawed by leopard may go home soon

WICHITA, Kan. — The family of a 7-year-old Kansas boy clawed by a leopard at a zoo last week said the first-grader will be out of the hospital soon.

The boy was on a school field trip at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita when he was attacked Friday. Zoo officials said the boy climbed over a 4-foot railing around the leopard exhibit, crossed an 8-foot safety zone and stood next to the metal mesh fence. The leopard was able to get its paws through the mesh and clawed the boy on the neck and face.