JASPER COUNTY, Ga. — A Jasper County teenager is trying to find a paramedic who saved her life 13 years ago.

Alyssa Haskew was six years old at the time and lived in Spalding County when the accident occurred.

"My youngest son and a little boy across the street had knocked the car out of gear and my daughter opened the door and tried to stop it and it drug her underneath," said Melissa Coursey, Alyssa's daughter. Haskew still has a scar from the incident. She said that she doesn't remember the doctor or nurses who helped her, but she still calls the EMT her hero. He stayed with her all night at the hospital, until 400 stitches later, he knew that she'd be OK.

Full story: Teen seeks EMT who helped save her 13 years ago

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VALLEJO, Calif. — Two days into a 545-mile bicycle ride down the California coast, it started to rain.

And Perry Hookey hated it. "Over 100 miles of nothing but wet," said Hookey, 47, a Vacaville resident and a long-time paramedic with Vallejo's Medic Ambulance. But even a drenching storm couldn't keep Hookey away, who again is participating in AIDS/LifeCyle this year.

"Last year's ride was amazing. People told me that it was going to be a life-changing event. I knew it was going to be fun, but it really was," Hookey said. The annual June event raises money to support HIV/AIDS programs by challenging people to undertake an arduous seven-day bicycle journey from foggy San Francisco to sunny Los Angeles.

Full story: Vallejo paramedic and Vacaville resident preps for 545-mile bike ride

DENVER — Court documents outline how far a former Denver paramedic was allegedly willing to go to get even with supervisors, who he blamed, for the loss of his job.

Police arrested 38-year old Matthew Mann on April 11, after threats he allegedly made on Facebook led to a partial lockdown at Denver Health Medical Center.

The affidavit for a search warrant indicates that Mann posted a message that read, “Going sniper on anyone wearing bars” [referring to a Lieutenant’s collar insignia]. Mann worked as a paramedic at Denver Health from 2004 to 2012. He told police that his superiors blamed him for an ambulance crash and that they believed he was careless and reckless. He said he was facing termination, so he chose to resign.

Full story: Former paramedic threatened to 'go sniper' on supervisors at Denver Health, affidavit says

CLINTONVILLE, Ohio — Firefighters and medics are used to responding to shootings and violence. Just not usually right next door.

An early-morning shootout on Wednesday between Columbus police and two people in a fleeing SUV ended in the parking lot of Fire Station 19, at Northmoor Place and N. High Street in Clintonville.

The SUV plowed through the station’s bushes and stopped in the parking lot. When the barrage of gunfire was over and a man lay handcuffed on the ground, the police turned to the medics who were watching.

Full story: Firefighters describe Clintonville shootout

ATLANTA — The graduate student who lost four limbs in a horrific flesh eating infection has revealed her state-of-the-art $200,000 prosthetic hands for the first time.

Aimee Copeland, 24, of Georgia, was wounded in a zip-lining accident in May 2012. The cut ended up being infected with necrotizing fasciitis which threatened to kill her. Doctors were forced to amputate her left leg, right foot and both hands to keep her alive.

But today was a happy one for the University of Georgia student, she showed off a major milestone in her recovery - her prosthetic hands. Appearing on the Today show she revealed what she is now able to do from signing her name to chopping vegetables and shaking hands.

Full story: Brave flesh-eating bacteria victim Aimee Copeland shows off her new $200,000 bionic hands

Officer Steven Nuñez and four passersby stopped to help the girl who was face down and unconscious under the vehicle.

"We had no tools, and a male subject came and brought a floor jack," Nuñez told KRQE. "He tried jacking up the vehicle, but it wasn't working."

Officers recounts muscular rollover rescue

The five men rolled the vehicle back onto its side and pulled the vehicle off of the girl.

The girl, who wasn’t wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, was airlifted to the hospital and is listed in serious but stable condition, according to the Daily Mail.

Nunez told media he was thankful they were able to rescue the girl and that the four bystanders had stopped to help him.

"Without them I could not have completed this alone," he said.

The girl’s mother, who was driving the vehicle, was able to get herself out. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

EUGENE, Ore. — There's eco friendly, and then there's green to the grave. A cemetery bikes the dead to the burial, then lay them to rest in a basket casket.

"You can see on the inside here, you got your bamboo backing," Funeral Director Wade Lind of Sunset Hills Cemetery said. "And when the person's in there, it's just so delicate-looking." Lind says natural burials can lighten the load on the wallet.

"In the basket aspect the weaving is similar but different as far as these are designed to carry up to 300 pounds," he said.

Full story: Funeral home offers bike hearse, basket coffin

WEST, Texas — Investigators have not ruled out an intentional fire being behind explosions at a fertilizer plant in the small town of West that left 15 people dead, the Texas fire marshal said Thursday.

State Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said investigators were unable to rule out three possible causes, including a spark from a golf cart, an electrical short or an intentionally set fire.

"The cause cannot be proven to an acceptable level," Connealy told reporters.

Investigators said the incident was actually two simultaneous blasts triggered by the fire. The blasts, which registered on seismographs as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake and was felt 50 miles away, caused damage to a 37-block area of the town.

The announcement follows news last week that authorities launched a criminal investigation into the April 17 fire and explosion in West, about 70 miles southwest of Dallas.

Authorities announced the criminal investigation last Friday, the same day investigators said a paramedic who responded to the fire was arrested on suspicion of possession of a destructive device after investigators allegedly found materials to make a pipe bomb at his home.

Federal authorities have not said whether the arrest of Bryce Reed was connected to the fire and blast, and Robert Champion of the Dallas office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined Thursday to discuss whether a pipe bomb could cause the damage that led to the explosions.

The state fire marshal's office had previously ruled out four potential causes: weather, natural causes, anhydrous ammonium and ammonium nitrate in a rail car.

The powerful explosion leveled a portion of the town, damaging numerous homes, a nursing home and the town's high school and middle school.

In that weeks that followed, scores of investigators have following up on leads. At least 60 have been on site each day and have conducted more than 400 interviews in trying to determine how the fire started and what caused the explosion, authorities said.

The West Fertilizer Co., which operated the facility, had been cited by federal regulators twice since 2006.

In 2012, the Transportation Department's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration fined West Fertilizer $5,250 for storing anhydrous ammonia in tanks that lacked the proper warning labels. The agency originally recommended a $10,000 penalty, but it was reduced after the company took corrective action.

In 2006, the EPA fined it $2,300 and told the owners to correct problems that included a failure to file a risk management program plan on time. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality also investigated a complaint about the lingering smell of ammonia around the plant the same year.

NEW YORK — A deadly new respiratory virus related to SARS has apparently spread from patients to health care workers in eastern Saudi Arabia, health officials said Wednesday.

The Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia told world health officials that two health care workers became ill this month after being exposed to patients with the virus. One is critically ill.

Since September 2012, the World Health Organization has been informed of 40 confirmed cases of the virus, and 20 of the patients have died. The deaths occurred in Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.

Experts have suggested calling the new virus MERS, for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, but officials have not signed off on that yet.

Experts are watching carefully for signs that the deadly virus can spread from person-to-person. Health officials say the virus has likely already spread between people in some circumstances, including hospital patients in France.

The new virus has caused severe respiratory disease in patients, some of them needing mechanical ventilators to help them breathe.

One of the Saudi health care workers is a 45-year-old man who is in critical condition. The other is a 43-year-old woman in stable condition. No other details about their jobs or where they work were released. Health workers were previously infected in a cluster in Jordan, though that was before the new coronavirus had been identified and before any special measures were taken to prevent its spread. That is not the case in Saudi Arabia and officials worry any new spread to health workers could suggest the virus is becoming more transmissible to people.

The new virus has been compared to SARS, an unusual pneumonia that first surfaced in China in late 2002 and erupted into a deadly international outbreak in early 2003. Spread of the virus in hospitals was a key development in the epidemic.

Ultimately, more than 8,000 cases were reported in about 30 countries, including eight people in the United States. The global tally included 774 deaths.

The SARS outbreak was declared contained by the summer of 2003, thanks to such measures as quarantines, hospital isolation of suspected cases, travel restrictions and the screening of airline passengers.

The WHO is currently not recommending any travel restrictions or special screening at airports or border crossings. Officials worry it will flare into an outbreak as big or worse. The new virus and SARS are both coronaviruses, a germ family that includes some cold viruses.

The new virus is distinct from SARS, but health officials worry it has potential to flare into a SARS-like international outbreak. But many questions remain about how it is spread, where it originated, and how deadly it truly is.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Officials say one U.S. Navy sailor was killed and several others were hurt in a training exercise at Fort Knox in Kentucky.

Lt. David Lloyd, a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Group Two in Virginia Beach, Va., said Friday morning that the accident happened Wednesday night. The six sailors assigned to the group were riding in a Humvee when the accident happened, though Lloyd says exactly what happened remained under investigation.

Lloyd says the exercise was part of tactical training, but he declined to release further details because they are considered sensitive.

Fort Knox is about 50 miles southwest of Louisville and is home to about 14,000 military personnel, including active duty members and reserves.

The U.S. Navy has used Fort Knox as a training ground since World War II.

NSW, Australia — A report into the death of a paramedic after he tried to rescue an injured canyoner from a rock ledge has found there were issues with several safety measures in the NSW Ambulance Service.

Michael Wilson died on Christmas Eve in 2011 after falling from a rope suspended from a helicopter while trying to rescue a man off a cliff at Carrington Falls near Wollongong on the state's south coast.

The report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) found the helicopter started winching the pair up before they had secured a rope to stop them swinging, and they fell to the base of the cliff.

Mr Wilson later died of his injuries.

It was the first time in more than 30 years a NSW paramedic had died while on duty.

ATSB chief commissioner Martin Dolan says the crew thought Mr Wilson had given a hand signal saying he was ready.
"On our analysis of the evidence that securing rope was not done, so there was clearly a miscommunication at that point," Mr Dolan said.

He says low light, poor visibility and a lack of radio communication also were major factors.

"This is a tragic accident - and it is an accident - and we stress that the pulling off of the ledge was an accidental consequence in a situation where there was low light conditions," Mr Dolan said.

"So visibility was difficult, there were problems with radio communication and because it was a complex rescue it was always going to be a more complicated thing to carry off safely."

The ATSB says the NSW Ambulance Service has since taken a number of measures to improve the safety of its operations, including better training and revised procedures.

Ray Creen, from the ambulance service, says the ATSB report was not about blaming anyone for Mr Wilson's death, but important lessons have been learnt.

"We've increased training and education across aero-medical operations including geographical familiarisation and integrated training between the operator and NSW Ambulance," he said.

The service says its death and disability scheme provides significant benefits for the families of special rescue paramedics in the event of a death.

The Health Services Union is calling for extra cover for special rescue paramedics such as Mr Wilson, who sometimes have to execute dangerous rescues from a helicopter.

It says many are unable to obtain extra private insurance because of the dangers of the job, leaving their families struggling if they are seriously injured or die.

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WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia is losing paramedics at an alarming rate and they are not being replaced. 53 have resigned or retired since Kenneth Ellerbe became fire chief in 2011. It is an exodus that has led to a critical staffing shortage with advanced life support units going unfilled every day.

The firefighters’ union has been sounding the alarm for months, telling D.C. councilmembers and anyone who will listen, the net loss of paramedics has created a “crisis” situation with first responders forced to work 36-hour shifts and advanced life support units left off the streets every single day.

Normal protocol has 14 medic units staffed during every shift. It is a number designed to make sure advanced life support is available within minutes of a 911 call in every ward in the city. But as paramedics leave without being replaced, those 14 medic units have dwindled.

Full story: DC medic departures causing major staffing concerns

Having the foresight to manage the growing problem before government regulators force a change in behavior is admirable.

Beyond the headline, I appreciate that the reporter made the effort to place the statistics in context.

Ultimately the real issue is driving while distracted. Eating, putting on makeup, shaving….I'm sure you can identify many more things people do while operating a moving vehicle.

Now before we go all smug, consider what we do inside a modern ambulance. I'm sure some of us very rigidly split up the task of driving the unit from the radios, MDT, computer screens and the like.

But I'll bet many of us still heap a lot of the tasks upon ourselves when we're driving.

And why do we do this" There is the prevalent belief that we are good at multi-tasking a wide variety of tasks simultaneously.

Unfortunately, the science doesn't seem to bear this concept out. Many scientists believe that what we really do is "microtask" — spending a few moments of time focused on one task, then a few moments on another, and then another. In another words, we are not performing tasks simultaneously, but linearly.

In the moving unit, that can translate to a lot of distance traveled while not focused. Add the dynamics of a vehicle that is slow to respond, hard to control and prone to rolling over — well, you get the idea.

So, thank the mobile phone makers for trying to do something to help us do our job, and hang up while you're in the rig.

Special deals for responders range from mobile phone service discounts to homeowner incentive programs. The only requirement for most discounts is proof of employment by showing an active and valid ID.

Here are a handful of discounts available nationwide — share any you've heard about in the member comments.

Oakley — Sunglasses, Goggles and Apparel:
The Oakley Military and Government Sales program offers up to 50 percent off its eyewear, apparel and other gear for fire department and EMS personnel with an active and valid ID. The Stand Issue Line is designed exclusively for government customers and is not available in retail stores.

Housing and Urban Development Good Neighbor Next Door:
Firefighters and medics can contribute to community revitalization while becoming homeowners through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Good Neighbor Next Door sales program. HUD offers a 50 percent discount from the list price of the home. The only requirement is that you must live in the property for at least 36 months as your sole residence.

Wireless discounts:
Major wireless providers, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, offer discounts for firefighters and responders. If you have a valid ID, you can fill out the appropriate paperwork and receive a percentage off your bill. To learn more about these discounts and to find out if you qualify, visit their respective sites.

Travel discounts:
From time to time, one or more cruise lines will offer special discounts on select sailings to those who are active, retired or volunteer firefighters. Firefighters must present a copy of their official ID and a driver's license at the time of booking to qualify for the special rates.

Under Armour Sports Clothing, Athletic Shoes and Accessories:
Under Armour offers a 10 percent discount for firefighters on all of their products purchased at any Under Armour retail outlet. Valid ID has to be presented at the time of purchase. This discount, however, does not work with orders placed online.

Cabela’s:
Firefighter and EMS discounts are often given by sporting goods stores like Cabela's at certain times of the year. Check ads and bulletins to take advantage of saving money on equipment and gear.

While searching for any type of discount online, you must be aware of the differences between local and national ones. Some local merchants may offer discounts in one state and not in another.

Also, if a discount is offered, be sure you know your department's policy on accepting such gifts — no discount is worth losing your job.

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A school bus carrying severely disabled students home from a trip to the zoo rolled over Thursday on a highway near Indianapolis, injuring a dozen people, including five children, state police said.

Indiana State Police spokesman Rich Myers said a truck was changing lanes on Interstate 65 near Zionsville about 2 p.m. Thursday when it cut in front of the special-needs school bus. The bus driver told police she swerved into the soft median to avoid the truck and then the bus rolled over, WLFI-TV reported.

Five children and seven adults were hurt, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, Myers said. All 12 were taken to Indianapolis hospitals, Tippecanoe School Corp. Scott Hanback said. Their conditions weren't immediately known.

Dr. Larry Reed at Methodist Hospital, where some of the injured were taken, told The Indianapolis Star that three children and two adults were in good condition with no serious trauma.

Hanback said the bus was a Lafayette School Corp. bus carrying special-needs students from Mintonye Elementary School in southern Tippecanoe County. The students had gone to Indianapolis Zoo for a field trip.

"The bus was filled with students from the life skills class," Hanback said, meaning they had severe and profound disabilities and multiple impairments_ physical as well as developmental. At least one was in wheelchair, he said.

All five students were elementary age, from 4 to 10 years old, Hanback said. He also said most of the seven adults were parents. The bus driver also was injured.

The truck that caused the crash did not stop, Myers said. The truck was described as either a white box truck or a white semitrailer, he said. The vague description of the truck made locating it difficult, Myers said.

NEW ORLEANS — As the official tally of those wounded in a Mother's Day parade shooting ticked up to 20 on Thursday, the suspect made his first court appearance in the case, remaining silent as a judge set his bond at $10 million.

Prosecutors said a witness picked out a photo of Akein Scott, 19, from a lineup. An arrest affidavit said the unidentified witness told investigators that Scott was the person seen in a surveillance video that police released to the public as they searched for him for three days. The witness also said Scott was carrying a silver and black semi-automatic handgun at the shooting scene, according to the affidavit.

Scott, shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, stood by as his court-appointed attorney handled the proceedings.

Magistrate Judge Gerard Hansen set Scott's bond at $10 million _ $500,000 on each of the 20 counts in the Mother's Day shooting case. Authorities earlier said 19 were wounded, but prosecutors told Hansen the number had increased.

Scott was arrested Wednesday night in the Little Woods section of New Orleans. He already faced gun and drug possession charges and was out on bond at the time of Sunday's shooting at a parade through a neighborhood near the French Quarter.

At a later appearance Thursday morning, a state District Court judge ordered Scott held without bond pending additional hearings in that case. He faces a felony charge of illegally carrying a weapon while in possession of a controlled dangerous substance.

In the neighborhood where the gunfire shattered the festive parade known as a second line, residents awoke Thursday to the news that the manhunt apparently had ended. Police had been searching for Scott since identifying him as a suspect Monday from the surveillance video.

Courtney Moles, whose apartment overlooks the shooting site, said she didn't feel her safety was in jeopardy while police searched the city.

"I didn't really think he would come back. It's more personal than that," she said. "He wasn't going to that second line to make national news. He was probably settling some kind of score."

Moles, 24, said the arrest underscores the city's crisis of violence among its young people. "His life is over now, too," she said of Scott.

Police have not established a motive and haven't said whether they know the identity of the shooter's target. Officials initially said three people were spotted running away from the shooting scene, but Scott has been the only suspect identified publicly.

Investigators launched an intense search for Scott, with police Superintendent Ronal Serpas urging him to surrender at a news conference Monday and warning the teen that "we know more about you than you think we know." At one point, SWAT team members and U.S. marshals served a search warrant at one location but did not find Scott.

Police offered a $10,000 reward in the case, and investigators received several tips after images from the surveillance camera were released.

The video released Monday showed a crowd gathered for the parade suddenly scattering in all directions, with some falling to the ground. They appear to be running from a man in a white T-shirt and dark pants who turns and runs out of the picture.

As many as 400 people had come out for the event. Officers were interspersed with the marchers, which is routine for such events. The crime scene was about less than two miles from the heart of the city's French Quarter.

Two children were among those wounded.

The mass shooting showed again how far the city has to go to shake a persistent culture of violence that belies New Orleans' festive image.

Gun violence has flared at two other city celebrations this year. Five people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in January after a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, and four were wounded in a shooting after an argument in the French Quarter in the days leading up to Mardi Gras. Two teens were arrested in connection with the MLK Day shootings; three men were arrested and charged in the Mardi Gras shootings.

__

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman contributed to this report.

WJLA reported that the man, Mohamed Bah, is believed to have shot and wounded a man in Prince George’s County.

After the shooting, Bah was found at a grocery store where firefighters were stopping for food, according to the report. As they were leaving, they found a naked man, Bah, on the end of their ladder shouting threats and performing lewd acts, according to the report.

Bah eventually came down to talk to the police, who shocked him with a stun gun, and he was later taken to a nearby hospital, according to the report.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A woman and 1-year-old boy were killed and a 3-year-old girl was wounded in a triple stabbing on Wednesday near San Jose, authorities said.

The three were found at a home in an unincorporated area by a family member around 3:30 p.m., Santa Clara County Deputy Kurtis Stenderup said. The girl was in stable condition at a hospital, he said.

The slain 48-year-old woman was the children's grandmother and was babysitting them, authorities said. The victims' names have not been officially released.

Authorities say a relative who is a "person of interest" was detained late Wednesday.

After an intense search for several hours, Ruben Ramirez, 27, was taken into custody without incident Wednesday night in San Francisco with the help of U.S. Marshals and police, authorities said.

Investigators want to know if Ramirez was home at the time of the stabbings. "We have no other persons of interest at this time," Santa Clara County Undersheriff John Hirokawa said.

Hirokawa who would not identify Ramirez as a suspect.

While Hirokawa did not say how Ramirez is related to the family, other relatives told KNTV-TV Wednesday that he was the childrens' uncle and the slain woman was his mother.

Ramirez suffers from mental health problems and authorities have had prior contact with him, Stenderup said.

Arturo Maries, pastor of the Las Palmas Jehovah's Witness Congregation nearby, told the San Jose Mercury News that the woman fatally stabbed comes from a large family who attended his church regularly.

"They are a normal family; they go to church all the time except for the one who has a sickness," said Maries, referring to Ramirez.

Maries also said that family members had voiced concerns that Ramirez had not been taking his medication for his mental condition. Authorities have not yet offered a motive for the killings.

ROMULUS, Mich. — Cecelia Crocker's body provides her with a constant reminder of the most traumatic event of her life - one that she doesn't otherwise remember.

At only 4-years-old, Crocker was the lone survivor of a 1987 plane crash that killed 154 people aboard and two on the ground near Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

In the new documentary film, Sole Survivor, Crocker breaks her silence, discussing how the crash of the Phoenix-bound jetliner has affected her. "I think about the accident every day. It's kind of hard not to think about it when I look in the mirror," she said.

Full story: 'Flying doesn't scare me:' Sole survivor, then aged 4, of 1987 crash that killed 154 including her whole family breaks her silence in documentary