This Day In History

May 8 1902
Mt. Peleé erupts on the West Indies island of Martinique. A wall of superheated ash and rock cascades down the slopes, slamming directly into the community of Saint Pierre. The shockwave and intense heat even manage to destroy twenty ships in the harbor. Only two of the town's 28,000 residents survive the cataclysm.

May 8 1991
In a room at Little Rock's Excelsior Hotel, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton exposes his penis to state employee Paula Jones and propositions her to perform fellatio. In her civil deposition, Jones will later claim to have witnessed certain "distinguishing characteristics" of the governor's genitalia, the precise nature of which soon becomes the subject of much speculation. For her trouble, Jones eventually receives an out-of-court settlement for $850,000 and a nude pictorial in Penthouse magazine.

May 8 1998
Former Senator and onetime Presidential candidate Bob Dole tells television interviewer Larry King that he participated in the Viagra impotence drug trials, and thoroughly enjoyed himself in the process. Dole's name soon becomes synonymous with erectile dysfunction.

May 8 1999
Actress Dana Plato, who played Kimberly Drummond on Diff'rent Strokes, dies in Oklahoma of an overdose of Valium and Loritab. Just the previous day, Plato had appeared on the Howard Stern syndicated radio program claiming to be clean and sober.

Trauma Cited in Mysterious Ark. Bird Kill

USA Today - A mysterious event that caused thousands of red-wing blackbirds to rain down from the sky New Year's Eve in the Arkansas town of Beebe may have occurred when loud noises or fireworks frightened a flock that roosts in a neighborhood, causing them to fly into buildings and other obstacles, a state ornithologist said.

But others still think weather could have played a role.

Preliminary necropsies on the dead birds by the state Livestock and Poultry Commission "showed trauma," said Karen Rowe, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission ornithologist. "The birds obviously hit something very hard and had hemorrhages." Beyond that, all the birds were healthy.

The state is also performing chemical and disease testing, but the results will take a week.

Neighbors reported five to 12 booming noises in the eastern part of Beebe, a community of 5,000 northeast of Little Rock. "They reported it sounding like a cannon or transformer exploding," but officials are still investigating to find out what the noises were, Rowe said.

The flock then rose from its roost and tried to fly away, but possibly because of fireworks in the sky "they naturally wouldn't want to go up high," she said. "They were below the roof line, so they were hitting houses, mail boxes, chimneys and walls."

Blackbirds have very poor night vision.

The first calls about the incident came in at about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, according to Keith Stephens, with the Game and Fish Commission.

"They told us there were birds falling out of the sky. After we verified that this wasn't some kind of prank, one of our wildlife officers went over there and sure enough, there were birds falling," he said.

The Department of Emergency Management tested the air and found nothing amiss, so the state isn't putting out any health warnings, he said.

Many theories being floated about causes of the die off can be discounted, said Dan Cristol, a professor of biology at the Institute for Integrative Bird Behavior Studies at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. The birds couldn't have eaten a fast-acting pesticide because they would have eaten it during the day and died long before they began to roost at night, he said. A slower-acting pesticide wouldn't have affected them all at the same time. A hail storm is unlikely because they would have had to be flying for that to happen, and at that hour red-wing blackbirds are asleep.

Rough weather had hit the state earlier Friday, but the worst of it was well east of Beebe by the time the birds started falling, said Chris Buonanno, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in North Little Rock.

But one expert said he can't discount weather as a cause.

"Thousands of birds encountered something, whether it was a lighting strike or hail or something, and that caused the trauma and death," said Robert Meese, an avian ecologist at the University of California-Davis. "I don't see any way that they could have flown into obstructions, because then the birds should have been at the base of the objects. ... This was a scattering."

The number of dead blackbirds is more than 3,000, Rowe said. "Environmental Services says they picked up approximately 2,000 birds." There were others they couldn't reach, she said, and "scavengers probably carried off quite a bit — if you're a cat, it's Christmas dinner."

Red-wing blackbirds are native to North America and gather in large flocks in the winter, generally settling near food sources for weeks at a time, said Mike Parr of the American Bird Conservancy in Washington, D.C.

The number of birds that died Friday is high, he noted, but "to put the number in perspective, windows, communication towers, power lines and wind turbines kill tens of millions of birds each year, probably hundreds of millions."

In an unrelated event, a major fish kill was reported on the Arkansas River last week, Stephens said. Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 dead freshwater drum were found along a 17-mile stretch of the river, about 100 miles from Beebe, between the Ozark Lock and Dam and a point due south of Hartman.

State officials believe the fish kill was disease related. Specimens have been sent to state labs for testing.

The incidents — coming during a traditionally slow news period — made for a wild weekend for state Game and Fish staffers.

"It's the craziest thing I've ever experienced and I've been doing this for 25 years," Stephens said. "I'll bet you I've had 100 calls today, I've done 25 interviews. I did Al-Jazeera live last night."

SO HORRIBLE.

(CNN) -- A Salvation Army major was shot dead in front of his three children on Christmas Eve in North Little Rock, Arkansas, authorities said.

Maj. Philip Wise, 40, was gunned down Thursday. He was found lying by the back entrance of a Salvation Army facility, said police spokesman Sgt. Terry Kuykendall.

Wise apparently dropped two bell ringers off at home and returned to the Salvation Army building with his three children, ages 4, 6 and 8. Two men carrying handguns approached them and demanded money before shooting Wise, Kuykendall said.

The suspects fled on foot.

Police received a 911 call at 4:17 p.m. Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper said Wise's wife, Cindy, made the call from inside the building.

"My heart goes out for the family, losing their dad, and I guess having to witness it during this time of year," Camper told CNN affiliate KARK. "It's definitely going to be hard on the kids."

Wise had been active in the Salvation Army for 16 years and was assigned to the Baring Cross neighborhood of North Little Rock for the past three years.

Area Commander Maj. Harvey Johnson said the Salvation Army will hold a news conference on Christmas Day.

"We would hope that whoever the perpetrators are would step forward," he said.

The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. It is perhaps best known for its donation centers and bell ringers who collect money for the needy during the holiday season.

Evangelist Guilty of Taking Minors Across State Lines for Sex

(CNN) -- A jury in Arkansas convicted evangelist Tony Alamo on Friday of 10 federal counts of taking minors across state lines for sex, according to the court in the Western District in Arkansas.

Authorities in September charged Alamo, the 74-year-old founder and leader of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, and raided his 15-acre compound near Texarkana, Arkansas.

Jurors reached the verdict after more than eight hours of deliberations. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Between March 1994 and October 2005, Alamo transported five girls younger than 18 across state lines for sex, according to the indictment.

The criminal complaint included accounts from three of the girls, two of whom were 17 when the complaint was filed last year and one who was 14. All three said Alamo sexually abused them.

Alamo, whose real name is Bernie Hoffman, had denied all wrongdoing. In a phone interview last year with CNN, he called the accusations a hoax.

"They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."

Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ.

"Why were they after Jesus," he asked. "It's the same reason. Jesus is living within me."

Alamo also has compounds in Oklahoma and New Jersey.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says Tony Alamo Christian Ministries is anti-Catholic and a cult.

2 Children Found Dead In Car Trunk

SPRINGDALE, Ark. -- Two children are dead after police said they were found in the trunk of a car at an apartment complex.

The victims were found at about 5 p.m. and declared dead at the scene.

The children were described as a 5-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl.

Their mother told investigators she last saw them at about 3:50 p.m. Monday.

Police got the call about 35 minutes later.

The complex is located at 347 Sage Street, which is near the intersection of East Emma Avenue and Old Missouri Road

Lawyer: Arkansas Shooter Tortured in Yemen

LITTLE ROCK (CNN) -- The Tennessee man suspected in Monday's attack on a recruitment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, was brainwashed and tortured while imprisoned in Yemen, his lawyer said Thursday.

"My client is a young man, I think, brainwashed," attorney Jim Hensley told CNN. "What else could be explained for a young man who's a true American, plays football, helps his grandmother and mows the lawns of his neighbors? Comes back and then finds himself in this situation? That is not a normal situation in my book."

Abdulhakim Muhammad, formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe, is charged with killing Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, and wounding Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas.

The 23-year-old convert to Islam has pleaded not guilty. But, according to court records, he told police that he had "political and religious" motives for the shooting.

In September 2007, Muhammad left Tennessee State University in Nashville, where he was studying business, and traveled to Yemen to teach English to children and to learn Arabic.

There, "he felt at peace with these people," even marrying a Yemeni, Hensley said.

But things began to change when his client was detained for a minor visa violation in Yemen and sent to prison, where he was housed with radical Islamic fundamentalists, Hensley said.

In November 2008, Muhammad was arrested in the port city of Aden for overstaying his visa and deported two months later in cooperation with the U.S. Embassy, a Yemeni official said.

There is disagreement about the time he was incarcerated. The lawyer said Muhammad told him he had served four months in prison.

Hensley said Muhammad told him that, during the last two weeks he was held, he was deprived of sleep and food and "was slapped around a little bit," enduring beatings on the backs of his legs.

During Muhammad's time in the prison, an FBI agent visited him not as an ally but as an interrogator, Hensley said.

However, Mohammed AlBasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy, rejected Hensley's assertion. "It is understood that the process of radicalization can take a number of years, not a couple of weeks," he said. "So, the statement that his lawyer made, that he was brainwashed and tortured for weeks in Yemen, are baseless."

The FBI agent "believed that Carlos was some kind of hardened terrorist hellbent on doing violence to America," Hensley said.

After he was released in January, Muhammad returned to Nashville, Tennessee, where his parents noticed their son was "fidgety, frustrated, can't sit still," Hensley said.

The same FBI agent approached him and threatened to put him under surveillance, "to do everything we can to cause you trouble," Hensley said.

A federal law enforcement source told CNN that the FBI was investigating Muhammad, but FBI spokesmen would not confirm any contact they might have had.

Hensley added that Muhammad's parents told him that, once he returned to Nashville, "he was a different human," one who blamed the United States for the war wounds suffered by some of the children whom he had taught, children without arms or legs.

He also blamed U.S. immigration policy for his inability to bring his bride back to the United States with him, Hensley said.

"A first-year psychology student would be able to see that this young man needed some help, and that wasn't offered him by anyone," Hensley said.

Muhammad eventually moved to Little Rock to help his father's Memphis tour business expand into Arkansas.

Just before the shooting, he was working out of a Hilton hotel in Little Rock in the family business, driving a sightseeing van.

Hensley said he was speaking to the news media because Muhammad had asked him to. "His agenda is different from mine; he wants to be a martyr," the lawyer said.

The case has attracted high-level attention, with President Obama saying Thursday in a written statement that he was "deeply saddened" by the shootings.

Federal agents said Wednesday that they were looking into whether Internet searches of various locations in several other U.S. cities were a sign that Muhammad was seeking "additional targets." The cities investigators included Atlanta, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee, where Muhammad grew up.

Hensley told CNN that his client was not the only person who was using the computer.

Muhammad is being held on a state count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act by firing into an occupied building.

Man Pleads Not Guilty In Deadly Recruiting Center Shootings

(CNN) -- An Arkansas man suspected in a shooting that killed one soldier and wounded another at a Little Rock military recruiting center was angry over the treatment of Muslims, authorities said Tuesday.

Abdulhakim Bledsoe, 23, of Little Rock, also told police he recently watched a video "pertaining to subversive activities which spurred him to commit this act," according to court documents.

Bledsoe pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday and was ordered held without bail.

He faces one count of capital murder and 16 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, said Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building.

Before the not guilty plea, authorities said Bledsoe waived his Miranda rights after the shooting Monday and gave a video statement indicating that "political and religious" motives were involved.

He "stated that he was a practicing Muslim ... that he was mad at the U.S. military because of what they had done to Muslims in the past," homicide detective Tommy Hudson said in a police report.

Bledsoe told police "he fired several rounds at the soldiers with the intent of killing them," according to Hudson's report.

The suspect is a Muslim convert who has also gone by the names Carlos Bledsoe and Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. He changed his name from the latter April 23, citing religious reasons, court records show.

A leader of the Muslim community in Little Rock said he did not know Bledsoe.

The suspect had been under investigation after visiting Yemen, a federal law enforcement official said. The official declined to provide further information.

Police believe the shooter acted alone "with the specific purpose of targeting military personnel," Thomas said.

CNN has been unable to reach Bledsoe's attorney.

Residents left flowers and miniature American flags outside the recruiting center after the shooting. A lone candle burned on the sidewalk next to bouquets of white and red roses. A note that said "Thank you for your service" was attached to the flowers.

The shooting Monday killed Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Arkansas, and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville, Arkansas, who were outside the military recruiting center.

Bledsoe told police he was driving around and saw Long and Ezeagwula smoking outside the building, according to Hudson's report. He said he pulled into the parking lot and shot the two soldiers and added that "he would have killed more soldiers if they had been on the parking lot," according to the report.

Ezeagwula was in stable condition Tuesday, the police chief said.

The soldiers were part of a recruiting program called "hometown recruiting assistance," said Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis, commander of the Oklahoma recruiting battalion that oversees the Little Rock Army-Navy recruiting center.

Under the program, soldiers tell their stories to potential recruits. It's a volunteer position taken while soldiers are visiting or based back in their home region, Artis said.

"I'm relieved there's a suspect in custody," said Capt. Matthew Feehan, commander of the recruiting center. He said several people were in the building at the time of the shooting, but nobody else was injured.

Bledsoe was arrested after officers on Interstate 630 pulled over his car, which matched witnesses' description of a black Ford sport utility vehicle seen leaving the scene of the shooting.

Police recovered three guns from the suspect's vehicle -- an SKS semi-automatic rifle, a .22-caliber rifle and a .380-caliber automatic pistol, Thomas said.

The victims were shot with an SKS rifle, according to the police report.

Police also seized from Bledsoe's vehicle and apartment several rounds of ammunition, two homemade silencers, handwritten notes in Arabic, CDs with handwritten Arabic labels, a computer and cell phones, according to court documents.

Melvin Bledsoe of Memphis, Tennessee, was listed on the police report as Bledsoe's father. He declined to comment, referring questions to Little Rock police.

Burned Body Discovered In Car Trunk

This is like some Goodfellas type stuff:

SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. -- A burned body was discovered in the trunk of a car Sunday afternoon, according to Benton County Sheriff's deputies.

The car with the body were discovered by a resident, at the end their a driveway along Old Highway 68 and Robinson Road by a resident.

According to authorities another resident heard gunshots and saw the fire early Saturday morning.

"Neighbors across the street here, they heard something about 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning, a loud pop, they thought it was gunshots," Capt. Rick Sydoriak with the Benton County Sheriff's Office said.

Sydoriak said the residents didn't call police because they thought their neighbors were burning brush.

Benton County authorities said they are working to locate the owner of the burned car, which they believe is a 4-door Dodge Interpid.

The body will be sent to the State Crime Lab for further invesitigation.