***BUSINESS: Note Google brief (for use in Ohio) and Walmart brief. Check your lineups***
***AJC: Note Georgia inflatable slide brief. Check Metro lineup.***
***AAS: Note Texas interest in gun at airport brief***
NEW YORK
Google stock crosses $1,000 mark
Google’s stock surpassed the $1,000 mark for the first time, helped by strong third-quarter results. Shortly after the markets opened Friday, Google Inc. shares jumped 14 percent to $1,015.46 and closed a day heavy trading at $1,011.41. The gains marked Google’s biggest one-day jump in more than five years. The stock had never been higher than $928 in regular market trading since Google went public at $85 per share nine years ago.
MICHIGAN
Wal-Mart offers to rehire worker
Wal-Mart says it’s offering to rehire a worker who was fired when he tried to help a woman being assaulted in a store parking lot. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said messages were left Friday for Kristopher Oswald to “welcome him back” to the Hartland Township store, northwest of Detroit. Oswald, 30, has said he was attacked by one man and later jumped by two others early Sunday morning after he asked a woman if she needed help when the first man grabbed her. Livingston County sheriff’s deputies arrived and halted the fight. Oswald later was fired by Wal-Mart for violating company policy.
UNITED KINGDOM
Red-haired students attacked at school
British police are reporting a string of attacks on red-haired students at a school in northern England. South Yorkshire Police said in a statement Friday the force had been alerted to last week’s assaults at Wingfield Academy in the town of Rotherham, about 160 miles north of London. It said a small number of students suffered minor injuries after being attacked by fellow students. No arrests were made, but police said they had given some of the students involved a talking to, while the school said it condemned the attacks. The issue of bullying of red-haired children periodically arises in Britain, and some commentators have attributed the phenomenon to lingering anti-Celtic prejudice.
NEW YORK
Loaded gun found on man at airport
A man from a Texas town called Gun Barrel City was caught with a loaded revolver in his carry-on bag at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police said Friday that security officers noticed the handgun as Douglas A. White went through a security screening Thursday. Police said White, 61, was charged with criminal possession of a loaded firearm. He was in custody Friday. It wasn’t clear whether he had an attorney.
KANSAS
Faith healer, pilot die in plane crash
A traveling California faith healer and his pilot died Friday morning when their small Texas-bound plane crashed soon after taking off from a Kansas airport, authorities said. Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter identified the victims as Edward Dufresne, 72, a faith healer who said he could cure cancer, and an pilot Mitchell Morgan, 49, both of Murrieta, Calif. Dufresne ran a website that encouraged his followers to donate monthly to his Eagle Partner Club to “fund an aviation department of Ed Dufresne Ministries” to allow him to fly to preach and conduct faith healing outside of Murrieta.
NEW YORK
Terrorism unit probes laser attacks
The FBI announced Friday it has assigned its Joint Terrorism Task Force to lead a probe of laser attacks on the cockpits of two planes approaching LaGuardia Airport this week. The announcement came along with a report that laser attacks against inbound flights at New York airports have increased 17 percent so far this year, a rising threat because lasers can temporarily or permanently blind a pilot and crew, the FBI said. The FBI said Friday a reward is available for anyone providing information leading to arrests in the Tuesday evening attacks.
GEORGIA
Students hurt in inflatable slide collapse
More than a dozen fifth-graders were injured when a 24-foot inflatable slide collapsed Friday afternoon at their elementary school, authorities said. Troup County Sheriff’s Deputy Stewart Smith said emergency crews were called to Rosemont Elementary School in LaGrange about 12:40 p.m. and that authorities reported 19 children had been injured. Officials said two children were airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta, seven others were taken to West Georgia Medical Center and the rest were treated at the scene. One student remained hospitalized as of Friday evening. The condition of that child, being treated in Atlanta, was not immediately known.
NEW YORK
Autopsy inconclusive for fetus found in bag
Medical examiners said Friday that an autopsy of a fetus found in a teenage girl’s shopping bag at a New York City lingerie store is inconclusive, and more tests will be needed to determine how the fetus died. The medical examiners’ office said the needed tests could take a couple of weeks. The remains were discovered Thursday when a security guard stopped two 17-year-old girls at a Victoria’s Secret store. The girls were arrested on theft charges. It’s unclear whether they have lawyers.
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