Nation in brief

Hundreds of thousands of pounds of frozen food recalled amid an E. coli scare may have been served in schools, according to the company that manufactured the items. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rich Products Corp. has over the past two weeks recalled 10 million pounds of frozen food items after 27 E. coli illnesses in 15 states were linked to their foods. Of that, the company estimates that about 3 million pounds may still be in the marketplace and approximately 300,000 pounds may have ended up in school lunchrooms, a company spokesman said. Dwight Gram of Rich Products said the main items shipped to schools were labeled as pizza dippers and pepperoni pizzatas.

ILLINOIS

Film critic Ebert remembered

Roger Ebert, one of the nation’s most influential film critics who used newspapers, television and social media to take readers into theaters and even into his own life, was laid to rest Monday with praise from political leaders, family and people he’d never met but who chose movies based on the direction of his thumb. “He didn’t just dominate his profession, he defined it,” said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel in a brief eulogy to hundreds of mourners who gathered at Holy Name Cathedral just blocks from where Ebert spent more than 40 years as the film critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. Ebert died Thursday at the age of 70 after a years-long battle with cancer.

DELAWARE

Slain diplomat’s remains arrive in U.S.

The remains of a young American diplomat killed in a terrorist attack in southern Afghanistan have arrived back in the United States.The State Department says Anne Smedinghoff’s remains arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Monday afternoon for an official ceremony. The department said earlier that Smedinghoff’s family had asked that Monday’s ceremony be private. The 25-year-old suburban Chicago woman was one of five Americans killed Saturday in a suicide car bombing as they delivered textbooks to school children.

NEW MEXICO

School bus crashes into embankment

A bus driver died and nine students were injured Monday when a school bus went off a road and lodged in an embankment in northern New Mexico, authorities said Monday. The driver died at the scene of the crash that investigators said might have been caused by a medical event. The bus carrying nine elementary, middle and high school students crashed off State Road 111 near La Madera in Carson National Forest, Rio Arriba County sheriff’s spokesman Jake Arnold said. Two of the students who attend schools in the tiny, rural school district of Mesa Vista had broken bones.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Man accused of having guns at Capitol

A Florida man has been ordered to undergo a psychological evaluation after police say he brought unregistered guns and ammunition onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol. Ty Carroll Mitchum, of Clearwater, Fla., appeared in D.C. Superior Court on Monday, one day after he was arrested outside the Capitol building. U.S. Capitol Police spokesman Shennell Antrobus said officers confronted the 59-year-old Mitchum because they thought he was acting suspiciously. Mitchum told police that he had guns in his car and allowed officers to search his vehicle. Police say they found three unregistered firearms, which are illegal in the District of Columbia, and ammunition.

MINNESOTA

Airport worker charged with stealing guns

A worker at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has been charged with stealing shotguns, revolvers and other weapons from the checked luggage of passengers who had connections through the busy Twin Cities airport. David Vang, 23, of St. Paul faces 11 felony counts, including 10 counts of theft of a firearm. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Airports Commission said Monday that Vang was employed by a Texas firm to maintain the belt on which checked baggage traveled. Hogan said authorities learned in September that weapons were being stolen, so they set up surveillance cameras.