In brief: 11-year-old charged with killing infant

CLEVELAND – An 11-year-old suburban girl has been charged with murder in the beating death of a 2-month-old who was staying overnight with her and her mother to give the baby’s mom a break.

The 11-year-old, her mother and the baby girl, Zuri Whitehead, were on a couch downstairs when the mother fell asleep at about 3 a.m. Friday, Wickliffe police Chief Randy Ice said at a news conference Monday. The mother was awakened less than an hour later by her daughter, who was holding the badly injured infant. Ice said the girl took the infant upstairs. When she returned downstairs, the infant was bleeding and her head was badly swollen, he said.

The 11-year-old’s mother immediately called 911, Ice said. Zuri was flown to a children’s trauma center in Cleveland, where she died.

Neither Ice nor a Lake County juvenile court official could recall a murder suspect being that young. Juvenile Judge Karen Lawson entered a not-guilty plea for the girl at a detention hearing Monday and ordered that she undergo a competency hearing.

Oldest USS Arizona survivor dies at 100

YUBA CITY, Calif. – The oldest living crew member of the battleship USS Arizona to have survived the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died in Northern California at the age of 100.

Retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Joseph Langdell died Feb. 4 at a nursing home in Yuba City, according to his son, Ted Langdell. A tally maintained by the USS Arizona Reunion Association, for which Langdell had served as president, identified him as not only the oldest Arizona survivor, but the last surviving officer from the naval ship that lost 1,177 men – nearly four-fifths of its crew – when it was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941.

Langdell was an ensign on an assignment that had him sleeping on a military base adjacent to the ship in Honolulu on the morning Pearl Harbor was attacked. He spent the following hours and days trying to rescue shipmates from the burning water, preparing for another possible air assault and leading the survivors tasked with removing the remains of the dead from the partially sunken ship, his son said.

Per his wishes, Langdell’s ashes will be put aboard the USS Arizona Memorial in Hawaii, mostly likely on Dec. 7.

The reunion association said there are now eight remaining survivors.

Residents return to homes after fire

SWALL MEADOWS, Calif. – More than 200 residents of two communities ravaged by a wildfire along the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada were allowed to return home Monday, authorities said.

People whose homes were not destroyed have been allowed back. The owners of the 40 homes that were destroyed by the fire in Swall Meadows and nearby Paradise will be allowed to come and go to salvage what they can, said California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. Liz Brown.

Brown said the towns are open only to residents.