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(SBG-NATIONAL DESK) Is defeating terrorism simply a matter of giving disenfranchised people jobs? Would it work as the oft-repeated “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime?”

At last week’s White House Summit on Countering Violent Extremism, President Barack Obama spoke about how vitally important it is to create opportunities for people who blanket themselves with a dim vision of a world without hope.

“Where there are no educational opportunities, no way to support families, and no escape from injustice, and the humiliation of corruption that feeds instability and disorder, and makes those communities ripe for extremist recruitment,” said President Obama.

Click here for a link to the administration’s expanded thoughts.

Reducing the ranks of violent extremists will take more than a wellspring of jobs says Matthew Levitt, an expert on terrorism with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“What there is, are social issues, local grievances – among them unemployment, lack of education and discrimination,” said Levitt.

And then there’s the ideology, how does America or any western country break the chains of an iron-clad link between it and terror groups like ISIS and Boko Haram?

These are not the problems of the United States, Akbar Ahmed told us. Ahmed is the chair of Islamic studies at American University and a retired Ambassador. “These are problems in the Muslim world and must be checked within the Muslim world.”

ST. CLAIR SHORES, Mich. (AP) – A suburban Detroit couple who have two older children are adjusting to life after becoming parents to identical triplets – a multiple birth a doctor calls rare.

The Whiteley family of St. Clair Shores is celebrating the one-month birthdays Wednesday for Alexander, Nicholas and Timothy.

Lauren Whiteley says it “was the shock of a lifetime” when an ultrasound revealed three fetuses. She wasn’t taking fertility treatments, which wouldn’t play a role: identical siblings are only born through natural conception.

She and her husband, Michael, say triplets don’t run in their families. Their older sons are 3 and 2.

Dr. Savitri Kumar at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where the triplets were born, says data on triplet births by natural conception is “very variable” but one-in-a-million is “the most commonly quoted.”

Winter scenes of Dave’s Falls in Marinette County, near Amberg.

(CNN) – Police in South Carolina are doing whatever they can to try and thaw out the long, frozen winter.

This week, that meant arresting Elsa the snow queen for turning the town fountain into an iceberg. The move came after a town photographer saw Kentucky police issued an arrest warrant for Elsa’s excessive icy shenanigans.

In the end, police officers had to let it go. The fountain Elsa was accused of freezing thawed out before her court date. That means the snow queen had to be set free for lack of evidence.

NEW YORK (AP) – The outer shell of a midtown Manhattan building that was in the process of being demolished has partially collapsed, injuring at least one person.

Construction workers say the collapse Wednesday afternoon sounded like an explosion. Rubble from the building damaged a yellow school bus parked on the street.

Firefighters are using drilling equipment to examine the wreckage.

Police say one person injured in the collapse on West 57th Street has been taken to a hospital in serious condition.

The city Buildings Department planned a news conference on the collapse later Wednesday.

The incident happened the day after a construction worker at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn was crushed to death when several steel beams fell on him.

PARIS (AP) – Three Al-Jazeera journalists have been arrested for illegally flying a drone in Paris Wednesday, after unidentified drones flew over the Eiffel Tower and key Paris landmarks for a second night running. It’s further baffled French authorities who are investigating a spate of unidentified flying objects in the Paris skies at a time of high security across the country.

The foreign nationals aged 70, 54 and 36 – who work for the Doha-based international broadcaster – were taken into custody Wednesday afternoon after police spotted a drone flying in the Bois de Boulogne woods in western Paris, said Paris prosecutors’ spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre.

She said is was unclear what the trio were trying to accomplish.

Officials with Qatar-based Al-Jazeera did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday night.

The journalists can be held for a maximum of 24 hours under French law. Flying drones without a license in France is illegal and carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and a 75,000 euros ($85,000) fine.

The Al-Jazeera arrests come in the midst of a police investigation into a spate of mysterious drone sightings over the French capital, including on Monday and Tuesday nights.

Police sighted one or more drones in five instances buzzing in the Paris sky in the night of Tuesday to Wednesday – from 11.30 p.m. to 2 a.m.

An unidentified flying object was first seen Tuesday night near the Gare de l’Est train station, with sightings continuing in sequence for over two hours over the Paris Opera, then on to the Tuileries gardens, past the Eiffel Tower and then south past Paris’ Montparnasse Tower, according to Thibault-Lecuivre.

An inquiry was launched after drones, which are banned over Paris, were also spotted Monday night – including over the U.S. Embassy.

It’s not known who was behind the flights, how many objects there were in total, and even whether they were all coordinated.

Last month a drone caused worry after being sighted flying over the Elysee Palace, the residence of President Francois Hollande – following dozens of sightings of drones over nuclear plants and military installations.

These latest episodes are sparking particular concern, with Paris already on its highest-alert after January’s deadly terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals.

French authorities have said the drones currently present no threat, apart from the risk of falling on someone, but the government is trying to find ways to counteract the devices. Some fear the drones could be spying on technology or could one day be equipped with weapons.

Drone operator Jean-Luc Fournier, who has consulted on French drone legislation, said authorized operators condemn such rogue flights because it casts the whole industry in a bad light.

A small drone crashed on the White House lawn last month, raising U.S. concern about the phenomenon.

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Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

LONDON (AP) — London’s firefighters say sun rays refracted by a Nutella jar likely caused a house fire.

The city’s fire brigade says investigators believe the glass jar — which had been emptied of the hazelnut spread — had been placed on a window sill and refracted sunlight, setting blinds alight.

According to a statement posted Tuesday by the brigade, the family was not at home but the blaze killed a dog.

Fire investigator Charlie Pugsley said: “It sounds far-fetched that a jar containing a few rubber bands caused a severe house fire but that’s exactly what happened.”

The fire happened Feb. 15 in southwest London.

 

From the Deep South to the Mid-Atlantic, another winter storm was expected to bring more snow and ice Wednesday to many areas that were hit hard just last week. Part of the system was also forecast to hit the Midwest.

Schools, daycares and offices closed ahead of the storm and governors once again declared states of emergency. The most intense part of the storm was forecast for north Texas eastward to North Carolina and Virginia. Snow accumulations could be 6 to 8 inches or higher in some places.

By early Thursday, forecasters said, relief in the form of higher temperatures is expected.

Here’s a look at how winter weather has affected some areas:

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DELAYED EXECUTION

Georgia delayed the execution of its only female death row inmate because of the approaching winter weather. Kelly Renee Gissendaner, 46, had been scheduled to die at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Gissendaner was convicted of murder in the February 1997 slaying of her husband. Prosecutors said she plotted with her boyfriend in the killing.

The execution has been rescheduled for Monday.

BETTER PREPARED

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said he was very confident in the state’s preparations.

This photo provided by the Grand Prairie Police Department shows a school bus that overturned in a single-vehicle accident on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, in Grand Prairie, Texas. A student and two adults were slightly hurt when the minibus overturned on a snowy, icy North Texas road. (AP Photo/ Grand Prairie Police Department, Sgt. Eric Hansen)

Following a January 2014 ice storm that crippled metro Atlanta, Deal convened a task force to make recommendations of how to better prepare. He said Wednesday that state agencies have ably handled three weather situations in the last 10 days.

“I believe the lesson we are learning even of this morning as we noted the smaller volume of traffic on the interstates is that the public is willing to be a participating partner,” he said.

ARE YOU DELIVERING?

The manager of a sandwich shop in Shreveport, Louisiana, says it’s been delivering more food this week because of the bad weather.

“The first question asked when you answer the phone is ‘Are you delivering?'” according to Alli Walsh, who manages a Jimmy John’s in Shreveport.

Walsh said she has up to six delivery workers who are running multiple orders at a time. Shreveport could get up to 3 inches of snow.

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TRAFFIC PILEUP

Near Bangor, Maine, more than 40 vehicles crashed on a snowy stretch of Interstate 95 on Wednesday, injuring at least 11 people, police said.

Emergency personnel climbed on top of cars to reach motorists stuck in the middle of the chaotic mass of vehicles.

The pileup involved cars, a school bus and a tractor-trailer, state police spokesman Steve McCausland said. No deaths were immediately reported. McCausland said some of the injuries were serious.

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SPEAK BRIEFLY, WEATHER IS COMING

Georgia lawmakers are working on a shortened schedule Wednesday at the Capitol in Atlanta. House Speaker David Ralston urged long-winded members to “disincline yourself” ahead of the ice or snow that was forecast to reach north Georgia by mid-afternoon.

“The key word is going to be ‘with dispatch,'” Ralston said, referring to legislators speaking quickly and effectively.

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MILESTONE FOR BOSTON

With 1.9 inches of snow overnight, Boston has now received more than 100 inches of snow this winter.

The National Weather Service reported Wednesday that the snowfall as recorded at Logan International Airport is now 101.8 inches for the season.

That makes this winter the second snowiest on record, behind only the 107.6 inches recorded in the winter of 1995-96.

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‘BE GREAT NEIGHBORS’

With the new weather system coming in, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam urged people to check on their neighbors as the death toll from last week’s ice storm climbed.

Haslam and state emergency officials flew over parts of the state Tuesday to survey the damage. At least 30 people have died across the state as a result of the ice storm and frigid temperatures. At least 10 are believed to have died as a result of hypothermia.

“The best thing we can do is ask people to be great neighbors,” Haslam said.

Some of the victims have died in their homes after being without heat. A number of people have been discovered dead outside their home, including two elderly people who are believed to have fallen and to have suffered from extreme exposure because they couldn’t get up.

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HELP FROM NATIONAL GUARD

Virginia National Guard members improvised when they needed to carry two patients through heavy snow in Wise County.

First Sgt. Billy Bartlett with the 1033rd Engineer Company says in a news release that soldiers created stretchers from a combination of blankets and tarps.

The patients were taken to a medical evacuation site. One person needed dialysis, and the other was running low on oxygen. Specialist Nicholas Turner estimates that he and other soldiers carried the oxygen patient more than 150 yards through deep snow and ice.

Since Sunday, Guard members have helped the Wise County Sheriff’s Office deliver food, water and medicine throughout the county.

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BITTER TEMPERATURES

Bitter temperatures have broken records two days in a row at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington, D.C.

Steve Zubrick, a meteorologist with The National Weather Service, says the temperature dipped down to 6 degrees Wednesday, beating the previous record of 9 degrees in 1967. On Tuesday, the low of minus 4 at Dulles shattered the previous record of 14 degrees, also set in 1967.

Baltimore’s airport came within 2 degrees of its record lows Tuesday and Wednesday.

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Associated Press writers Bill Fuller in New Orleans and Kathleen Foody in Atlanta contributed to this report.

 

STAFFORD TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — Natural gas leaking from an underground main traveled into a New Jersey house, built up in its basement and exploded when it came in contact with an open flame from an appliance, investigators said Wednesday.

Tuesday’s blast leveled the house and injured 15 people, two of whom remained in critical condition a day later.

Utility service was being restored in the area, although many who live close to the explosion site remained without heat.

“I got a wall that’s blown in the back, I’ve got ceiling coming down in one of the bedrooms, door frames blown out, can’t close my back door, there’s no heat,” said Lyn Thomas, who lives across the street from the blast site. “Fortunately, the pipes aren’t frozen yet. If the gas company doesn’t get here pretty soon, they will.”

The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said the most likely source of the explosion in Stafford Township was a pilot light from a hot water heater or furnace, or a spark from a thermostat.

The agency said gas leaked from a 2-inch main in the street in front of the house, traveled along a water pipe into the unoccupied house’s basement, and exploded when the flame or spark touched it.

Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said the extent of the damage made it impossible to say which appliance touched off the blast.

A police car’s dashboard camera recorded a fireball followed by a downpour of debris. Homes and businesses more than a mile away reported varying degrees of damage from the blast, which knocked several firefighters and emergency medical technicians off their feet.

Insulation and wood fragments remained tangled in treetops near the blast site.

Police, fire and gas company workers had advised neighbors to evacuate due to a heavy gas smell in the area, and utility workers were attempting to access the underground line when the explosion occurred at 10:32 a.m.

Authorities identified the most seriously hurt worker as Dean Barnett, 47, of Stafford Township, an employee of New Jersey Natural Gas Company. He was airlifted to a trauma center in Atlantic City, where he remained in critical condition Wednesday.

Stafford Police Capt. Thomas Dellane said all the firefighters and EMS workers who were taken to hospitals with concussion-like symptoms after the blast have been treated and released.

Paul Deforrest lives a block away and said he felt the force of the blast.

“It was a tremendous explosion — really, really tremendous,” he said.

Della Fave said several residents in the neighborhood refused or hesitated to evacuate when first asked to do so before the explosion.

“People have to realize the extreme danger that can be posed from natural gas leaks,” he said. “If a police officer or fireman asks you to evacuate, you need to leave, right then. There’s a real danger.”

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Associated Press writer Kathy Matheson in Stafford Township contributed to this story.

 

PHOENIX (AP) – Early risers across much of Arizona were treated to a colorful sight – a pink cloud from a NASA research rocket that was launched Wednesday from a U.S. Army installation in New Mexico.

The rocket was launched from White Sands Missile Range at 5:26 a.m., and a bright pink cloud was visible for the next 20 minutes as sunlight hit the vapor released from the rocket, range spokeswoman Cammy Montoya said.

This photo provided by the Department of Defense U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range shows a NASA Terrier-Black Brant research rocket launching off of a test site located at White Sands Missile Range, in N.M. on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. The purpose of the launch was to study the ionization in space and is designed to reach an altitude of just over 100 miles. (AP Photo/ Department of Defense U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, Drew Hamilton)

News outlets in Arizona reported that residents in Phoenix, Tucson, Lake Havasu City and Flagstaff reported seeing the cloud.

The rocket carried an atmospheric-research payload designed by scientists and engineers at a space-vehicles research lab at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque.

White Sands officials said the rocket’s release of vapor into the near-vacuum of space was intended to help study processes responsible for the formation of the Earth’s ionosphere.

That’s a region of space where electrons naturally separate from molecules and float separately to create an ionized gas.

The experiment, which also involved using ground stations to take measurements of the ionosphere, was intended to develop scientific explanations for ionospheric disturbances and their effects on modern technology, officials said.

The rocket was provided under a Department of Defense test program at Kirtland, while a NASA rocket program provided technical expertise for its assembly and other parts of the mission.

The launch was postponed from Monday because of weather.

ETNA, Maine (AP) – More than 40 vehicles crashed Wednesday on a snowy stretch of Interstate 95 in Maine, injuring at least 17 people, police said.

The pileup in Etna, near Bangor, happened at about 7:30 a.m. and involved several cars, a school bus and a tractor-trailer, state police spokesman Steve McCausland said. No fatalities were immediately reported, but McCausland said some of the injuries were serious.

Emergency personnel climbed on top of cars to reach motorists stuck in the middle of the chaotic tangle of vehicles. McCausland said one veteran trooper described the site as a “giant pile of metal.”

Rhonda Kent, an occupational therapist from Saint Albans, said her car was sideswiped amid the pileup, which sent cars and trucks spinning. Kent, who was not injured, said a logging truck came dangerously close to hitting her and spun off into a ditch.

In this photo provided by Maine State Police And Maine Emergency Management, a mangled vehicle from a multi vehicle pileup sits along Interstate 95 in Etna, Maine, about 20 miles west of Bangor, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015. State police spokesman Steve McCausland said the pileup happened early Wednesday in heavy snow and involved many cars, a school bus and a tractor trailer. No fatalities were immediately reported but McCausland said some of the injuries were serious. (AP Photo/Maine State Police And Maine Emergency Management, Stephen McCausland)

“It was almost surreal, something you see in the movies,” Kent said.

Both northbound lanes on a 30-mile stretch of highway were closed for five hours, and drivers were told to take other exits to avoid the area.

One northbound lane reopened around 12:30 p.m.

Eastern Maine Medical Center had received 11 patients at its emergency department by 10 a.m., all of them in good to serious condition. St. Joseph Hospital said it was evaluating six patients from the crashes but did not release their condition.

Police said the main crash involved more than 25 vehicles, and there were a series of other wrecks leading up to the crash site. Some of the crashes involved two or three vehicles, and then other vehicles went off the road to avoid hitting them.

At a travel stop in nearby Newburgh, people involved in the crash were gathering to give statements to police, according to WZON-AM radio. Some were keeping warm in a parked school bus. Workers at the truck stop reported seeing more than a dozen ambulances try to access the highway from a nearby ramp.

Rose Butts, a hospital housekeeper from Plymouth, said she swerved to miss part of the accident and hit a snow bank. She and a friend were not injured but waited in her car for five hours for help.

“We’re thankful that we’re both alive and both OK,” she said.

Dylan Carroll, a Plymouth auto mechanic, said he swerved and hit a snow bank before a garbage truck spun out, tapped his car and blocked him. He was not injured.

“I thought it was going to be much worse than it was,” Carroll said.

The school bus had three passengers aboard. Police said the students were “shaken up” but not injured.

There was at least an inch of snow on the ground at the time of the crash, according to the National Weather Service. Snow was forecast to fall throughout the day with total accumulations of 5 to 9 inches.

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OXNARD, Calif. (AP) – The driver of a pickup truck that a Southern California commuter train smashed into at a railroad crossing did “all he could” to free the vehicle from the tracks and then ran for help before the crash that injured dozens, his lawyer said.

Attorney Ron Bamieh told the Ventura County Star that a preliminary investigation conducted by his firm showed the truck became entangled on the railroad tracks and “somehow stuck” before the crash Tuesday that derailed three cars and left four people in critical condition, including the train’s engineer.

The driver, Jose Alejandro Sanchez-Ramirez, did not abandon the truck but rather went for help in Oxnard, about 65 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Bamieh said.

He was found about a half-mile away from the crash 45 minutes later, said Jason Benites, an assistant chief of the Oxnard Police Department. He’s was briefly hospitalized before being arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run.

Sanchez-Ramirez, 54, of Yuma, Arizona, didn’t call authorities because he was “in shock” and didn’t even realize he had a phone on him, Bamieh said. Ramirez only speaks Spanish, and two people he encountered could not understand him, the lawyer said.

Federal investigators said preliminary reports countered remarks by officials immediately after the crash that the truck got stuck on the tracks.

“It was not stuck, it was not bottomed out on the track or something like that,” National Transportation Safety Board member Robert Sumwalt said at a media briefing late Tuesday.

“We’re very concerned about that, we’re very interested in it,” he said, adding that both the badly wrecked truck’s emergency brake and high-beams headlights were on.

Police said they tested Sanchez-Ramirez for drugs and alcohol but would not discuss the results.

Criminal records in his home state of Arizona show Sanchez-Ramirez pleaded guilty in 1998 to a host of violations in a single DUI case, including driving with a blood-alcohol content above .08 percent – the legal limit in the state – failure to obey a police officer, having liquor with a “minor on the premises” and having no insurance, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.

In 2004, Ramirez was convicted of a local driving infraction in Yuma, and in 2007, he was cited for failure to obey a traffic control device.

In the Tuesday crash, flames engulfed his Ford F-450 pickup, but investigators said the engine was intact and may offer clues about what happened.

The track also used by freight and Amtrak trains was restored to service around 9 a.m. Wednesday, and commuter trains would begin rolling again in the evening, Metrolink said.

Passenger Joel Bingham said many of those aboard the train Tuesday were asleep and shocked awake when the loud boom first happened.

“It seemed like an eternity while we were flying around the train. Everything was flying,” Bingham said. “A brush of death definitely came over me.”

Eight people were admitted to the hospital of the 30 people originally examined, officials said.

Lives were likely saved by passenger cars designed to absorb a crash that were purchased after a deadly collision a decade ago, Metrolink officials said. The four passenger cars remained largely intact, as did the locomotive.

The NTSB planned to examine the effectiveness of those cars, Sumwalt said.

The train, the first of the morning on the Ventura route, had just left its second stop of Oxnard on its way to downtown Los Angeles when it struck the truck around 5:45 a.m.

The engineer saw the abandoned vehicle and hit the brakes, but there wasn’t enough time to stop, Oxnard Fire Battalion Chief Sergio Martinez said.

The crossing has been the scene of many crashes over the years.

After one killed 11 people and injured 180 others in Glendale in 2005, Metrolink invested heavily in passenger cars with collapsible bumpers and other features to absorb impact.

Metrolink spokesman Jeff Lustgarten said the Oxnard crash showed the technology worked. “Safe to say it would have been much worse without it,” he said.

Tuesday’s crash happened on the same line as Metrolink’s worst disaster, which left 25 people dead on Sept. 12, 2008. A commuter train engineer was texting and ran a red light, striking a Union Pacific freight train head-on in the San Fernando Valley community of Chatsworth.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers John Antczak, Justin Pritchard and Sue Manning in Los Angeles; Amy Taxin in Tustin, California; and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix.

NEW YORK (AP) – Three men accused of plotting to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group and wage war against the United States were arrested Wednesday on terrorism charges, including one who spoke of attacking President Barack Obama or planting a bomb on Coney Island, federal officials said.

Akhror Saidakhmetov was arrested at Kennedy Airport, where he was attempting to board a flight to Istanbul, authorities said. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev had a ticket to travel to Istanbul next month and was arrested in Brooklyn, federal prosecutors said. Abror Habibov, 30, accused of helping fund Saidakhmetov’s efforts, was arrested in Florida.

They are charged with attempt and conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

Habibov appeared in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, and was appointed a public defender. The other two men were in custody, and it was not clear if they had attorneys who could comment on the charges. They were scheduled to appear in federal court in Brooklyn later Wednesday.

Saidakhmetov is a Brooklyn resident and citizen of Kazakhstan. Juraboev and Habibov are residents of Brooklyn and citizens of Uzbekistan.

Federal prosecutors say Juraboev, 24, first came to the attention of law enforcement in August, when he posted on an Uzbek-language website that propagates the Islamic State ideology.

“Greetings! We too want to pledge our allegiance and commit ourselves while not present there,” he wrote, according to federal authorities. “Is it possible to commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs anyway while here?”

Officials said they believed he planned to travel from Turkey to Syria to join the terror group. Prosecutors say Saidakhmetov, 19, also threatened an attack in the U.S. if he was unable to join the Islamic State. Juraboev’s plans included attacks against Obama or planting a bomb on Coney Island, officials said.

Federal officials say Juraboev identified Saidakhmetov as a friend and co-worker with a shared ideology. The two exchanged messages on how to get overseas, and Saidakhmetov and an informant watched videos of Islamic State training camps in Syria, according to court papers.

Habibov operates kiosks that repair phones and sell kitchenware in malls in Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and Philadelphia. He employed Saidakhmetov last fall and winter and said he would help fund his travel, though he did not mention a specific sum of money, prosecutors said. The two were spotted in Brooklyn purchasing a ticket for Saidakhmetov to travel to Turkey, officials said.

The Islamic State group largely consists of Sunni militants from Iraq and Syria but has also drawn fighters from across the Muslim world and Europe.

Federal officials have expressed alarm at the idea that Americans could travel to Syria to fight alongside the Islamic State or train there and return to the United States to carry out attacks against the homeland.

There have been more than 20 arrests in the U.S. in the last year of people trying to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State or other extremist groups.

In one recent case, 19-year-old Hamza Ahmed of Minneapolis was indicted last week on charges associated with supporting the Islamic State group. Ahmed had been arrested in New York in November while apparently trying to fly to Syria.

Shannon Maureen Conley, a 19-year-old Colorado woman who tried to board a flight from Denver to join the Islamic State, was sentenced last month to 48 months in federal prison. Authorities said Conley wanted to marry a man she had met online who said he was fighting with the extremists.

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Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report from Washington.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – A dog owner has filed a lawsuit against a pet food company alleging that thousands of dogs have been sickened or died from eating a brand of the company’s dry dog food.

Pet owner Frank Lucido filed the suit on Feb. 5 in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California against Nestle Purina PetCare Company.

Lucido claims he fed his three dogs Beneful, and within a short period of time, two were sick and one was dead.

The suit alleges the food contains an animal toxin used in automobile antifreeze and a group of toxins produced by fungus that occurs in grains.

In the suit, Lucido alleges that in the past four years, there have been more than 3,000 complaints online about dogs becoming ill or dying after eating Beneful, having shown “consistent symptoms,” including stomach and related internal bleeding, liver malfunction or failure, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss, seizures and kidney failure.

Purina’s website says it uses “an FDA-approved food additive” that is also in human foods. Purina issued a statement saying “there are no quality issues with Beneful.”

The suit asks the court to expand the case to include other dog owners whose dogs were sickened or died and pay them unspecified damages and restitution.

In recent years, Beneful has faced two lawsuits that were dismissed by the courts.

However, in a lawsuit settled in May, Purina and Waggin’ Train LLC agreed to create a $6.5 million fund to compensate pet owners who claimed their pets were sickened after eating China-made jerky treats.

At the time, Food and Drug Administration officials said the pet treats were linked to more than 1,000 deaths in dogs and more than 4,800 complaints of animal illness. Three humans were sickened after eating the treats.

MADISON (AP) – Capitol Police say about the same number of people are protesting a right-to-work bill at the Capitol who gathered the previous day.

Police estimated Wednesday’s crowd for the noontime rally at between 1,800 and 2,000 people. That is the same number as Tuesday.

Union members and other opponents were speaking out against the Republican-backed bill at a rally outside the building, while other sing protest songs inside.

The protest comes as the Senate prepares to debate the measure starting at 1:30 p.m.

Republicans hold an 18-14 majority in the Senate and Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald says he has 17 votes to pass it.

Senate Democrats say they’re going to try and amend the bill to raise the minimum wage and make other changes.

FITCHBURG, Wis. (AP) – Police say have arrested the boyfriend of a woman whose infant child died in Fitchburg.

Officers responded to a report of an unresponsive baby at a home Monday. Police say the 2-month-old baby was breathing when first responders arrived, but died later at a hospital.

Officers arrested the 24-year-old man who lived with the baby and mother.

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) – Prosecutors say the case should move forward in adult court against two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please the horror character Slender Man.

In filings late Tuesday, the Waukesha County District Attorney’s Office asked the court to find probable cause that both girls committed attempted first-degree homicide.

Under Wisconsin law, that charge automatically puts the case in adult court. But defense attorneys want the case moved to juvenile court. They say the charge should be attempted second-degree homicide, which normally would be a juvenile charge.

The prosecutors’ filing says that if the girls are convicted of a lesser offense, the court can sentence them as juveniles.

The suspects and the victim, who survived 19 stab wounds, were all 12 at the time of the attack May 31.

MADISON (AP) – Opponents to right-to-work outnumbered supporters 70-to-1 at a Wisconsin state Senate public hearing that was cut short before Republicans voted to advance the bill.

Sen. Steve Nass, chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, reported Wednesday that 1,751 people had testified or registered against the right-to-work bill at Tuesday’s hearing. Only 25 people were on the record as backing it.

Nass cut the hearing about 40 minutes short out of fear union members planned to disrupt a vote. The panel then hastily voted 3-1 along party lines to advance the bill to the full Senate, which was to debate it Wednesday.

The bill would prohibit the collection of union dues from workers who choose not to join private-sector unions.

GREEN BAY – Police have released the name of the man shot and killed during a confrontation with two officers Tuesday night.

Joseph Biegert, 30, was killed in the incident on Plymouth Ln., police say. The officers involved were a 24-year-old man who has been with the department for two years and a 28-year-old man who has been with the department for five years. Their names were not released.

Police say they were called to the 1500 block of Plymouth Ln. around 7:30 p.m. to check on a report Biegert had taken medication in an attempt to harm himself. When the officers arrived, investigators say Biegert attacked one of the officers, stabbing the officer in the upper arm with a knife. The officers shot at Biegert to stop him, police say; he died at the scene.

The officers were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released.

The Green Bay Police Department has reassigned the officers to administrative duty while the incident is investigated. Following state law, the state Division of Criminal Investigation is now looking into the incident.

FOX 11’s Laura Smith is working on this story and will have a full report tonight on FOX 11 News at Five.