International
Bus plows through Haiti festival
A bus drove through a festival in Haiti just before dawn on Sunday, Mar. 13, killing 38 people and injuring at least 13 more. Authorities are calling the incident a hit and run accident.
The driver of the bus ran from the scene on foot and has not been caught.
People who witnessed and survived the incident wanted to set the bus on fire while the passengers were still inside, but police prevented the crowd from doing so.
A witness told CNN that when the bus finally stopped, you could see people stuck underneath.
“You could hear people crying and calling for help, but I could not make a difference on who is alive and who is not,” a man named Rigorov said to CNN.
The people in the street were celebrating Rara, a festival that is celebrated from Mardi Gras to Easter Sunday. Three Rara bands and many pedestrians were among those struck by the bus.
National
Man steals Girl Scout cookie money
A man in San Diego stole money from a Girl Scout cookie stand outside a grocery store on Sunday, Mar. 12.
The man took around $400 from the cash box and ran away. According to police, he dropped an iPhone while running away. None of the Girl Scouts were injured.
The San Diego Police Department arrested 28-year-old Erik Mullen later that night. He was charged with petty theft and possession of narcotics. Police did not say how they identified him or tracked him down.
The San Diego Police Department tweeted “SDPD pleased to announce arrest in Girl Scouts of USA cash box theft.Erik Mullen 28yoa was taken into custody #crimedoesntpay#wewillfindyou” around 9:30 on Sunday.
San Diego Girl Scouts spokeswoman Janine Rojas told the local Fox 5 on Sunday night that she was aware of the situation and would provide information to the community about how to donate to the troop that was robbed later in the week.
Local
Automatic voter registration bills passes Senate
The Nevada Senate passed an initiative on Monday, Mar. 13 that would automatically register people to vote when they renew their driver license. The initiative now will have to be signed by Governor Brian Sandoval for it to be put into place.
Initiative Petition 1, or the “motor voter” initiative, would automatically register people to vote when they update their information at the Department of Motor Vehicles. People would be able to decline to register to vote.
Assistant Senate Minority Leader Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, told the Reno Gazette-Journal that he was concerned about how this initiative could lead to voter fraud.
“Of the number of folks who have driver’s licenses and ID cards who used green cards as their form of ID to receive them, more than 100 have filled out the voter registration form and those voter registration forms were submitted to the county registrars to register those people to vote,” Kieckhefer told the RGJ.
The initiative was favored by more Democrats than Republicans.
Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.
