Nation Digest: Tropical Storm Claudette Threatens Florida Coast

FLORIDA

Tropical Storms Churn In Gulf and Atlantic

Brewing in the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Claudette was bringing heavy rain to the Florida Panhandle on Sunday, and was likely to become the first tropical storm to strike the U.S. mainland this year.

Claudette had winds of at least 50 mph but was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage. Lurking more ominously in the Atlantic was Tropical Storm Bill, which was quickly turning into a powerful storm over the open Atlantic with sustained winds of 65 mph. Ana, a tropical storm that had also been churning in the Atlantic, weakened to a depression.

Heavy rain began in the afternoon in Pensacola, Fla., as Claudette approached. On Pensacola Beach, the National Park Service closed low-lying roads that connect the restaurants and hotels to the undeveloped National Seashore.

-- Associated Press

WISCONSIN

Milwaukee Mayor in Hospital After Attack

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was hospitalized Sunday after a man attacked him with a metal pipe as the mayor tried to assist a grandmother screaming for help near the Wisconsin State Fair.

Barrett, 55, was in stable condition at a hospital with a fractured hand and other head and hand wounds, official said.

The mayor had gone to the fair outside Milwaukee on Saturday night with his sister, two daughters and a niece. As the group left and walked to Barrett's car, they heard a woman screaming for someone to call 911, police said.

Police said the woman was trying to protect her 1-year-old granddaughter from a 20-year-old man, an assault authorities characterized as a domestic dispute.

The suspect fled and was arrested Sunday at a Milwaukee home. The woman and baby were not hurt.

-- Associated Press

Gunman Kills 3 in Wisconsin: A gunman opened fire on a group of people outside a mobile home in Wisconsin, killing three brothers and critically wounding himself, police said Sunday. Menomonie Police Sgt. Andrew Crouse said a 23-year-old man from St. Paul, Minn., killed the brothers and wounded another man in the western Wisconsin mobile home park. The brothers were identified as Toua Kong, 32; Siong Kong, 25; and Seng Kong, 13. The shooting took place in front of the trailer where Siong lived. The two other brothers lived in a different trailer, Crouse said. Investigators think that the suspect knows the victims but is not related to them, and that the shooting was not gang- or drug-related.

Utah's Appeal to Count Missionaries Rejected: The U.S. Census Bureau has told Utah's elected leaders it will not count Mormon missionaries serving overseas in the nation's next head count. Bureau officials, rejecting Utah's lobbying efforts for the better part of a decade, say there is no way to reliably count the overseas missionaries. Utah leaders say the omission cost the state an extra congressional seat in 2000, when the state fell 857 people short of receiving the last available slot in the House.

-- From News Services