Police say 334 bunnies found in NM woman's yard
RIO RANCHO, N.M. – A New Mexico woman with an affinity for rabbits has run afoul of the law after her rascally pets started multiplying like, well, rabbits. Rio Rancho police said Monday that Nancy Haseman was cited under an ordinance that allows five pets per household after an animal control officer found 334 bunnies hopping around in her yard.
The officer spotted the animals last month after a neighbor complained about rabbits eating her garden.
Haseman says her husband rescued a rabbit 12 years ago after a neighbor abandoned it, then the couple began rescuing more bunnies.
She says they kept the males separate from the females, but the males hopped the fence and things got "out of control."
Haseman says the couple hoped to help the animals.
Rescue groups have found homes for about half the Haseman rabbits.
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Information from: KRQE-TV, httpComputer Failure Eyed in D.C. Crash
By SARAH KARUSH and BRIAN WESTLEY,
AP
posted: 7 HOURS 21 MINUTES AGO
Authorities probing the crash of two Metrorail trains in Washington, D.C., were looking Tuesday at why a computerized system failed to halt an oncoming train. They also wanted to know why the train failed to stop, even though the emergency brake was applied. Monday's crash killed nine people. Here, investigators look over the wreckage Tuesday.
The signal relays that control trains were replaced after a serious safety warning in May 2000 by the Federal Railroad Administration. The warning came after failed relays were detected on the system, formally known as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The operator of the train that barreled into the stopped cars Monday was identified as Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va., according to Metro officials.
McMillan was hired in January 2007 as a bus driver and was tapped to become a train operator in January 2009, the NTSB said. McMillan completed training and began working as an operator in March. Metro officials say employees start out as bus drivers before moving to trains.
Investigators want McMillan's cell phone and texting records to determine whether she was distracted before the crash, Hersman said.
Safety officials also are investigating a passenger's statement that the train had stopped briefly then started again before the crash.
Iyesha Thomas, a Metro employee who worked with McMillan, said McMillan would often work the late shift. She did not have a car and if she was unable to get a ride home, she would sleep at Metro's offices, take the first train to Franconia, Va., and return to work later that day.
A neighbor, Aicha Mezlini, said McMillan was killed driving the first train on her 4 p.m.-to-11 p.m. shift. She said McMillan normally worked Tuesday and Wednesday, but last week Metro changed her shift to Monday.
"There is no evidence whatsoever that this driver has done anything to cause this accident," Catoe said Tuesday.
The crash occurred on the red line near the D.C. and Maryland border, in an area where higher train speeds are common because there is a longer distance between stops. Trains can go 55 to 59 mph, though it was not clear how fast the train that crashed was traveling.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, emergency crews cut away the top of the train that jackknifed on top of a stopped train. They removed the debris with help from a crane brought in overnight.
"The scene that I witnessed was one that no one should have to see," Catoe said. "It was unbelievable destruction."
Later, his voice choked with emotion as he addressed hundreds of employees at a prayer vigil Tuesday. He told them the agency will find out what caused the accident and develop a solution.
"We cannot afford to lose any more of our own, or any more of our customers," Catoe said. "I need your prayers. This agency needs your prayers."
Metro has long pleaded for more funding to ensure the system's safety. The transit network is supported by the District of Columbia, Maryland and the Virginia jurisdictions that it serves. However, unlike other major systems, Metro has no dedicated funding source.
Metro officials have long argued that the federal government should contribute because the trains serve the capital, and some 40 percent of rush-hour riders are federal workers.
Catoe said last year it would take $7 billion just to maintain current service and keep the system running safely and reliably from 2010 to 2020. That includes replacements for aging rail cars.
It would take billions more, he said, to deploy longer trains and more buses to meet the projected increase in demand. The number of trips taken on Metro trains is expected to grow 22 percent to about 1 million a day by 2020.
Some passengers involved in Monday's crash returned to the site Tuesday to get another look at the destruction.
Jamie Jiao, 20, of Vienna, Va., said he was aboard the first car of the moving train just a few feet from where the car was smashed.
"It was only a split second," he said. "We were probably traveling pretty fast. No one had time to react."
Jiao had two bandages on his face, and his foot was in a splint. He was walking with a cane and complained of aches in his back. "I'm thankful it isn't more serious," he said.
Tijuana Cox, 21, was in the train that was hit. She had her sprained arm in a sling Tuesday.
"Everybody just went forward and came back," with people's knees hitting the seats in front of them, said Cox, of Lanham, Md.
The only other fatal crash in the Metro subway system occurred Jan. 13, 1982, when three people died as a result of a derailment. That was a day of disaster in the capital: Shortly before the subway crash, an Air Florida plane slammed into the 14th Street Bridge immediately after takeoff from Washington National Airport. The plane crash, during a severe snowstorm, killed 78 people.
In January 2007, a subway train derailed in downtown Washington, sending 20 people to the hospital and requiring the rescue of 60 others from the tunnel.
In November 2006, two Metro track workers were struck and killed by an out-of-service train. An investigation found that the train operator failed to follow safety procedures. Another Metro worker was struck and killed in May 2006. ://www.krqe.com

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