Floods, heat waves and fires across U.S.

Nationwide

While states in the Midwest battled with the effects of drenching thunderstorms and flooding, residents on the East Coast dealt with another day of temperatures nearing 100 and fires raced across parts of Northern California.

Engineers in Wisconsin kept watch over rain-deluged dams after a major collapse nearly emptied Lake Delton in a torrent that washed away houses and a highway.

The California fires destroyed dozens of homes, threatened hundreds of others and left a firefighter severely burned.

Scores of schools in the Northeast, meanwhile, planned to close early for a second day in classrooms that lacked air conditioning.

Weleetka, Okla.

2 girls found dead along dirt road

The bodies of two girls were found shot to death in rural Oklahoma along a dirt road the best friends walked dozens of times to play and go to sleepovers.

By Tuesday, investigators had no suspects and were unsure of the motive for Sunday's killings of 13-year-old Taylor Paschal-Placker and 11-year-old Skyla Whitaker.

Taylor's grandfather found their bodies after his wife got no answer when she called Taylor's cellphone. The girls were sleeping over at Taylor's house and had decided to take a walk down the desolate road Sunday afternoon.

Kevin Rowland, chief investigator with the state medical examiner's office, said the girls each suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest.

Full autopsy results were not available yet, but sexual assault appears unlikely, said Special Agent Ben Rosser of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

Salt Lake City

Groups rally against plan to import waste

A company's bid for a license to import 20,000 tons of nuclear waste from Italy drew nearly 4,000 public comments by Tuesday's deadline, as environmental groups, lawmakers and Utah's governor seek to derail the plan.

EnergySolutions Inc. is seeking to import the low-level radioactive waste through the ports of Charleston, S.C., or New Orleans. If approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, it would be the largest amount of nuclear waste ever allowed into the country.

After processing in Tennessee, about 1,600 tons would be shipped to Utah, home of the country's largest and only privately owned low-level radioactive waste dump.

The Utah Attorney General's Office filed a request Tuesday for a public hearing before the NRC makes a decision.

Washington

FEMA to still use travel trailers

The federal government reversed its decision to suspend the use of travel trailers to house disaster victims Tuesday, saying it would use them as a last resort.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's 2008 disaster housing plan gives states more control over which type of housing will be available to victims of hurricanes and other disasters.

Disaster victims who can't move back home right away will be offered a series of options. Those include rental assistance for an apartment, the use of FEMA mobile homes and park model trailers, and new types of emergency housing, including prefabricated "Mississippi Cottages."

If a state agrees, FEMA also will provide travel trailers to disaster victims, even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found high levels of formaldehyde in many units used to house victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Also

New leader: The Rev. Johnny Hunt, pastor of an Atlanta-area megachurch, was elected Tuesday as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and will take over as head of the nation's largest Protestant denomination as it is struggling with declining membership and number of baptisms.

Trooper indicted: South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper Steve Garren, who was caught on video ramming a suspect with his patrol car, was indicted Tuesday on a federal civil-rights charge, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Seattle Times news services