Ohio woman, 90, shoots self, keeps home

Akron, Ohio

The shots Addie Polk, 90, fired into her chest as she was about to be evicted from her foreclosed Akron home were heard in Washington, D.C.

On Friday, as Congress was preparing a bailout of Wall Street, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, took the House floor and decried Polk's plight.

By midafternoon, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) said it would dismiss its foreclosure action against Polk, forgive her mortgage and allow her to return to the home where she's lived since 1970.

Meanwhile, Polk remains in Akron General Medical Center. She is expected to recover from the chest wounds she suffered Wednesday when she apparently shot herself as deputies arrived with eviction papers.

Robert Dillon, Polk's neighbor for 38 years, visited her in the hospital and said she was resting well. "She said it was a crazy thing to do, now that she's had time to think about it," he said. "You know, the good Lord works in different ways. Maybe what's happened to her will help a lot of other seniors in this country."

Monroeville, Pa.

Episcopal diocese backs church split

Clergy and lay members of the theologically conservative Pittsburgh diocese voted overwhelmingly Saturday to break from the liberal Episcopal Church and align with a more conservative South American branch as part of the continuing fallout from the 2003 appointment of an openly gay bishop.

Assistant Bishop Henry Scriven said the vote means the Pittsburgh diocese is more firmly aligned with the majority of the 77 million-member worldwide Anglican Communion, which is more conservative than the communion's 2.2 million-member U.S. church. The vote was 240 in favor of leaving and 102 against.

The Diocese of San Joaquin, based in Fresno, Calif., was the first to leave the national church, in 2006. Dioceses in Quincy, Ill., and Fort Worth, Texas, are set to vote next month on leaving.

Seattle Times news services