Nation digest 08/30/03

Soybean processing plant explosion injures eight

SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa -- A gas explosion rocked a soybean processing plant in western Iowa on Friday, injuring eight people and sparking a fire, authorities said.

Fire crews extinguished the blaze after four hours at the Ag Processing Inc. plant, about 20 miles south of Sioux City, said Woodbury County emergency management coordinator Gary Brown.

The injured were taken to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, said Dr. Larry Sellers, chief medical officer. Two of the eight were airlifted to Nebraska Medical Center's burn unit; three were treated and released.

Brown said the explosion involved hexane gas, a highly flammable chemical used to extract vegetable oils from crops such as soybeans.

Man kills employee, self at video production store

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A man facing charges of raping and kidnapping his former girlfriend opened fire at the woman's workplace, leaving one employee dead before killing himself.

The gunman, 43-year-old Thomas Edgar Harrison, had stayed inside the Electric Picture Co. after the shooting and held off a SWAT team for more than an hour, Nashville police spokesman Don Aaron said.

When police entered the video production rental store, they found Harrison dead inside a locked bathroom.

Police did not immediately release the name of the person killed but said the man's ex-girlfriend was not injured.

Harrison had been charged with kidnapping and raping his 26-year-old ex-girlfriend June 3. He was out of jail on $90,000 bond, and she had an order of protection against him.

Obituary doesn't keep Minnesota man out of jail

STILLWATER, Minn. -- A man whose obituary said he died last month has been arrested.

Robert Michael Mathison was due in Washington County District Court to face charges including assault stemming from a June case in which he faked a heart attack upon arrest, police said.

Mathison was being held Friday in the Washington County Jail with bail set at $10,000. County Attorney Doug Johnson said Friday he did not expect to file additional charges.

The death notice ran in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on July 15. The same day, a fax was sent to the court in care of the assigning judge from someone claiming to be Mathison's attorney, the newspaper reported Thursday.

Instead of dismissing charges -- assault, obstructing the legal process with force and driving with a canceled license -- a judge added the fax to the court file.

State trooper Glen Knippenberg, who arrested Mathison in June, said he never believed the obituary.

"People come up with great excuses why they can't make it to court," he said.

-- From wire reports