National news briefs

Take responsibility, Obama urges grads

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — Don't mimic Washington by making excuses, President Barack Obama advised graduating high school students on Monday night as he urged them to take responsibility for failure as well as success.

In remarks to the senior class of Kalamazoo Central High School, Obama said it's easy to blame others when problems arise.

"We see it every day out in Washington, with folks calling each other names and making all sorts of accusations on TV," the president said.

He said the high school kids can and have done better than that.

The 1,700-student school in southwest Michigan bested more than 1,000 schools to win a national education competition in which the prize was Obama as graduation speaker.

Lightning burns man, kills his girlfriend

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — Richard Butler wanted his girlfriend to think they were just taking a scenic hike in the North Carolina mountains Friday, but he had a secret plan. When they got to the top, he planned to pull out a ring and ask her to be his bride.

Lightning struck three times as the Knoxville, Tenn., couple were on Max Patch Bald, near Asheville.

The third hit Butler, 30, and his girlfriend, Bethany Lott, 25, killing her, he told the Asheville Citizen Times. He suffered third degree burns.

"She didn't say anything, and I turned around and she was laying a few feet away, and I crawled to her," he told the newspaper on Monday. "I did CPR for probably 15 minutes and the whole time was trying her cell phone, but I couldn't get anything out."

His mother, Janet Delaney, said Lott loved the mountains.

"She hiked thousands of miles and spent a couple of years in Utah just hiking," Delaney, also of Knoxville, told The Associated Press.

His 'joke' bombs — traveler is arrested

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. (AP) — A Chicago man arrested after telling a flight attendant he might have a bomb in his carry-on luggage later told authorities he had been making a joke.

Draco Slaughter, 75, was ordered held on $50,000 bail Monday at his arraignment in Suffolk County District Court. His court-appointed attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf to a charge of reporting a false incident, a felony.