National news briefs

Detroit mayor may fire chief of police

DETROIT — The mayor of Detroit is firing the city's police chief, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

The person told The Associated Press that Mayor Dave Bing has told Police Chief James Barren that the chief is being relieved of his duties. The person talked with Barren on Friday, a day after a man arrested in the shooting of seven teenagers at a Detroit bus stop was released due to lack of evidence.

The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the person wasn't authorized to publicly discuss Barren's dismissal. The person did not know when it was to become official.

"There have been no changes or announcements regarding changes at the Detroit Police Department at this time," Bing spokeswoman Karen Dumas said Friday.

Assistant Chief Ronald Fleming told the Detroit Free Press that Barren told him Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans would take over as chief starting Monday.

82-year-old twins found dead in Texas

SAN ANTONIO — Eighty-two-year-old identical twin sisters were found dead in their San Antonio home after the city sweltered through days of 100-degree heat.

The bodies of Florence and Emma Jernigan were found Thursday in the home where they had lived all their lives. Police say the single window air conditioner in the home was off.

Authorities said no one had heard from the women for several days. A neighbor called police after noticing a foul odor.

The cause of death was pending but was believed to be heat-related.

The city set or tied heat records four times in the last week of June, topping out at 104 degrees on June 29.

Woman sentenced for drowning baby

SAN ANTONIO — A Texas woman will serve at least nine years in prison for drowning her 3-month-old granddaughter in what the defense said was a misguided effort to teach the infant to swim.

Gabriella Sigler must serve half of the 18-year sentence imposed Thursday before being eligible for parole. Sigler had pleaded guilty to a charge of injury to a child in the 2005 death of little Melody Sigler. She was watching the baby when she put her in a friend's pool. She had told her son earlier that she was teaching Melody to swim like she had seen on a TV show about "water babies."

Firm makes caskets from banana sheaves

DENVER — Casket makers catering to natural burials have offered biodegradable coffins made of such materials as recycled newspapers or cardboard. Ecoffins USA, based in Montrose, Colo., is selling caskets made of banana sheaves.

They take six months to two years to biodegrade.

Marketing director Joanna Passarelli says the company sold $40,000 worth of banana-sheaf or bamboo coffins to funeral homes last year. At least 14 funeral homes around the country offer them.