NATIONAL BRIEFS

KENTUCKY: Six killed in highway crash

Six people from rural Wisconsin were killed when a tractor-trailer rear-ended their Ford Expedition near Glendale. Killed Saturday were driver James Gollnow, 62, his wife Barbara, 62, Marion Champnise, 92, Sarina Gollnow, 18, and foster children Gabriel Zumig, 10, and Soledad Smith, 8. Two other foster children survived and were taken to area hospitals. In another accident 15 minutes later near the same spot on Interstate 65, the drummer for country music star Kellie Pickler was in serious condition, one of five people hospitalized. Pickler's manager, Larry Fitzgerald, said Gregg Lohman, 36, of Goodlettsville, Tenn., was in serious condition Sunday at University of Louisville Hospital.

LOUISIANA: New Orleans' brief water crisis

Taps in New Orleans briefly went dry Sunday after a boiler's heating flame went out of control in the immense steam generator that powers pumps for the city's water treatment plant. Marcia St. Martin, executive director of the city's Sewerage and Water Board, said the outage lasted less than 20 minutes in the morning. The loss of pressure opened the way for possible contamination and water samples are being taken citywide, she said. Until test results are in, officials said, more than 300,000 residents on the Mississippi River's east bank should boil water for drinking, brushing their teeth, preparing food or anything else that might bring tap water into their bodies.

WASHINGTON: New cyber medal criticized

The military's new medal for cyber warriors should get a demotion, according to veterans groups and lawmakers who say it shouldn't outrank the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. The Distinguished Warfare Medal, announced by the Defense Department two weeks ago, is a sign of the changing nature of war, in which attacks conducted remotely have played an increasingly important role in gathering intelligence and killing enemy fighters and terrorists. It will recognize extraordinary achievement related to a military operation occurring after Sept. 11, 2001. But the Veterans of Foreign Wars and other groups say that ranking it ahead of the others is an injustice to those who served on the front lines.