October 2006 in the United States

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October 27, 2006 (Friday) Four firefighters are killed and one is critically injured as they try to control the Esperanza Fire a 24,000+ acre fire that drove hundreds from their homes near Palm Springs, California, United States. An arsonist started the fire. (CNN) (CBS) October 4, 2006 (Wednesday) The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Food and Drug Administration searches two spinach packaging companies in the Salinas Valley in California for evidence related to an outbreak of E. coli in the United States that made 200 people sick. (San Francisco Chronicle) Mark Foley scandal: A former page states that he was warned of Representative Foley's advances by a departing page in 1995. Among his claims are that Foley made him uncomfortable and offered to buy him ice cream on several occasions. (Chicago Tribune) House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert states that he will not resign from his position in the wake of the scandal. (Chicago Sun-Times) October 3, 2006 (Tuesday) The United States National Labor Relations Board determines that workers normally assigned as shift supervisors should not be covered by a federal law ensuring a right to union membership. (AP via Houston Chronicle) United States scientists John C. Mather and George Smoot win the Nobel Prize in physics for research into cosmic microwave background radiation that helps explain the origins of galaxies and stars. (Bloomberg) October 2, 2006 (Monday) At least five pupils, a teacher's aide, and a gunman are dead after an Amish school shooting in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, United States. Some reports have the number of dead at six. (The Guardian) (ABC) (CNN) (BBC) Two schools in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, are locked down, after a former student reportedly brought an AK-47 or other automatic weapons to school. (Wikinews) (KVBC) Casino company Harrah's Entertainment receives an $81-per-share cash offer from private-equity firms Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, under FBI investigation for e-mail exchanges with teenage congressional pages, has checked himself into rehabilitation facility for alcoholism treatment. (Associated Press via San Francisco Chronicle)