Midday Roundup: Plane loaded with passengers, cash crashes in Indonesia

Downed. A plane on a regional flight crashed into a remote, mountainous area of Indonesia on Sunday, with 54 people onboard. The plane also carried about $470,000 cash in assistance money for poor, rural villages. Bad weather in the area is slowing the progress of search crews trying to reach the wreckage. The Trigana Air Service flight was headed from Jayapura, the capital city of the province of Papua, to the city of Oksibil, also in Papua.

Progressives’ patriarch. Julian Bond, the founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and a former president of the NAACP, died Saturday at age 75. Bond was active in the civil rights movement in the South in his youth and served in the Georgia legislature in the 1960s and ’70s. After his election in 1965, he had to sue for the right to take his seat. The Supreme Court ruled fellow lawmakers in Georgia could not stop Bond from serving because of his stance against the Vietnam War. In 1971, Bond founded the SPLC, known for the broad brush with which it labels “extremist groups”—everything from the Ku Klux Klan to the Family Research Council. Bond also served as president of the NAACP from 1998-2008. He was president in 2004 when the organization announced its support for abortion-on-demand. Bond was known for his keen intellect and eloquent speeches. President Barack Obama called him “a hero,” saying, “Justice and equality was the mission that spanned his life.”

No good deed. Family members of three murder victims in Lee County, Fla., say the family offered shelter and kindness to the suspect, 19-year-old Brian Omar Hyde of Belize. Hyde, who is related to the victims, was in the country illegally. Lee County sheriff’s deputies say he used a sharp object to brutally murder his aunt, Dorla Pitts, her 17-year-old pregnant daughter, Starlett Pitts, and the girl’s 19-year-old boyfriend, Michael Kelly Jr., last Tuesday. The murdered couple’s 18-month old daughter was found unharmed in the family home. Her grandmother, Sherri Fleming, said the child has been through a horrific experience.Hyde, who reportedly has a violent history in Belize, has been charged with second-degree murder in the killings.

Straight party vote. The lone Republican holdout in the Senate announced Saturday he will vote against the Iran nuclear deal. Last month during a Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., indicated he was troubled by the agreement nailed down by the Obama administration. “The only thing that’s certain is this is no easy call and for those who stand and say that it is, I think they haven’t examined the agreement,” Flake said. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also has come out in opposition to the agreement, as have 11 Democrats in the House. Congress will vote to approve or reject the deal next month.

WORLD Radio’s Jim Henry and The Associated Press contributed to this report.