Carolinas alert National Guard as weakened Ernesto moves north

By: Associated Press | Wednesday, August 30, 2006 4:23 PM PDT ∞

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North and South Carolina put hundreds of National Guardsmen on standby Wednesday for fear the rainy remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto could cause severe flooding.

Forecasters said Ernesto could drench the eastern half of North Carolina with as much as seven inches of rain on Thursday and Friday. A separate storm system arriving ahead of Ernesto also threatened to soak the region.

"We could get a clobbering today," National Weather Service forecaster Phil Badgett said.

Ernesto weakened to a tropical depression while crawling north through Florida. Its winds were less a concern to emergency officials than the prospect of downpours.

Ernesto was expected to move off the Florida coast by evening and possibly regain tropical storm strength. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore again Thursday along the South Carolina coast and reach North Carolina by Thursday night.

"We know we're going to get a lot of rain. We know this is going to be a water event," North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said.

Easley activated 150 National Guardsmen and ordered the State Emergency Response Team to prepare for flooding and power outages. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said was prepared to mobilize nearly 250 troops.

North Carolina has struggled this summer with on-again, off-again drought.

"If we could get the rain where it was spread out over 12 to 24 hours, where it was a good, soaking rain, (flooding) would not be an issue," Badgett said.

At 5 p.m. EDT, Ernesto was centered about 25 miles north of Florida's Lake Okeechobee, moving north at near 14 mph. It had winds near 35 mph, or about 4 mph below tropical storm strength. Little storm damage was reported in Florida, where Ernesto came ashore Tuesday night with a lot of rain but winds of only 45 mph.

"It was the little train that couldn't," said David Rudduck of the American Red Cross.

On the Net:


National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Fugitive life of polygamist leader ends with stop in Las Vegas


LAS VEGAS (AP) -- After three months on the FBI's Most Wanted List and two years on the lam, the fugitive life of the leader of a polygamist religious sect ended with a routine traffic stop and a hint of resignation.

"Once the FBI got there ... he gave his full name, Warren Jeffs, and kind of gave a sigh," said Eddie Dutchover, the Nevada Highway Patrol trooper who on Monday night stopped a sport utility vehicle with Jeffs, his brother, and one of his numerous wives inside.

Warren Steed Jeffs, 50, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was wanted in Utah and Arizona on charges of arranging two marriages between underage girls and older men.

Jeffs was being held in a solo cell in Nevada's Clark County jail, awaiting a court hearing Thursday. He refused all interviews. Federal and state law enforcement agencies will determine whether Jeffs should be sent first to Arizona, which filed the charges first, or Utah, where Jeffs faces more serious charges, including two counts of rape as an accomplice.

Utah has multiple witnesses and a victim who together can make for a strong case against Warren Jeffs, said Paul Murphy, a spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

"Utah and Arizona both want him. Both have warrants out for his arrest," said Ben Graham, extradition unit chief deputy at the Clark County district attorney's office. "There's talk about who wants him worse."

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said he expected to talk Wednesday with Shurtleff to discuss which state would get Jeffs first.

Goddard also noted that prosecuting Jeffs might be difficult because the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had used intimation in the past to keep witnesses from testifying.

Jeffs eluded authorities for two years and had been on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list since May, with a $100,000 reward offered for information leading to his capture.

He is said to have at least 40 wives and nearly 60 children. Jeffs claimed to be invincible, protected by God from capture, with bodyguards who promised to fight to the death for him, authorities said.

The red 2007 Cadillac Escalade had no visible license tag, Dutchover said Tuesday. Jeffs' brother, Isaac Steed Jeffs, was driving the SUV. He gave the trooper a Utah license and said the group was returning from a California driving trip from San Francisco through Modesto and Barstow before heading through Las Vegas on Interstate 15 toward Hildale, Utah.

Jeffs, sitting in the back seat, refused to give his name, but his story didn't match. He said the group had stayed at a Marriott Courtyard in Las Vegas for one night. Dutchover thought they had too much luggage for that.

"Something was obviously wrong," said Dutchover, 33, who said Jeffs offered a contact lens receipt from Florida as identification. It bore the name John Findley.

For 90 minutes, until an FBI agent arrived and took Jeffs into custody late Monday, the religious leader sat silently and avoided eye contact, Dutchover said.

No weapons were found in the vehicle, but it was filled with items, including three wigs, 15 cell phones, letters to "President Warren Jeffs," $54,000 in cash and $10,000 in gift cards, authorities said.

Jeffs is said to have encouraged church members to wed young girls. Church dissidents say that underage marriages -- some involving girls as young as 13 -- escalated into the hundreds under his leadership, and that he broke apart families by casting out married men and reassigning their women and children to others.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard told KTAR-AM of Phoenix that Jeffs' arrest marks "the beginning of the end of ... the tyrannical rule of a small group of people over the practically 10,000 followers of the FLDS sect." He predicted it will lead more people to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse.

Most of the church's members live in Hildale and adjoining Colorado City, Ariz., but authorities have said they believe Jeffs had "safe houses" in four other states -- including Nevada -- and Canada.

Jeffs would not tell investigators where he had been staying, but he did say "that he was being subject to what he termed religious prosecutions," said John E. Lewis, FBI special agent in charge in Phoenix.

Items inside the vehicle also included four laptop computers, a GPS device, a police scanner, and numerous unopened envelopes that were thought to contain more cash, Lewis said.

Jeffs' wife Naomi and his brother Isaac, who was driving the Escalade, were released and will not be charged, said FBI special agent in charge Steven Martinez in Las Vegas.

The FLDS Church split from the mainstream Mormon Church when the Mormons disavowed polygamy more than 100 years ago. Warren Jeffs took over the renegade sect in 2002 after the death of his 98-year-old father, Rulon Jeffs, who was said to have had 65 children by several women. Warren Jeffs took nearly all his father's widows as his own wives. They include Naomi Jeffs.

It remained unclear Tuesday what would happen to the leadership of the church while Jeffs was behind bars.

Authorities said they weren't sure why Jeffs might have been in Las Vegas. Church members and affiliated businesses had reportedly been migrating to southern Nevada to escape the spotlight in Utah and Arizona.

NHP Sgt. David Miller said another member of the Jeffs family was pulled over by troopers on July 26 about a mile from where Jeffs was arrested late Monday. Miller said no summons was issued in the earlier stop.

Meanwhile, a sexual assault trial in Arizona in which Jeffs was named as a co-defendent was thrown into disarray Tuesday when a woman, who at age 16 was married to an FLDS member, refused to testify.

Candi Shapley, whose testimony to a Mohave County grand jury led to an indictment against Jeffs and several other men last July, was held in contempt of court.

A prosecutor said Shapley's testimony would be crucial in Arizona's case against Jeffs.

"I have to have her testimony to convict Warren Jeffs," County Attorney Matt Smith told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Associated Press writers Paul Foy and Jennifer Dobner in Salt Lake City and Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix contributed to this report.

RadioShack uses e-mail to fire 400 employees as part of planned job cuts


FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- RadioShack Corp. notified about 400 workers by e-mail that they were being dismissed immediately as part of planned job cuts.

Employees at the Fort Worth headquarters got messages Tuesday morning saying: "The work force reduction notification is currently in progress. Unfortunately your position is one that has been eliminated."

Company officials had told employees in a series of meetings that layoff notices would be delivered electronically, spokeswoman Kay Jackson said. She said employees were invited to ask questions before Tuesday's notification on a company intranet site.

Derrick D'Souza, a management professor at the University of North Texas, said he had never heard of such a large number of terminated employees being notified electronically. He said it could be seen as dehumanizing to employees.

"If I put myself in their shoes, I'd say, 'Didn't they have a few minutes to tell me?"' D'Souza said.

Laid-off workers got one to three weeks pay for each year of service, up to 16 weeks for hourly employees and 36 weeks for those with base bay of at least $90,000, the company said.

The company announced Aug. 10 that it would cut 400 to 450 jobs, mostly at headquarters, to cut expenses and "improve its long-term competitive position in the marketplace." RadioShack has closed nearly 500 stores, consolidated distribution centers and liquidated slow-moving merchandise in an effort to shake out of a sales slump.

Shares of RadioShack rose 21 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $18.13 in midday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

CNN's 'Live From...' aired live from the ladies room when an anchor's mike was left on


NEW YORK (AP) -- Kyra Phillips, anchor of CNN's "Live From...," unwittingly upstaged President Bush's speech in New Orleans with on-the-air analysis of her husband and the marriage of her brother -- all live from a CNN ladies room.

Unaware that her wireless microphone was "live" during her break, Phillips could be heard overriding Bush's prepared address Tuesday as he was seen marking the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

The Atlanta-based Phillips, in conversation with an unidentified woman in an echoey room, dismissed most men with a vulgar term, but called herself "very lucky in that regard. My husband is handsome and he is genuinely a loving -- you know, no ego -- you know what I'm saying? Just a really passionate, compassionate, great, great human being. And they exist. They do exist. They're hard to find. Yup. But they are out there."

A few moments later, she observed that "brothers have to be, you know, protective. Except for mine. I've got to be protective of him."

Why? "His wife is just a control freak."

At that point, another voice cut in: "Kyra."

"Yeah, baby?" replied Phillips on hearing her name.

"Your mike is on. Turn it off. It's been on the air."

CNN anchor Daryn Kagan, looking flustered, then broke into the telecast with a recap of what Bush had been saying.

Phillips later apologized to viewers "for an issue we had with our mikes" and "for a little bit of an interruption there during the president."

CNN issued its own official apology "to our viewers and the president for the disruption," and apologized to the White House.

In a subsequent statement, CNN explained the mishap as "a technical malfunction with the audio board. We're addressing how this happened and why it was not more promptly corrected on air."

On the Net:


http://www.cnn.com

Kidnapper's friend met captive, didn't know she was kidnapped years earlier


VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- A friend of the man who held a girl captive for more than eight years in an underground cell said Wednesday he met her at the kidnapper's home last month, where she was introduced as an acquaintance.

Ernst Holzapfel said he never noticed anything unusual about Wolfgang Priklopil's home or about the young woman staying there, and said she seemed friendly and happy.

"When I opened the door, he introduced the young woman to me as an acquaintance and didn't give any name," Holzapfel said. "I was very surprised and couldn't tell if she was his girlfriend or really just his acquaintance. Of course, at that point in time I didn't know it was Natascha Kampusch."

Kampusch, who was 10 when she was abducted on a Vienna street in 1998, escaped last week while Priklopil stepped away to talk on his cell phone. Priklopil committed suicide hours after her escape by throwing himself in front of a train.

Austrian investigators resumed questioning the 18-year-old Kampusch at a secret location Wednesday, focusing on what happened on the day she was kidnapped, Gerhard Lang of the Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau told the Austria Press Agency.

Police have said they would aim to respect Kampusch's privacy, indicating that whatever she told them would not be relayed to the media in detail, if at all.

"Everything will happen the way she wants it to," police spokesman Armin Halm said.

Police on Tuesday searched Priklopil's house once more to make sure there were not other secret, windowless rooms -- or victims. Priklopil's DNA turned up nothing in a nationwide criminal database, showing he was not sought in any other missing person cases, investigators said.

Holzapfel, who met Priklopil in the 1980s and later worked with him in the '90s, said Priklopil called him and asked to be picked up from a shopping center, saying it was an emergency. They drove to another Vienna location, and Priklopil told his friend he had fled a police checkpoint because he was drunk, Holzapfel said.

"I tried to calm him down by speaking mostly about professional things," Holzapfel said. He said he thought Priklopil would turn himself in to police, but then found out he was dead. "I'm shocked," he said.

Neighbors said Tuesday they had seen Kampusch riding with her captor in his car, and walking around his garden on several occasions in the past few months.

"She looked friendly, but pale," said Josef Jantschek, according to state broadcaster ORF. He said he thought it was strange that the girl had always entered the house through the garage, where police have since uncovered a flight of hidden stairs that led to her cell.

Vienna lawyer Guenter Harrich said he met Tuesday with Kampusch about her rights to financial assistance, including the possibility of her getting the proceeds from a sale of the house where she was confined.

Austria's Justice Ministry said it planned to toughen the penalty for kidnappers who imprison their victims. Had Priklopil not committed suicide, he would have faced a maximum sentence of 10 years -- only 18 months longer than Kampusch was held.

On Monday, Kampusch broke her silence with a statement saying she mourned for the man who abducted her and did not feel she had missed out on much during her captivity.

In her statement, Kampusch said she understood the curiosity about what she endured and how she is faring, but she pleaded: "Please leave me alone for the coming while."

"Everyone always wants to ask me intimate questions. That's nobody's business," she said. "Maybe I'll tell a therapist one day or someone when I feel the need to. Or maybe never. The intimacy only belongs to me."

Cardinal: Vatican to excommunicate doctors who performed Colombia's first legal abortion


BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A leading cardinal said the Vatican will excommunicate the doctors who performed Colombia's first legal abortion on an 11-year old girl who allegedly was raped by her stepfather.

Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, made the announcement in an interview with RCN television Tuesday.

"Every Christian Catholic who submits to an abortion, whether it be directly or indirectly, will be excommunicated," Lopez said.

It was not immediately clear if he also was referring to the girl and her family.

In May, Colombia's constitutional court legalized abortion in cases where fetuses were severely malformed, the pregnancy was the result of a rape or incest, or the mother's life was in danger.

Initially, doctors refused to perform abortions, wary of later facing prosecution. But the court issued a ruling compelling doctors to abide by its decision if the woman's case fell within the criteria.

Carlos Lemus, director of the Simon Bolivar Hospital where the abortion was performed, said doctors were faced "with a request from a girl who wanted to return to her toys, her school, and the demands of the mother who did not want her daughter to have the pregnancy."

The abortion was performed over the past weekend.

The secretary of Colombia's Episcopal Conference, Monsignor Fabian Marulanda, said he doubted that the Vatican would take the formal steps of excommunicating the doctors, but that the doctors should consider themselves excommunicated until they submit to penance.

Former air marshals sent to prison for pleading guilty to drug smuggling charges


HOUSTON (AP) -- Two former federal air marshals have been sentenced to prison for accepting $15,000 bribes to bypass airport security and smuggle cocaine on a flight to Las Vegas.

Burlie Sholar III, 38, and Shawn Ray Nguyen, 32, admitted in plea bargains that they accepted the money to use their positions to smuggle 33 pounds of cocaine.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt on Monday sentenced Sholar to nine years in prison on charges of bribery and conspiracy. Nguyen received a shorter sentence of seven years and three months because he cooperated with investigators, prosecutors said.

They could have faced 10 years to life in prison and fines of $4 million on the smuggling charge and 15 years in prison and $250,000 fines on the bribery charge.

NYC police arrest homeless man in strangulation of former aide to Mayor Giuliani


NEW YORK (AP) -- A homeless drug addict wanted in the killing of a former aide to Rudolph Giuliani was arrested after a chance encounter with detectives investigating the case, police said Wednesday.

The detectives were searching for records at an employment agency that had hired the suspect, Edwin Ramos, 26, when Ramos walked in seeking back-pay, police said.

Police would not say how they identified him as a suspect in the strangulation of Martin Barreto, 49, a one-time deputy press secretary at City Hall. But they alleged he made statements implicating himself in the killing and the theft of the victim's laptop computer, cell phone and keys.

Barreto's body was discovered on Aug. 21 on a bed at his home in Manhattan's Greenwich Village after a friend reported he wasn't responding to phone calls or knocks on his door. The medical examiner ruled his death a homicide, saying an autopsy found he died from "asphyxia due to compression of the neck."

Investigators believe that Barreto met the suspect for the first time on the street shortly before the slaying. After going to the victim's apartment, the pair became involved in a dispute that ended in his death, police said.

Barreto, who worked at City Hall in the late 1990s when Giuliani was mayor, was a partner in a Manhattan public relations firm. He also was a former radio journalist who served on the board of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists from 1993 to 1996, according to the NAHJ's Web site.

Former nurse who admitted killing 29 patients donates kidney to brother of ex-girlfriend


NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- A former nurse who admitted killing 29 patients in two states donated one of his kidneys to the brother of an ex-girlfriend, the nurse's lawyer said Wednesday.

Charles Cullen had threatened to skip his sentencing hearing unless he was allowed to be a donor. A judge gave permission in February for the serial killer to be removed from prison for the operation.

The recipient was Ernie Peckham of Rocky Point, N.Y., said Johnnie Mask, Cullen's public defender.

"They have not had a chance to speak" since their operations Aug. 20, Mask said.

Cullen was returned to New Jersey State Prison the day after the surgery and Peckham was back at his home on Long Island a few days later.

A woman who answered a phone listing for Peckham on Wednesday hung up without comment.

Peckham, 37, a metalworker, is a married father of four who is a Cub Scout leader and Army reservist, the New York Daily News reported Wednesday. His sister, Catherine Westerfer, 38, of Bethlehem, Pa., once lived with Cullen, the newspaper said.

Peckham had told his local paper, The Village Beacon Record, that his kidneys began failing after a cut finger led to a strep infection.

Cullen pleaded guilty to killing 29 patients with drug overdoses at nursing homes and hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey in one of the worst murder sprees ever discovered in the U.S. health care system. He was sentenced to 18 life terms.

He claimed to have killed 40 patients over a 16-year nursing career, and has said he killed out of mercy.

Connecticut lawyer accused of stabbing neighbor to death over child-molestation suspicions


FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) -- A lawyer climbed through a neighbor's bedroom window and stabbed him to death after being told by a family member that the man had molested his 2-year-old daughter, authorities say.

Barry James, 58, was stabbed in the chest nearly a dozen times Monday. The lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, was charged with murder and burglary and was released on $1 million bail Wednesday.

Capt. Gary MacNamara said that police had not received a complaint about the child being assaulted before the killing, and "we have no indication it's true or not true."

Edington's attorney, Michael Sherman, said the information came from Edington's wife. "The daughter gave the mother information which was alarming and disturbing. The mom relayed it to her husband. That was the spark," Sherman said.

James' 87-year-old mother discovered his body. When officers went to Edington's home, they found him standing by his kitchen sink with what appeared to be blood on him, and a large kitchen knife next to him on a counter, authorities said

"He's in shock," Edington's attorney said. "This is the most unexpected turn of events one can imagine with this young man's background."

Police had gone to the neighborhood before, when Edington called to complain that he could see James through a window, police said. "Either he was partly clothed or revealed parts of his anatomy that were inappropriate," MacNamara said.

Edington, a graduate of Syracuse University and Fordham University Law School, has been practicing patent law, Sherman said. Police said Edington has no criminal record.

Rita James declined to comment on her son's death.

James served two days behind bars in 2001 on a drunken driving charge, according to the state Correction Department.

"He had some bizarre behavior over the last month," said Darrell Maynard, a neighbor. "He drove his car through his garage, hit the other neighbor's building."

Another time a neighbor found James intoxicated on the street, Maynard said. James shouted obscenities at children, he said.

As for Edington, Maynard said: "Something had to happen that was terrible for this to have occurred." Edington "seemed like a computer geek or something. He was not anybody you would ever feel you were threatened by."

Jury in North Dakota finds sex offender guilty in slaying of college student


FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- A convicted sex offender on trial in North Dakota's first death penalty case in more than a century was found guilty Wednesday of kidnapping and killing a college student who was seized from a shopping mall parking lot.

The jury will return next week to begin hearing evidence on whether Alfonso Rodriguez Jr., 53, should be executed for the slaying of 22-year-old Dru Sjodin.

North Dakota does have capital punishment. But the case was heard in federal court, where the jury took less than an hour to reach a verdict.

Sjodin, a University of North Dakota student from Pequot Lakes, Minn., was abducted outside a Grand Forks mall in 2003. Hundreds of volunteers searched for her, but her body was not found until the following spring, in a ravine near Crookston, Minn. Rodriguez lived in Crookston at the time.

Prosecutors said Sjodin (pronounced shuh-DEEN) was stabbed, raped and left to die. Rodriguez was charged under federal law because Sjodin was taken across state lines.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said in a statement: "If ever there was a case for which the death penalty should apply, this is it."

Before Sjodin's slaying, Rodriguez had served more than 20 years for offenses that included rape and attempted kidnapping. He got out of prison about six months before the killing.

Rodriguez stared straight ahead as the verdict was read. His mother wiped her face with a tissue. Sjodin's parents showed no reaction, but family members hugged later outside the courtroom.

"It's another step in closing the case," said Erin Hakstol, Sjodin's sorority adviser. "It doesn't bring Dru back, unfortunately"

In closing arguments, U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley said Sjodin fought for her life "every step of the way" and "left us unmistakable messages," including her blood in Rodriguez's car, discovered in a mist pattern that indicated she was beaten.

Defense attorney Robert Hoy argued that prosecutors could not say for certain where Sjodin died, when or how.

$20 million judgment for woman who spotted rapist on TV


VENTURA (AP) -- A rape victim who spotted her attacker on the television show "Blind Date" got a $20 million civil court judgment, although she will likely never see a dime from her imprisoned attacker.

Ulrick Kevin "Ashwah" White, 32, of Santa Barbara was convicted by a jury of forcible rape and false imprisonment. Noting White didn't show any remorse for the 2003 crime, Superior Court Judge Kevin McGee sentenced him in February to eight years in prison.

White allegedly approached the then-35-year-old woman in a parking lot outside a Ventura bar as she waited for a cab and she reluctantly agreed to a ride home in his van, police Detective Russ Robinson said. She was taken to a remote area and attacked.

The Ventura mother of a now-12-year-old girl later told police she recognized her attacker on TV and videotaped the "Blind Date" appearance and turned it over to detectives. Her attacker had been sought since Sept. 6, 2003.

In a civil suit claiming emotional distress, among other things, Superior Court Judge Vincent O'Neill this month awarded her $20 million in damages.

White initially responded to the lawsuit but later failed to participate in any of the legal proceedings, her lawyer David Shain said.

The woman concedes she will probably never see any money from White, but she and her attorney said it was helpful in the healing process.

"It is hoped that a significant verdict, though likely uncollected, will assist the plaintiff in finally moving forward with her life," Shain wrote in court documents.

"There is no amount of money to compensate for what my client has had to go through. It is important to her recovery," he said.

The high amount of the award also sends a message about the dramatic effect such crimes have on victims and lets criminals know society won't tolerate this kind of conduct, Shain said.

White initially responded to the lawsuit but later failed to participate in any of the legal proceedings, the lawyer said.

Humpback entangled in fishing gear freed after 4 days


By: - JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) -- A team of marine experts freed a humpback whale that had spent four days entangled in fishing gear in Alaska's Chatham Strait.

The last lines were cut away Tuesday evening, said Sheela McLean, a fisheries spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A second whale was also reported entangled in lines near Haines. Another was reported near southern Admiralty Island, and a fourth whale was spotted Wednesday morning near Angoon.

A dead humpback whale with fishing gear attached to it was found on a beach on southern Admiralty Island last weekend.

Wildlife officials kill black bear, cub near Sierra Vist


SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. (AP) -- A female black bear and her cub have killed by an Arizona Department of Game and Fish officer after they refused to retreat from an area hotel.

The bears were shot and killed after several weeks of problems in the area around the Ramsey Canyon Inn Bed and Breakfast, said Gerry Perry, the regional game and fish supervisor.

Officers were called to Ramsey Canyon, about 10 miles south of Sierra Vista, Tuesday morning and tried to scare the pair off the property using rubber bullets. The effort killed the 40-pound cub, Perry said, and the mother left.

But she soon returned, and the officer had to shoot the animal, Perry said. Officers are allowed to shoot bears when they show no fear of humans and their behavior is considered a public threat.

Black bears are not endangered and the state has an annual hunting season. Perry said he suspects they were drawn into the area by ripening fruit trees in the canyons.

The bears were killed the day after officials killed a mountain lion that had been threatening people in the Prescott National Forest.

JFK passenger told he couldn't fly wearing Arabic script T-shirt


NEW YORK (AP) -- An Arab human rights activist says he was prevented from boarding a plane at Kennedy International Airport while wearing a T-shirt that said "We will not be silent" in English and Arabic.

The incident happened Aug. 12 when Raed Jarrar was preparing to board a JetBlue flight from Kennedy to Oakland, Calif.

Four officials from JetBlue or from a government agency stopped him at the gate and told him he couldn't get on the plane wearing his shirt, Jarrar said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

One of the officials told him, "Going to an airport with a T-shirt in Arabic script is like going to a bank and wearing a T-shirt that says 'I'm a robber."' he said.

Jenny Dervin, a spokeswoman for JetBlue, acknowledged that the dispute occurred and said the airline was investigating it.

She noted that the incident occurred two days after British authorities announced that they had foiled a plot to blow up jetliners over the Atlantic.

New restrictions banning liquids and gels in carryon baggage went into effect at U.S. airports following the Aug. 10 announcement, but Dervin said there are no specific rules governing apparel. "Each situation is different," she said.

Jarrar, who directs the Iraq project for Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based human rights organization, said he asked what law he was breaking by wearing the shirt. The officials didn't answer, he said, but suggested that he turn the shirt inside out.

"I refused to take off my T-shirt and put it on inside out because it looks like a punishment for something I have not done," he said.

In the end, the officials gave Jarrar another shirt to put over the offending T-shirt and he put it on rather than miss his flight.

Once on the plane, Jarrar said he was forced to give up the seat he had booked weeks before near the front of the plane and issued a new boarding pass for a seat in the rear.

Dervin said it was unclear whether JetBlue, the federal Transportation Security Administration or the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, told Jarrar to remove his shirt.

Ann Davis, a spokeswoman for the TSA, said the agency was investigating to see whether its agents were involved. Port Authority spokesman Pasquale DiFulco said he was checking on the incident as well.

Jarrar, 28, is half Iraqi and half Palestinian and moved to the United States last year from Jordan, where he was studying.

He said he has filed a complaint with JetBlue and is considering legal action. He would like, at a minimum, for JetBlue to apologize.

"We Will Not Be Silent" is a slogan adopted by opponents of the war in Iraq and other conflicts in the Middle East.

"It's ironic," Jarrar said. "I was silenced by the state."

'Psycho' scriptwriter Joseph Stefano dies in Thousand Oaks at 84


THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) -- Joseph Stefano, who wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" and was co-creator of television's science fiction anthology series "The Outer Limits," has died. He was 84.

Stefano died Aug. 25 at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, funeral director Elaine Munoz of Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks said Wednesday. The cause of death wasn't disclosed.

Stefano graduated in 1940 from South Philadelphia High School for Boys and he went to New York as an aspiring entertainer. He played piano, sang, danced and wrote music and lyrics.

He toured with a modern dance troupe and worked temporary jobs as a typist. He met his future bride, Marilyn Epstein, in a bar in Manhattan in 1953.

"I was trying to make a choice on the jukebox and this great-looking man in black jacket, jeans and boots said, 'Play that one, I wrote it,' " she told the Philadelphia Inquirer. They soon married.

Stefano's big television break came in the 1950s when he was hired as a writer for the "Ted Mack Family Hour." He also wrote a number of scripts, including "The Black Orchid," which was made into a 1958 movie starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn.

Stefano then became a scriptwriter for Twentieth Century Fox in 1960, and he moved to Hollywood. Hitchcock soon had him adapt a Robert Bloch pulp novel for the screen. The movie became "Psycho."

"Bloch's novel started with Marion Crane arriving at the motel and immediately being killed. My feeling was that, since I did not know anything about this girl, I wasn't going to care about her when she was killed. So we backed the story up a bit and learned something about her so that when she was killed, it would have more impact," Stefano once told the Los Angeles Times.

Stefano had her stealing $40,000 from her boss and stopping at the Bates Motel while on the run. Though she has a change of conscience about the money, Crane is knifed to death in a memorable shower sequence.

He wrote several other screenplays, including "The Naked Edge" with Gary Cooper, but Stefano and screenwriter Leslie Stevens turned to TV to produce and write "The Outer Limits," which ran from 1963 to 1965.

Stefano later wrote the 1969 thriller "Eye of the Cat" and co-wrote the comedy "Futz!" that same year with Rochelle Owens.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote TV movies, including "Home for the Holidays" in 1972 and "Snowbeast " in 1977.

Besides his wife, who lives in Agoura Hills, Stefano is survived by his son Dominic. The funeral was private.

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