Hurricane John pounds main city in southern Baja California

By: Associated Press - | Saturday, September 2, 2006 7:34 PM PDT ∞

CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico ---- John weakened to a tropical storm Saturday just hours after it hit land as a hurricane in the southern part of Mexico's Baja California peninsula, ripping the roofs from shacks, knocking out power and sending billboards flying.

John was a Category 2 storm with 100 mph winds when it struck land near isolated hamlets northeast of Los Cabos on Friday night, but it had slipped to Category 1 status with winds near 85 mph by Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon, it weakened to a tropical storm when winds dropped to 60 mph.

John was about 50 miles northwest of La Paz and about 100 miles southeast of Loreto. It was moving northwest at about 8 mph.

After missing a direct hit on the tourist resort of Cabo San Lucas, John hit northwest of La Paz, knocking out electricity, downing trees and sending billboards flying in the city of more than 150,000 people.

The Mexican government discontinued all hurricane warnings but issued tropical storm warnings for a stretch of land from Puerto Eugenio to Santa Fe in southern Baja.

One man whose vehicle was swept away by a surge of water was found alive about three miles away, clinging to tree branches. He was in stable condition at a local hospital, said Los Cabos government spokesman Jorge Castaneda.

The Hurricane Center said remnants of John might bring rain to parts of the southwestern United States, but long after it has faded below hurricane status. Cooler Pacific waters tend to diminish storms before they reach California.

Thousands of tourists and impoverished residents had taken shelter in the tourism centers of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo on the southern tip of Baja California. But the area avoided a direct hit from the storm, whose hurricane-force winds only extended 25 miles from the eye. Most tourists had returned to their hotel rooms from storm shelters by the afternoon.

Scott DeLappe of San Francisco emerged with his brother Mark and friend Bob Comadaran to trudge the muddied, boarded-up streets of Cabo San Lucas in search of a place to eat.

"We're just trying to get home, but there are no flights," he said. "There's no reason to be here."

Comadaran mourned the closure of the resort's nightclub, and summed up the passage of the hurricane as "no sun, no liquor, no food, no fun."

Castaneda said some roads were damaged but there were no reports of damage to buildings or hotels.

Although Los Cabos' high-rise hotels showed little impact, it was hard to immediately assess how the storm may have affected the community's poorest areas, where construction workers, waiters, cooks and chambermaids live in shantytowns, many built along dry riverbeds. Thousands evacuated to shelters were prohibited from returning to their homes late Friday.

"I lost the roof of my house," said construction worker Jose Manuel Payen Fabela, 46, referring to his two-room shack in a squatters' camp known as Tierra y Libertad. "Everything was drenched ---- the blankets, everything."

Creeks had cut paths through the camp, and at least two of the wood-frame shacks had collapsed, leaving a mix of plastic sheeting, tarpaper and blankets in the sand.

Some streets were flooded in Cabo San Lucas, but the water was merely ankle-deep. Stores reopened two hours after the hurricane made landfall and residents began returning to the streets.

A passing group of U.S. tourists, asked what they planned to do after the hurricane passed, shouted "Party!" But there was almost nowhere to go. Most of Cabo San Lucas' bars and restaurants remained closed.

The local population was relieved.

"We thank God, because the storm didn't do us any damage," said Los Cabos resident Natividad Garcia, 67, as she waited outside a hotel for a relative to finish work.

In San Jose del Cabo, a brief bout of heavy winds toppled the signs of shops and sent metal gates flying in the air. But there were no reports of major damage.

Miles away from the glittering coastal hotels, 46-year-old bricklayer Francisco Casas waited for John to pass in a schoolroom with his 14-year-old son. They were evacuated from their tin-roofed shack in Tierra y Libertad.

The Mexican Navy and police evacuated residents, sometimes forcibly, before the storm. But Casas went voluntarily to the shelter, where people slept on thin pads stretched side-by-side over the concrete floor.

"The hurricane is no game, especially where we are surrounded by water on all sides," he said.

The National Hurricane Center warned that John could fuel storm surges of up to 5 feet above normal tide and bring 6 to 12 inches of rain, possibly causing "life-threatening flash floods and mudslides" over mountainous areas.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kristy weakened early Saturday as it churned farther out in the Pacific Ocean, with maximum sustained winds of 46 mph, and forecasters at the U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami said it could eventually be absorbed by John.

Boulder, Colo. police chief defends actions in JonBenet Ramsey investigation


DENVER (AP) ---- The Boulder police chief has defended his department's investigation of the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in several published reports, saying more than 160 suspects were investigated and $2 million spent.

Chief Mark Beckner's defense came in interviews with KCNC-TV, The Daily Camera of Boulder and the Rocky Mountain News on Friday and in a statement posted on the Boulder police Web site. Three lawyers who worked with the police on the case also defended the department in the statement.

"A few people have accused the department of focusing too narrowly in its investigation of this homicide when that was not the case," Beckner said in the statement. "People who have spoken out that way have relied on the department's inability to discuss case specifics, but I cannot allow the misperceptions to go unanswered any longer."

The Ramsey family has criticized police, saying the department focused on them at the exclusion of evidence that an intruder killed the 6-year-old beauty queen in December 1996. He told the News that notion was "an urban myth."

Beckner, a year after the killing, said the Ramseys remained "under an umbrella of suspicion" in their daughter's death."

Beckner did not immediately return a call to his home seeking comment.

Beckner told KCNC: "For a long time, we have remained silent." His department said nothing about the recent arrest of John Mark Karr at the request of the district attorney's office. Karr was cleared by DNA and remains in custody in Boulder, awaiting extradition to California to face child pornography charges.

The sheriff's office refused Saturday morning to take questions about when Karr would leave for California.

Beckner disputed claims by former prosecutor Lawrence "Trip" DeMuth, who told the News that leads were ignored and that his staff was barred from doing its own investigation.

Karr hires new lawyer in child porn case


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ---- John Mark Karr, exonerated as a suspect in the slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, has asked a San Francisco lawyer to represent him as he awaits extradition to California to face child pornography charges.

Robert M. AmparDan is set to appear Tuesday in Sonoma County Superior Court to officially take over Karr's defense from the public defender's office, which has represented Karr in the case since it was first brought in 2001.

A Boulder, Colo., judge last week ordered Karr sent to Sonoma County to face five misdemeanor counts of child pornography possession after the Boulder County District Attorney said he would not be charged in JonBenet's murder.

Karr fled in 2001 before he could face trial on the child porn charges and did not resurface until Thai authorities arrested him last month on suspicion of killing the six-year-old Ramsey.

Boulder and Sonoma authorities have not said when Karr would return to California. For now, the 41-year-old teacher is being held in the Boulder jail awaiting extradition, which must occur by Sept. 13.

AmparDan, a one-time San Francisco public defender, said he did not know when Karr was scheduled to arrive. Whatever the status of Karr's whereabouts, he would not likely be present at the Tuesday hearing, AmparDan said.

"I hope that people will keep an open mind and remember that we don't have thought police and that a person is presumed innocent," AmparDan said. Karr pleaded not guilty in 2001 to all five counts.

New York widens manhunt for suspect in ambush shootings of state troopers


CASSADAGA, N.Y. (AP) ---- State police warned Saturday that a fugitive suspected of shooting three state troopers, two of them in an ambush, is a threat not just to law enforcement but to anyone who might get in his way.

"He's a desperate man, he knows he's wanted and his choices are running out," Trooper Rebecca Gibbons said.

For months, authorities in western New York have scoured hunting camps, stopped traffic and questioned acquaintances in the search for Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, an escaped inmate with the skills of a seasoned outdoorsman.

The manhunt intensified Thursday after two troopers were ambushed by a sniper hiding in the woods outside the home of Phillips' former girlfriend. The two officers were in critical condition as 75 more troopers were called up to reinforce the search.

Phillips, who escaped from jail in April, may be traveling in the mostly rural area of western Pennsylvania and western New York, said State Police Superintendent Wayne Bennett. Since his escape, Phillips has been suspected in the shooting of another state trooper in June, numerous burglaries and theft from a gun shop.

"If someone in the community comes between him and his freedom," Gibbons said, "it is our feeling that he will become desperate and possibly hurt them."

Police are not looking for a shootout, Bennett said.

"That's not the way we want this to end," he said.

However, he warned Phillips: "We have long memories. We don't forget. We are patient. ... Don't stop to look over your shoulder because we'll be there."

A friend said Saturday said he feared a shootout is exactly how the search will end.

"He'll never surrender," said Dan Suitor, who said he had known Phillips for 25 years. "I've always said it was going to be suicide by cop."

A reward for help leading to his arrest and conviction was increased to $225,000 from $50,000 on Friday.

Phillips, 44, broke out of the Erie County jail on April 2 by using a can opener to make a 2-by-2-foot opening in the kitchen ceiling and escaping through the roof. He was serving 90 days for a parole violation.

Since then, he has helped himself to food, clothes and guns from unattended homes and hunting cabins and is believed to have stolen about 15 cars, police said.

He is also wanted in the June 10 shooting of a trooper who survived after being shot in the abdomen as he approached a stolen car near Elmira.

The five-month manhunt has turned Phillips into a kind of a local amusement here in his native Chautauqua County. A restaurant offered a "Bucky Burger," and some bars sold T-shirts with sayings such as "Got Bucky?"

Since the latest shootings, however, some Chautauqua County residents are less amused.

"In the beginning, it was 'Ha, ha.' Now it's scary, and I just wish it was over," waitress Dawn McCarthy said.

Troopers Joseph Longobardo, 32, and Donald Baker Jr., 38, were shot Thursday while staking out the isolated hilltop home of Phillips' former girlfriend, Kasey Crowe, who is among six people accused of aiding the fugitive. One trooper was hit in the back by a bullet that penetrated his bullet-resistant vest. The other suffered massive blood loss from a severed leg artery.

Suitor said the arrest of Crowe and Phillips' 23-year-old daughter, Patrina Wright, on Aug. 24 drove his friend over the edge, especially after authorities removed Wright's three children ---- the youngest 3 weeks old ---- from her custody for a week.

"Buck has made it clear numerous times over the years, you don't mess with his family and you don't mess with his friends. ... Once they went after that daughter and those grandchildren, I'm sure he just snapped," Suitor said.

Wright, contacted by telephone Saturday, declined to discuss her father at length.

"We are caught in the middle, though, and my kids were used to bring him out," she said.

Family and friends said Phillips, a career thief who has spent nearly half his life in jail, had never before been violent and would not shoot a trooper.

Authorities say his disdain for police was well known. Sheriff's officials said that when he was released or transferred from the Chautauqua County jail several years ago, he left officials a note threatening "to splatter pig meat all over Chautauqua County."

Remnants of Ernesto cut into summer's last big tourism weekend for many


RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ---- The remnants of Tropical Storm Ernesto put a sloppy wet damper on the last big tourism weekend of the summer for many people, making a mess of some oceanfront hotels and leaving beaches and boardwalks less crowded than usual.

Ernesto was reduced to an area of rain over western New York state and the lower Great Lakes by Saturday afternoon, after drenching Virginia and North Carolina with up to a foot of rain on its run up the East Coast.

It had caused flooding that forced hundreds of people out of their homes, and more than a half-million homes and businesses still had no electricity Saturday in the mid-Atlantic states. At least four deaths were blamed on the storm in Virginia, plus one in North Carolina.

Hotels in Virginia Beach reported some last-minute cancelations Saturday as the storm apparently led many people to change their plans. Some who decided to tough it out faced oceanfront rooms with carpets soaked by wind-driven rain.

"I've never seen it this severe in all my years here," said Jimmy Capps, manager of the Breakers Resort Inn. "Probably every oceanfront hotel in Virginia Beach has some wet carpet."

Capps said his staff called some guests and told them to postpone their arrival from Friday until Saturday because of the soaked rugs, leaving 23 of the 56 rooms vacant. He said he still hoped to be "close to full" for the rest of the weekend.

Miles Schaeffer, morning manager at the Colonial Inn, said cancelations left 20 of the hotel's 222 rooms vacant Saturday. Guests in oceanfront rooms were told they would have to deal with wet carpets.

"Most people are pretty understanding," Schaeffer said.

Hotel operators said it could have been worse if not for two major weekend events in Virginia Beach: the American Music Festival and the annual Rock 'n' Roll Half-Marathon.

The music festival started Saturday after Friday's scheduled opening was canceled because of the storm, said Sherri Waghalter, manager of the Virginia Beach Information Center. The marathon, with about 22,000 runners, is set for today.

"I think we'll still have a lot of people coming," Waghalter said.

Casino operators in Atlantic City, N.J., had no complaints. Harrah's Entertainment spokeswoman Alyce Parker said all four of the company's hotels ---- Harrah's, Showboat, Bally's Atlantic City and Caesars Atlantic City ---- were already booked for the weekend and Saturday's wind and drizzle just kept people on the casino floors.

"People really aren't on the beach," Parker said.

Beach-goers were stymied on the south shore of New York state's Long Island, where swimming was banned at most beaches Saturday because of rip currents. Waves up to 12 feet high caused severe beach erosion.

Utility crews were busy restoring services disrupted by the storm.

Dominion Virginia Power reported about 149,000 homes and businesses still blacked out Saturday, down from more than 600,000.

"We're optimistic we're going to have everyone back on by Sunday night," spokesman Dan Genest said.

Maryland's Baltimore Gas & Electric reported more than 77,000 customers still without electricity, down from 150,000 during the storm. Pepco, which serves the Washington area, said about 15,000 customers were still in the dark Saturday and some 40,000 Delmarva Power had no electricity in Delaware and on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Other utilities listed about 85,000 customers without power in New Jersey, 70,000 in Pennsylvania and some 31,000 in and around New York City.

Flooding was still a problem Saturday in North Carolina, where the Northeast Cape Fear River was more than 5 feet above flood stage and not expected to crest until Sunday, the National Weather Service said.

"Right now, we're just holding on," said Terry Smith, a supervisor with Duplin County Emergency Medical Services.

Firefighters had already helped evacuate about 20 people from six houses near the river in Chinquapin. About 50 houses were threatened by the rising water, said David Miller, an EMS worker and a captain with the Chinquapin Volunteer Fire Department.

Virginia emergency officials said Ernesto's heaviest rainfall and a tidal surge raked rural communities along Virginia's side of the Chesapeake Bay.

Jeffrey Brown, 37, stayed with his wheelchair-bound father rather than evacuate St. George Island, which juts into the Potomac River where the river meets the Chesapeake Bay.

Three feet of water came into the home, soaking the floors and carpeting that they had replaced after Tropical Storm Isabel, he said.

"I didn't sleep too well last night," Brown said, looking haggard. "It was bad, real bad."

Father, 2 sons die in apparent murder-suicide at a West Virginia university


SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. (AP) -- A father and his two sons died Saturday in an apparent murder-suicide at a university, authorities said.

Douglas W. Pennington, 49, shot sons Logan, 26, and Benjamin, 24, before shooting himself with a .38 caliber revolver on the Shepherd University campus, state police said. Both sons were identified as Shepherd students.

Police said the elder Pennington traveled to the campus to visit his sons, but offered no reason for the shootings.

The gunfire occurred about 2 p.m. in a parking lot, near residence halls on the campus' west side. The Penningtons were pronounced dead at local medical facilities.

"We are stunned to hear about this terrible tragedy," University President David Dunlop said in a statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims."

University spokeswoman Valerie Owens described the campus as quieter than usual this weekend because many students have left for the Labor Day holiday. About one quarter of Shepherd's 4,000 students live in campus residence halls and apartments.

University counselors have been talking to students all afternoon and a formal counseling session on campus Saturday evening. Owens had no information on whether any students or faculty witnessed the shootings.

Shepherdstown is about 80 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., in eastern West Virginia.

Historic ocean liner sinks near Japan with no one aboard


TOKYO (AP) -- A historic ocean liner that was to become a hotel-restaurant in Sweden sank off Japan's southeastern coast, the coast guard said Saturday.

No one was on board the former Stella Polaris, which was being towed to China from central Japan for repairs before it was to be turned into a hotel in Stockholm.

The tugboat's crew told authorities late Friday that the ship had begun to take in water about 2 miles off Wakayama state, some 280 miles southwest of Tokyo, Japan's coast guard said in a statement.

Television footage aired by public broadcaster NHK Saturday morning showed no signs of the 5,100-ton vessel. The ship appeared to have sunk to the seabed some 230 feet below the water's surface, releasing about 80 gallons of diesel oil, according to the coast guard.

The Stella Polaris was built in 1927 for Bergen Line of Norway, and was known for its graceful, yacht-like appearance and luxurious interior.

Used for trans-Atlantic and other luxury cruises, the Stella Polaris was seized by Nazi Germany during World War II but later returned to Bergen Line.

The liner was in service until its sale in 1970 to a subsidiary of Japan's Seibu Railway Co., which moored it at a central Japanese port to use as a hotel and restaurant.

The Swedish company Petro-Fast AB had planned to operate the ship, renamed the Scandinavia, as a hotel-restaurant in Stockholm, according to Kyodo News agency.

Nellie Connally, passenger in President Kennedy's limo during assassination, dies at 87


AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Nellie Connally, the former Texas first lady who was riding in President Kennedy's limousine when he was assassinated, has died, a family friend said Saturday. The 87-year-old was the last living person who had been part of that fateful Dallas drive.

Connally, the widow of former Gov. John Connally, died late Friday at an Austin assisted living center, said Julian Read, who served as the governor's press secretary in the 1960s.

As the limousine carrying the Connallys and the Kennedys wound its way through the friendly crowd in downtown Dallas, Nellie Connally turned to President Kennedy, who was in a seat behind her, and said, "Mr. President, you can't say Dallas doesn't love you."

Almost immediately, she heard the first of what she later concluded were three gunshots in quick succession. John Connally slumped after the second shot, and, "I never looked back again. I was just trying to take care of him," she said.

She later said the most enduring image of that day was the bloodstained roses.

"It's the image of yellow roses and red roses and blood all over the car ... all over us," she said in a 2003 interview with The Associated Press. "I'll never forget it. ... It was so quick and so short, so potent."

In 2003, she published a photo-filled book -- "From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy" -- based on 22 pages of handwritten notes she compiled about a week after the assassination and rediscovered in 1996.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry called Connally "the epitome of graciousness."

"Long before she was propelled into the national spotlight from the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, she was a Texas icon," Perry said in a statement.

Connally, formerly Nellie Brill, met her husband at the University of Texas in Austin, and they married on Dec. 21, 1940.

John Connally managed several political campaigns for fellow Texan Lyndon B. Johnson, including his 1964 presidential campaign. Connally was elected Texas governor as a Democrat in 1962 and won re-election twice, serving three two-year terms. He died in 1993.

Nellie Connally helped raise money for many charities. In 1989, Richard Nixon, Barbara Walters and Donald Trump turned out for a gala to honor her and raise money for diabetes research.

"I've never known a woman with Nellie's courage, compassion and character," Walters said. "For all her ups and downs, I've never heard a self-pitying word from her."

John and Nellie Connally suffered financial difficulties after he left office. Private business ventures after 1980 were less successful than John Connally's career as a politician and dealmaking Houston lawyer. An oil company in which he invested got into trouble, and $200 million worth of real estate projects went sour, and he ended up filing for bankruptcy.

Nellie Connally served on the Board of Visitors of The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1984, and a fund in her name raised millions for research and patient programs. The Houston hospital's center for breast cancer also is named for Connally, a survivor of the disease for more than 15 years.

About a year ago, Connally moved back to Austin after decades in Houston and remained active until her death.

"She has been extremely active and vital the past few days and weeks," Read said. "It's a shock to all of us."

Survivors include her daughter, Sharon Connally Ammann, and two sons, John B. Connally III and Mark Connally.

Funeral services are pending. She is to be buried near her late husband in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

Late-night lovers get one of the last pre-dawn marriage licenses


LAS VEGAS (AP) ---- No longer is this a city that formally recognizes the need to get married "right now" or "after this drink" to someone you just met. No longer is it a place that caters to celebrities slipping in a quickie wedding out of paparazzi's view.

No more is it the destination of urgent lovers, who knew that you could get in your car after work on Friday and make it to a place where time didn't matter.

With little debate and no fanfare, a little piece of Las Vegas legend is gone.

County officials have shuttered the downtown Las Vegas marriage bureau's 24-hour service, and in a quiet commission vote quashed what passed for ritual in the city of reinvention.

The new schedule was driven by an administrative shuffle and cost-cutting efforts. It eliminated the all-night service Fridays through Sundays and on holidays, and replaced it with a daily 8 a.m. to midnight schedule effective Aug. 30.

"They're taking the spark out of Las Vegas," said Joe LaBianco, 48, who was one of the last to wed on the fly in Las Vegas. He married his fiancee of one week, Brenda Faretta, 46, around 2:30 a.m. early Aug. 26. He got the license about 15 minutes before the ceremony.

"Bureaucrats."

County officials argue they're not trying to do anything to curb predawn weddings, they're just forcing couples to do a little more planning. Although the bureau is open until midnight, ceremonies still can be conducted at any hour.

But planning isn't very Las Vegas. The city is billed as a place where time doesn't matter. All you have to do is get here, momentum takes care of the rest.

Jessica Garman packed her prom dress, her mother, her best friend and her betrothed last Friday and drove from Riverside to Las Vegas to do the deed.

The 19-year-old had not stopped to think much about where or when, she just knew she was getting married before dawn.

"We've got a 2:00 a.m. appointment at ..." Garman paused, as she applied for her marriage license and struggled to think of the name of the site she had chosen to sanction and memorialize her eternal union to Pfc. Jeremy Wood.

"Uh, this place," she said, holding a brochure for the Garden of Love.

County officials say they notified Las Vegas' wedding industry of the upcoming changes, but heard no opposition.

But chapel owners have since publicly bemoaned the change. They're afraid it will kill their after-midnight operations, making their stretch-Hummer service to and from the bureau unnecessary.

"I think it's silly," said Frank Stankiewicz, manager, photographer and driver at Garden of Love. "We do business all night long. This is Las Vegas!"

The city has earned its claim as the marriage capital of the world. It is easy to get a license in Las Vegas. No blood tests. No waiting period. No appointment needed. (No credit cards, either, but there's an ATM in the marriage bureau.)

Its operations have catered to high-profile couples ostensibly trying to keep their nuptials on the down low by heading to the bureau under the cover of night.

At 32, Elvis Presley obtained his marriage license to Priscilla Anne Beaulieu, 21, at 3:30 a.m. Michael Jordan and wife Juanita Vanoy applied for their license at 2:30 a.m. Bruce Willis and Demi Moore sneaked in after midnight, as did heiress Nicky Hilton and pop star Britney Spears. Spears was single again 55 hours later.

There are other motivators, too. Bureau clerks are instructed to refuse to issue a license if either party appears too drunk to understand the consequences of their actions. That rule has caused some uncomfortable scenes, but also some grateful parties.

A groom once rushed to console his bride as she stormed out of the bureau after clerks determined he was too drunk to marry, "then he stepped back in and mouthed the words, 'Thank you. Thank you,' " said Sharon Brown, the graveyard shift manager.

Brown said it can be hard to tell tipsy from giddy, and harder still to tell giddy from nervous. Couples often forget key pieces of information ---- a parent's birthplace or middle name ---- just out of nerves.

Elisa Maldonado, 23, had to ask her fiancee Simon Chan, 30, for help. She was too excited to write clearly.

"We're going to go see Elvis," the fashion student said as she snapped her fingers and stomped her pumps.

"Let's roll."

Some residents evacuated in face of Mont. wildfire begin returning


COLUMBUS, Mont. (AP) ---- Some evacuation requests were lifted Saturday near a wildfire that has burned 26 homes and 20 other structures after the blaze didn't grow significantly overnight.

"The fire was very calm last night," fire information officer Brian LaMoure said Saturday. "There were no big runs or anything like that."

The fire is estimated at 159,000 acres, or nearly 250 square miles. It grew from 18,000 acres on Tuesday and has cost $3.2 million to fight, LaMoure said.

Evacuation orders were lifted for some residents and the employees of a mine. The palladium and platinum mine has reopened and is fully operable, LaMoure said. Authorities had ordered evacuations of about 500 homes in Sweet Grass and Stillwater counties.

Twenty-three homes in Stillwater County have burned, along with three in Sweet Grass County, LaMoure said. Two private bridges across the Stillwater River were destroyed.

More than 600 people were assigned to help fight the fire Saturday, officials said. Containment was estimated at 20 percent.

In Columbus, Fran "Cyd" Zeigler helped her elderly tenants gather their belongings Friday at Stillwater Community Hospital and head for home ---- the Absarokee apartment complex they had fled two days earlier.

The hospital became part hostel, with several rooms turned over to some of the apartment dwellers, who were ushered from their homes on the advice of emergency services officials.

"The tenants who could drive loaded up as many (people) as they could," said Zeigler, manager of the complex. "Others have family that came and got them."

Elsewhere, a fast-moving blaze in western Colorado destroyed at least one home and forced people to evacuate at least 50 others. By Friday night, most residents had returned home but people living in 10 homes near the fire were urged to keep away, said David Boyd, a Bureau of Land Management spokesman.

Light winds helped keep the blaze from spreading Friday and firefighters reduced the fire to 650 acres. The fire between Rulison and Rifle, about 190 miles west of Denver, was estimated at 1,300 acres, or about 2 square miles, said Larry Helmerick of the interagency Rocky Mountain Area Coordination Center.

In eastern Washington, firefighters were racing to shore up lines around several large wildfires before the arrival of warmer, drier weather forecast next week.

The largest Washington fire had blackened 149,487 acres, or 233 square miles, between Conconully and Winthrop in the Okanogan and Wenatchee national forests. It was being battled by 2,051 firefighters and was about 48 percent trailed.

On Friday, federal fire forecasters said the 2006 wildfire season probably will resemble last year's, which scorched about 8.2 million acres. Both years are well above the 4.7 million-acre average for the last 10 years.

First ladies' gowns, Star-Spangled Banner go into storage during museum renovation


WASHINGTON (AP) ---- Oscar the Grouch probably won't be happy about his next home: a cold, dark box that is far from "Sesame Street" and his beloved trash can.

The puppet is among tens of thousands of exhibits and artifacts that will be carefully stored as the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History prepares for a massive, two-year renovation.

The museum closes Tuesday. Many items in the way of the construction will be relocated to the building's wings, where they will be protected from the dust. They include Oscar, the first ladies' evening gowns and 4,000 lighting devices dating from the early 17th century.

"It's similar to moving your china cabinet, but not really," associate curator Stephen Velasquez said. "We very carefully ---- emphasize carefully ---- transfer each object."

Protecting the museum's collection has been an enormous undertaking. Most tourists see only a small percentage of the museum's 3.5 million items, such as the Star-Spangled Banner, the 30-by-42-foot flag that inspired the words for the national anthem.

Many items were already stored at the museum and at facilities in suburban Maryland and Virginia; others are part of exhibits on loan to the Smithsonian's partners.

Curators and conservators have been planning for the renovation for months. It can take weeks to move a vast collection of silver tea sets, flatware and ordinary Tupperware into temporary storage.

As for the Star-Spangled Banner, it will be carefully rolled up and placed in a crate. And Oscar the Grouch will get extra padding inside his body to prevent new wrinkles on the aging puppet.

The biggest construction worries for conservationists are humidity and temperature changes, excessive dust and potential vibrations from the construction.

Of particular concern is the museum's largest artifact, a 2.5 story timber-framed house that stood for 200 years in Massachusetts. It is now just inches from the construction zone, so museum staff members will build a plywood box around it, with hopes that building vibrations don't cause damage. Seismographs will be used to monitor the area.

"There are no standards in the conservation field for vibrations," said Richard Barden, the museum's chief conservator. "This is a good test case."

The exact relocation and storage costs aren't available, but they have been included in the museum's operating budget and in the $85 million renovation project.

The renovation comes four years after a commission report sharply criticized the museum's layout and presentation, calling them confusing.

Starting this fall, workers will slice through five floors of the building to create a new skylight and atrium that will be the core of the new exhibition space scheduled to open in 2008. The Star-Spangled Banner will be the centerpiece, with a dramatic new gallery that will use special lighting to depict "the dawn's early light."

Designers will also add new exhibit walls and open spaces to make the museum easier to navigate.

The renovation will bring the most significant changes since the museum opened in 1964 as the Museum of History and Technology.

"It's not often a museum goes through this kind of change," said William Yeingst, chair and curator of its division of Home and Community Life.

Several exhibits already have closed, including "The American Presidency: A Glorious Burden" gallery and the popular "First Ladies: Political Role and Public Image" exhibit. Eight gowns from former first ladies remain on temporary display until Tuesday.

Some of the most popular objects are being cleaned and prepared for exhibition elsewhere while the museum is closed. Dorothy's ruby slippers from "The Wizard of Oz" will be part of the exhibit opening Nov. 17 at the nearby National Air and Space Museum, along with R2D2 and C3PO from "Star Wars," President Lincoln's top hat and artifacts from Hurricane Katrina.

Beth Austin, an American who lives with her husband and children just outside of Paris, went to the museum recently with her youngest daughter, 10-year-old, Chloe.

"I thought this would be a good time to bring her down to see some significant Americana," Austin said. "When in her regular French life does anyone talk about the Star-Spangled Banner?"

On the Net:


National Museum of American History: http://americanhistory.si.edu

Purse snatching victim chases thief, then gives him some money


SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah (AP) ---- A 75-year-old woman ran after a man who stole her purse, got it back and gave him a tongue-lashing ---- and $3.

Betty Horton said the man apologized to her and said he was broke.

"I said, 'Why didn't you just ask me for some change? I would have helped you. I would have gladly given it to you,"' Horton said.

Horton was putting groceries in her car Wednesday when she noticed her purse was missing. She saw a man running with the bag under his arm.

"Good thing I had my running shoes on," Horton said.

She ran past businesses and saw him in a residential area standing over the unzipped purse, she said. She threatened to shoot his ear off, although she didn't have a gun.

Horton said she put money in his hand and told him, "Now get the heck out of here." Police arrived, but the thief ---- whom authorities described as a 40-year-old man ---- was gone.

"Seventy-five years old and I can still take care of myself," Horton said.

Friends, colleagues of late Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh protest stripped planet status


LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) ---- Size doesn't matter.

That was the message as friends and colleagues of the late Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, gathered on the New Mexico State University campus to protest the International Astronomical Union's recent decision to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.

About 50 students and staff members turned out Friday for the good-natured challenge. Some were wearing T-shirts and carrying signs that read "Protest for Pluto" and "Size Doesn't Matter."

Tombaugh's widow, Patricia, and their son, Al Tombaugh, also participated.

NMSU astronomer Bernie McNamara told the crowd that textbooks shouldn't be rewritten.

"Why not? Because the debate is not over," McNamara said.

The IAU determined last week that a planet must orbit the sun and be large enough to assume a nearly round shape, as well as "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." Pluto's oblong orbit overlaps Neptune's, which led the IAU to downsize the solar system to eight planets from the traditional nine.

McNamara argued that only about 400 of the union's thousands of members were present when the Aug. 24 vote was taken.

"This was not a statement by the astronomical community at large," he said, adding that a petition opposing the IAU definition of a planet is circulating among the world's planetary scientists and astronomers.

Tombaugh was 24 when he discovered Pluto while working at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., in 1930. He came to NMSU in 1955 and founded the school's research astronomy department.

His legacy is visible across the city, where an observatory, a campus street and an elementary school bear his name.

Some say Tombaugh's discovery was significant because it took 60 years for stronger telescopes to locate another object with an unusual orbit like Pluto's, and 73 years before scientists discovered a bigger object in the area.

"Clyde Tombaugh was an American hero," said Herb Beebe, a longtime colleague. "For that reason alone, Pluto's status as a full-fledged planet should be kept."

School board member fights baggy pants


DALLAS (AP) ---- A resident has a message for his city: Pull up your pants.

Ron Price, a Dallas school board member, has asked the City Council to look at strengthening a law to go after people who wear baggy pants and expose their underwear.

"I think it's disrespectful, it's dishonorable and it's disgusting," said Price, who made the recommendation last week. "I have no problem with the top of your Hanes label being shown. My problem is when grown men walk about the city with pants below their buttocks."

Council members have asked the city attorney to look into the issue. City Attorney Tom Perkins said this week he's investigating the legalities and will report back to the council.

But experts say that such a law might not hold up, so to speak.

It would be too vague, said Robert Jarvis, constitutional law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He said that for a criminal law to be constitutional, a person of average intelligence must know what's being prohibited.

"Who's to say how baggy pants can be before they're 'baggy pants,' " he said. "There's just no way to regulate these things."

Such proposals haven't made it too far in recent years. In Virginia, the Senate dropped a bill last year that would have fined those with pants so low their underwear was exposed. A similar bill from a Louisiana state representative failed to pass in 2004. And such proposals haven't faired well at the city level either.

Thieves steal ATM


HOLTSVILLE, N.Y. (AP) ---- If money could buy happiness, these thieves would be overjoyed. They stole the ATM.

Packs of thieves have been swiping the cash machines from drugstores and mom-and-pop shops around Suffolk County, most recently before dawn Friday. They smashed the front window of Dario Rodriguez's deli in Holtsville, withdrew the automated teller machine and fled.

Rodriguez said police told him there had been a dozen such smash-and-grabs recently.

"They break in, take the whole machine and are gone by the time the cops get here," he told Newsday.

The crooks crack open the ATMs, which can hold thousands of dollars each, remove the Andrew Jacksons and deposit the empty machines in the woods.

Detective Sgt. Frank Stewart said several of the thefts had been solved with a recent arrest.

Scantily-clad superintendent poses for calendar


MANNING, Iowa (AP) ---- A superintendent who posed as a nearly naked "Mr. August" in a charity calendar is rebuffing critics who say it amounts to soft-core pornography.

Roger Schmiedeskamp, superintendent of the Manning school district, joined other men, including bankers and insurance salesmen, in appearing in a 2007 calendar that will be sold to raise money for the local Rotary Club. The men appear partially disrobed in a spoof of the 2003 movie "Calendar Girls," in which 12 women appear naked to raise money for a hospital.

In the Manning calendar, Schmiedeskamp's image is superimposed in an old schoolhouse room in front of a chalkboard and behind a desk. He is shirtless and his legs are bare under the desk, creating the image that is naked in an empty classroom.

"When I saw it I was so angry at the setting," said Kathy Swanson, a parent and grandparent of students in the school district. "A kid is supposed to be safe in the classroom. This does not portray safe. It's sickening."

Brian Irlbeck, Manning school board president, said the board supports Schmiedeskamp. Schmiedeskamp said he appeared in the calendar only to raise money for the Rotarians.

"I didn't see anything that was inappropriate about it," said Schmiedeskamp, who wore a swimsuit during the photo shoot. "I think it's a worthwhile cause to raise some money to help the community."

Robot tracks fish


GREENVILLE, Maine (AP) ---- Anglers, don't be alarmed if you catch a trout with an antenna coming out of its belly. It's just a "robo-trout."

About 75 transmitter-equipped trout have been released in Moosehead Lake and its tributaries by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife as part of an effort to track them and maintain the right mix of fish.

Three of them have been caught by anglers, including Ken Snowdon, who nabbed one of the unusual fish back in January. The fish, sans transmitter and antenna, won first place in a fishing derby and is being mounted at a taxidermist shop.

The trout Snowdon plucked from the icy waters was a trophy fish that was 23 inches long and weighed 5 1/2 pounds. It also had a thin, 10-inch antenna protruding from its orange-red belly that was transmitting a signal.

The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife let Snowdon keep the fish but not before retrieving the $200 transmitter.

Snowdon asked a taxidermist to use a line of dark thread to mimic the antenna that was protruding from its belly.

Once it's mounted, it'll look like it did when Snowdon caught it, with the antenna-like thread coming from a small incision.

"It will be a conversation starter, that's for sure," he said.

Zoo plans renovation to allow public to see gorilla that escaped


BOSTON (AP) ---- Zoo officials plan to build a glass-walled cage to display Little Joe, a gorilla who escaped three years ago and mauled a 2-year-old girl.

The new cage, with a mesh cap of woven steel and triple-layer glass walls, is part of $2.3 million renovation of the exhibition space inside the Franklin Park Zoo's Tropical Forest building.

The renovation will display all seven of the zoo's gorillas, including Little Joe and another male, Okpara, who have been kept out of the public eye to prevent another escape.

In September 2003, Joe leapt out of the exhibit in his second escape in two months. Joe reached the zoo pavilion and attacked 2-year-old Nia Scott and an off-duty zoo employee, Courtney Roberson, 18. They suffered cuts and bruises after Joe threw both to the ground and dragged them.

Joe was loose in the neighborhood for more than two hours before police subdued him with tranquilizer darts.

Lawsuits filed by Scott's mother and Roberson against the zoo are pending. On Friday, the lawyer representing both families told The Boston Globe that the zoo's improvements are too late.

"Why did it take two escapes and gorilla attacks on two innocent girls before Zoo New England finally decided to make the necessary modifications to the exhibit to contain this gorilla?" Donald Gibson asked.

Zoo New England manages the Franklin Park Zoo.

Films that revisit traumatic events showcased at Venice Film Festival


VENICE, Italy (AP) ---- They were events that glued a disbelieving world to their television sets: the attacks on the World Trade Center, the death of Princess Diana, the breaching of New Orleans' levees during Hurricane Katrina.

Three films showcased at the 63rd Venice Film Festival revisit the traumas that, each in their own way and dimension, were pivotal events seared into the collective conscience. The timing of the films in relation to the events that inspired them provokes the question: how much distance does cinema need to revisit tragedy?

Stephen Frears' "The Queen" shows Britain's Queen Elizabeth II struggling to find the appropriate public face following Princess Diana's unexpected death in a car crash on Aug. 31, 1997. The movie premiered at the festival on Saturday.

Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center," currently being shown in U.S. theaters, is a memorial to those who risked their lives to save people trapped inside the twin towers after the Sept. 11 terror attacks nearly five years ago.

Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts," about the Hurricane Katrina disaster, debuted on HBO this week ---- a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

"The Queen" script writer Peter Morgan said that the near-decade that has elapsed since Diana's death was absolutely necessary to give the events proper perspective.

"You needed the time for the spectacle of Diana's death to diminish," Morgan said. "You realize now that the queen's memory eclipses that of Diana's. The queen has gone up to the pantheon of untouchable queens, while history now makes clear that Diana was a troubled figure and she wasn't the archangel or icon."

Frears effectively weaves in archive footage of TV coverage of the events with Helen Mirren's portrayal of a stoic Elizabeth striving to protect the dignity of the monarchy and Michael Sheen's portrayal of the newly elected Tony Blair's efforts to prevent the appearance of inaction from permanently damaging the monarchy.

Seemingly caught in between, a nervous Prince Charles, played by Alex Jennings, is unable to persuade his mother that Diana's popularity requires her to ditch protocol.

With his mother insisting that Diana's death should be mourned privately, Charles' secretary at one point calls Blair to express sympathy with Blair's position that Diana's funeral should be public, the movie reveals.

Stone traveled to Venice with John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno, the two Port Authority police officers whose rescue is recounted in "World Trade Center," and their wives. For them, there was no question that the time is right for their story to be told.

"It's never too soon to honor those who gave their lives to save other human beings," Jimeno said at a news conference.

The movie has been a huge box office hit in the United States, and Stone said he was convinced the film would play well around the world.

Stone defended the element of revenge for the attacks presented in the film through the character of Dave Karnes, a former Marine who went to New York and helped locate the trapped officers in 16 acres of rubble ---- and who later did two tours of duty in Iraq.

"It would be wrong for me to become politically correct at this stage of my life, and by that I mean to ignore the facts," Stone said. "Dave Karnes went back to Iraq precisely for the reasons of revenge, and we have to deal with that. The American people felt anger and they felt the desire for revenge that day."

Lee presented his film Friday night at Venice, where he was last year when the hurricane struck New Orleans with devastating ferocity.

"I was here in Venice one year ago today, and instead of seeing the wonderful films, I was in my hotel room riveted to the TV set, watching images I could not believe were coming from America," Lee said.

While Frears' and Stone's films needed more distance, Lee said he was trying to provoke action with his documentary.

"We hope this film will bring about a quicker rebuilding of New Orleans. Not just New Orleans, but the whole Gulf region," Lee said.

Three survive Auburn small plane crash


AUBURN (AP) ---- Three people survived both a plane crash and wild ride downstream in a fast-moving canal Saturday, getting themselves to shore before their single-engine plane submerged, police said.

The four-seat Piper Cherokee never really got off the ground as it attempted to take off from the Auburn airport about 8:40 a.m., said Auburn Police Sgt. Victor Pecoraro. It started fires along its path for several hundred feet before crashing into a Pacific Gas and Electric canal at the east end of the runway.

The swift water pushed the plane about a hundred yards downstream before it jammed against a metal grate.

"I guess you could say they're lucky," said Pecoraro.

"The pilot and two passengers somehow got themselves out of the plane," he said. "It's actually completely submerged except for a wing, which is broken."

All three were taken to Sutter Roseville Medical Center, one by helicopter and two by ambulance. All three are expected to survive, said Tina Rose, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The fires started by the plane were quickly extinguished, and crews worked to clean up about 50 gallons of fuel that spilled into the canal and then into Rock Creek Reservoir.

Authorities did not immediately identify the occupants of the plane. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were called in to investigate the crash.

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