OMAHA, Neb. — A musical prodigy who completed high school at age 10 apparently killed himself at 14, authorities said.

Brandenn E. Bremmer, who taught himself how to read at 18 months and began playing the piano at 3, was found dead Tuesday at his home in southwest Nebraska with a gunshot wound to the head, sheriff's officials said.

Patricia Bremmer said her son showed no signs of depression, had just finished the art for the cover of a second CD of his music, and had plans for Wednesday. She did not disclose details of how he was found.

"We're rationalizing now," she said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. … He was so connected with the spiritual world, we felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" so his organs could be donated.

She said Brandenn's kidneys went to two people, his liver to a 22-month old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.

Brandenn had decided in December he wanted to be an anesthesiologist, his mother said. He started taking a biology class at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, where he had also taken courses in 2001. She said he had planned to eventually attend the University of Nebraska.

Reached at home late Friday afternoon, Perkins County Sheriff James D. Brueggeman said the investigation was ongoing and declined to comment.

David Wohl, one of Brandenn's professors at Colorado State University at Fort Collins, Colo., where he had been taking classes and lessons since age 11, said Friday he was shocked to learn of Brandenn's apparent suicide.

Wohl, who last saw Brandenn in December, recalled him as an unpretentious young man who had an easy smile. "He wasn't just talented, he was just a really nice young man," Wohl said.

Brandenn was home-schooled through high school and completed his junior and senior years in seven months. For his high school graduation photo, Brandenn darkened his hair, wore round wire-rimmed glasses, and threw on a red cape to look like one of his favorite characters — Harry Potter.

Like most kids at that age, he loved cartoons, playing video games and going swimming. But he also loved playing the piano and began taking independent study classes at CSU because he was interested in the school's music department.

Man charged in Letterman plot had checkered past

Associated Press

CHOTEAU, Mont. — A painter accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's 16-month-old son previously pleaded guilty to stalking and intimidating a woman who alleges he also kidnapped and raped her.

Kelly A. Frank is on probation in the stalking case, with a 10-year suspended prison sentence, but Lewis and Clark County petitioned a judge Thursday to revoke his probation after learning of the alleged plot targeting the talk-show host's only child.

Frank, 43, was arrested Monday after an acquaintance told authorities Frank had confided his plot to kidnap Harry Joseph Letterman and his nanny, then hold them for $5 million ransom. Frank had been working at David Letterman's north-central Montana ranch west of Choteau and allegedly planned to kidnap the pair from the sprawling property.

The woman Frank admitted stalking obtained protective orders against him, but he was charged at least twice with violating them, according to court records. Court documents were not clear about the relationship. Frank has been divorced more than once.

The woman told Helena police that beginning in the spring of 1997, Frank stalked and harassed her for months. She said that one occasion he raped her, and in another, he kidnapped and drove her from Helena to Seeley Lake, more than 100 miles away.

Frank received a six-month county jail sentence for stalking and a suspended, 10-year prison sentence for intimidation.

In the latest case, Frank is charged with felony solicitation, felony theft for allegedly overcharging Letterman for painting work and misdemeanor obstruction for allegedly lying to an FBI agent who first questioned him about the plot.

Frank is being held on $600,000 bail and is scheduled to make his next court appearance Tuesday. Teton County authorities said it was not clear whether Frank had an attorney yet. He had not been assigned a public defender as of Friday afternoon.

In a statement issued Thursday by the publicist for Letterman's production company, World Wide Pants, Letterman and Regina Lasko, Harry's mother, praised the FBI and local authorities.

"We will be forever grateful for their tireless efforts and determination to vigorously pursue this situation," the couple said.

Authorities in Colorado investigate wildfire started by burning cow dung

Associated Press

LONGMONT, Colo. — Authorities are investigating whether Forest Service workers can be charged with arson for a 900-acre wildfire that was ignited after gusty winds carried flaming cow dung outside a controlled burn site.

Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck said he received several complaints from farmers and ranchers in the Pawnee National Grassland area, where the Forest Service was conducting a controlled burn of prairie weeds March 11.

Callers complained the fire shouldn't have been set because of high winds, and that the fire endangered farm property.

The sheriff's office this week agreed to investigate. District Ranger Steve Currey said Forest Service officials also are investigating.

Currey said the Forest Service will have to replace 14 power poles and a fence damaged in the fire.

N.J. wildlife officials trying to catch bear that killed miniature horse, dragged its carcass up a hill

Associated Press

ANDOVER, N.J. — Wildlife officials set a trap, baited with bacon and molasses, in hopes of catching a bear Friday that killed a miniature horse and dragged its carcass away.

"No other animal would have the strength to do that kind of harm," said Elaine Makatura, a spokeswoman for the Department of Environmental Protection.

The owner found the miniature horse's body Thursday at her farm in Sussex County in northern New Jersey. The 15-year-old horse, named Phantom, suffered a broken neck and was dragged through two electric fences and up a hill.

Bear prints were found.

"It was a big, big print," Patrolman Rod Mosner said. "It's amazing (the bear) had that much strength and power." The horse weighed at least 250 pounds.

This time of year, bears are starting to leave the dens where they hibernated in winter, and spring plants have not grown enough to be a substantial food source, wildlife officials said.

Italian appeals court upholds ruling excluding Mussolini granddaughter from regional election

Associated Press

ROME — Alessandra Mussolini — the outspoken granddaughter of Italy's fascist dictator — cannot run in a regional election next month, an appeals court said Friday, upholding a ruling blocking her from the ballot because of alleged fraud.

Mussolini reacted by hurling her cell phone against the camper van where she had been staging a 5-day-old hunger strike — one that included a daily allowance of three cappuccinos — during her appeal, the ANSA news agency said. After the ruling, she called off the hunger strike, saying: "Now I have to work," ANSA reported.

"I do not accept the decision of the (court)," Mussolini told reporters from the door of the van. Her lawyer, Francesco Rossi, said he would launch another appeal next week, ANSA said.

Mussolini, a deputy in the European Parliament, had been blocked from running in the Lazio regional ballot because of hundreds of allegedly bogus voter signatures on the list of her party, Social Alternative. Each party has to submit at least 3,500 signatures of registered voters to run for election in Lazio.

However, her party remains on the ballot in other regions.

Mussolini has accused right-wing incumbent Francesco Storace, of the National Alliance party, of instigating the investigation that led to her exclusion.

Two years ago, Mussolini left the National Alliance, part of Italy's center-right governing coalition, to start her own movement. Mussolini, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, complained that National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini had renounced the party's allegiance to Italy's fascist past.

She described her exclusion from the Lazio election as a move "by the government, by the ministers by the governors of the region against a party that has positioned itself outside the system. The system has won. But we'll fight all the same."

If allowed to run in the April 3-4 ballot, Mussolini could take a crucial 2 percent or 3 percent of the right-wing vote from Storace.

Storace greeted the court's decision Friday by wishing Mussolini, "Buon appetito," private TV Sky TG24 reported.

The case has sparked investigations into the possible presence of false signatures on party lists across the country before elections in 14 of Italy's 20 regions.

In Rome, the Interior Ministry announced Thursday that it was sending inspectors to registry offices to investigate the case.

Southern California college hosts racy video shoot, spurring complaints

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — An adult cable television network paid Pierce College $5,000 to use its baseball field for a racy promotional video, easing an economic crunch but raising questions about how far the school should go to raise money.

The Spice Digital Network, a subsidiary of Playboy Enterprises Inc., used the Joe Kelly baseball field for two days in early March to shoot the video that showed women and men in provocative attire.

"It's what I would call easy money," Pierce President Tom Oliver told the Los Angeles Daily News on Thursday. He said he received permission from the Los Angeles Community College District, which oversees the 18,000-student campus in suburban Woodland Hills.

He said there's a difference between photography and the nude models the campus uses in its art classes and pornography, which the campus does not allow.

"If we know they're going to do something that's pornographic, we would say no," Oliver said. "We have said no to a couple of shoots before. Photography is one thing, but when you get multiple people involved … when you co-mingle people, that's not art."

Staff members of the campus newspaper, the Roundup, disagreed, noting the college houses a child development center with small children.

"We were really outraged by it," said Marti Zamorano, the paper's editor. "I'm a mom, and it really bothered me that they would do something like that. Other people found it degrading to women, especially since it's women's history month."

The newspaper published an editorial that said: "Yes, Pierce needs the money. However, how far are they willing to go and what's next?"

Spice spokesman Scott Barton described the video as "provocative, playful, sexy and fun."

"It was baseball-themed," he said. "There were two teams — nine women and nine men — playing baseball, who were provocatively dressed."

During filming, a tarp was used to cover the baseball field.

"It's a freedom-of-speech issue," said Diane Levine, an anthropology professor and secretary of the faculty senate. "All I saw was catering trucks and a very large beach ball-sized baseball. Everything else was closed off."

Renting campus facilities for television and film projects is common in the Los Angeles area. Pierce makes $50,000 to $75,000 a year in such rentals.

American chess star Bobby Fischer clears another hurdle in his bid for Icelandic citizenship

Associated Press

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — American chess genius Bobby Fischer took the advantage Friday in his latest move to avoid deportation to the United States, as an Icelandic committee agreed to send his request for citizenship to parliament for a vote.

Fischer, an erratic personality who is wanted in the United States on charges of violating international sanctions against the former Yugoslavia, has been in Japanese custody since his July 13 detention while trying to board a flight with an invalid passport.

That provoked a series of efforts by the 62-year-old chess legend and determined supporters to fight a deportation order to the United States.

A parliamentary committee in Iceland on Friday approved a measure to grant citizenship to Fischer, sending it to the 63-member Althingi for a vote next week.

"The matter has been finished," said Gudrun Oegmundsdottir, a member the General Committee. "It will now go before the parliament on Monday for the vote."

There is widespread support for Fischer in Iceland, where he played the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in a world championship match in 1972, and parliament is expected to approve the measure.

The Japanese government had no immediate official reaction. But Saemundur Palsson, one of Fischer's supporters in Iceland, claimed Japan had confirmed it would allow him to go to Iceland if citizenship was granted.

"This is great news," Palsson said. "They had been waiting on confirmation from Japan that Fischer would be let go if he had Icelandic citizenship. This arrived to me this morning."

Fischer became an icon when he dethroned Spassky in a series of games in Reykjavik to claim America's first world chess championship in more than a century. But a few years later he forfeited the title to another Soviet, Anatoly Karpov, when he refused to defend it. He then fell into obscurity before resurfacing to play an exhibition rematch against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

Fischer won the rematch on the resort island of Sveti Stefan. But the victory came with a high price — It was played in violation of U.S. sanctions imposed to punish then-President Slobodan Milosevic. If convicted, Fischer, who hasn't been to the United States since then, could face 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Fischer also has emerged from silence in radio broadcasts and on his Web page to express anti-Semitic views and rail against the United States.

Fischer has repeatedly denounced the U.S. deportation order as politically motivated, demanded refugee status, renounced his U.S. citizenship and said he wants to become a German national instead. He also has applied to marry Mikyoko Watai, head of the Japan Chess Association.

A federal grand jury in Washington, meanwhile, is investigating possible money-laundering charges involving Fischer, Richard J. Vattuone, one of his lawyers said this month.

Fischer was reported to have received $3.5 million from the competition in the former Yugoslavia. He boasted at the time that he didn't intend to pay any income tax on the money.

Vattuone, who has been working to secure Fischer's release from the Japanese detention center, said he believes U.S. prosecutors are now exploring money laundering and tax charges in an attempt to extradite Fischer eventually from Iceland or Japan.

Iceland's parliament voted last month against granting Fischer citizenship, offering him a special foreigners' passport and residence permit instead. But Japanese officials declined to release him. Supporters are hoping the offer of citizenship will resolve the standoff over his status.

Historic castle goes on auction block after investment scam

Associated Press

DENVER — A century-old castle with a history full of ghosts, ex-presidents and tycoons goes up for auction Saturday, two years after federal agents seized it as part of a multimillion-dollar investing scam.

The 42-room mansion in the mountains near Aspen has a roller coaster past: Teddy Roosevelt stayed at the estate during a hunting trip after he left the White House; oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller did too. But it was nearly abandoned after a mining bust, and some say the cigar-smoking ghost of its builder, coal baron John Cleveland Osgood, still haunts the halls.

"We're hoping the right buyer will come by and recognize the need to preserve a very important part of Colorado history and a very important part of U.S. history," Internal Revenue Service special agent Jim Harrison said.

Lined with antiques and surrounded by a carriage house, barn and other outbuildings, the castle and 149-acre estate last sold in 2000 for about $6 million. Harrison declined to say what it is worth today.

Federal agents seized the castle in March 2003 during a federal investigation into an international Ponzi scheme. The IRS also seized about $17 million in cash from various bank accounts and race cars worth $2 million.

Investigators say about 1,000 people were bilked of about $56 million on the promise of 400 percent returns on their investments. A grand jury handed down a 57-count indictment against seven people last year; a trial is scheduled in September.

The mansion, in the Crystal River Valley about 170 miles west of Denver, was finished in 1902 at a price of $2.5 million — an astonishing sum at the time.

Osgood called it Cleveholm Manor. It was erected on a mountainside overlooking the coal-mining town he built for his employees.

"It's kind of like a medieval manor. The castle was about an aristocratic mile away from the village," said Redstone Historical Society president Darrell Munsell.

"It demonstrates Osgood's philosophy of industrial paternalism. Osgood believed that his employees should be contented, satisfied workers," said Munsell, who is writing a book about Osgood's labor policies. "He thought if they were satisfied with their conditions, they wouldn't join the union and he would be rewarded with more production and less labor strife."

Osgood built cottages for the married workers, a dormitory for single employees, a library, a community center, a store and other structures in his company town, now called Redstone.

It was a virtual ghost town by 1910, after the coal mine where most of the residents worked shut down. The mansion was largely neglected until 1924, when Osgood came back to stay until his death in 1926.

Despite a string of owners, the castle and grounds remain largely unchanged. Since the 1970s, the estate has usually been open for tours, wedding parties and other events.

"The castle, of course, brings in tourism. Without the castle open to the public, that would really hurt the economy of Redstone," Munsell said. "It attracts hundreds of tourists."

About 100 people now live in Redstone, with a few hundred more in the surrounding area.

Harrison said more than two dozen potential buyers attended a pre-auction meeting last week, and at least five could be serious bidders.

"This is the first castle, and probably the last, the department has seized. There just aren't that many structures like this anywhere in the country," he said.

On the Net:

Redstone Castle: http://www.redstoneinn.com/castle.html