TAMPA, Fla. - Genevieve Chandler has been visiting the Lowry Park Zoo since she was a kid, but the tour she got the other night was definitely not the G-rated fare of her childhood.

Among the things Chandler, 30, and her date learned on their "Wild at Heart" zoo tour: Male pigs have a unique corkscrew endowment and impressive, um, output; manatees have orgies and don't really care if their partners are male or female; and a male porcupine has only one four-hour window a year to mate.

And how do those fortunate few porcupines that get to home plate make love?

Very carefully, of course.

Valentine's Day is the time of year when zoos around the nation seek to woo a new adult audience with risque tours that couple champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries and candlelight dining with impressive facts about how animals do the wild thing.

Credit for the concept goes to Jane Tollini, a former penguin keeper at the San Francisco Zoo. Tollini conceived the idea two decades ago while watching her penguins' courtship ritual, which culminates in what she describes as "bowling pins making love."

"The keepers get there early and we see things that other people don't see," Tollini said. "And I went, 'My God, that's fascinating.' You know the old Peter Sellers line, 'I like to watch?' You kind of go, 'Oh my, my, my. How big? How many? How far?' It was unbelievable."

She set the ritual to Johnny Mathis - the makeout tunes of her generation - pitched it to her bosses and a new zoo tradition was born. The idea soon spread to other zoos.

San Francisco calls it "Woo at the Zoo." New York City's Central Park Zoo calls it "Jungle Love." Zoo marketing folks in Boise, Idaho named the tour "Wild Love at the Zoo."

"Sex sells. No matter what," Tollini said. "I wish I had a nickel for everybody that has copied me. But not every city is as liberal as San Francisco and can get away with what I do."

Even in San Francisco, zoo sex tours are mostly all talk and no action. Animals do it when they please, or, in some cases, when their human keepers deem it appropriate.

Tour guides in Tampa warned of possible manatee make-out sessions. But the giant mammals were content to munch on vegetation while the tour group ate a candlelight dinner in front of the zoo's massive aquarium windows.

"Manatees are not particular," said Rachel Nelson, the zoo's director of public relations. "We have only males right now and they don't seem to care."

Despite the blunt talk on the tour, many in the Saturday crowd in Tampa were coy about their reasons for attending.

"I really like the zoo and I thought it was a nice thing to do with my boyfriend for Valentine's Day," Chandler said.

Her most memorable statistic: "whales have like 10-foot-long whatevers."

Hillsborough Community College professor Mara Manis said the evening's unique educational twist attracted her to the tour.

"People always look to do something on Valentine's Day. It's one of those holidays where everything has been done so many times. It's so forced." Manis said. "And this is different."

Her date, landscape architect John Tate, made it clear he hoped to cash in on the "King of the Jungle" title he won earlier in the evening. His moves were deemed the best in a contest showcasing how some male animals must win their mates with elaborate dances.

"This is the only time of year I have free license," Tate said, smiling.

Teenage gunman who killed 5 in Utah mall targeted people at random, heavily armed, chief says

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A trench coat-clad teenager who opened fire on shoppers at a mall had one thing in mind: "to kill a large number of people," and he likely would have killed more than the five victims who died had an off-duty officer not confronted him, the police chief said Tuesday.

"There is no question that his quick action saved the lives of numerous other people," Police Chief Chris Burbank said of the officer.

Burbank identified the gunman as Sulejmen Talovic, an 18-year-old who lives with his mother in Salt Lake City, and said he had a backpack full of ammunition, the shotgun he was using and a .38-caliber pistol.

The teen killed five people and wounded four at the Trolley Square mall, including two people in the parking lot as he arrived around 7 p.m. Monday, another at the entrance and then several people inside a card store, the police chief said.

"It appears to be very random," Burbank said. "There was no sense to why he was doing what he was doing."

"The suspect in this particular circumstance had one thing on his mind, and that was to kill a large number of people," Burbank said.

Had the off-duty Ogden police officer, who had a gun but no extra equipment or additional ammunition, not gone after the gunman, the teenager likely would have continued shooting people on his way through the mall, Burbank said. He said police knew little about the young man.

The card store Cabin Fever had been packed with Valentine's Day shoppers Monday night when the shooting started, store owner David Dean said.

Dean said his assistant manager called him, saying "someone's in the store killing people." The place was "all shot up," Dean said. He said three or four of the victims were shot inside.

As investigators began interviewing the 100 to 200 witnesses, people placed candles and flowers at two memorials outside the mall for the victims. Business owners surveyed the damage, and shoppers who had fled returned to pick up cars they had to leave parked overnight.

Marie Smith, 23, a Bath & Body Works manager, said she had seen the gunman through the store window. She watched as he raised his gun and fired at a young woman approaching him from behind.

"His expression stayed totally calm. He didn't seem upset, or like he was on a rampage," said Smith, who crawled to an employee restroom to hide with others. He looked like "an average Joe," she said.

Killed in the attack were two 28-year-old women, a 52-year-old man, a 24-year-old man and a 15-year-old girl, Detective Robin Snyder said. Four people were hospitalized - a man and a woman in critical condition and two men in serious condition, Snyder said.

For hours after the rampage, police searched stores for scared, shocked shoppers and employees who were hunkered down awaiting a safe escort.

Matt Lund was visiting his wife, Barbara, manager of the Secret Garden children's clothing store, when he heard the first shots. The couple and three others hid in a storage room for about 40 minutes, isolated but still able to hear the violence.

"We heard them say 'Police! Drop your weapon!' Then we heard shotgun fire. Then there was a barrage of gunfire," said Lund, 44. "It was hard to believe."

Witnesses said officers treated everyone like suspects - ordering those hiding in storerooms, bathrooms or under stairwells, to lie on the floor with their hands on their heads until police were sure no one posed a threat.

On the way out, Lund said, he saw a woman's body face-down at the entrance to Pottery Barn Kids and a man's body on the floor in the mall's east-west corridor. "There were a lot of blown-out store windows and shotgun shell casings all over the floor," Lund said. "It was quite surreal."

The victims were found throughout the 239,000-square-foot shopping mall.

Outside, streets were blocked as police swarmed the four-block scene. Dozens of people lingered on the sidewalk, many wrapped in blankets, as they talked about what they had seen inside.

Four police officers - the off-duty officer from Ogden and three Salt Lake City officers - were involved in the shootout with the gunman, Snyder said. She provided no other details.

The two-story mall, southeast of downtown, is a refurbished trolley barn built in 1908, with a series of winding hallways, brick floors, wrought-iron balconies and about 80 stores, including high-end retailers such as Williams-Sonoma and restaurants such as the Hard Rock Cafe.

It was purchased in August by Scanlan Kemper Bard Cos. of Portland, Ore., from Simon Property Group for $38.6 million. The company said it planned to invest $80 million, attract a new anchor tenant and possibly add condominiums.

"We are devastated and shocked by this senseless, random act of violence and tragedy at Trolley Square, owner Tom Bard said in a statement posted on the KSL-TV Web site. "At this time our greatest concern and prayers are with the victims, their families and loved ones."

Associated Press writer Doug Alden in Salt Lake City contributed to this report.

Police chief: Off-duty officer repeatedly fired at mall gunman and 'saved the lives of numerous other people'

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Police chief says an off-duty officer celebrating an early Valentine's Day with his wife repeatedly fired at mall gunman and "saved the lives of numerous other people."

Burglary occurred at home of singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw

LOS ANGELES - A burglary occurred over the weekend at the Hollywood Hills home of country music singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, police said Tuesday.

The burglary took place some time between Friday afternoon and yesterday, said Los Angeles police Officer Martha Garcia.

An "unknown amount of money" was taken from the home, listed in Faith Hill's name, Garcia said.

Camera crews reported the location as being in the Beverly Park gated community in the 13100 block of Mulholland Drive.

-- North County Times wire services

San Rafael man faked kidnapping to hide car crash from wife

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (AP) - A San Rafael man who allegedly faked his own kidnapping to keep his wife from finding out he crashed her new car could face criminal charges, police said.

Jorge Alberto Mejia, 35, told police two kidnappers held him up at gunpoint at a San Rafael bar Saturday and ordered him to drive to Santa Rosa, where he purposely crashed the car into a wall to escape.

Under questioning Monday, Mejia admitted to investigators he made the story up, including detailed descriptions of the nonexistent kidnappers.

"As far as we can tell, he was alone in the car," police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher said.

Mejia was actually heading to a Sonoma County casino when he accidentally crashed his wife's 2007 Ford Focus and was worried about how she would react, Rohrbacher said.

Police were still considering whether to file charges against Mejia for making a false report.

Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri smacked with heavy snow, ice and wind

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - A blast of snow, freezing rain and plunging temperatures created headaches for travelers Tuesday across the Midwest with canceled flights and cars and tractor-trailer rigs sliding off highways.

A blizzard warning was in effect until midnight for counties north of Indianapolis, and a foot or more of snow was possible across Indiana's midsection and parts of Illinois.

As the storm pushed eastward, the National Weather Service issued winter storm watches and warnings extending from Iowa and Missouri across the Ohio Valley into parts of New England. By midday, snow was falling from Iowa to the mid-Atlantic states.

At least four traffic deaths were blamed on the snow and ice - three in Nebraska and one in Missouri - and a tornado killed one person in Louisiana.

More than 10 inches of snow had fallen in north-central Indiana by late morning and wind gusting to 40 mph piled the snow into drifts up to 3 feet high, weather service meteorologist Logan Johnson said in Indianapolis.

Snow removal service owner Mark Hawk started plowing parking lots and subdivisions at about 4:30 a.m. in Carmel, a northern suburb of Indianapolis.

"I'd get something done, and I'd have to go back over my work because it didn't look like I had done anything" as snow fell and drifted behind him, Hawk said.

Cold air dragged southward by the weather system dropped the temperature at Grand Forks, N.D., from 11 below zero at midnight to 20 below at midmorning, the weather service said. Temperatures as low as minus 15 were possible in northern Illinois.

Chicago's O'Hare International Airport canceled more than 400 flights Tuesday, city aviation department spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said. Midway Airport canceled about 100 flights. A handful of flights also were canceled at the Indianapolis International Airport, and about 20 percent of the flights out of Cincinnati's main airport were canceled because of poor conditions elsewhere, spokesmen said.

Schools were canceled or delayed in several states. A Pennsylvania legislative committee ended a meeting early because of the weather and canceled Wednesday's planned session. Up to 2 feet of snow was possible at higher elevations of northern Pennsylvania.

Officials in west-central Indiana's Fountain County declared a snow emergency and roads were closed except for "extreme emergency traffic."

"People are sliding off everywhere," said Joe Whittaker, the county's emergency management director.

Ohio state officials said roads were wet or snow-covered in every county, and southbound lanes of Interstate 75 were closed in the Dayton area because of jackknifed tractor-trailer rigs.

Along the southern edge of the snow belt, freezing rain coated roads, tree limbs and power lines with as much as a quarter-inch of ice. About 6,000 Duke Energy customers lost power in Indiana, said spokeswoman Angeline Protogere.

Rain and thunderstorms extended farther south, producing a possible tornado that killed at least one person, injured more than a dozen others and damaged dozens of homes in the New Orleans area.

In New York state, where communities on the eastern end of Lake Ontario have endured a week of lake-effect snow measured in feet instead of inches, forecasters said the storm could produce 8 to 20 inches of snow in some areas.

The upstate New York town of Redfield is the hardest hit. Incomplete records prevent the weather service from calling the 11 feet, 9 inches of snow that fell there over the past 10 days an official record, but it does beat the 10 feet, 7 inches that fell in nearby Montague over seven days ending Jan. 1, 2002.

Associated Press writers Nelson Lampe in Omaha, Neb.; William Kates in Redfield, N.Y., and Anna Jo Bratton in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.

On the Net:

Weather Underground: http://www.wunderground.com

Officials from an animal welfare organization offer safety tips to protect their pets' health on Valentine's Day

LOS ANGELES - Officials from an animal welfare organization urged Southlanders Tuesday to use common-sense safety tips to protect their pets' health on Valentine's Day.

Among the dangers for pets are items that their owners would consider part of a Valentine's Day celebration - chocolate, flowers and candles, said Jeff Blodgett of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles.

Blodgett said chocolate is "very toxic" to dogs, even in small amounts, and pet owners should contact a veterinarian if they suspect their pet has gotten into the sweets.

Also, certain plants and flowers can be toxic, especially the packets that come with some floral arrangements that go into the water to keep the plants fresh.

And burning candles can attract animals, who can be harmed by the flames or the hot wax.

Blodgett also cautioned people that rings and necklaces, if left unattended, can get find their way into a pet's stomach.

-- North County Times wire services

Ark. police say apparent domestic dispute led to shooting that killed 3, wounded 2

PALESTINE, Ark. (AP) - A domestic dispute ended in the shooting deaths of three people early Tuesday and wounding of two others, including a sheriff's deputy, authorities said. Police were searching for a man who was believed to have several firearms.

State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said authorities were searching for Gordon Randal Gwathney, 46.

Gwathney and his wife, Lisa, are divorcing, and she had moved in with her mother and grandparents about five miles outside Palestine in eastern Arkansas, St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May said. The shootings occurred in their home, he said.

The sheriff said Lisa Gwathney, 35, heard shots and was able to run for help.

Her mother, Sylvia Reeves, 51, and her grandparents, J.O. Mitchell, 81, and Evelyn Mitchell, 79, were killed, May said.

Lisa Gwathney's brother, Travis Reeves, who lives nearby, was wounded in a gunfight with Gwathney, Sadler said. Deputy Terry Jackson was shot as Gwathney fled.

Ark. police say apparent domestic dispute led to shooting that killed 3, wounded 2

PALESTINE, Ark. (AP) - A domestic dispute ended in the shooting deaths of three people early Tuesday and wounding of two others, including a sheriff's deputy, authorities said. Police were searching for a man who was believed to have several firearms.

State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said authorities were searching for Gordon Randal Gwathney, 46.

Gwathney and his wife, Lisa, are divorcing, and she had moved in with her mother and grandparents about five miles outside Palestine in eastern Arkansas, St. Francis County Sheriff Bobby May said. The shootings occurred in their home, he said.

The sheriff said Lisa Gwathney, 35, heard shots and was able to run for help.

Her mother, Sylvia Reeves, 51, and her grandparents, J.O. Mitchell, 81, and Evelyn Mitchell, 79, were killed, May said.

Lisa Gwathney's brother, Travis Reeves, who lives nearby, was wounded in a gunfight with Gwathney, Sadler said. Deputy Terry Jackson was shot as Gwathney fled.

Tape of emergency call reveals little about Anna Nicole Smith's death in Florida

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith was unresponsive and not breathing when an Indian tribe's police department requested help from paramedics, according to a tape released Tuesday.

In the 31-second call, the Seminole tribal police department asked Hollywood paramedics for help in assisting Smith, who was found unconscious in her room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on the tribe's reservation.

"She's not breathing, and she's not responsive. She's, um, actually Anna Nicole Smith," the woman from the Seminole Police is heard saying in asking for help in Room 607.

"Oh, OK," a woman at the Hollywood Police Department responds.

Officials say they were on the scene six minutes after the call. Smith, a former Playboy playmate, model and reality TV character, was pronounced dead about an hour later at a hospital.

Hollywood Police Capt. Tony Rode, who played the tape for the media, referred all questions to the Seminole Police Department, which did not immediately respond to a call for comment Tuesday.

"This investigation belongs to the Seminole Police Department," Rode said. "You are looking at the extent of our role."

The initial emergency call to the Seminole Police was not released; the Seminoles are a sovereign Indian nation and not subject to state open government laws.

Smith's partner, Howard K. Stern, wasn't with her when she died, but he had been there that morning, and he knew she was very sick, his sister, Bonnie Stern, said. Smith had been running a fever of 105 degrees, and a nurse was "icing her down" earlier that day, she said.

"When he left her, she was sleeping," Bonnie Stern said.

Howard Stern had been gone only about two hours when news reached him that Smith was dead, his sister said.

Bonnie Stern, who recently traveled from her Beverly Hills home to the Bahamas to comfort her brother, said he had tried to get Smith to visit a doctor but Smith had refused because she was afraid that it would draw publicity.

"They had plans to get a yacht and to buy an engagement ring. They were going to get married Feb. 27. It was going to be a real marriage," she said.

Asked what she thought caused Smith's death, Bonnie Stern said: "Her immunity was so low. She was so depressed. She kept getting sick and her body just probably broke down."

Smith had never recovered from the loss of her 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas in September while visiting his mother and newborn half-sister at a hospital, friends said. She had also spent a decade battling in court over the estate of her late husband, the 90-year-old Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Alex Goen, the founder and CEO of TrimSpa, knew Smith well from working with her as a company spokesmodel and said she suffered from social anxiety, as well, even after years in the celebrity spotlight.

"She was clearly incredibly misunderstood," Goen told CBS's "The Early Show" on Tuesday.

Smith had gone through drug rehabilitation in the past, and her mother, Vergie Arthur, has blamed drugs for her daughter's death.

Smith had met Stern in 1996 when she was referred to his law firm, Bonnie Stern said.

"He started doing her legal work and then he became her confidant. They became best friends and then he fell in love with her," she said.

Stern, 38, is listed on a birth certificate as the father of Smith's baby girl. He said in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" that he is the executor of a will drafted for Smith that will leave everything to the little girl, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern.

Another man, Larry Birkhead, also claims to be the father, and actress Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt, recently said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and might be the baby's father. Von Anhalt said Monday that he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.

Birkhead told New York's Daily News that he and Smith had meticulously planned for the birth of the child, but that after they broke up he was pushed to the side.

"Howard has never liked me and he never wanted me and Anna to be together," Birkhead, 34, told the Daily News in Tuesday's editions. "After she got pregnant, things went quickly downhill because of his difference of opinion on several matters."

Birkhead recounted how he had tried to save Smith from her risky lifestyle. He said Smith left him because of his attempts to intervene. The couple split early last summer.

"I watched over her to make sure she was safe, and once I was basically pushed to the side," he said, "I had no control over what she did or anyone else around her did."

Bonnie Stern said "there were times of some intimacy" between Birkhead and Smith, but said, "Larry Birkhead was not her boyfriend."

Associated Press Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Corporate jet crashes at Moscow airport, 3 crew on board survive

MOSCOW (AP) - A corporate jet carrying only its crew crashed at a Moscow airport on Tuesday while taking off during a snowstorm, officials said. All three crew members on board survived.

Before the twin-engine Challenger 850 crashed, a fire broke out on board as it took off from Vnukovo airport on a flight to Berlin, Transport Ministry spokesman Timur Khikmatov said.

The plane's operator, Moscow-based Fort Aero, said three crew members were on board, and two were hospitalized. Russian officials offered conflicting reports about their nationalities.

Air traffic controller Konstantin Fyodorov told state-run television that the plane caught fire and overturned while taking off. Khikmatov and emergency officials said the fire appeared to be in one of the plane's engines.

Moscow was enveloped in blowing snow Tuesday. Vnukovo closed for about three hours after the accident.

One of Moscow's other international airports, Sheremetyevo, shut down for about half an hour earlier in the day while runways were cleared. Sheremetyevo and the other main airport, Domodedovo, both remained open later.

Marketing company meeting turns into multiple murder-suicide at Philadelphia office park

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Three men were shot to death in a marketing company conference room and another was critically injured by a gunman who killed himself as police closed in, authorities said.

Police found a scene of "utter chaos" Monday night at the offices of Zigzag Net Inc., city police Deputy Commissioner Richard Ross said.

Two victims were on the floor and another was in a chair, all with "wounds to various parts of the body," Ross said. He said two other men had been bound with duct tape but not attacked. One of those men told officers the gunman had shot himself after exchanging fire with police officer, Ross said.

"The officer mentioned to me that he had to take a knife out to cut this person loose," Ross said. None of the police officers was hurt.

Police identified the victims as Robert Norris, 41, of Newark, Del.; Mark Norris, 46, of Piles Grove, N.J.; and James Reif, 42, of Endicott, N.Y. The injured victim, whose name was not released, was taken to Thomas Jefferson Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition Tuesday morning.

Zigzag's Web site lists Mark Norris as president and CEO. Mark Norris and Robert Norris are brothers, said Aaron Haydn McLean, Zigzag's senior art director, but McLean said he had not been told that the company CEO was among the dead.

Reif worked with another company, Watson International, McLean said. Watson International's Web site lists a Robert Norris as vice president of business development. A phone number listed on the Web site was disconnected.

Zigzag has about 15 employees, said McLean, who has worked there for about five years.

The gunman's role in the company was not immediately clear, but Ross said police believed he might have been an investor.

Police scheduled an early afternoon news conference to discuss the shooting.

The shootings took place in the Philadelphia Naval Business Center, an office park that is part of the old Philadelphia Navy Yard.

It was one of the Navy's busiest shipbuilders during World War II but closed in 1995. Two years later, a private company, Kvaerner, resumed commercial shipbuilding in a portion of the shipyard, which is now known as Aker Shipyard. Other areas of the Navy facility have been converted to business and office use.

Dogs are banned from the Alaska Capitol after one of them makes a big mess

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - No one wants to point a finger and no one will name names, but a certain large dog at the Alaska Capitol recently abused the privilege and spoiled things for the other four-legged visitors.

Security cameras captured the dog on its first - and last - visit to the Capitol, leaving a sizable deposit in front of the fourth-floor elevators.

In reaction, a legislative committee this month banned dogs from the building, making the political atmosphere in Juneau a little less warm and fuzzy and a little more dog-eat-dog.

"We'd had several incidents through the interim and that was probably the icing on the cake," said building manager Don Johnston, who viewed the videotapes to identify the culprit.

Citing the potential for damage to expensive new carpeting and for liability in the case of a dog bite, the committee made it a firing offense for legislative staff members to bring in a pet. Guide dogs are exempt. Lawmakers, who can be fired only by the folks back home, could be hit with a $25 fine.

Though he claims his dog, Izzy, an occasional visitor to the Capitol, is "better behaved than many of the people in the building," Sen. Kim Elton voted for the ban.

"Having dogs in the building bothered some people, I know some people have allergies, and not everybody's dog is a good citizen," said the Juneau Democrat.

Elton announced the ouster with a large X over Izzy's photo on his weekly newsletter to constituents, inadvertently spreading alarm among readers that the miniature Australian Shepherd was dead.

Izzy is just the tip of a long tale of dogs - with names like Louie, Milo, Jack, Pint, Rainy and Tuggy - frequenting the Capitol in a city that loves its dogs.

Perched on the waters of the Inside Passage and surrounded by national forest, Juneau has an estimated 8,000 dogs, or about one for every four of its 30,000 residents. Issues like leash requirements on trails can pack the city assembly chambers with ardent dog-loving protesters.

During the Legislature's four-month regular session, some lawmakers and staffers come to Juneau - the nation's most inaccessible state capital - with their dogs in tow.

Local humane society director Chava Lee said her office has received numerous complaints from the Capitol. But because dogs are so popular around here, the calls all have a certain similarity.

"They begin like this: `Hi, I don't want to give my name, and I want you to know that I love dogs, but … ,"' Lee said. "There's always an `I love dogs' and a `but' and then, you know."

The callers then go on to complain about dog hair, about dogs jumping on them, about "accidents."

Lee recommends the caller talk to the owner about the problem early on. "If somebody just said something to them, most people would take responsibility. But usually, by the time someone does, they are so furious it becomes confrontational," Lee said.

But in the Capitol, people tend to shy away from confrontations over dogs - particularly when the dog owner has clout.

Former Gov. Tony Knowles' black Labrador, Shadow, was a fixture on the third floor during his master's two terms in the executive branch. Shadow had his share of accidents, said Gregg Erickson, a longtime political observer and economist. But staffers were loath to complain to Knowles, a powerful Democrat who served from 1996 to 2004.

Former House Speaker Ramona Barnes, whose miniature schnauzer rivaled its owner's blond bouffant in size, also brought her dog to work. The tough-talking Republican, who served from 1978 to 1998, expected her aides to take Muffin for walks.

"You'd also see other legislators being conned into walking her dog when she was house speaker," said Erickson, who remembers a powerful Anchorage senator admitting that it was one way to get his bill out of committee.

Around the country, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer takes his dog everywhere in the state Capitol, while the New Mexico Capitol in Santa Fe has an unwritten rule against pets that was issued after a lawmaker let lhasa apso, Muffin, roam Senate offices and corridors.

In Alaska, the days of the dog wagging the system are over.

Lee said it is too bad a few bad dogs - and bad dog owners - can spoil it for the rest, but she understands why the ban was put it place. There are often political messes in the Capitol, Lee said, "but people would like to keep it off the floors."

On the Net:

Alaska Legislature: http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/home.htm

$1 million lottery winner diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer

NAPLES, N.Y. (AP) - Five weeks after Wayne Schenk was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer, he hit a $1 million state lottery jackpot on a $5 scratch-off ticket.

With doctors giving him little more than a year to live, the former Marine has no need for a new house, or a fancy car. He's hoping to buy a little time - by checking into a Philadelphia hospital that specializes in treating advanced-stage cancers.

"I understand money can't buy everything, but money can prolong things, you know?" Schenk said.

It's proving much trickier than he imagined.

The $1 million New York Lottery prize pays out in $50,000 annual installments over 20 years, and the Eastern Regional Medical Center told him it would need $125,000 up front and $250,000 in reserves to be tapped as his treatment proceeds. His insurance with the Department of Veteran Affairs cannot be transferred to an out-of-network provider.

"If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all," Schenk, 51, said with a wheezy laugh as he sat in a friend's pickup outside an attorney's office where he recently went to draw up his will.

Schenk recently cashed his first lottery check - $34,000 after taxes - and is still scrambling to find a lump-sum arrangement. He's been offered a lump sum of more than $400,000, but after taxes he'd only be left with a little more than $200,000.

Chris Hamrick, a spokesman for the Cancer Treatment Centers of America that runs the Philadelphia hospital, said officials were looking into how they could help.

Schenk also has turned to his state assemblyman, Joseph Errigo, who plans to co-sponsor a bill to allow the lottery to award a lump sum in extraordinary cases. But a legislative change could take longer than Schenk has.

"We're incredibly sympathetic," said Susan Miller, deputy director of the New York Lottery. "But we're not able, because of our rules and regulations, to just write him a (lump-sum) check. We're absolutely willing to expedite the paperwork if he can talk to a bank or a company that does this."

For now, the lifelong smoker whose parents both died of lung cancer in the 1990s drives every few weeks to the VA Medical Center in Syracuse for chemotherapy sessions - and is even looking into enlisting in an experimental cancer-drug trial at a hospital in Alberta, Canada.

"The VA is a very good hospital but the VA works on a hundred different things," said Schenk, who served on a troop ship off Lebanon during a stint in the Marines from 1976 to 1980. "There's newer treatments out there. It takes the government a little time to come around to some of the other ways."

Schenk, who is unmarried and has no children, bought a tavern on Main Street a year ago after decades of working odd jobs in construction, the highway department and at a nearby ski resort in the hilly Finger Lakes region.

"You couldn't ask for a better, kinder-hearted guy than Wayne," said a close friend, Dom Gallo, 43. "He'll give that money away and won't try to save his own life."

Schenk said he's trying to take each day in stride.

"I haven't given up, but it's getting right down there where time is of the essence," he said. "There's only one way to go and that's up. I've already been down."