EVERGREEN, Colo. - Carrie Ann Warner has repeatedly called authorities about the stalker that has peered into her son's bedroom window at night, killed the family cat and even chased the family into their home in the wooded hills west of Denver.

The mountain lion has eluded wildlife officers perched on the porch with shotguns, traps baited with roadkill and even a motion-detection camera fastened to a pine tree.

Six-year-old Schylure told his parents the lion stared into his room "like it was mad at me."

"We're living in this vale of fear," said Carrie Ann Warner, whose family has built a steel enclosure around their back porch. "I've reached my wit's end. I don't know what to do."

Reports of mountain lions roaming neighborhoods and devouring family pets have cropped up from suburban Denver to Fort Collins, one of the most heavily populated stretches in the Rockies. In April, a lion attacked and broke the jaw of a 7-year-old boy on a trail in Boulder before it was chased off.

The following month, witnesses said a mountain lion walked into a Boulder home, ate a pet cat and the cat's food before being captured. And a man shot and killed a 130-pound mountain lion that attacked his dog in May outside the family's home near Buckhorn Canyon in the Arapahoe National Forest.

The number of human-lion encounters nationwide has increased from about two each year in the 1970s to between six and 10, said Paul Beier, a conservation biology professor at Northern Arizona University.

Still, mountain lion fatalities are rare - only 17 nationwide since 1890. The last fatal attack is believed to be in January 2004, when a lion killed a bicyclist in an Orange County, Calif., park.

A 2003 book by David Baron, "The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature" suggests mountain lions may be learning to look at family pets and people as potential food.

However, wildlife experts insist that, for the most part, the animals are naturally wary of people. Ken Logan, a nationally recognized mountain lion biologist, said science doesn't support the premise that lions are starting to view humans as dinner.

There are an estimated 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions in Colorado. Hunting, development and other activities wiped them out in most of the East and Midwest, though most experts agree they are gradually moving east, prompting North Dakota and South Dakota to start hunting seasons.

Wildlife officers are trying to educate people about how to get along with the big cats as development pushes farther into the canyons and pine-studded hills the animals once had to themselves.

"These are intelligent animals," Logan said. "They can learn to live around humans."

But some Colorado residents say they're living in fear of the mountain lions, which can weigh as much as 180 pounds.

Tracey English no longer allows her teenage son to jog by himself in a nearby open space and her dog stays inside unless it's being walked on a leash. Last month a mountain lion was captured in a trap in her backyard.

"I don't feel like we're living in a natural wilderness. Nothing about it is natural," English said. "I believe the lions need to be managed."

Jon Silver says he has caught rare glimpses of mountain lions in the nearly 30 years he has lived west of Boulder, and warns the people living on his rental properties.

"It's just a matter of adapting to your surroundings," Silver said. "If I'm in Manhattan and it's 11 o'clock at night, maybe I wouldn't be walking down streets that weren't well lit."

For Silver, adaptation has meant devising a special dog run. His wife's German shepherd puppy, Me Too, goes outside by running through a doggie door into the garage, where it enters a door on the floor, scampers through a 40-foot underground tunnel, complete with a light triggered by a sensor, and bursts into a 24-foot-long chain-link cage.

The door over the tunnel closes when the garage door opens so the Silvers can drive cars in with no problem.

"I want to live with wildlife. It's their territory," Diana Silver said. "But I also want to protect my dog."

On the Net:

Colorado Division of Wildlife: http://www.wildlife.state.co.us

U.S. pilot's remains recovered from Fiji jungle 64 years after WWII disappearance

SUVA, Fiji (AP) - The remains of a U.S. fighter pilot have begun a long journey home from a deep jungle ravine in Fiji, 64 years after his airplane disappeared during a World War II sortie. - A 12-member team from the Hawaii-based Joint POW and MIA Accounting Command on Wednesday accepted the remains of the man - whose identity the U.S. Air Force has yet to reveal - from the residents of remote Naivucini village, on Fiji's main island, Viti Levu.

"There is a family back in the United States that's been missing a family member for the last 60 years," Ambassador Larry Dinger, U.S. envoy in Fiji, told the villagers during the emotional ceremony that left villagers teary-eyed.

"Thanks to your effort, this family will now be able to close a sad chapter of their lives, and that's very important," Dinger said.

When the pilot and his single-seat P-39 fighter disappeared during a mission on April 22, 1942, no traces were found despite an aerial search that lasted four days, U.S. officials said.

Some 62 years later, on Aug. 28, 2004, Sailosi Delana and his cousin, Paula Cagidomo, stumbled upon the wreckage while hunting for wild boar.

"We were following the Dokosamaloa creek deep into the jungle when Paula showed me the remains of what we then thought was the tail of an aircraft," Delana, 33, told The Associated Press.

"We didn't see the remains of the pilot, but I did see magazines of ammunition on the ground," Delana said.

He took 17 bullets back to the village and reported the find to police.

Team commanding officer Maj. Albert Tabarez and anthropologist Joan Baker agreed after viewing the site that the pilot could not have survived the crash.

His dog tag wasn't recovered but personal effects including a ring and a wallet containing a washed-out photo were found, according to locals.

U.S. officials believe they know the pilot's identity but aren't releasing his name or other details until the remains are identified through DNA tests and the family informed.

Tabarez said the identity of the pilot will be confirmed at a laboratory in Hawaii.

Police take Alaska newspaper's unpublished photos of shooting

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Police seized more than 100 unpublished Anchorage Daily News photos taken at a shooting scene, then returned them a few hours later after learning the action violated federal law.

A similar warrant was served at KTVA-TV, and police also later returned a video of aired footage that was taken.

Police officials said they might seek court-ordered subpoenas for the photographs and video in their investigation of the shooting at a pickup football game Sunday that put one man in the hospital.

Deputy chief Ross Plummer said the images might help police identify who was at the game.

The photos - which show people running from the stadium, tending to a wounded man and looking on - were seized after police served a search warrant at the newspaper office Wednesday.

The Daily News has offered police more than three dozen published photos, editor Patrick Dougherty said. He said the newspaper would resist a subpoena for unpublished photos as a matter of policy.

"I have made clear to police there is no information available in unpublished photos that isn't available in the published ones," Dougherty said.

Staci Feger, news director at KTVA, said police weren't asking the station for any unaired video footage. She said the station would not contest a subpoena for the video if presented with one.

Federal law prohibits almost all searches of newsrooms. News organizations served with a subpoena have the right to argue before a judge why the information should be kept confidential.

Dougherty said that without the ability to hold back unpublished material, "we cannot fulfill our First Amendment responsibility. It's a principle we must defend, and can defend in this case without preventing police from doing their job."

Teen killed in car-to-car paintball battle with Oklahoma high school teammates

JENKS, Okla. (AP) - An SUV carrying high school football players having a paintball fight with teammates in another vehicle flew out of control on a highway and flipped, killing a 17-year-old boy, officials said.

The teens had just left a paintball adventure park Wednesday afternoon after meeting up other players and coaches from the Jenks High School football team, said Les Miller, manager of Paintball Adventure Games.

Seven of them were speeding down a highway in the two vehicles, shooting paintball pellets at each other, when the SUV crossed the median into oncoming traffic, struck a sign and then flipped several times, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

Garrett Austin Bennett, 17, died on the highway outside Tulsa. Two other teenagers were treated for minor injuries and released from a hospital.

"I have seen a lot of horseplay over the past years, but I think this is the first time I have ever seen somebody playing paintball at 75 mph," said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Pete Norwood. "The highway is no place to play."

Results of an investigation into the crash will be turned over to prosecutors, who will determine whether any criminal charges will be filed.

Cold War bunker under W.Va. resort reopens to tourists but still harbors secrets

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) - The once-secret shelter built to house Congress after a nuclear attack will reopen to tourists after a two-year renovation, but the $15 million monument to the Cold War still has some secrets.

About 70 percent of the 112,000-square-foot bunker, deep under the posh Greenbrier resort, will become a secure repository for data and documents.

"It's being converted from people storage to data storage," said Linda Walls, manager of The Greenbrier's bunker tours.

That means the new tour route covers less ground than those that began in 1995, after the bunker was publicly exposed.

Still, there's plenty to see in a facility the size of two football fields stacked atop one another, including a new exhibit hall and the first public display of two dozen historic photographs. Resort guests can begin touring on Monday, and the public can tour on Wednesdays and Sundays, beginning Aug. 20.

The bunker, a vast box protected by 5-foot-thick concrete walls and 18- to 25-ton blast doors, was built at the direction of President Eisenhower and completed in 1962, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were bracing for what appeared to be an inevitable nuclear war. The attacks never came, so the bunker was never used.

For 30 years, though, staff working undercover as television repairmen kept the bunker constantly ready to support 1,100 people, with everything from food to books, magazines and board games.

But the rows of narrow steel bunk beds were set up for efficiency, not comfort.

"This was not built to preserve individuals," Walls said. "This was built to preserve a democratic system of government."

Some 70 Greenbrier employees worked there on a need-to-know basis. Signs, several of which are now on display, blared such warnings as, "Share a Ride, Not Your Secrets" and "Keep It Under Your Hat … The Enemy Has Ears."

There were working radio broadcast booths and a TV studio with two backdrops, the U.S. Capitol framed by fall leaves and the White House rimmed in spring flowers. Two theaters with plush green seats were to serve as chambers for the House and Senate.

Part of the site's appeal for Eisenhower, historians say, was that the resort and its owner, the railroad operator CSX Corp., had a long-standing relationship with the government. The Greenbrier once served as a 2,000-bed Army hospital and held diplomats from enemy nations after World War II.

Deep in the mountains, it was unlikely to become a target. And weather experts theorized that air flow patterns would clear fallout quickly.

Secrecy about the bunker was broken in 1992 when an article in The Washington Post Magazine argued that it was no longer viable.

The 90-minute tours cost $30 for adults and $15 for children, and all depart from the White Sulphur Springs Civic Center. Reservations are suggested, with groups limited to 30 people. Children under 10 are not allowed.

Tours will continue when the hotel closes for three months for a $50 million makeover beginning in January, Walls said.

On the Net:

The Greenbrier: http://www.greenbrier.com/site/bunker

Key witness refuses to testify at video game murders trial, wants to withdraw plea

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - The key prosecution witness in the deaths of six fast-food co-workers in what prosecutors say was a dispute over a video game player claimed innocence Thursday and refused to testify.

Robert Anthony Cannon, 20, said he wanted to withdraw the guilty plea he had entered in October in a deal to spare him a possible death penalty.

After offering sympathy to the victims' families, Cannon turned to the judge and said, "I am not guilty, sir."

Cannon had earlier admitted to taking part in the six clubbings and stabbings in a Deltona home in a deal would have spared him a possible death sentence. Prosecutors say a former prison inmate, Troy Victorino, led the violence in revenge because one of the victims had cleared his Xbox video game and some clothing out of her grandparents' vacant home, where he had been temporarily living.

When asked about the plea agreement, Cannon replied, "I am going to face death in the Lord's name."

Prosecutor John Tanner declined to comment on Cannon's refusal to testify.

Victorino, 29, and two other men face six counts of first-degree murder, five counts of mutilating a dead human body and other felonies. If they are convicted, prosecutors will seek the death penalty.

Another witness, Brandon Graham, 19, testified he was with Cannon and the three defendants when Victorino outlined a plot to kill everyone at the rental home shared by Erin Belanger and several housemates. Most of the victims, ages 17-34, worked together at a Burger King.

Graham said Victorino had wanted to imitate a scene from the movie "Wonderland" where people are beaten to death by pipes.

Victorino told them no masks were needed because, "We are not going to leave any evidence. We are going to kill them all," Graham said.

Graham said he left town at the time of the killings because "I wanted to get away from them." A few days after the slayings, he called police.

Besides Victorino, the defendants are Michael Salas, 20, and Jerone Hunter, 20.

Kay Shukwit, whose 19-year-old daughter Michelle Nathan, was among the victims, said she turned away when images of her daughter's body were shown in court.

"I didn't want to see her. I couldn't even look at her in the casket," she said.

Watches, crucifixes stolen 25 years ago from convent returned

NEWTON, Mass (AP) - It took a quarter-century, but his conscience finally got the best of a thief.

Several crucifixes, pocket watches and a wristwatch were stolen from Maria Convent in Newton in 1981. Just last week, the Rev. Joseph Keil at Our Lady's Help of Christians parish received a package shipped from San Jose, Calif., containing the stolen items, and a letter.

"The note said the person who took them was sorry, that the jewelry was taken many years ago and if it could be returned to the owner, that would be great," Keil told the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham.

The convent is run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston. Sister Joanne Gallagher, a spokeswoman for the order, said it's still unknown whether the items were actually stolen from the Maria Convent.

"All I know, it was 25 years ago and we really don't have any accurate information right now," she said.

The convent is near the parish but they are not affiliated.

Police Lt. Bruce Apotheker said a person has been interviewed who remembered the convent being burglarized over Labor Day weekend in 1981 but couldn't remember what was stolen.

The letter, dated July 2, 2006, seemed to be written by someone close to the thief instead of the actual culprit, Keil said.

"Please help return these items to the Sisters that they were stolen from, if possible," the anonymous letter reads in part. "The person who stole them asks for their forgiveness, as he has asked for God's forgiveness, and is extremely sorry for the pain that their theft caused."

Forensic psychiatrist whose testimony botched first Yates trial takes stand retrial

HOUSTON (AP) - The forensic psychiatrist whose testimony about a TV show episode led to Andrea Yates' 2002 murder conviction being overturned took the witness stand Thursday in her retrial for the bathtub drowning of her children.

Dr. Park Dietz, who evaluated Yates in November 2001, began by recounting his professional experience.

In the first trial, he told jurors Yates knew drowning her five children was wrong. But Dietz, who had been a consultant for the "Law & Order" television series, also testified that one episode showed a woman being acquitted by reason of insanity after drowning her children in a bathtub. No such episode existed, and Yates' conviction as overturned because of the erroneous testimony.

Yates has again pleaded innocent by reason of insanity.

Her attorneys say she suffered from severe postpartum psychosis and did not know her actions were wrong. Prosecutors argue that Yates did know drowning the children was wrong and therefore didn't meet the state definition of insane.

Yates killed her oldest son, 7-year-old Noah, last because she knew he would struggle the most and might have alerted the others to escape, Dr. Harry Lee Wilson testified Wednesday.

She held 3-year-old Paul, 2-year-old Luke and 5-year-old John under water, then carried their limp bodies to a bed. She also drowned 6-month-old Mary before drowning Noah, taking the baby's body to the bed but leaving him floating in the tub.

Yates used "a sequential approach, doing one after another, privately, secretively," said Wilson, a pediatric pathologist who reviewed the autopsy and crime scene photos and Yates' police confession. "The behavior was organized and methodical."

Wilson also testified Wednesday that Yates held the children under water for about three minutes before they became unresponsive, but the four youngest were still alive when she placed them on the bed. He said they lived for another three to six minutes.

At least 20 bruises on their arms, legs and heads shows they struggled as she held them under, he said, especially Noah, whose death was prolonged because he also raised up and gasped for air a few times, according to the evidence.

"Noah's body speaks to us of the struggle not to die," Wilson said.

Mom gives birth to quadruplets 3 years after having triplets

LOS ANGELES (AP) - After delivering triplets three years ago, Angela Magdaleno thought she was done having babies. She was wrong four times over.

Magdaleno gave birth to quadruplets on July 6 by Caesarean section. She now has nine children.

The latest additions - two girls and two boys - were doing well Wednesday, while their mother, resting at home, said: "I'm happy because they're healthy and so am I."

Still, Magdaleno, 40, worried she might be overwhelmed with the work and sometimes struggles with mixed emotions about the future.

"I don't know if I'm sad or happy," she said. "I'm happy but, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it."

Three years ago, Magdaleno gave birth to the triplets after undergoing in vitro fertilization. She said her husband wanted many children. After their birth, she thought she was done having babies.

Then she got pregnant with the quadruplets. Magdaleno said she was shocked at the news.

"She wanted to run," said her husband, Afredo Anzaldo, 45, who lays carpet for a living.

Her doctor, Kathryn Shaw, a high-risk pregnancy specialist, said Magdaleno did well during the pregnancy and developed no complications.

The babies were born at 32 weeks - well beyond the 29-week average for quadruplets. At birth, the girls were 4 pounds and 17 and 17.5 inches long; the boys about 3.5 pounds and 16 inches long.

Shaw said the odds of conceiving quadruplets without fertility drugs are about one in 800,000. She's seen only one other case of quadruplets being conceived without drugs - 18 years ago.

Even more rare, the boys appear to be identical twins, according to their doctor, Soha Idriss, who expects the babies will join their mother at home in about eight weeks.

As of Wednesday, their parents were still deciding what to name them.

When the quadruplets come home, Magdaleno will have help from two older daughters.

All 11 family members will be living in a one-bedroom apartment in east Los Angeles. She said the living room is large, but she isn't sure what the family will do when the babies get bigger.

When the older girls are at school and her husband is at work, a friend has offered to help with the newborns and the triplets. "It's a lot of work," their mother said.

In the hospital, the babies sleep wrapped in blankets and attached to monitors and wires in separate incubators. They have full heads of straight dark hair and plump pink mouths.

Anzaldo took the couple's triplets to White Memorial Medical Center to meet their new brothers and sisters and to let Magdaleno get some rest at home.

They have accepted their new brothers and sisters, Magdaleno said. But at first the triplets weren't sure if they wanted the extra siblings, Anzaldo said.

"They wanted one baby and no more," he said.

Judge stops jury selection in Jessica Lunsford murder trial: Can't find impartial jury

TAVARES, Fla. (AP) - The judge halted jury selection Thursday in the trial of a sex offender accused of kidnapping 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford and burying her alive, saying an impartial jury can't be found so close to her home.

Circuit Judge Ric Howard had already moved jury selection to Lake County, about 50 miles east of Homosassa, because of publicity surrounding the case.

On Thursday, after attorneys had spent three days trying to find jurors who hadn't been exposed to news reports about the case, Howard declared they were still too close to find an impartial jury. It wasn't clear if he would shift only the jury selection process or move the entire trial.

John Evander Couey, 47, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, sexual battery on a child, kidnapping and burglary in the girl's death.

Jessica's body was found last about a month after she disappeared from her home near the mobile home where Couey had been living. Her hands were tied with speaker wire and her fingers poked through the garbage bags in which authorities say she was buried alive.

The case sparked new laws requiring lifetime electronic monitoring from some sex offenders and significantly increased the penalties for others who target children.

Couey's taped confession - which Howard recently ruled can't be used at his trial - and other details of the case received widespread national media coverage. According to court records, Couey told investigators he took the girl from her room, raped her, swaddled her in garbage bags and buried her in the yard.

Prosecutors say they are confident physical evidence and other statements Couey has made will be enough to convict him and secure a death sentence.

Mother drowns trying to rescue daughter from floodwaters in Ohio; girl survives

MANSFIELD, Ohio (AP) - A woman drowned after jumping into fast-moving floodwaters to try to rescue her 9-year-old daughter, who slipped on a stone walkway into the water and was swept through 460 feet of drainage pipe into another creek.

The girl emerged from the pipe without serious injuries and was able to get out of the water and seek help, police Lt. Dave Nirode said. Firefighters found the body of her mother, Dianna Snyder, 40, about 100 feet downstream from where the girl came out of the pipe.

Snyder's drowning Wednesday in north-central Ohio at Kingwood Center, a public garden in Mansfield, was the first death reported in three days of storms.

The girl fell into a creek bed that is usually dry, Nirode said, but the steady rain swelled the creek to 4 feet deep and about 10 feet wide.

"We had flooding in places that I didn't know we had water," Nirode said.

In Ashtabula County, firefighters, sheriff's divers and a Coast Guard helicopter crew resumed searching on Thursday for a 21-year-old man reported missing from a group swimming in a creek near the northeast Ohio village of Jefferson, said Coast Guard Petty Officer Matt Schofield.

Rain forced road closures and flooded basements in Mansfield, an area of the state that received up to 7 inches of rain Monday, the National Weather Service said.

Flooding from the rain forced more than 150 campers at Mohican State Park, about 20 miles southeast of Mansfield, to abandon their belongings and flee to emergency shelters. Officials said the park was to reopen Friday.

Forecasts for Ashland and Richland counties predicted a chance of additional rain through Thursday, while the Ashtabula forecast called for the weather to dry out.

The storms also produced five weak tornadoes in the southwestern part of the state. No injuries were reported.

Angelina Jolie to star in Brad Pitt-produced film

NEW YORK (AP) - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, whose relationship was spawned on a film set, will again work together - this time on a movie based on the life of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan.

Jolie will star as Pearl's wife, Mariane Pearl, in an adaptation of her book, "A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl," it was announced Thursday. Pitt will produce the film, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

In an ironic twist, the movie will be produced by Revolution Films and Plan B, the production company Pitt and his wife, Jennifer Aniston, founded. Pitt and Aniston, who were divorced last year, remain co-owners of the company.

It is the first announced on-screen role for Jolie, 31, since the birth of daughter Shiloh Nouvel, born in Namibia in May. The couple have two older children, 18-month-old Zahara, adopted from Ethiopia, and 4-year-old Maddox, adopted from Cambodia.

Pitt, 42, and Jolie first collaborated as co-stars in last year's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

"I am delighted that Angelina Jolie will be playing my role in the adaptation of my book," Pearl said in a statement. "I deeply admire her work and what she is committed to."

Neither a start date for shooting nor an estimated release date for the film, which will be produced and distributed by Paramount Vantage were announced. There was no announcement about who would play Daniel Pearl.

The movie will be based on Mariane Pearl's account of her husband's abduction in Karachi, Pakistan, while researching a story on Islamic militancy. Months later, his beheaded body was found in a shallow grave in a compound on the outskirts of Karachi.

Pitt, who is producing a slew of upcoming films, will next star in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel" and as Jesse James in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford."

Jolie will next be seen in "The Good Shepherd," directed by Robert De Niro. She will also lend her voice to two animated features: "Beowulf" and "Kung Fu Panda."

In producing "A Mighty Heart," Pitt is joined by Dede Gardner of Plan B and Andrew Eaton of Revolution Films.

Kasey Rogers, regular on 'Bewitched,' dies at 80

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Kasey Rogers, an actress who was a regular on television shows like "Bewitched" but was best known for an appearance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," has died. She was 80. - Rogers died July 6 at USC University Hospital from a stroke, said her companion, Mark Wood.

Using the name Laura Elliott, Rogers played Farley Granger's estranged wife, Miriam, who is strangled by the psychotic character in "Strangers on a Train."

"For decades, no one realized Laura Elliott and Kasey Rogers were the same woman," Wood told The Los Angeles Times. "All of a sudden, Hitchcock fans were coming out of the woodwork. They wanted to know what happened to Laura Elliott."

Born Imogene Rogers on Dec. 15, 1925, in Morehouse, Mo., Rogers moved with her family to Burbank as a child. She earned the nickname Casey, a reference to "Casey at the bat," because of her hitting prowess in grade-school baseball. Later she changed the C to a K.

Rogers played leads in junior high school and high school plays. She was spotted by a talent agent, leading to a screen test and contract at Paramount during the late 1940s and early '50s.

Among her films are "Special Agent," "Denver and Rio Grande," "Silver City" and "Two Lost Worlds."

On television, she appeared in numerous series, including "Wanted: Dead or Alive," "Bat Masterson," "Cheyenne," "Maverick," "Perry Mason," "77 Sunset Strip," "Adam-12" and "Bewitched."

Twice married and divorced, Rogers is survived by her brother, four children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A funeral will be held Friday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in the Hollywood Hills.

Washington state woman demands Hollywood justice for Brian Keith

RITZVILLE, Wash. (AP) - Nothing ticks off Lynn Walker like Wink Martindale's new star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. - She doesn't have anything against the game show host, but can't abide that celebrities of Martindale's stature have a star and actor Brian Keith does not.

Walker is a founder of S.T.A.R. for Brian, a group of fans trying to get a star for the late star of "Family Affair," "The Parent Trap," and many other film and television productions.

"Everybody knows Uncle Bill!" an animated Walker said, referring to Keith's most famous role, in the TV show "Family Affair."

Walker is not some obsessed fan out of a Stephen King novel. She's not consumed by Brian Keith. But, like many of her contemporaries, she fell for him during his performance as the father in "The Parent Trap" with Hayley Mills.

"I was 11 in 1961," she said by way of explanation.

The group was launched in May, after a fan went looking for Keith's star and was stunned to learn he did not have one. The fan posted the news on an Internet discussion group. Walker, along with Amy Morgan, of Norman, Okla.; L.M. Lewis of Chicago and Cheri deFonteny of Los Angeles, were moved to action.

"We all at the same time said, 'This is wrong!"' said Walker, who lives in this small town 60 miles west of Spokane. "Let's fix this."

S.T.A.R. - which stands for Society to Advance Recognition for Brian Keith - made a late effort to get Keith a star this year. But the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which operates the walk, declined to vote Keith a star. The nomination will be considered again in 2007.

Getting a star is not exactly like winning the Nobel Prize. A person can be nominated by colleagues in the entertainment industry, family or fans. Keith's widow, actress Victoria Young Keith, is honorary chair of S.T.A.R. for Brian.

The Walk of Fame committee reviews more than 200 applications a year. The criteria for selection include longevity of career, community service and professional achievements.

Walker said there is no question that Keith qualifies on all three.

He began acting as a child in silent movies, served in the Marines in the Pacific in World War II and did quality work until his death in 1997, she said.

Each year, a committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce votes on the nominees, admitting a couple dozen or so. The star itself costs $15,000, which must be paid by the star or supporters. Walker said fans can go on her Web site to donate money for Keith's star.

Ana Martinez-Holler, a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber, said there is no conspiracy against Brian Keith. Lots of performers don't have stars, including huge celebrities like Clint Eastwood.

It's not uncommon for fans to launch campaigns for their favorite stars, she said.

"They are doing it for Weird Al Yankovic," Martinez-Holler noted.

But don't even think about deluging the chamber with letters or phone calls for your favorite celebrity, she said. Such efforts are ignored. Instead, the committee considers only the formal documents required for each application, she said.

Keith was born in 1921 in Bayonne, N.J, the son of vaudevillians Robert Keith and Helena Shipman, a native of Aberdeen, Wash. He appeared at age 3 in a silent film called "Pied Piper Malone."

He spent two years in combat as a tail gunner in the Pacific. He was honorably discharged in 1945 and settled in New York as a stage actor.

Keith appeared in many Broadway productions, and in numerous shows in the early years of television. He was a regular in nine television series.

He also had a lengthy movie career. His most memorable movie roles included Teddy Roosevelt in "The Wind and the Lion" and Mitch Evers in "The Parent Trap." He continued working as a guest star on television shows up until his death.

Despondent over health problems and personal and financial losses, Keith committed suicide in 1997.

For "Family Affair," which ran from 1966-71, he was nominated for three Emmys for his role as a bachelor engineer suddenly forced to raise his brother's three orphaned children, Cissy, Buffy and Jody. Sebastian Cabot also starred as Mr. French, his valet.

"Family Affair" has not been shown much in recent years, but a DVD of the first season was released on June 27, with the second season due in November.

Kathy Garver, who played Cissy, and Johnny Whitaker, who played Jody, are the only surviving members of the cast, and both support a star for Keith.

"Brian Keith is a perfect candidate to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame," Garver said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "He was truly an actor's actor and beloved by millions. He was certainly respected and loved by me!"

So how does this guy not have a star, when 2,314 other performers do?

"That's the reaction of everybody!" Walker said.

Chuck Connors has a star. So does Kermit the Frog, Farrah Fawcett and David Hasselhoff, Walker said.

"People today are not stars, they are celebrities," Walker complained. "This guy was a movie and TV star. He was good at what he did."

She realizes people may think her campaign for Keith is somewhat frivolous.

"In the great scheme of things, a piece of pavement with a colored star is a small deal," Walker said. "But it is a grievous oversight and something I can accomplish.

"I will not be the person who finds a cure for AIDS, but this is something I can do," she said.

On the Net:

www.starforbrian.com

Police dog blamed for putting truck into gear, running down pedestrian

OGDEN, Utah (AP) - A police dog that was left in a pickup with the engine running apparently knocked the vehicle into gear and ran down a woman who was walking to her mailbox.

Mary F. Stone, 41, was expected to remain hospitalized with a fractured pelvis and tailbone until at least Friday, said her husband, Paul Stone.

The dog, a German shepherd named Ranger, had been left in the truck while its handler responded to a domestic disturbance call Tuesday, police Lt. Loring Draper said. The truck's engine was on so Ranger would have air conditioning.

Draper said Ranger must have hit the shift on the steering column, putting the automatic transmission into gear. As the truck slowly rolled forward, police officers yelled to Stone, but she couldn't get out of the way in time, he said.

A front and rear tire ran over her. "She had tire marks on her clothes," her husband said.

The truck then went through the Stones' yard and struck a vehicle in the driveway.

Draper said police were trying to determine if there might have been some malfunction that would have allowed the gear shift to be moved easily.

Two teens given probation in Milwaukee mob beating

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Two teenagers who admitted to taking part in the mob beating of a 50-year-old man the day after Christmas last year have been sentenced to three years probation.

Jamael Avery Robinson and Latrail Chie Ball, both 17, were sentenced Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court after pleading guilty in May to a reduced charge, substantial battery-party to a crime.

Samuel McClain was severely beaten after he complained that he had been ripped off when he tried to buy crack cocaine, according to the criminal complaint.

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Potter called the beating the worst he had ever encountered.

"A few more minutes and this would've been a homicide," Potter said.

Robinson apologized at the hearing Wednesday, and said he had learned from his mistakes.

Judge Karen Christenson then asked him why he had taken part in the beating.

"I was under the influence of drugs and thought I was cool," Robinson said. "I was just running with the crowd."

Two other men are to be tried in September on charges stemming from the beating. Charges against two juveniles were dismissed in April after police were unable to find key witnesses.

Defense argument: Case again Aryan Brotherhood members based on word of snitches

SANTA ANA - An attorney for one of four gang members accused of using brutality and murder to control drug dealing in some of the nation's toughest prisons urged jurors to look carefully at the witnesses who testified against the men, describing them as prison snitches who had incentives to lie.

"The more information they give, the better the rewards," attorney Mark Fleming, who represents Barry "The Barron" Mills, said in his closing argument Wednesday.

Fleming said many of the prosecution's witnesses were promised cash, reduced prison sentences and even freedom in exchange for testimony. "This amounts to a sanctioned jail break with the help of the government," he told the jury.

Mills, Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, Edgar "The Snail" Hevle and Christopher Overton Gibson are implicated in many of the 32 murders and attempted murders detailed in a federal indictment against the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist gang founded in 1964 at California's San Quentin prison.

It's believed to be one of the largest death penalty cases in U.S. history.

Of the 40 people arrested, up to 16, including Mills and Bingham, could face the death penalty.

Prosecutors claim the attacks were planned and carried out to help the gang keep of criminal enterprises, including drug dealing, in some prisons around the country.

During the federal racketeering trial of Mills, Bingham, Hevle and Gibson, which began four months ago, prosecutors presented testimony from convicted killers, former gang members and jailhouse informants about the violent tactics of the gang.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terri Flynn spent several hours of her closing argument this week detailing some of the killings and an attempted killing that the government claims were orchestrated by the Aryan Brotherhood.

Flynn said the gang recruited the most violent inmates at high-security prisons, people she said would protect the Aryan Brotherhood at any cost. "Even its own members weren't safe," she said. She referred to handwritten notes and witness testimony as proof that the defendants plotted to kill those who crossed the gang.

Fleming tried to focus the jury's attention on those witnesses' credibility, saying one had been paid $153,000 over an 18-month period to cooperate and another witness said he would lie if it meant he would be free. Fleming also recounted a moment earlier in the trial when one prosecution witness took the stand and said, "Where's my money?"

"To ignore these informants is to have your eyes completely shut," Fleming told the jury.

The lawyer also portrayed a Supermax prison in Florence, Colo., as a playground for inmates who are housed there helping the government in its case. Some of the inmates were allowed to use computers, were left unsupervised and received Federal Express documents, Fleming said.

Mills and Bingham are accused of ordering a race war against the DC Blacks prison gang that resulted in the deaths of two black gang members during a 1997 riot at a prison in Lewisburg, Pa.

Trial of lawsuit against Michael Jackson nears conclusion

SANTA MONICA - Michael Jackson was alternately portrayed as a gullible artist and a calculating businessman during closing arguments in the trial of a lawsuit that accuses the entertainer of failing to pay a former associate more than $1 million.

"Michael Jackson doesn't pay his bills. Mr. Jackson is a cagey, calculating witness," said attorney Howard King, who is representing businessman F. Marc Schaffel in his lawsuit against Jackson.

Jackson attorney Thomas Mundell told jurors Schaffel took advantage of the entertainer.

"I don't see the evil, conniving, puppet master he saw," he said of King's depiction of Jackson. "I saw the gentle, easily influenced artist who pays little attention to business matters."

And while Schaffel said he went uncompensated for his work, Mundell said, "he was living the life of Riley, traveling around the world in private jets."

"Mr. Schaffel saw Michael Jackson as an opportunity," Mundell said. "He could do projects for him and become part of the action."

The case was expected to go to the jury Thursday after Mundell concludes his argument, followed by a rebuttal from King.

During his closing argument, King said he was angry at the focus the defense placed on his client's past as a producer of gay pornography, calling it irrelevant.

A former Jackson lawyer testified during the trial that Schaffel was fired after Jackson was told of his past as a porn producer.

King also complained that Schaffel was unfairly portrayed as "some sort of parasite hanging on to Mr. Jackson."

King, who claims the effort to terminate Schaffel in 2001 never actually took effect, said negotiations with lawyers went on and on and that Schaffel actually came back on board to produce such projects as videos about Jackson that aired on Fox.

Among other debts, he said Schaffel was owed $664,000 for the Fox specials and $300,000 that Schaffel said he loaned Jackson when the entertainer told him he needed it delivered to a mysterious "Mr. X" in South America.

In all, he asked jurors to award Schaffel $1,474,280.

Shakespeare First Folio sells for more than $5 million at London auction

LONDON (AP) - A rare complete copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, widely regarded as one of the most important books in the English language, sold for $5.2 million at auction Thursday. - London dealer Simon Finch Rare Books purchased the book - still in its original 17th-century calfskin binding - during a sale at Sotheby's.

The book is one of about 40 complete copies known to exist and one of the few in private hands. Its value was estimated at between $4.6 million and 6.4 million.

Formally titled "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories & Tragedies," the First Folio was produced in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death. It contains 36 plays, of which 18 - including "Macbeth" and "Twelfth Night" - were published there for the first time. Without the book, scholars say, those plays might have been lost.

Of some 750 copies of the First Folio, about a third have survived, though most of them have lost pages over the years, the auction house said. All but a few copies are in museums, universities or libraries.

"Relatively complete copies of the Folio in contemporary or near-contemporary bindings very rarely come to the market," said Peter Selley, Sotheby's English literature specialist. "There is only one copy recorded as remaining in private hands."

Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen bought a copy of the First Folio for $6,166,000 at Christie's in New York in 2001.

The book auctioned Thursday was sold by the trustees of Dr. Williams' Library, a private London library established in the early 18th century under the will of Daniel Williams, a government minister.

On the Net:

Sotheby's: http://www.sothebys.com

Sex offender among Ohio inmates credited on kids' CD

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Officials are distancing themselves from a state-sponsored CD of children's songs recorded by prison inmates after it was revealed a child sex offender helped put it together.

Among those credited on the "Wings of Hope" CD is Raymond Towler, 49, who was sentenced to 12 years to life in 1981 for the kidnapping of two children, the assault of a boy and the rape of a girl.

"To find out that someone who had committed a crime like that participated in this initiative in any way is a huge disappointment," said Bonnie Hedrick, director of the Ohio Resource Network for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities. "It was a huge oversight and one I regret happened."

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Lyons said criteria were established for any inmate who volunteered to perform on the CD, including that they have no history of sex offenses or crimes against children.

Lyons said different criteria applied to Towler because he was not among those "presenting the message" on the CD. Towler did not write the music or perform but only worked as a technical adviser or consultant to the songs' performers, she said.

Others credited on the CD include inmates convicted of aggravated murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.

The album contains lullabies for newborns, sing-along songs for toddlers and parenting tips. Many songs are childhood classics such as "This Old Man," while some were composed by the inmates.

The project was a partnership between the office of Ohio first lady Hope Taft, the Resource Network and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. It cost $5,000.

Taft's participation involved her voicing an idea at a meeting for a CD that would allow inmates to participate in a "positive, community-oriented activity," Hedrick said.

The prison system said last month that 15,000 copies of the disc would be distributed to prison groups and inmate families as well as to community groups, such as public libraries and social service agencies. Lyons said the plan was scaled back to include only prison-affiliated groups at the request of the Resource Network.

Hedrick said she believes the CD will still have a positive impact. "From the child's perspective, if it was my father who did that, at least I could have something to be proud of him for," she said.

On the Net:

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction: http://www.drc.state.oh.us

Ohio Resource Network for Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities: http://www.ebasedprevention.org

Kevorkian says he wouldn't choose suicide

DETROIT (AP) - Jack Kevorkian, whose failing health may deny him a chance to be paroled, said he still believes in assisted suicide but would not choose it for himself.

"Remember that I did not advocate assisted suicide," Kevorkian, 78, said in a written response to questions from The Detroit News published Thursday. "I only advocated that a person should have the right to have the option if he or she, in sound mind, needed and desired it while in irremedial pain and suffering and terminal."

Kevorkian claimed to have assisted in at least 130 deaths in the 1990s. Since being imprisoned in April 1999 for his role in the last of the deaths, the former pathologist has promised he would not assist in a suicide if he was released from prison.

"Only as a person who will speak out to its legalization," he told The News. "I will not be involved otherwise."

Kevorkian is being held at the Lakeland Correctional Facility near Coldwater in southwestern Michigan. He is eligible for parole in June 2007 but his attorney, Mayer Morganroth, has said he doubts he will live that long.

In court papers, Kevorkian's defense lawyers say he weighs 113 pounds, resembles a "walking cadaver" and "can barely walk and no longer has the energy to read or write."

The Michigan Parole Board has rejected four of Kevorkian's requests for early release.

"Essentially prisoners seeking early release are asking the state to overturn minimum sentences passed by juries, judges and courts. It is not done lightly," said Russ Marlan, a Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman. "He has stated he wasn't going to live in every (past) request. Since he is up next June, this will probably be examined again next March."

Kevorkian is serving a 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder in the 1998 poisoning of Thomas Youk, 52, of Oakland County's Waterford Township. Youk had Lou Gehrig's disease, and Kevorkian called it a mercy killing.

The death was videotaped and shown on CBS' "60 Minutes."

Pennsylvania man, 80, pleads guilty to dealing crack

PITTSBURGH (AP) - An 80-year-old man who pleaded guilty to drug charges sold crack cocaine from his house and gave some of the drugs to prostitutes in exchange for sex, his lawyer said.

Felix Cocco, of Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges of possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Police said Cocco had been dealing drugs for nearly a year when he was arrested in November. Officers seized crack cocaine, a digital scale and packaging materials, police said. Authorities said they caught Cocco dealing again in February.

"I was trying to stay alive, your honor - pay my bills," Cocco told the Allegheny County judge.

Cocco's lawyer, Martha Bailor, told the court that Cocco wanted to remain sexually active after his wife died three years ago and turned to prostitutes.

"He decided it's cheaper to pay for sex with crack than cash," she said.

Prosecutors said they would not seek mandatory sentences if the defense agreed to a six-to-18-month jail term.

The judge ordered an evaluation of Cocco's health after Bailor expressed concern about his vulnerability in jail. Cocco remains under house arrest while he awaits sentencing scheduled for Oct. 2.

Leaders of Maine community object to pig's head being thrown in mosque

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - Earlier this month, Muslim men participating in a serene evening prayer ritual at Lewiston Auburn Islamic Center were sharply interrupted: A severed, frozen pig's head, slightly larger than a basketball, was thrown into the mosque.

The man charged in the incident, 33-year-old Brent Matthews of Lewiston, told police it was a joke. But community leaders and others say the act was a hate crime, and the incident has heightened concerns that local discrimination against Somalis has not eased.

"Our message is simple: An attack on any house of worship is an attack on all houses of worship," Rabbi Hillel Katzir told a group of about 150 Wednesday including the town's mayor, governor, students and community activists who rallied in support of the Somali worshippers.

Muslims are prohibited from eating pork, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations contends the act was an insult upon Islam. The Rev. Jodi Hayashida from First Universalist Church in Auburn said the incident was no harmless prank. Instead, she said it represented a type of "casual hatred" that demanded a response from the Lewiston-Auburn community.

"A line has been crossed, a line that is very dangerous and a line that this community cannot afford to cross," she said.

Lewiston is home to more than 2,000 Somali refugees, who began moving there in 2001 for affordable housing. Their move to the former mill town of about 35,000 along the Androscoggin River has not been without a few bumps along the way.

In 2002, then-Mayor Larry Raymond created a furor by asking Somali community leaders to stop the influx. White supremacists tried to stir things up with a rally, but they were shouted down and local residents rallied in support of the Somalis.

Four years later, though, it's evident that tensions remain.

This week, the state attorney general filed a civil complaint against a white woman from Greene who is accused of spitting on a Somali man and using racial slurs in a traffic confrontation last November in Lewiston.

Matthews was charged with desecration of a place of worship, a misdemeanor, following the pig's head incident. The attorney general is reviewing the incident to determine whether to prosecute under Maine's civil rights statute. Also, the FBI has been conferring with local police to determine if federal hate crimes laws were violated.

Defense lawyer James Howaniec, who asked a judge for a gag order to prevent officials from further discussing the incident in the media, declined comment Wednesday.

"We feel that too much has been said about this case already. It's our intention to let this case be resolved in the court system where it belongs," Howaniec said.

Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the pig's head incident fits with what he sees as a pattern of vandalism against mosques, with recent incidents in Indiana, Arizona, and Maryland.

Overall, though, FBI statistics show that hate crimes against individual Muslims have declined since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In 2001, there was a high of 366 cases, and the figure has steadily declined to 32 in 2005, said FBI spokesman Bill Carter.

Hussein Ahmed, who was in the mosque when the pig's head was thrown in, said the incident backfired on the suspect.

Instead of dividing the mosque and the Lewiston-Auburn community, "he brought us closer together," Ahmed said.

'Believe It or Not,' Ripley's is headed for China nearly a century after founder's first visit

SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Nearly a century after Robert Ripley first visited and fell in love with things Chinese, the company that inherited his "Believe It or Not" legacy is headed back here for business.

Ripley's Entertainment Inc. is among many international amusement park and attractions companies that are searching for opportunities to profit from the increasing ability and willingness of the 1.3 billion Chinese to spend for entertainment and travel.

"We have had a strong interest in China for a long time," said Bob Masterson, president of Ripley Entertainment, in Shanghai to attend a regional industry show.

The company hopes to more than replicate its successful "Believe It or Not" attraction that prospered for years atop Hong Kong's Victoria Peak before it was forced to close down due to renovations.

"We'd love to still be in there," Masterson said in an interview.

The Hong Kong experience taught Orlando, Fla.-based Ripley's that China has a healthy appetite for the oddities that are its main business, he said.

No arts and crafts stuff - the Chinese want weird.

"The stranger the better," he said. "They really want something that's strange and bizarre."

That might include a model of the Chinese man Ripley's says had a hole bored in his skull to carry a candle in. Or a stuffed elephant head with two trunks. Or even a solid jade rickshaw he brought back from China during his travels in the 1920s and 30s.

Masterson said that the company, owned by Canadian billionaire Jim Pattison, has been researching the Chinese market for years and hopes to have an attraction open in China by this time next year.

The southwestern city of Kunming and northeastern cities of Tianjin, near Beijing, are likely candidates, he said.

"We want the domestic tourists," he said. "We see the biggest revenues not in Shanghai or Beijing but in places like Kunming. "If they have domestic tourists, we're interested."

Masterson says his experience waiting 45 minutes in a line at Kunming's Wal-Mart store convinced him of the city's potential for attractions.

"It was roast chicken," he said. "And I guarantee you everybody in that line cooked chicken better than they (Wal-Mart) did. But people were prepared to pay a premium for not doing something."

Masterson said the company may open attractions in the gambling enclave of Macau, now in the midst of an economic revival powered by foreign casino operators such as the Las Vegas Sands, Wynn Resorts and MGM Mirage.

"But it's a little too early to say," he said.

Ripley's is in the midst of a rapid expansion and has recently announced several new locations, from Spain to New York City. Some 12 million people visit the company's attractions each year.

The company's Believe It or Not museums can be found in Canada, Australia, Europe, Kuwait, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Ripley's also runs aquariums, spook houses, 4-D moving theaters, where the seats move in time to the action on the screen, and Louis Tussaud's wax museums. It has a Guinness World Records museum in the Tokyo Tower in Japan.

Robert Ripley traveled to some 200 countries while hunting the exotic, unique and peculiar, but China was his most enduring obsession. He died of a heart attack in 1949.

According to company lore, Ripley believed he was a Chinese reincarnated as an American.

He adopted Chinese dress and customs, filled his homes with Chinese artworks and bought a Chinese sailing junk and for a time signed his cartoons "Rip Li."

Dallas slowly rebuilding police department tainted by scandal, race tension, crime rate

DALLAS (AP) - Besmirched by scandal and beset by racial tension, Dallas' police department needed to reinvent itself to be able to tackle the crime rate - worst among U.S. big cities.

Police Chief David Kunkle, hired two years ago to rebuild the department, has fired tainted officers, changed police tactics and gained City Hall support for his efforts. The result has been steady improvement in the nearly 3,000-member force, and crime, while still tops among big cities, has decreased.

Kunkle has fired more than 30 officers for misconduct since taking office, 14 of them since June. The firings include two officers accused of drunken driving and an officer accused of stealing tires from the police impound lot.

"Kunkle has improved on what he took over two years ago," said Alex del Carmen, a criminology professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. "He is slowly but surely chipping away at the old culture of the Dallas Police Department."

Kunkle, once Dallas' youngest captain and an ex-police chief of nearby Arlington, succeeded Terrell Bolton, the city's first black police chief.

Bolton was fired in 2003 following a four-year tenure plagued by poor management, costly lawsuits by demoted commanders and a 2001 scandal in which dozens of immigrants were wrongly arrested after police informants planted fake drugs on them.

Kunkle immediately demoted three top chiefs and fired officers involved in the fake-drug scandal. He banned the use of a neck hold that had led to a suspect's death and a community uproar before he took office.

He also helped lower crime in the sprawling city of 1.2 million people. Dallas still tops the FBI list of crime-ridden metropolises, but rates dropped in every category last year, including a nearly 20 percent decline in murders.

Because Dallas ranked No. 1 in burglaries in 2005, Kunkle began requiring officers to respond to burglary scenes rather than taking reports over the phone.

The department also adopted a New York City model of policing by examining statistics to pinpoint crime hotspots. A special unit of officers was assigned to problem areas for days to disrupt criminal activity and make arrests.

Despite the successes, Lt. Malik Aziz, president of the Black Police Association, questions some of the chief's firings and the department's commitment to recruiting more black and Latino officers.

The firings come at a time when the force needs about 600 officers to meet its staffing goals and struggles to pay competitive salaries. But Kunkle said they were necessary.

"I want people to believe in Dallas police officers again and them to believe in themselves," Kunkle said in an interview at police headquarters.

Aziz said that one of Kunkle's assets is skillful diplomacy. Kunkle also calmed troubled relations among police unions by meeting with them monthly, Aziz said.

"He has given us an ear and a voice," Aziz said.

The Dallas City Council has agreed to give more money to public safety and to fund 50 new officers each year to reach the department's hiring goal.

Kunkle said he wants his success measured in hard crime statistics and wants clear goals and rules for officers. He said the department has not had enough accountability in recent years.

South Dallas resident Mary Watkins, 77, said she was surprised when the chief met with her in person after taking office. She talks with him regularly now and has the ear of her neighborhood patrol officers, she said.

When she complained about a nearby crack house recently, police drove out the dealers and addicts within two weeks, she said.

"When Chief Kunkle came in, it got better," Watkins said. "It is more comfortable, crime is down in our neighborhood."

China jails reporter for subversion over essays on ruling party graft

BEIJING (AP) - A Chinese reporter who posted essays on foreign Web sites criticizing the ruling Communist Party was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison on subversion charges, his lawyer said. - Meanwhile, a reporter who was convicted in a case that caused an uproar after Yahoo Inc. handed over e-mails to Chinese prosecutors has appealed and asked to be released to see a doctor, a human rights monitoring center said.

Press freedom groups say China is the world's leading jailer of journalists, with at least 42 behind bars, most on charges of violating vague subversion or security laws.

Li Yuanlong, a reporter for the newspaper Bijie Daily in the southern city of Bijie, was detained in September after posting essays on foreign Web sites.

Li was convicted by the Bijie Intermediate People's Court of "inciting subversion" and sentenced to two years, said his lawyer, Li Jianqiang, who is no relation.

Foreign journalism groups had appealed for Li's release.

His lawyer said Li pleaded innocent at his 2.5-hour trial in May.

Li's essays, written under the pen name Ye Lang or "Night Wolf," included "On Becoming an American in Spirit" and "The Banal Nature of Life and the Lamentable Nature of Death."

They were published on Web sites that are banned in China, including Boxun News, the Falun Gong-affiliated Epoch Times, ChinaEWeekly, and New Century Net, according to earlier reports.

Meanwhile, reporter Shi Tao, who was sentenced last year to 10 years on charges of leaking state secrets, has appealed and asked for release to see a doctor, said the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

Shi, 37, has contracted a lung condition and a skin disease while in prison, according to his family.

An employee who answered the phone at the High Court in Hunan province, where the Information Center said Shi's appeal was filed, said he had no information on the case.

Shi was accused of revealing the contents of a secret official memo about media restrictions.

Journalism activists criticized Yahoo Inc. after it emerged that the company turned over e-mail from Shi's account to prosecutors.

Authorities: Mexican author Elena Garro, first wife of Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, spied for government

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The late Mexican writer Elena Garro, first wife to Nobel laureate Octavio Paz, worked as a spy for - and was spied upon by - the government more than 30 years ago, the country's freedom-of-information institute said Thursday.

The agency, known by its Spanish initials as IFAI, released the information in response to a citizen's request, citing documents from the General National Archive.

The records show that Garro was a federal government "informant" reporting on political, social and cultural events of the era from 1962 until 1970, the IFAI's statement said.

"The same documents show … that at the same time the federal government had other informants who reported on the activities of the informants, including Elena Garro," it added, without elaborating.

The dates of Garro's government service correspond to the last two years of the administration of President Adolfo Lopez Mateos, who governed from 1958-1964, and the entire six-year administration of President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz, who governed from 1964-1970. Both served under the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, which governed Mexico from its founding in 1929 until its historic defeat by President Vicente Fox in 2000.

Diaz Ordaz's government was blamed for repressing political and social groups, especially a student movement whose members were massacred in October 1968 in Mexico City.

The IFAI decided on Wednesday to order the General National Archive, which guards all intelligent information, to release the documents to the petitioner, who was unidentified.

The petitioner also requested any information in the security archives on Paz himself, who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1990. IFAI officials did not comment on that request.

Garro was born Dec. 12, 1920, in the central state of Puebla and died in August 1998 at age 77 in Cuernavaca, a city 35 miles (55 kilometers) south of Mexico City. She married Paz in 1937 and the couple separated in 1959, never to reconcile.

The author of more than two dozen novels in Spanish, Garro left Mexico after the 1968 student massacre, returning and moving to Cuernavaca in the 1990s.

Vatican worried by statements on priests marrying attributed to archbishop

VATICAN CITY (AP) - The Vatican showed deep concern Thursday over a possible new scandal set off by an African archbishop after he announced he was championing the cause of married priests in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vatican said it was still seeking precise information a day after Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, who had previously faced a threat of excommunication, showed up at a news conference to announce his new mission.

But it also said that if the statements attributed to him about priestly celibacy were true "there would be no choice but to condemn them," given the well-known church rules.

Milingo shocked the church five years ago when he and a South Korean acupuncturist Maria Sung were united in a mass wedding presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church. He later renounced his marriage and returned to the fold, with the Vatican dropping the excommunication threat.

At the news conference in Washington, the Zambian archbishop said his new goal is to end the church's celibacy rule.

"I feel it is time for the church to reconcile with married priests," Milingo said.

He appealed to priests punished for marrying to "come out of their Catholic prisons and be reinstated, taking once more their pastoral responsibility among the married priests."

The late Pope John Paul II personally intervened to persuade Milingo to step away from the marriage.

The prelate credited with bringing Milingo back to the fold, now Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, was chief assistant to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Vatican. Ratzinger now is Pope Benedict XVI, and he recently appointed Bertone as secretary of state - the Vatican's No. 2 job.

Milingo, 76, appears now to be back with his wife, although he said, "This is irrelevant."

Thousands of Mississippi casino workers return as Katrina anniversary nears

BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - Ten hours after the doors to Boomtown Casino opened for the first time since Hurricane Katrina closed them, beads of sweat trickled down James Walker's smiling face after a long shift dealing cards.

Returning to his old job felt like "hitting the Lotto" to Walker, who worked at a Lowe's home improvement store while he waited for the western-themed casino to reopen June 29.

"It feels like I never left," said the 32-year-old father of two, whose uniform is a T-shirt that boasts, "We're Back in the Saddle Again!"

Walker is one of thousands of casino employees returning to work this summer as more hotel and casino resorts reopen on Mississippi's hurricane-battered Gulf Coast. And for many, the tip-driven incomes are a welcome relief from minimum wages, odd jobs or unemployment checks.

"I love my job. I have a good time here, a lot of friends," Walker said.

The five coastal casinos that have reopened since Katrina employ around 6,000 workers. That number is expected to grow to roughly 10,000 by Sept. 1 with the return of several more casinos, all of which are struggling to find workers.

Katrina's powerful winds and storm surge demolished or crippled the dozen casino barges that lined the Mississippi coast, but the region's gambling industry is rebounding more quickly than many experts initially anticipated. Day and night, gamblers drive past blocks of destruction to jockey for seats at blackjack tables and slot machines.

The first three Gulf Coast casinos that reopened after Katrina grossed a total of $246.6 million from January through April - more than half of what 12 coast casinos took in during the same period of 2005.

But the post-Katrina boom hasn't come without serious challenges for casino operators.

Katrina scattered thousands of veteran casino employees and eroded the pool of potential replacements. The storm also left tens of thousands of homes in ruins, creating a housing shortage that makes it difficult for casinos to recruit new hires and lure back old employees.

"Housing is the most difficult obstacle they're facing right now," said Larry Gregory, executive director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission. "It's a definite problem, and there's no answer right now."

The developers behind Bacaran Bay, a $560 million casino and condominium project, haven't broken ground yet and won't be hiring employees for at least another month. But the housing crisis already looms large over the project.

"Affordable housing is the number one, two and three priority down here," said Michael Cavanaugh, an attorney for the project.

To fill jobs in a competitive market, casino executives say they're boosting pay, offering more generous benefits and helping workers find affordable housing and child care.

Treasure Bay, which reopened in Biloxi in June with 200 employees, plans to hire an additional 300 workers by October as it expands its operations. The casino has "significantly" increased salaries to help attract employees, said chief operating officer Susan Varnes.

"I'm not kidding myself to think we're automatically going to fill those 300 slots," Varnes said. "It will be getting much more difficult."

Boomtown's parent company, Penn National Gaming Inc. of Wyomissing, Pa., has offered raises of up to 20 percent to its 765 employees - roughly one-third of whom are new hires.

The company also doled out $1.5 million in grants to 1,300 employees at Boomtown and at Casino Magic in Bay St. Louis, Miss., which is scheduled to open early this fall under a new name - Hollywood Casino. The grants were designed to help employees affected by Katrina pay for housing, food and clothes.

Beau Rivage, owned by MGM Mirage Inc., was considered the most upscale of the Mississippi casino resorts before Katrina. It plans to have 3,800 employees when it reopens in Biloxi on Katrina's Aug. 29 anniversary. Fewer than 1,000 jobs are left to be filled, and many of those are for cooks and housekeepers, said Rogena Barnes, the casino's head of human resources.

"It's as challenging a (job) market as you can get," Barnes said. "The labor pool is really dwindling."

The hiring competition will only get tougher with several huge projects in the works, including plans by Donald Trump's casino company to build a gambling resort in Diamondhead, west of Biloxi.

Barnes said the casino has been approached by developers who want to team up with Beau Rivage to build housing for its employees. That wouldn't solve any short-term housing needs, however, because any construction project would likely take at least a year to complete.

"Right now, we're not in the real estate business," Barnes said. "Does it mean we're not going to explore it in the future? No, it does not."

In April, Beau Rivage opened an office in a strip mall where applicants interview for jobs and newly hired - or rehired - employees come to fill out paperwork. "Every day here is like a reunion," said Marie Twiggs, Beau Rivage's employment and employee services manager.

John Nguyen, a Beau Rivage dealer since the casino opened in 1999, visited the employment center one recent afternoon to formally accept his job offer. Nguyen, 38, has been working as an insurance adjuster since the storm left him unemployed.

"I can't wait to come back," he said. "Best job on the coast. Good company. Good money."

Eric Brackett, one of many Beau Rivage employees who relocated to Las Vegas after Katrina, has enjoyed his "working vacation" at the Bellagio, another MGM Mirage-owned property. But he's decided, after months of agonizing, to return to Beau Rivage in August.

The 38-year-old plans to live with relatives until he can build a home of his own. "That's why it's easier for me to come back," he said in a telephone interview.

"I like it out here, but I was content in Mississippi," he said. "It's all about the quality of life for me … the Southern way of living."