GLASSBORO, N.J. - The youngest students at Rowan University enjoy all the aspects of campus life - including classes and dorm rooms - without the term papers.

For a third year, Rowan students are raising puppies destined to become seeing-eye dogs.

College life allows the dogs to spend virtually every moment getting accustomed to being around people. Their student trainers take them almost everywhere they go, even to basketball games, where the canines get court-side seats.

"Simon has more friends than I do. They come around looking for him instead of me," Jake Massaro, 24, said of the brown Labrador-golden retriever mix that he and his roommates are raising.

The program, coordinated with a guide-dog training school in Morristown called The Seeing Eye, is an example of how trainers take advantage of populated locales, including colleges and prisons, to get the canines acclimated to human contact. Students also raise puppies at Rutgers University and the University of Delaware.

College campuses have proved to be excellent places for preparing potential guide dogs, said Teresa Davenport, a spokeswoman for The Seeing Eye, one of about a dozen guide-dog training schools across the country.

"The more puppies are exposed to people, the better guide dogs they can be," Davenport said.

About 20 Rowan students are in charge of six dogs on the public university's campus, 18 miles south of Philadelphia.

Bringing the dogs to Rowan was the idea of George Brelsford, the school's dean of students, and his wife. The two had been raising seeing-eye dogs themselves, and thought students would enjoy the experience.

Students get the dogs when they are 7 weeks old, and most keep them for more than a year. After that, the dogs go to The Seeing Eye for harness training and, if all goes well, placement with a blind person.

Along with acclimating dogs to people, a college campus is a perfect place for dogs to become comfortable with a busy world, Brelsford said recently.

"The campus is really a small city. We have trucks and bulldozers that go by. We have social events," Brelsford said.

The students also get something out of the program, said Sita Tomas, 22, a graduate student from Mount Olive who is studying counseling while training Quasar, a black Labrador-golden retriever mix.

"It's definitely nice to have someone and not just be lonely sometimes," said Tomas, who lives alone.

The hardest part of the program for students has been parting with the canines when they leave for their guide-dog training.

Lauren Lee, 21, a senior psychology major from East Brunswick, said she and her roommates think of Kong, their German shepherd, as though he were a teenager about to leave the nest.

"It's like he's going off to college. He's going to be great up there," Lee said.

On the Net:

Rowan Univ.: http://www.rowan.edu/

Mayor-elect of Louisiana town found shot to death days before taking office

WESTLAKE, La. (AP) - The newly elected mayor of this Louisiana town was found shot to death over the weekend, less than three days before he was set to become the community's first black leader.

Gerald "Wash" Washington, 57, was found Saturday night in the parking lot of a former high school. He had been shot in the chest, police said.

Authorities said Washington was lying by his truck with a pistol nearby. Investigators were treating the death as a homicide.

Washington, who served on the city council, was sworn in Dec. 19 as Westlake's first new mayor in 24 years. He was set to take office Tuesday.

The city council has 10 days to appoint an interim mayor, according to retiring Mayor Dudley Dixon.

Westlake, a community of 5,000 residents, is 200 miles west of New Orleans.

Airline employees spot mysterious craft hovering over O'Hare; FAA officials skeptical

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airline employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport last fall.

The workers, some of them pilots, said the object didn't have lights and hovered over an airport terminal before shooting up through the clouds, according to a report in Monday's Chicago Tribune.

The Federal Aviation Administration acknowledged that a United supervisor had called the control tower at O'Hare, asking if anyone had spotted a spinning disc-shaped object. But the controllers didn't see anything, and a preliminary check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary, FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said.

"Our theory on this is that it was a weather phenomenon," Cory said. "That night was a perfect atmospheric condition in terms of low (cloud) ceiling and a lot of airport lights. When the lights shine up into the clouds, sometimes you can see funny things."

The FAA is not investigating, Cory said.

United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy said company officials don't recall discussing any such incident from Nov. 7.

At least one O'Hare controller, union official Craig Burzych, was amused by it all.

"To fly 7 million light years to O'Hare and then have to turn around and go home because your gate was occupied is simply unacceptable," he said.

New York's 54th governor, Spitzer, signs ethics rules, promises progress in inaugural address

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Democrat Eliot Spitzer was inaugurated Monday as the 54th governor of New York, calling for an end to "the politics of cynicism and division" and signing a series of ethics measures.

Spitzer said the frequent deadlocks between Republican Gov. George Pataki and Legislature thwarted school improvements, government ethics reforms, efforts to cut the nation's highest taxes and attempts to revive the state's economy.

"New York has slept through much of the past decade while the rest of the world has passed us by," Spitzer said in his inaugural address. "Today is the day when all of that changes - when we stop standing still and start moving forward once more."

Spitzer, New York's two-term attorney general who gained an international reputation by taking on major Wall Street institutions, won the governorship on Nov. 7 with a landslide victory over former state Assembly Republican Minority Leader John Faso. Pataki, who served 12 years, did not seek re-election and is eyeing a run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

He was sworn in at a private ceremony just after midnight Sunday and got to work even before his afternoon inaugural, signing orders setting a standard for the executive branch that he wants lawmakers to adopt for themselves.

Spitzer's measures ban gifts from lobbyists, end personal use of state cars, computers and equipment; prohibit nepotism, and ban his ex-employees from lobbying the executive branch. Other executive orders ban statewide officials - including Spitzer - from appearing in state-paid commercials, criticized as free campaign ads. Another measure establishes a state commission to make sure that candidates for judicial appointments are qualified.

The use of state cars led to the resignation last month of the state's chief financial officer, Comptroller Alan Hevesi, who pleaded guilty to a felony for using a state employee as his wife's chauffeur. The New York City Democrat had been re-elected in November amid the scandal.

Spitzer faces a projected deficit of $2.4 billion in the fiscal year beginning April 1 and a $4.5 billion deficit for 2008-2009. The state's budget for the current year totals $114 billion.

Rescuers recover remains of second of 65 coal miners killed in northern Mexico in February

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico (AP) - The partial remains of a second coal miner killed nearly a year ago in a mine blast have been recovered, while 63 more remain missing, officials in this northern Mexican state said Monday.

The remains were found early Sunday, half-buried under tons of debris scattered by the explosion on Feb. 19, 2006, said Sergio Robles, deputy secretary of civil protection for the state of Coahuila, where the Pasta de Conchos mine is located.

The underground explosion at the mine near San Juan Sabinas, about 135 kilometers (85 miles) southwest of the Texas border, sparked temperatures reaching 600 degrees Celsius (1,110 degrees Fahrenheit). The cause is believed to be a buildup of methane gas.

The remains were those of Jose Manuel Pena Saucedo, 52, of Palau, Coahuila, state prosecutor Jorge Rios said. Pena was buried Monday in the presence of his wife and six children, ages 9 to 19, according to officials at mine operator Grupo Industrial Minera Mexico.

Company officials "express their deepest respect to the families of our deceased colleagues," said Xavier Garcia de Quevedo, president of Minera Mexico, a subsidiary of mining company Grupo Mexico SA de CV.

"We know the search has been a long one, but today as always we reiterate our promise to continue as long as it is humanly possible" to search for the remains of other victims.

In June, rescuers found the body of one miner, Felipe Reyna Torres, but tons of wood, rock and metal, as well as toxic gas, have hindered the recovery of the others.

The mine has been closed since the explosion.

Last month, prosecutors in Coahuila state said they would seek to charge 10 mine managers and federal government inspectors with homicide, after investigators allegedly found that they did not correct unsafe conditions detected eight months before the blast.

"We were able to prove there were deficiencies in the mine's ventilation system and also have accredited a presence of methane gas larger than the permitted amounts, among other (safety) omissions," Rios said at the time.

Pilot strays into restricted airspace over Bush ranch

WASHINGTON (AP) - A small plane twice strayed into restricted airspace over President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, authorities said Monday.

The violation was inadvertent, FAA spokeswoman Diane Stitaliere said.

The propeller plane, a Maule M-7, wandered into restricted airspace above the ranch around 11:30 p.m. local time Sunday, prompting the scrambling of F-16 fighter jets, said Air Force Maj. April Cunningham, spokeswoman for the North American Aerospace Defence Command.

The jets used flares to get the attention of the pilot, who landed and was interviewed by authorities before being sent on his way, according to NORAD and the Secret Service.

South Florida lifeguards busy as rip currents grab swimmers during holiday, 1 man drowns

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - Dozens of holiday weekend swimmers were rescued and a man drowned as strong winds created powerful rip currents on busy South Florida beaches.

"A lot of people were grateful we were working today," Capt. Breck Ballou, supervisor of Fort Lauderdale's Ocean Rescue Division, said Sunday.

Emile Buzhager, 62, of New York, was pronounced dead after being pulled from rough water in Fort Lauderdale Sunday, police said. City lifeguards saved at least two dozen other swimmers from rip currents on Saturday and Sunday.

Lifeguards in Hollywood, Miami Beach, Boca Raton and Delray Beach reported dozens of rescues as swimmers went into strong rip currents that pulled them away from shore.

Hank Oppenborn, operations supervisor of Miami Beach's Ocean Rescue Division, said unusually warm water led hundreds to the beach while easterly winds whipped up rip tides.

"This has been an extremely hardworking New Year's," Oppenborn said.

D.C. smoking ban extends to bars, businesses fear customers will move to Virginia

WASHINGTON (AP) - Smokers are being forced out of bars and nightclubs in the District of Columbia beginning Tuesday, and some businesses are worried about losing dollars to Virginia, which has strong ties to tobacco.

"A lot of people are just going to drive closer to home (in Virginia)," said Jody Taylor, manager of the Black Rooster Pub in downtown Washington. "For a lot of people, it's hard to have that cold beer in one hand without a cigarette in the other."

The smoking ban, which passed a year ago by the D.C. Council, took effect in April for restaurants and offices and extends to bars and nightclubs after New Year's Day.

Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty doesn't believes businesses will be hurt.

"We really painstakingly reviewed every city, especially major cities, that enacted a smoking ban, and there was no evidence whatsoever that enacting a smoking ban sends business elsewhere," Fenty said.

In fact, smoke-free bars and restaurants may attract Virginia customers to Washington, said Arlington County, Va., board chairman Paul Ferguson.

The nation's capital follows 21 states and more than 2,300 municipalities that have mandated smoke-free workplaces, according to Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

California was the first state to ban smoking in bars in 1998, and voters this year in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio overwhelmingly approved bans. Britain is banning smoking in pubs on July 1.

Around Washington, Maryland and Virginia do not have statewide smoking bans for restaurants and bars. Maryland counties may have local bans, but Virginia - a tobacco-growing state -doesn't allow counties and cities to enact their own smoking bans.

Smoking is still allowed outside the U.S. House chamber in the ornate Speaker's Lobby and in the offices of senators and representatives. Incoming Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has signaled she may move toward a ban on smoking.

On the Net:

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights: http://www.no-smoke.org/

Restaurant Association: http://www.ramw.org/

For many refugees, Jan. 1 is adopted birthday, many in Chicago celebrate on New Year's

CHICAGO (AP) - Baraka Kubaya celebrated his birthday on Monday. So did the Sudan native's wife, co-worker and next-door neighbor.

They all came to Chicago as refugees from Africa, and for various reasons, their actual dates of birth were never recorded.

When refugees leave or enter countries, aid workers or government officials require birth dates on forms. Without definitive proof, officials often enter an easy placeholder: Jan. 1.

In cities like Chicago, which has a large refugee population, group birthday celebrations are common on New Year's Day. Many of the parties combine traditional rituals from home countries with American touches, such as balloons and noisemakers.

Kubaya said he was born 45 years ago during the rainy season, probably around May. He views his new birthday as a symbol of a fresh start in a new land.

"Finally, it's going to mean something, that I accept that day," said Kubaya, who arrived in Chicago seven months ago. "It will say that I am completely at peace in this new country. It means a new page in my life."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. government screened refugees more closely, said Gregory Wangerin, executive director of the Chicago-based Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries. Applicants who didn't have precise data risked being blocked from entering the country.

About two-thirds of a 150-member "Lost Boys" organization in Chicago share a Jan. 1 birthday. The boys, orphaned and made homeless in Sudan's civil war, plan a Jan. 18 party hosted by Luol Deng, a native of Sudan who plays for the Chicago Bulls.

"It is an event that can bring us together and remind us what we have been through," said Peter Magai Bul, a member of the Sudanese Community Association of Illinois, who turned 25 on Monday.

Rain postpones Philadelphia's Mummers Parade until Saturday to protect costumes

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The Mummers Parade, a New Year's Day tradition, was postponed Monday because of heavy rain, in part to protect their elaborate costumes from the downpour.

The parade, featuring flamboyantly dressed male performers, will take place on Saturday, parade organizers said.

Organizers considered delaying the parade a few hours, but the forecast offered no guarantee there would be enough clear weather for all of the groups to perform, according to Leo Dignam, the city's parade director. The event can last as long as eight hours.

The Mummers Parade, part of the city's fabric for more than a century, includes competitions in four divisions: comics, the satirists; Fancies, with the flashiest outfits; Fancy Brigades, with choreographed theatrical works; and String Bands, the dancing musicians.

Costumes can weigh as much as 150 pounds, and often boast exotic features such as imported ostrich feathers. Many clubs work on them all year long, and spend upward of $100,000 for them, all to earn bragging rights for the next 12 months.

Mummery, sometimes described as Philadelphia's Mardi Gras, is known for the parade theme song, "Oh! Dem Golden Slippers."

More than 10,000 men take part in the Mummers clubs, and about 100,000 people typically turn out to see them perform, down from 2 million in the parade's heyday in the 1940s.

The Fancy Brigades were still to perform inside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in two previously scheduled shows.

On the Net:

Mummers Parade: http://www.mummers.com/

Search teams spot survivors from Indonesian ferry, collect scores of bodies

By: IRWAN FIRDAUS - Associated Press Writer

REMBANG, Indonesia - Rescue ships collected scores of bloated bodies Monday from seas close to where a ferry sank in the Java Sea, but search teams also spotted survivors on life rafts and dropped food and water to them, officials said.

Weeping relatives camped out at ports and a local hospital, desperate for news of the some 400 still missing from the ferry when it sank during a violent storm minutes before midnight Friday.

So far, at least 191 people have been found alive, either packed into lifeboats, clinging on to debris or on beaches after swimming ashore, Transport Minister Hatta Radjasa told reporters. Dozens of bodies have either been spotted or collected.

Radjasa said the search for survivors would continue for at least a week.

Since the ferry went down, officials, hampered by poor communication and the fact that ships are bringing survivors to shore at several ports, have given differing numbers of people saved and bodies collected. The ferry had a capacity of 850 people, but the manifest indicated 638 passengers.

"I am tired of crying," said Sipan, who goes by a single name and who had been staying at Rembang hospital waiting for news of his son. "Dead or alive, I will accept his destiny. It is up to God. All I can do is keep waiting."

Search official Capt. Hadi Siswanto said that rescue boats were picking up bodies Monday that had so far been left in the sea because officials were concentrating their search for survivors. Workers at Rembang Hospital constructed a makeshift morgue.

Rescue chief Eko Prayitno said a helicopter had spotted an unspecified number of people still alive in the sea. The crew dropped food and water to them and boats would try and pick them later, he said.

The Senopati Nusantara sank quickly after being pounded by heavy waves for more than 10 hours on a journey from the Indonesian section of Borneo island to the country's main island of Java.

"I thought I was going to die there and then," said Syahrul, a 21-year-old palm plantation worker who was on the third floor of the ship when it suddenly veered to the left and began sinking.

"I heard people screaming from the second floor, 'Open the door! Help!' Hundreds must have died down there," said Syahrul, who was recovering in a hospital Monday.

Officials say bad weather caused the accident.

Indonesia's tropical waters are generally between 72 degrees Fahrenheit and 84 degrees Fahrenheit. People have been known to survive days at sea, but only with a buoyancy aid.

Survivors told harrowing stories of the struggle to stay alive in the hours that followed the ferry's sinking.

Waluyo, 50, who goes by a single name, recalled holding onto a large tire and seeing two of his children lose their grip and drown.

"For 17 hours we held on, sometimes being turned over in the swell, but one by one the people fell off, including my two children," he said from a hospital Sunday. "I could not do anything apart from pray."

Indonesia has been wracked by weeks of seasonal rains and high winds that have caused several deadly floods, landslides and maritime accidents. A cargo ship carrying 11 people sunk off Bali island on Sunday, but by Monday all passengers were accounted for, Antara reported.