CHURCH COURT FINDS MINISTER GUILTY IN GAY MARRIAGE CASE
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (AP) -- A Methodist minister who officiated at the "marriage" of two gay men was found guilty of disobedience in a church trial Friday. It was the first test of the denomination's ban on same-sex ceremonies, and the minister could be defrocked.The jury of pastors decided 10-3 that the Rev. Gregory Dell disobeyed church law when he presided over the "holy union" of the Chicago men last September. The penalty phase of the trial began after the decision.
Earlier Friday, Dell, 53, had said he would continue blessing same-sex unions if allowed to remain a Methodist minister. He testified that he was being faithful to his vow to minister to all people when he blessed the "holy union" of Karl Reinhardt and Keith Eccarius.
MAN GETS 14 YEARS IN PRISON FOR LETTING BABIES DIE IN CAR
BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) -- A man was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for letting his daughter and another baby die in an unventilated car while he and a friend searched for arrowheads and mushrooms.
Ricky Crisp, 24, could have been sentenced up to 40 years after he was convicted Thursday of second-degree murder in the deaths of his daughter, 16-month-old Vicky Crisp, and her cousin, 4-month-old Sidney Pippen.
Judge Tom Keith followed the recommendation of jurors, who had been asked by Crisp's mother to be lenient.
The girls died of heat exhaustion and dehydration after the temperature in the black car reached at least 130 degrees last April. Prosecutors have said the pain was so severe that Vicky pulled out her hair.
JESSE JACKSON JOINS PROTEST AGAINST N.Y. POLICE BRUTALITY
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Longtime civil rights activist Jesse Jackson on Friday joined hundreds of chanting protesters in a rally against police brutality in New York City.
Police said 226 demonstrators, including Jackson, were arrested for disorderly conduct after they sat down in front of Police Department headquarters. Hundreds of others cheered and waved signs.
The raucous demonstrations have become a daily event in the wake of the fatal shooting on Feb. 4 of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, by four white police offers.
MOTHERHOOD MAKES WOMEN LESS ACTIVE, RESEARCHERS SAY
ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) -- Motherhood often means a more sedentary lifestyle and increased risk of heart disease for women, researchers reported Friday.
Mothers overall were about 14 percent less active following the birth of their first child, according to a study presented in Orlando at the American Heart Association's annual meeting on epidemiology and prevention. Black women were 9 percent less active after having a child than before, the study said.
Not so for fathers. The kinds of vigorous activity measured in the study dropped just 3 percent in white men and hardly at all in black men after they became fathers, said Kathryn Schmitz, a public-health researcher at the University of Minnesota.
41-YEAR-OLD MAY BE TRIED AS JUVENILE IN 1971 SLAYING
NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) -- Prosecutors said in legal briefs filed Friday that a 41-year-old woman who confessed to killing her mother when she was 14 can legally be tried as a juvenile.
Susan Marie Watson, a keyboard operator at the State University of New York in Schenectady, was charged under juvenile statutes after she confessed on Oct. 28, 1998, that she fatally shot her mother, Maylon Johnson, in their Newark, N.J., home in 1971.
Her attorney, Walter Florczak, argued that juvenile courts have no jurisdiction over his client since she now is middle-age, and he moved on March 4 in Essex County Family Court to dismiss the case.
SEMITRUCKS WILL HAVE TO PUT REFLECTORS ON TRAILER BOTTOMS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After years of study and debate, the government moved Friday to require that tractor-trailer trucks carry reflectors that outline the bottom edge of their trailers.
The Federal Highway Administration said that the change should reduce the chance that a vehicle will smash into or drive under a trailer. The agency estimated the change will save more than 100 lives and prevent 1,700 injuries in the next decade.
Since Jan. 1, 1993, the government has required that the bottom edge on all new trailers be rimmed with red-and-white reflective tape or with so-called reflex reflectors, like the red plastic devices used on bicycles.
Once the new rule is effective in two months, truckers using trailers made prior to 1993 will have two years to install the same reflectors or reflective tape.
BUSH ASKS COURT TO REVISIT RULING AGAINST PUBLIC PRAYER
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Gov. George W. Bush on Friday asked a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling that student-led prayers before Texas public high school football games are unconstitutional.
The Republican, who this month formed a presidential exploratory committee, "supports the right of students to participate in the free exercise of religion, a right which is guaranteed under the Constitution," said Bush spokesman Scott McClellan.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld a lower court's decision allowing limited prayer at graduation ceremonies, but ruled out the prayers or other "solemnizing ceremonies" before football games.
WOMAN GETS $2.2 MILLION IN LAWSUIT OVER MASTECTOMY
NEW YORK (AP) -- A photographer whose mastectomy-scarred chest appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine was awarded $2.2 million by a jury that concluded her surgery was unnecessary.
JoAnne Motichka, 45, known professionally as "Matuschka," said her doctor never told her she had the option of having her tumor removed rather than her entire breast.
"He told me I had more cancer than I had," Matuschka said. "He said I had intraductal carcinoma and needed a mastectomy immediately. There was no discussion of any other treatment possibility."
F-16 CRASHES NEAR PHOENIX, BUT ITS PILOT EJECTS SAFELY
PHOENIX (AP) -- An F-16 fighter crashed Friday morning during a training mission west of Phoenix, the fifth warplane out of Luke Air Force Base to go down since October, military officials said.
The single-seat F-16 crashed about 22 miles southwest of the training base in suburban Glendale.
The pilot ejected safely and was taken to the base hospital for examination, said base spokeswoman Mary Jo May. The pilot's identity was not released.
PARACHUTING DAREDEVIL LANDS IN THE CUSTODY OF N.Y. POLICE
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The elusive daredevil accused of parachuting off New York City's tallest buildings finally landed Friday -- in police custody.
Thor Alex Kappfjell, of Norway, was arrested at a midtown Manhattan hotel, along with his cousin and a photographer whom police say helped the 32-year-old Kappfjell with his stunts.
Kappfjell parachuted off one of the World Trade Center twin towers Thursday, police said.
Last year, he jumped off the 86th-floor observation deck of the Empire State Building on Oct. 24 and the 61st floor of the Chrysler Building three days later.