S.C. LAWMAKERS APPROVE DEAL FOR A VOTE ON VIDEO POKER
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- Handing first-year Gov. Jim Hodges a victory, South Carolina lawmakers have approved a deal that will let voters decide in November whether to ban video poker games.The 75-33 House vote came early Thursday, and the Senate approved the measure a short time later. The bill had been blocked six times in the House.
South Carolina has more video gambling machines than any other state -- about 34,000, nearly double that of Nevada.
The Nov. 2 referendum fulfills a campaign pledge by Democrat Hodges to let the public decide whether the $2.5 billion-a-year industry should continue.
MAN GUILTY OF KILLING WIFE, 6 CHILDREN IN 1996 BLAZE
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- A man upset that his wife would not agree to a divorce has been convicted of first-degree murder for setting a fire that killed her and his six children.
Jorjik Avanesian, 43, poured gasoline on a towel, lit it and tossed it into a room where his children ages 4 to 17, and 37-year-old wife slept in their Glendale apartment.
Prosecutors said Avanesian set the 1996 fire because his wife refused to divorce him. Avanesian was found guilty Wednesday of seven counts of first-degree murder and arson and could face the death penalty.
The penalty phase of the trial was scheduled to begin next week.
V-CHIP BECOMES AVAILABLE IN AT LEAST HALF OF NEW TV SETS
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The v-chip, which can block objectionable television programs, is now available in at least half of all new TV sets and should appeal to parents concerned about televised mayhem, a federal regulator says.
V-chips work with an electronically coded rating system that already is in place to identify programs that contain sex, violence or crude language. A 1996 telecommunications law required all new TV sets 13 inches and larger to come with the technology by 2000.
But starting Thursday, v-chips must be in at least half of the new sets made. Most manufacturers met the deadline much earlier, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
MAN WHO SCUTTLED STEAMER GETS 30-MONTH PRISON TERM
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- A man convicted of scuttling the oldest-running passenger steamboat in the country has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Brennan Callan, 32, was also ordered to pay $987,818 in restitution for sneaking aboard the Belle of Louisville under the cover of darkness and opening a water valve, flooding the boat's hull and submerging its stern.
Callan said he will appeal.
"I am completely and utterly innocent," he said Wednesday.
Callan, a former seasonal employee of the Belle, was convicted in February of endangering a ship. He faced up to 20 years in prison for the August 1997 sinking.
Prosecutors said Callan sank the boat after failing to get rehired.
2 KILLED, ANOTHER INJURED IN TENNESSEE OIL TANK BLAST
LIVINGSTON, Tenn. (AP) -- Two workers were killed and another critically injured after an oil tank exploded, apparently sparked by a metal grinder.
Sheriff Kelly Hull said it appeared a spark from the device used to prepare metal for welding ignited gas trapped in the tank. Two men were died at the scene of Wednesday's explosion.
A 25-year-old man suffered burns over most of his body and was in critical condition at a hospital.
Two other tanks were threatened by the flames, which were put out in about an hour. The tanks hold about 6,600 gallons each.
ARMY PILOT GUILTY OF TAKING HELICOPTER THAT CRASHED
FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) -- An Army pilot has been convicted of misappropriating a helicopter that was involved in a Bahamas crash that killed his wife and the wife of another pilot.
Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Riddell was reprimanded Wednesday by a military judge and sentenced to $4,500 in fines and pay forfeiture.
"I am pleased with the judge's decision," said Riddell, accused along with another pilot of taking their wives on a joyride that turned tragic aboard the UH-60 Blackhawk last summer.
The judge, Col. Kenneth Pangburn, acquitted Riddell of conspiracy and dropped dereliction of duty charges.
7 HURT WHEN 2 AMTRAK TRAINS GRAZE EACH OTHER IN FLORIDA
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Two Amtrak trains grazed each other just south of the train station early Thursday, injuring at least seven people.
"We're still not sure what happened," said Fire Chief Ray Alfred. "We don't know what caused it."
The accident caused the engine car and a baggage car to tip over.
The injured were taken to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Jacksonville, said hospital spokeswoman Kim Welch.
The trains were heading in opposite directions on the Miami-to-New York City route and were carrying about 300 people, said Amtrak spokesman John Wolf.
2 TEENS ACCUSED OF ATTACK ON WOMAN DURING TRAFFIC RIFT
DALE CITY, Va. (AP) -- Two teenage girls are accused of attacking a 25-year-old woman, smashing her head against the ground repeatedly in front of her two young children during a traffic dispute.
The attack occurred while Natalie Davis, her children and four other relatives were driving to a church service, police said.
Davis was listed in critical condition Thursday at Inova Fairfax Hospital.
The trouble began Tuesday night when Davis and her family encountered a car blocking the road, and about five girls had gathered around it to talk.
She asked the teens to move the car, but the driver of her car managed to get around it. Two teens then jumped into another car and followed the family, police Sgt. Kim Chinn said.
After a short distance, Davis and one of the pursuers, a 16-year-old girl, got out of their cars and exchanged words before the teenager grabbed Davis by her hair and pounded her head into the pavement, Chinn said.
Another teen joined in the attack, stomping on Davis' head and kicking her in the face, police said. One of Davis' relatives flagged down a police officer, who arrested the attackers.