2-year arson spree sparks fear in Tampa residents
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Arsonists in two Tampa neighborhoods have burned 70 vacant houses that were to be repaired, moved or bulldozed as part of urban renewal and highway construction projects.No one has been injured in the two-year spree, but residents in Tampa Heights and Ybor City neighborhoods worry that could change.
"There's a lot of fear and a lot of sorrow," said Sandy Ramos, a Neighborhood Watch leader. "We all live in wood houses. We don't want to see a loss of life. If there's a firebug living amongst us, we have to know."
Most of the fires in the adjoining neighborhoods remain unsolved.
"We haven't come up with any wonderful information that would lead us somewhere," said assistant fire marshal Todd Spear.
Hackers vandalize Web site for Library of Congress
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Computer hackers vandalized the "Thomas" Web site of the Library of Congress, a favorite among people who want immediate information about bills under consideration on Capitol Hill.
The vandals claimed to be "four hackers from a little country in Europe," and changed the site Monday to read: "U.S. Congress Web site -- defeated!" The moniker they used, "Lamers Team," is not particularly prominent among the computer underground, where groups and allegiances can be fluid.
They also published on the altered site the recipe they claimed to have used to gain access to the government's computer running the service. They left what was said to be a software log that included part of a user's identification number, but it was partially masked "to hide the user who make this possible."
GM sending vans across U.S. to check child-seat safety
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A minivan will appear in every state soon with equipment to check whether parents have installed child seats correctly in their cars.
General Motors Corp. is supplying the Chevrolet Venture minivans -- one for each of the 50 states plus a minivan for the District of Columbia. The National Safe Kids Campaign will be hosting the traveling car-seat checkups at GM dealerships, day-care centers and shopping malls throughout the country.
The mobile minivans will start up the week of Feb. 13, GM said Tuesday.
HUD complaint links man to online hate speech
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Federal authorities have charged a man with civil rights violations for running a Web site that threatened a housing activist, a step that experts said may be the first of its kind against online hate speech.
Ryan Wilson and the group he runs -- ALPHA HQ -- were charged with violating the Fair Housing Act, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo said Monday. He said the complaint was filed with a HUD judge in Philadelphia last week.
"Tragically, this case shows that the racism and the terrible discrimination that Dr. King fought so hard to abolish remain alive and well, and have even moved into cyberspace," Cuomo said in his Martin Luther King Day announcement in Washington, D.C.
'Alcoa Presents' TV host and director dies at 82
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- John Newland, the dignified host of the old "Alcoa Presents" television series, died Jan. 10. He was 82.
Newland directed and was the host of all 99 segments of "Alcoa Presents," which ran from 1959-61. The show dramatized case histories of supposed occult phenomena. It later went into syndication as "One Step Beyond."
He also had roles on "Robert Montgomery Presents," "Philco Playhouse," "Studio One" and "Kraft Theater."
He directed TV movies and episodes of many shows, including "The Loretta Young Show," "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Wonder Woman" and "Fantasy Island."
At age 51 he directed his first film, "My Lover, My Son," a 1969 British feature about incest starring Romy Schneider.
Nursing home operator is expected to file Chapter 11
DALLAS (AP) -- The nation's second-largest nursing home operator is expected to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the latest industry leader to take the step, the Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday.
Earnings for Mariner Post-Acute Network were off more than $1.5 billion in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, the newspaper reported, citing an unidentified official close the Atlanta-based company.
The filing was expected by Tuesday night in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del.
Two other large long-term care chains -- Vencor Inc. and Sun Healthcare Group Inc. -- have filed for bankruptcy protection in the last six months.
Trash-talking pro wrestler undergoes spinal surgery
SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Pro wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was recovering at a hospital after spinal surgery to correct years of body slamming in the ring.
The World Wrestling Federation star had surgery at Methodist Hospital on Monday to relieve chronic pain in his neck, arms and legs. During the procedure, which took nearly three hours, surgeons removed bone spurs from vertebrae in his neck.
Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, the hospital's chief of neurosurgery, said Austin, 34, could be out of action for six months to a year.
"If he were an office worker, he'd be back at work in two to three weeks," Youngblood told the San Antonio Express-News. "But strenuous physical activity takes longer. What we're looking for is solid healing of the bone, and that takes a matter of several months."
After the surgery, the brash, trash-talking wrestler stood up on his own and tried to walk a few steps, Youngblood said. Austin should be able to leave the hospital within the next few days.
Teen in school brawl charged with fleeing a traffic stop
DECATUR, Ill. (AP) -- Hours after the Rev. Jesse Jackson led a rally on behalf of six expelled high school students, one of the teens was charged with fleeing a traffic stop.
An officer on routine patrol directed a vehicle driving without its headlights to stop about 1:45 a.m. Sunday. The driver, identified by passengers as Roosevelt T. Fuller, stopped the car and ran away on foot, according to Police Lt. Todd Walker.
"I'm scared of police," Fuller said in a telephone interview Monday. "When I see them, I just run."
Fuller, 18, said his fear was based on being kicked in the head by a Decatur police officer during the brawl that led to his expulsion, as well as repeated reports from people on the street that he was a police target.
"I knew they were going to do something against me," he said.
At the rally Saturday, Jackson declared the cause of the students as America's top civil rights battle. He linked their case to the Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday, saying King would have fought for the students.
Fuller was released after posting bond Sunday. Police were seeking misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing a police officer. Fuller was also cited with moving violations.
In the brawl, Fuller faces charges of mob action, resisting police and aggravated battery.
The six teens had been expelled from school up to two years for the Sept. 17 brawl, punishment Jackson called too harsh. Amid increasing criticism, the city school board cut the time to one year and let the teens attend alternative schools.