Around the Nation

ALABAMA

Court rejects ex-justice’s request

MONTGOMERY — Alabama’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected Roy Moore’s request to cancel the appointment of a seven-member replacement court to hear his appeal of his ouster as chief justice.

All eight justices of the Alabama Supreme Court decided last month that they should not hear Mr. Moore’s appeal of his removal from office by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary. To replace the Supreme Court, the court’s clerk, Bob Esdale, drew names of retired judges from a box to form a special seven-member Supreme Court to hear the appeal.

Mr. Moore was removed from office for refusing to obey a federal court order to remove his Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building.

GEORGIA

Intruder kills father, son

LILBURN — A high school coach and his 17-year-old son were killed in their home by an intruder, and police killed a suspect who had fled into a wooded area.

Bill Venable, 55, a wrestling coach and teacher at Tucker High School, and his son, Bill Jr., a senior at the school, were killed late Tuesday, Gwinnett County police said.

Police said the unidentified suspect, found in the wooded area, shot a police dog, and officers returned fire, hitting the suspect several times. He died at Gwinnett Medical Center.

ALASKA

Fund trustees seek flexibility

ANCHORAGE — Trustees of the $27.6 billion Alaska Permanent Fund will ask lawmakers to modify rules governing how they can invest the money.

State law restricts the size and type of investments by the state oil-wealth savings account. Trustees say more flexibility could mean higher profits for the fund, which provides a check annually to every Alaskan resident.

FLORIDA

Pro-chicken forces plan celebration

KEY WEST — As opponents of Key West’s free-roaming chickens push officials to relocate some of the birds, pro-fowl forces hatched plans yesterday for a citywide celebration called ChickenFest.

The festival, being staged by the same people who organize the island’s annual Fantasy Fest, is planned for June 17-20.

While ChickenFest organizers still are working on the final schedule of events, plans include a Funky Chicken dance contest, a gala Fowl Ball to be held at an island restaurant, a “chicken-of-the-sea” children’s fishing tournament, a Chick Flicks’ film festival and a Foghorn T. Leghorn look-alike contest saluting television’s widely renowned Southern-accented cartoon rooster.

HAWAII

Cheerleader dies in nine-story fall

KAANAPALI — A high school cheerleader on a dream trip to Hawaii to perform at a college football all-star game plunged naked to her death from a ninth-floor hotel balcony.

Lauren Crossan’s body was found Monday morning, hours after she had checked into the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa.

On Tuesday, police arrested two men, ages 19 and 20, on suspicion of second-degree murder, said Lt. Tivoli Faaumu. The California men, who were registered to the room from which Miss Crossan fell, were released yesterday pending investigation, police records said. They had not been charged.

Miss Crossan was one of three Randolph, N.J., seniors selected by the National Cheerleaders Association to perform with nearly 600 other cheerleaders from across the country at the halftime show of the Hula Bowl.

MAINE

Flute causes airport evacuation

PORTLAND — A passenger’s flute tucked inside a homemade container triggered the Portland International Jetport’s evacuation Tuesday because screeners believed the package could be a bomb.

The airport was reopened less than two hours after the evacuation.

The passenger was allowed to board his flight after being questioned, but without his flute in the container made of plastic PVC pipe. Eight flights were affected and more than 300 passengers evacuated while bomb technicians investigated.

MASSACHUSETTS

Town’s last bank plans to close

CONWAY — This small western Massachusetts town may soon be without a bank for the first time in 150 years.

Bank of Western Massachusetts asked state banking regulators for permission to close its Conway branch on Feb. 20. That would leave the town of 2,000 people without a bank for the first time since 1854.

MINNESOTA

State prisoners to double-bunk

STILLWATER — Some of the state’s worst offenders soon will be getting roommates.

Housing two men in a cell built for one has long been considered a security risk, but double-bunking is coming to the 90-year-old Stillwater prison.

NEW JERSEY

Blueberry named as state fruit

BRICK — For anyone who has lamented New Jersey’s failure to designate an official state fruit, consider two words: Vaccinium corymbosum.

That is the technical name for the blueberry, which became the state fruit Monday.

In a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Elementary School, Gov. James E. McGreevey signed the bill into law.

The location was symbolic: A fourth-grade class at the school, noticing New Jersey’s lack of a state fruit, nominated the highbush blueberry for the honor and then lobbied lawmakers hard.

Why the blueberry? Why New Jersey? The blueberry was first cultivated here in 1891.

NEW YORK

Architect revises memorial plan

NEW YORK — The architect chosen to design the World Trade Center memorial released a revised vision for the site yesterday, adding lush greenery and park plazas around sunken reflecting pools that mark the collapsed towers’ footprints.

The revision also includes an underground museum that will display twisted steel beams from the towers and other memorabilia from the September 11 attacks. A stone container at the bottom of one of the building’s foundations will contain remains of unidentified victims of the attacks.

Architect Michael Arad’s design was chosen last week.

NEVADA

Harrah’s to buy landmark casino

LAS VEGAS — Harrah’s Entertainment has agreed to buy a landmark hotel-casino and continue its world-famous poker tournament, days after federal agents shut down the casino floor and seized an estimated $500,000 to pay employee benefits.

NORTH CAROLINA

Tot found dead near pit bull

ANDERSON CREEK — A toddler apparently was attacked and killed by a pit bull after wandering into a next-door neighbor’s back yard, authorities said yesterday.

Nathan Roy Hill’s body was discovered Tuesday night, about 3 hours after he wandered off. A deputy had to shoot the chained-up dog to reach the body, Sheriff Larry Rollins said.

The boy’s father, a serviceman on duty in Iraq, was contacted by Red Cross officials and was coming home.

OHIO

State executes convicted killer

LUCASVILLE — A murderer whose claims of mental retardation were rejected by the courts was executed yesterday after struggling with guards and pleading for his life until the last moment.

Lewis Williams, 45, was put to death by injection for fatally shooting a 76-year-old woman during a robbery at her Cleveland home in 1983.

Four guards were needed to lift the 117-pound Williams from his knees and pry his hand off the edge of a table before carrying him into the death chamber.

TENNESSEE

Civil War flag goes to auction

MEMPHIS — The rambling farmhouse had been in the family since the Civil War, and Lavinia Skinner was absorbed in sentiment more than monetary value when she began rummaging through an old trunk from the attic.

Layer after layer, the trunk was filled with family mementos. Packed in the days before mothballs, the trunk included big twists of tobacco to repel insects. It was the piece near the bottom of the trunk that gave Miss Skinner “goose bumps” when she recognized it as a special symbol of America’s past.

Miss Skinner and Thelma Rawlins, pulled a piece of silk 7 feet by 5 feet from the trunk. It was one of the first Civil War flags to go into battle in 1861.

The flag, discovered in 1979, goes on the auction block in New York tomorrow at a minimum bid of $40,000.

WEST VIRGINIA

EBay pulls plug on auction of state

MORGANTOWN — It vanished from the online world minutes after EBay learned of the joke, but an attempt to auction off the state of West Virginia drew 56 bids and nearly enough promised cash to fill the state’s budget hole.

By Tuesday evening, with five days to go in the sale of item number 2372779353, “Entire State of West Virginia,” bidders had bumped up the ante to just $1 short of $100 million.

“I wonder if they’ve gone through PayPal to get their credit approved?” joked Amy Shuler Goodwin, spokeswoman for Gov. Bob Wise, who is projecting a $120 million deficit for fiscal 2005.

The seller, identified only as “fishstuffnthings,” did not immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment late Tuesday. Nor did “nosnam1488,” who was the high bidder until EBay was informed of the sale.

“We would take this down because first and foremost, EBay is a marketplace for the real buying and selling of goods,” said Chris Donlay, spokesman for the San Jose, Calif.-based company, which claims more than 85 million users worldwide.

From wire dispatches and staff reports