Around the Nation

ILLINOIS

Wright-designed house moved

LISLE — A prefabricated home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and threatened with demolition has been carefully dismantled and shipped 570 miles to Pennsylvania for reassembly.

After the home’s owner died in 2002, a developer wanted the land underneath it, but not the house.

The developer eventually donated the 47-year-old crumbling structure to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. The nonprofit group then gave it to a Pennsylvania man under the condition that he restore and preserve it.

MICHIGAN

Kevorkian expects to die in prison

LAPEER — Jack Kevorkian, behind bars for the videotaped lethal injection of a man in 1998, says he has few regrets.

“There’s no doubt I expect to die in prison,” Kevorkian, 75, said in a telephone interview with the Daily Oakland Press of Pontiac published yesterday.

“All the big powers, they’ve silenced me,” said Kevorkian, who is serving 10 to 25 years for second-degree murder in the 1998 videotaped poisoning of Thomas Youk. “The American people are sheep.”

ARIZONA

Police find remains of slain teacher

PHOENIX — Police on Friday found the body of a Glendale teacher who had been missing for more than five months.

The skeletal remains of Yuliya B. Kumirova, 38, were found in the desert by a Phoenix police officer, the Arizona Republic reported.

Mrs. Kumirova, the mother of two sons and an immigrant from Uzbekistan, vanished Oct. 31 from the parking lot of a Glendale fitness center where she worked out. Her van was found, with a large amount of blood, still parked at the fitness center.

Police tied her killing to Thomas J. Wieduwilt, 44, a member of the same fitness center, after they found him dead in his Glendale home of an apparent pill overdose the day after Mrs. Kumirova’s disappearance.

Police found Mrs. Kumirova’s blood on Wieduwilt and in his truck. A note left by Wieduwilt at his home also linked him to the killing.

Mrs. Kumirova’s remains were discovered Friday night and identified by forensic examiners.

CALIFORNIA

Seven wounded in gang battles

SAN JOSE — Seven persons were wounded Friday in gang-related gunfire, police said.

“In recent years, we have never seen seven victims in an hour,” San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Steve Dixon told the San Jose Mercury News. No arrests have been made in the shootings.

At about 5:40 p.m. Friday, gunfire was reported near Washington Elementary School, just south of the downtown area. Three teenage boys, ages 13, 15 and 16, were injured and rushed to hospitals.

About 30 minutes later, a few miles away, occupants of a white van were seen aiming a shotgun at people standing in a carport, the newspaper said. Two women and two men were injured.

FLORIDA

Detention centers report abuse cases

ORLANDO — More than 600 instances of abuse or neglect have taken place at state juvenile-detention centers in the past decade, with nearly two-thirds occurring since 2000, the Orlando Sentinel reported yesterday.

The 661 confirmed cases at Department of Juvenile Justice facilities since 1994 were scattered across the state and range from physical to sexual abuse, according to a review of state records.

Six children have died in the department’s care since 1998. The Department of Children and Families (DCF), which investigates all reports of child abuse in Florida, attributes two deaths to abuse or neglect.

The newspaper’s review of DCF records found the number of abuse or neglect cases peaked in fiscal 2001-02, with 119 verified incidents.

The department oversees about 8,500 offenders ages 11 to 18.

MISSISSIPPI

Same-sex ’marriage’ on November ballot

JACKSON — Mississippi voters will decide in November whether to amend the state constitution to include a ban on same-sex “marriages.”

With little discussion, the state Senate last week gave final approval to putting a proposed amendment on the Nov. 2 general election ballot.

The amendment also would prohibit the state from recognizing homosexual unions performed in other states.

Mississippi has banned same-sex “marriage” by law since 1997. Supporters of a constitutional amendment say it would protect the law if there are court challenges.

MISSOURI

Disabled boy’s mom may face charges

ST. LOUIS — A mentally disabled teenager with cerebral palsy, who weighed just 40 pounds, improved during the weekend under treatment at a hospital as authorities considered charges against his mother.

Paul “Danny” Benko was starving and dehydrated, appeared to be in shock and had bed sores, sunken eyes and protruding bones when he was brought to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital last week, said Dr. Ann Ricci, the emergency-room physician who treated him.

The boy was flown to St. Louis from a hospital in Illinois. A boy his age should weigh 120 to 170 pounds, officials said.

Doctors said during the weekend he had improved after being given intravenous fluids.

NEVADA

Man wins $270,600 in all-or-nothing bet

LAS VEGAS — A British man who sold all his possessions, including his clothes, stood in a rented tuxedo yesterday surrounded by family and friends and bet everything on a single spin of the roulette wheel.

He won’t go home empty-handed.

Ashley Revell, a 32-year-old Londoner, sold all his possessions in March, took $135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, did some low-stakes gambling and then placed everything he had left on “red.”

The wheel was spun, the ball bobbled over the slots and landed on red 7 — and Mr. Revell walked away with $270,600.

OREGON

Head-on crash kills 3 adults, 2 children

KLAMATH FALLS — Three adults and two children were killed when the sedan they were in veered into the path of an oncoming pickup truck, Oregon State Police said.

All five occupants of the sedan were ejected from the car and were pronounced dead at the scene on Friday. The occupants of the pickup were treated at the scene and were not hospitalized, police said.

Authorities identified four of the victims as Cleora Godowa, 60, Marilyn Godowa, 25, ViJune Arnett, 18, and Tierra Wilson, 3, all of Beatty. The second child was not identified.

Police said they didn’t know who was driving or what caused the sedan to cross into the path of the pickup.

PENNSYLVANIA

Judge awards triplets to surrogate mother

ERIE — A surrogate mother who gave birth to triplets last year and then refused to give them up, saying the biological father and his fiancee showed a lack of interest in the babies, has been awarded legal custody.

Erie County Judge Shad Connelly said Danielle Bimber, 29, must work out visitation and other rights with the infants’ biological father, who also had sought custody.

James Richardson, attorney for the biological father identified in court records as J.F., said his client will appeal.

Miss Bimber agreed to become a surrogate mother with the Marion, Ind.-based agency Surrogate Mother Inc. at the end of 2001. The agency matched Miss Bimber with J.F. and his fiancee and located an egg donor. The infants were born slightly premature on Nov. 19.

Miss Bimber testified she changed her mind about giving up the triplets because she was concerned about how J.F. and his fiancee acted after the babies were born.

TENNESSEE

TSU president regrets free tickets

NASHVILLE —Tennessee State University’s president said yesterday he regrets that he might have placed the school in an “unflattering light” after an audit found he used his position to obtain free Super Bowl tickets.

However, in a letter sent yesterday to students, faculty and staff, James Hefner did not admit wrongdoing.

“I look forward to the time when I can discuss the particulars of this audit in greater detail, for there is much to say,” Mr. Hefner said. “For now, let me just say I deeply regret if anything I have done has cast this office or Tennessee State University in unflattering light.”

The audit released last week by the state comptroller’s office found that Aramark Corp. improperly paid for Mr. Hefner to attend the 2001 Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla. The company holds the contract to provide food service for the school.

The auditors said Mr. Hefner tried to cover up the free tickets by saying he paid Aramark $200 for them, but then changed his story several times after being confronted.

Local prosecutors are reviewing the findings of the audit.