Around the Nation

CALIFORNIA

Blackout disrupts flight schedules

LOS ANGELES — A brief failure of a power line shut down electrical service to the Los Angeles International Airport tower and disrupted air traffic yesterday morning, authorities said.

About 100 flights were affected, either having to hold in the air, circle or stay on the ground at their departure points, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Donn Walker said.

Some departures from Los Angeles also were held but that was resolved relatively quickly, he said.

A supply line went out for 10 seconds at 9:38 a.m., said Carol Tucker, spokeswoman for the city Department of Water and Power.

“The cause is blamed on equipment failure,” she said.

WISCONSIN

Slain soldier’s family seeks sisters’ exemption

NEW BERLIN — The parents of three soldier daughters, one of whom was slain in Iraq last week, are pleading for their other daughters to be spared any further service in Iraq.

Michelle Witmer, 20, died Friday after her Humvee jeep was ambushed in Baghdad, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said.

Her sister Rachel, who is serving with the same National Guard unit, and her twin sister, Charity, who is a medic with the Guard, are traveling from Iraq to Wisconsin for the funeral.

Their parents are pleading with U.S. lawmakers and military officials to exempt the other two daughters from further service in light of the family’s loss.

A Wisconsin National Guard spokesman said he did not know whether the sisters must return to Iraq after the funeral.

FLORIDA

NASA workers afraid to speak up

CAPE CANAVERAL — Many workers at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration feel unappreciated by the agency and still are afraid to speak up about safety concerns, more than a year after the Space Shuttle Columbia was doomed by those very problems, said a survey released yesterday.

The 145-page report includes an assessment of NASA’s culture by a behavioral-science company in California and a three-year plan for change.

The report notes that excellence is treasured when it comes to technical work, but is not considered imperative for management skills.

Last summer, Columbia accident investigators condemned NASA’s safety culture and put as much blame on poor management as on the loose piece of foam insulation that tore a hole in the shuttle’s left wing at liftoff. The shuttle was destroyed during re-entry on Feb. 1, 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

KANSAS

Police seek links in strangler case

WICHITA — Police are reviewing unsolved slayings of women killed since 1974 after the re-emergence of a serial killer who terrorized the city in the 1970s and recently took responsibility for a 1986 killing.

Police won’t identify specific cases or talk in detail about their investigation of the killer known as the BTK Strangler. But a letter received last month, which police think was sent by the serial killer, has fanned fears that BTK may be responsible for more than the eight deaths for which the killer has taken responsibility.

“I wouldn’t say for certain that there aren’t any more bodies out there,” said retired Wichita police Lt. Mike McKenna, who oversaw the department’s homicide investigations during the mid-1980s.

Lt. McKenna said he does not recall any specific cases that had the earmarks of a BTK killing.

From 1974 to 1978, the killer known as BTK — which stands for “bind, torture, kill” — killed at least seven persons. Last month, BTK sent a letter to the Wichita Eagle taking responsibility for a 1986 killing.

It was the first communication from the killer in more than two decades. Police have said the recent letter is authentic.

MASSACHUSETTS

Victims seek to keep ex-priest in prison

TAUNTON — A former altar boy testified yesterday that defrocked priest and convicted pedophile James Porter raped him in the early 1960s in a church dressing room and later molested him in his hospital bed as he recovered from pneumonia.

Thomas Kulas, now 52, was one of five victims testifying at a hearing on a bid by prosecutors to keep Porter locked up as a sexually dangerous person.

Porter, who served in the Fall River Diocese, pleaded guilty in 1993 to molesting 28 children. He completed his sentence in January, but prosecutors have petitioned the court to hold the 69-year-old man indefinitely. The five witnesses were among the 28 child victims.

MICHIGAN

Petition rejectedon affirmative action

LANSING — A petition seeking a November ballot proposal to end affirmative action at Michigan’s public universities was rejected unanimously by a state election board yesterday, reversing an earlier decision.

The decision likely places the fate of the proposal in the hands of the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The group circulating the petition, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, said it will continue to gather the more than 300,000 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot if the wording of the petition is approved.

The board initially approved the petition in December, but reconsidered after a ruling by Ingham County Judge Paula Manderfield last month.

MISSOURI

Sorority blood donors told to lie

COLUMBIA — Members of a sorority were urged to lie about their health to qualify as donors in a competitive blood drive at the University of Missouri at Columbia, a school that once set a world record for blood collection.

In an e-mail sent April 6 to about 170 members of Gamma Phi Beta, Christie Key, the chapter’s blood-donation coordinator, wrote: “I don’t care if you got a tattoo last week. LIE. I don’t care if you have a cold. Suck it up. We all do. LIE. Recent piercings? LIE.”

The e-mail was reported Sunday by the Columbia Missourian and the Columbia Daily Tribune.

Jim Williams, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, said the organization discourages any actions that could jeopardize the blood supply, including donations from those who are sick or recently received tattoos or piercings.

OKLAHOMA

DNA helps foil cattle rustlers

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma ranchers are finding that DNA is an effective weapon against cattle rustlers.

A rancher in Woodward County recently turned to DNA analysis to help find his stolen cattle, and a suspect was arrested, the Daily Oklahoman reported yesterday.

Rancher John Stine paid $544 for a calf he thought was stolen from his herd and then $350 for the DNA analysis that proved it was his.

DNA has been used in a few such cases in recent years, and law officers have found it effective. The drawback is the cost.

PENNSYLVANIA

Three teen cousins die in accident

LAKE HARMONY — A sport utility vehicle slammed into a tree and burst into flames, killing three teenage cousins attending a weekend religious retreat.

The boys were identified as Omar Abdelmonem Talaat, 14, Moustafa Rabat, 16, and Ahmed Elzanaty, 14. Three other boys were injured, and two of them were in critical condition yesterday.

The teens, all from Long Island, N.Y., apparently were speeding on a private road when they failed to negotiate a curve and slammed into a tree shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday, police said.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Three killed in plane crash

NORTH AUGUSTA — A small plane crashed yesterday morning in a wooded area, killing all three on board.

The site is a mile or two east of the Savannah River, Aiken County Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Frank said. He referred all other questions to the North Augusta police. Investigators there did not return a phone call.

The plane took off from the nearby Aiken Municipal Airport and was heading to Greenville, Miss., Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Christopher White said. The plane was registered to William C. Cuntz of Golden, Colo., the FAA’s Web site said.

TEXAS

Suspects held in death of Houston firefighter

DALLAS — Three suspects were held on murder warrants yesterday filed in the death of a Houston firefighter in an arson case.

Houston detectives questioned two men and a woman after they were arrested Sunday at a hotel near downtown Dallas, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The suspects were identified as Jeremy Steven Robinson, 32, of Kingwood; Brian Weiner, 23, of Houston; and Patricia Gayle Praker, 29, of Galveston, the newspaper said.

They are charged in an April 4 arson at the El Festival Ballroom in Houston that killed rookie firefighter Kevin Kulow, 32.