Around the Nation

ARIZONA

McCain’s wife hospitalized after a mild stroke

PHOENIX — Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, suffered a small stroke and was hospitalized in stable condition yesterday.

Mrs. McCain, 49, had a small bleeder in her brain, and her speech was mildly affected, said Dr. Robert Spetzler.

He said the bleeding Monday was caused by a rupture of a small blood vessel, possibly from a spike of blood pressure.

Mr. McCain said he expected his wife to be released from the hospital within a few days, pending test results.

WISCONSIN

Sisters of fallen soldier excused from duty

BROOKFIELD — The two sisters of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq last week will not have to return to active duty with their units in Baghdad once their emergency leave expires, a spokeswoman for the family said yesterday.

Spc. Michelle Witmer, 20, with the National Guard’s 32nd Military Police Company, was killed Friday when her Humvee was ambushed. She was killed just weeks before her unit was expected to head for home.

Army officials told Rachel and Charity Witmer that they could be excused from further service in the war zone in line with long-standing Pentagon policy, a Witmer family spokeswoman told reporters.

CALIFORNIA

’Citizen of year’ gets prison term

POMONA — A Californian who was named “Citizen of the Year” in 1998 was sentenced to 985 years to life in prison for rape, torture, abuse and weapons violations.

Pomona Superior Court Judge Tom Falls sentenced Rocky Sanchez, 36, of El Monte on Monday, the Pasadena Star-News reported yesterday.

Sanchez was convicted of raping and torturing his wife, abusing other family members and having an arsenal of weapons.

Six years ago, the El Monte City Council honored Sanchez for giving police a car license-plate number in a gang-related shooting and for testifying against the gunman in court.

COLORADO

Jurisdiction set in custody battle

DENVER — A Colorado couple cannot be forced to give their adopted son back to the biological mother in another state without a court hearing on what is best for the child, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled.

A Missouri judge had ordered the child returned there because the biological mother changed her mind about the adoption. The child, now 1, has lived with the Colorado couple since shortly after he was born.

The court said Monday in a 6-1 decision that Colorado judges can hear custody disputes when judges in other states do not take into consideration the “best interests” of the child.

FLORIDA

Newspapers end autopsy-photo suits

ORLANDO — Two Florida newspapers dropped their lawsuits challenging a Florida law restricting public access to autopsy photographs, the newspapers reported yesterday.

The challenges by the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun-Sentinel were made after the death of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt at Daytona International Speedway.

Charlotte H. Hall, vice president of the Orlando Sentinel, said the decision to drop the case came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate case involving pictures of former deputy White House Counsel Vince Foster.

The 4th District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach was scheduled to hear the case yesterday.

IDAHO

Student charged with Web of terror

BOISE — A University of Idaho graduate student went on trial yesterday on charges he supported terrorism by running Web sites that recruited militants and raised money for groups promoting violence against the United States.

Sami Omar Al-Hussayen, a Saudi national working on his computer science doctoral degree, is charged with three counts of aiding terrorism and additional counts of visa fraud and making false statements.

U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge began questioning potential jurors yesterday, and expected to have a panel seated by the end of the day.

Mr. Al-Hussayen is accused of helping to run Web sites that supported the militant Palestinian organization Hamas and other groups accused of promoting terrorism.

ILLINOIS

Hazers at school may be expelled

GLENVIEW — Eleven lacrosse players at a suburban Chicago high school should be expelled for supposedly paddling 13 new team members at an off-campus hazing incident that involved underage drinking, administrators say.

The school is in the same district as the high school involved in a widely televised hazing incident last year.

The lacrosse players at Glenbrook South High School, all junior and senior boys, are undergoing hearings this week with their parents, lawyers and school administrators.

The school board will hold a closed meeting Sunday to decide whether to adopt the administration’s recommendation.

KANSAS

’Brown’ site bars protesters

TOPEKA — Groups planning protests of the Brown v. Board of Education decision will be barred from dedication ceremonies at the historic site in Kansas.

A spokeswomen for the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site told the Topeka Capital-Journal three white-supremacist groups were expected to protest the 1954 Supreme Court decision that ordered schools desegregated.

LaTonya Miller told the newspaper that site Superintendent Stephen Adams had “waived the First Amendment right for the grand opening” and said the groups will not be allowed to stand on federal property.

Ceremonies are planned for May 17 to dedicate a historic site on the grounds of the former Monroe Elementary School, which was one of four segregated elementary schools for black children in Topeka in the 1950s.

MASSACHUSETTS

Town defies gay ’marriage’ ban

PROVINCETOWN — A Massachusetts tourist town has decided to issue “marriage” licenses to same-sex couples despite legal uncertainties, USA Today reported yesterday.

Provincetown, on the Cape Cod Peninsula, is the first community to make the move since the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled it was unconstitutional to deny same-sex couples the right to “marry.”

The main legal concern is a 1913 state law barring the issue of marriage licenses “if such “marriage” would be void if contracted in [another] jurisdiction.”

MICHIGAN

Fitness executive faces palimony suit

DETROIT — Courting a 22-year-old woman in the 1980s could become a $160 million liability for a California fitness executive, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Margaret Horvath, 42, is suing William Hubner, 69, for breach of contract, saying he promised her a life of luxury. The couple became involved 20 years ago, but broke up in December 2000.

Miss Horvath’s suit seeks as much as $160 million, a condominium and a Lexus. Mr. Hubner, who owns the Fitness USA chain of health clubs and lives in Beverly Hills, maintains he promised Miss Horvath nothing.

MISSOURI

Sorority apologizes for blood-drive lie

COLUMBIA — The national office of a sorority whose members were urged to lie about their health to boost turnout in a competitive campus blood drive apologized yesterday.

In a statement from its national office in Colorado, Gamma Phi Beta said it “regrets the e-mail sent regarding mandatory participation in a campus-wide blood drive and apologizes to the community, the Red Cross and campus.”

The American Red Cross temporarily defers blood donors who are sick or have recently received tattoos or piercings, both to protect the health of donors and to lessen the risk of transmitting diseases to recipients.

But sorority members at the University of Missouri at Columbia — a school that once set a world record for blood collection — were urged by a fellow member to lie about their health.

OHIO

Man admits to beheading mother

FINDLAY — Police said that a man’s reading of Aztec culture may have spurred his suspected beheading of his mother and cutting off her hands.

Hancock County Sheriff Mike Heldman said 41-year-old Rex Businger admitted to killing his mother before he died of self-inflicted injuries a day later, the Toledo Blade reported.

“He was emotionally disturbed,” Sheriff Heldman said. “In talking to the family last week and again this morning, they said he would be very rational and very normal, and then he’d become irrational. He would be talking and pacing. He would be hearing voices.”

His 83-year-old mother, Alma, was found dead in the home she shared with her son, with her head, right foot and hands removed.

PENNSYLVANIA

Defendant rushes at judge, is shot

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia deputy shot a defendant yesterday as the man rushed a common-pleas court judge who had just sentenced him to prison, KYW-AM Radio reported.

Shortly before noon, Judge Gary Glazer gave the defendant, 24-year-old Shawn Frazier, two to four years in jail on a probation violation in a 1999 gun case conviction.

At that point, Frazier jumped over a table and rushed Judge Glazer, who then ran out of the courtroom, slamming a door behind him. Just as Frazier reached the door a deputy shot him at least once in the back.

Paramedics were called and promptly arrived and began treating Frazier inside the courtroom. His condition was not disclosed.

TENNESSEE

Hairstylists claim racial discrimination

NASHVILLE — Three black hairstylists from Nashville have sued the Dillard’s department store chain, saying the store’s salons engaged in racial discrimination.

Felicia Dotson, Jantail Barbee and Michael Jackson want Dillard’s to change its salons’ employment policies and create a task force to oversee equality and fairness programs, the Tennessean reported. The plaintiffs also are requesting unspecified compensatory damages and lost wages.

Among the charges, the suit says white stylists were given preferential treatment in the assignment of customers, and white stylists were allowed to decline to perform work on “African-American clients or ethnic hair.”

A spokesman for the Little Rock, Ark.-based company denied all the claims.

TEXAS

Judge declares mistrial after car crash

DALLAS — A Texas judge declared a mistrial in a lawsuit involving a deadly bus crash after learning the sister of a survivor had been killed in a weekend car crash.

A jury had been seated and opening statements were scheduled Monday when Judge Mary Murphy was informed that the sister of one of the 15 plaintiffs had died in the crash Sunday night, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Lawyer David Schiller said the family of 13-year-old Rebecca Foster could not continue with the trial after the tragedy. After a 30-minute meeting in chambers, the judge complied with the request to declare a mistrial.

WASHINGTON

Autistic man charged with ricin possession

SEATTLE — An autistic man from the Seattle area has been charged by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force with possession of the deadly poison ricin.

Robert Alberg, 37, is being held pending a hearing tomorrow in U.S. District Court, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported yesterday.

Federal criminal justice sources told the newspaper they do not believe Mr. Alberg had political motivations for having the ricin and that he had no plans to use it.

WEST VIRGINIA

Man sentenced for assaulting girl

CHARLESTON — A man who stalked and sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in a Target store was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in federal prison.

Allen Dwayne Coates, 38, of Irvington, Ky., pleaded guilty in December to federal charges that included crossing state lines to engage in a sexual act with a child. He also has pleaded guilty to state charges of assault and abduction and is awaiting sentencing for those offenses.

A surveillance video from the store in South Charleston last July showed Coates stalking the girl and leading her down an aisle by the wrist.

Prosecutors said he told her that he was a security guard and that he suspected her of shoplifting. He then pulled a knife and assaulted her twice.