Around the Nation

ARKANSAS

Bush leads Kerry in state poll

LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas State University poll indicates that President Bush leads Democratic Sen. John Kerry in the state by 8 points.

The poll of 418 adults has Mr. Bush at 51 percent and Mr. Kerry at 43 percent and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent. Arkansas, the home state of former President Clinton, went for Mr. Bush over Al Gore in 2000.

CALIFORNIA

Man kills daughters, commits suicide

PALMDALE — An apparent murder-suicide early yesterday took the lives of two Southern California girls and their 40-year-old father.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lt. Larry Lincoln told KTLA-TV in Los Angeles that the grim discovery was made in the pre-dawn hours at a home in the desert city of Palmdale.

Mr. Lincoln said the bodies of the man and the two girls, ages 8 and 15, were found in an upstairs bedroom by deputies responding to a report of gunshots.

COLORADO

Columbine still waits for memorial

DENVER — Five years since the Columbine High School tragedy in Colorado, there still is no permanent memorial to the 12 slain students and one teacher.

Organizers tell the Denver Post that fund raising was slowed by the sour economy and other Columbine-related projects. Only about 25 percent of the $1.3 million goal has been raised so far.

The suburban Denver high school converted the library — the scene of most of the slayings — into an atrium. The memorial would be built on a plot west of the school.

It was five years ago today that students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students and a teacher at the school before taking their own lives in the nation’s deadliest school shooting.

CONNECTICUT

Hartford jail has 2nd suicide in week

HARTFORD — An inmate was found dead in his cell this weekend, the second apparent suicide in the Hartford Correctional Center in less than a week.

David Becker, 47, of Manchester, Mass., was found Sunday morning with a shoelace tied around his neck. Trevor Jefferson, 44, of Hartford, was found Wednesday night with a shoestring and bed sheet around his neck.

A cellmate of Becker was asleep when Becker was found, and Jefferson was alone in a cell when he died, the Hartford Courant reported yesterday. There have been 21 suicides in Connecticut prisons and jails since January 2000, the Courant reported.

FLORIDA

Legislators to toughen amendment process

TALLAHASSEE — Florida state legislators want to toughen up the way the state constitution is amended, but they have to get it past the voters first.

The biggest motivation is most likely the 2002 amendment that protected pregnant pigs by banning “gestation crates.”

There also are the items and concepts that nobody knows how much will cost except that it will be too much. That includes the 2000 approval of the bullet train and the reduction of class sizes in public schools.

Presidential politics could become an issue. A national organization known as ACORN wants to increase the minimum wage in Florida by a dollar an hour to $6.15 with a constitutional amendment, the St. Petersburg Times reported yesterday.

GEORGIA

Survey: Fat patients not told to slim down

ATLANTA — Many doctors are not advising their obese patients to lose weight despite a national obesity epidemic, the government said yesterday.

Only about 40 percent of doctors told their obese patients to lose weight in 2000, a decrease from 42.5 percent in 1994, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

Meanwhile, patients who were advised to lose weight were nearly three times more likely to drop the excess pounds than those who did not have the discussion with their doctor, CDC officials said in a study. About 30 percent of all U.S. adults are obese, the CDC said.

Some doctors have said they are not confident in counseling their patients to lose weight, because they do not have enough formal training about obesity. Other experts say the problem stems from ignorance about other crucial health matters.

KANSAS

School in Brown case to become museum

TOPEKA — Monroe School, which passed into history as the center of desegregation efforts, gets a new life on May 17 when it is dedicated as the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site — 50 years to the day after the Supreme Court ruling.

In the half-century since 7-year-old Linda Brown had to walk past her whites-only neighborhood school to Monroe, the solid red brick building has been a warehouse, a church, a clothing-distribution center and a dental office.

The $12 million renovation of Monroe and its conversion to a museum was 14 years in the making and started when the Brown family’s Foundation for Educational Excellence and others banded together to save Monroe from the wrecking ball.

ILLINOIS

Students not expelled in hazing incident

GLENVIEW —Eleven high-school lacrosse players who were caught paddling younger team members as part of a hazing ritual won’t be expelled but must complete a community-service project.

The school board deliberated for nearly six hours Sunday before deciding to allow the Glenbrook South High School juniors and seniors to remain in school and make up the work they have missed during a two-week suspension.

The students faced expulsion for a hazing incident at a March 12 off-campus party, during which the 11 players are accused of using a wooden paddle to whack 13 new team members during a rite-of-passage ritual. The party at a team member’s home also reportedly included underage drinking.

LOUISIANA

Streetcars return to Canal Street

NEW ORLEANS — Streetcars are rolling down New Orleans’ Canal Street for the first time in 40 years.

Sunday’s return of the streetcars was the result of a $160 million project with funds provided by the federal government and the city, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.

The Canal Street cars are air-conditioned, modern versions of the older streetcars more familiar on St. Charles Street in the Crescent City.

The new route officially opened at 3 a.m. Sunday, and about 30,000 people rode the cars on the first day, officials said.

MISSOURI

Suspect accused of killing 12 women

KANSAS CITY — A supervisor for a trash-collection company has been charged with strangling 12 women or girls from 1977 to 1993, and police are investigating possible links to other killings.

Lorenzo J. Gilyard was charged Saturday with 10 counts of first-degree murder and two counts of capital murder, the law in effect at the time of two of the killings. If Mr. Gilyard is convicted of all the murders, he would be the worst serial killer in the city’s history, police said.

He was being held without bail. Police and prosecutors planned a press conference yesterday to discuss the case.

NEBRASKA

Highest bidder gets funeral praise

GRAND ISLAND — The Rev. Jim Keyser promises to say nice things at your funeral — if you’re the highest bidder.

The pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church said he felt a little out of step as he tried to think of something related to his work that he could offer at Saturday’s Rotary radio auction. After all, people can’t buy redemption, he said.

So alongside the auction’s portable DVD player, the gas grill, sprinkler systems and other worldly items, Mr. Keyser is offering a eulogy.

“For an extra $50, I’ll say some really nice things,” Mr. Keyser said.

Mr. Keyser’s offer of a eulogy for the charity auction began as tongue-in-cheek at first. But auction co-chairman Randy Blair said it took on a life of its own, so to speak. The auction now has a package that includes a funeral urn and cremation service.

OREGON

Serial predator held in state

PORTLAND — An intensive search for a convicted serial molester ended this weekend with the apprehension of the suspect in an Oregon Laundromat.

Edward H. Stokes, 49, was picked up Sunday at a suburban Portland strip mall, ending a search that began when he dropped out of sight after his release from a California prison after an appeals court overturned one of his many sex-charge convictions.

He was in jail yesterday awaiting extradition to Washington state, where he is accused of lying on a driver’s license application.

Although it was a relatively minor charge, Stokes’ background of multiple child-molestation convictions had authorities in the entire region anxious to find him. The Seattle Times noted yesterday that Stokes had told a therapist that he had assaulted more than 200 victims over the years.

PENNSYLVANIA

Mother killed in shooting

PITTSBURGH — Members of a Pittsburgh church grieved yesterday for the horrific shooting death of their choir director, a young mother killed in a hostage situation.

Police said Alvin Starks, 30, walked into Victorious Faith Evangelic Outreach Church on Sunday morning as about 130 worshippers were singing, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported yesterday.

He grabbed Andrea Umphrey by the hair, smacked her face with his pistol and dragged her and their baby out to a van parked outside, police said. A standoff ensued before the van sped away. The chase ended about 20 miles away at a turnpike toll booth with a shooting that left Ms. Umphrey dead.

Ten-month-old Aliya was unhurt. Starks, who was wounded, has been hospitalized and faces arraignment. Starks reportedly had just been in the Allegheny County Jail for violating a court order to stay away from Ms. Umphrey, congregation members said.

TEXAS

More black women have pregnancy woes

DALLAS — Researchers studying pregnant women found that black women with a dangerous high blood pressure complication had less folic acid and more of a certain amino acid than white women.

The difference could help explain why black women are at higher risk for the life-threatening complication, pre-eclampsia. And it suggests that they should take higher doses of the vitamin folic acid.

The finding also could indicate future risk for cardiovascular disease.

Pre-eclampsia affects 3 percent to 5 percent of pregnant women and is a common cause of premature births. It typically occurs very late in a pregnancy. Besides inducing high blood pressure, it can cause kidney failure, swelling of hands and feet, seizures and death.

VERMONT

Cracks found in nuclear plant

VERNON — A series of four cracks were found in a steam dryer in the Vermont Yankee nuclear-power plant in a section of the plant that has yet to generate electricity.

The Rutland Herald reported yesterday four cracks — one 14 inches long and the others each 3 inches — were found last week. Two of the smaller cracks were repaired shortly after they were discovered. The others were in a different area, described as low-stress — and will be monitored, a plant spokesman told the newspaper.

The newspaper said the cracks were discovered during a special inspection, called for because of steam dryer problems at other nuclear plants.