Around the Nation

ALASKA

Sea lion puts on a ton of weight

ANCHORAGE — Woody, a resident Steller sea lion at the Alaska SeaLife Center, is packing on the blubber, tipping the scales at 2,017 pounds — an 800-pound gain since December.

And though the 11-year-old male is nearly twice the average size, the bulking up is normal, according to biologists at the marine-research center and public aquarium in Seward. It is nature’s way of preparing territorial Steller males to defend mating grounds in the wild.

Woody is one of two captive Steller sea lions in the country that have not been neutered. Researchers say the changes observed in Woody should provide another layer of understanding about the species.

UTAH

Probation ordered in C-section case

SALT LAKE CITY — A judge yesterday sentenced a Utah woman who refused a Caesarean section that doctors said would have saved her stillborn son to 18 months’ probation and said society had let the woman down from her youth.

Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, was ordered by Salt Lake County District Judge Dennis Fuchs to move to Indiana, where she has family and friends and where she will undergo mental-health treatment.

The woman originally was charged with criminal homicide because police said she repeatedly refused to have surgery that would have saved one of her twins, a son, because she feared being scarred by the operation. Rowland, who has a history of mental-health problems, delivered twins — one of whom died — on Jan. 13.

CALIFORNIA

Pipeline break spills diesel fuel in bay

SAN FRANCISCO — A broken pipeline has spilled as much as 1 million gallons of diesel fuel into Suisun Bay, which feeds into San Francisco Bay, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday.

A state environmental official said the amount of fuel spilled could be significantly lower. Officials said the exact amount would not be known until the pipe is fixed and refilled.

The petroleum pipeline owned by Kinder-Morgan Energy Partners ruptured Wednesday and spilled the fuel into the Suisun Marsh, EPA spokesman Mark Merchant said.

Emergency response teams are trying to clean up as much of the spill as possible in the area about 25 miles northeast of San Francisco.

CONNECTICUT

Governor’s rating hits new low

HARTFORD — Only 20 percent of Connecticut residents think Gov. John G. Rowland is doing a good job, a University of Connecticut poll says. It is the governor’s lowest approval rating since he took office in 1995.

Mr. Rowland, a Republican, faces criminal and legislative investigations after acknowledging that he accepted gifts from state contractors and employees. The poll surveyed 501 state residents.

DELAWARE

Veterans home to be expedited

DOVER — Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, a Democrat, reached a compromise with lawmakers that will expedite construction of Delaware’s first home for aging and disabled veterans.

The state will waive the usual bidding requirements in hopes that the home can be built by 2007, about a year sooner than under Mrs. Minner’s original proposal.

FLORIDA

Woman takes trip with dead mom

PALM COAST — A woman might have driven from Oklahoma to Florida — by way of North Carolina and Texas — with her mother’s decaying body as her passenger, then went shopping at Wal-Mart, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies found Melba Doshier’s body Tuesday in the car parked at a Wal-Mart in Palm Coast after shoppers reported a bad smell coming from the vehicle.

The St. Johns County medical examiner on Wednesday said Mrs. Doshier died of natural causes at least five days before she was found.

Mrs. Doshier’s daughter, Alicia, who officials said is in her mid-30s, has been questioned and hospitalized for psychiatric observation. She was found in the store Tuesday, 13 hours after security cameras spotted her parking the car and entering the store.

Sheriff James Manfre said he wasn’t planning to file charges.

IOWA

Family-owned dairy to stay in state

LE MARS — Wells’ Dairy said it plans to build a $30 million complex in Le Mars and keep its headquarters in Iowa. Nebraska and South Dakota courted the family-owned company.

The 91-year-old company makes Blue Bunny ice cream and other dairy products that are sold in the United States and 28 other countries.

LOUISIANA

Ex-judge sentenced in corruption scandal

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge reneged on the plea bargain of a former state judge, sentencing him to an extra four months behind bars for his role in a courthouse corruption scandal.

U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan on Wednesday ordered former state District Judge Ronald Bodenheimer to serve three years and 10 months in prison and pay $50,000 for taking bribes from a bail bondsman, scheming to plant drugs on an FBI informant and plotting to fix a child custody case. He must report to prison June 28.

Prosecutors agreed to a 31/2-year term for Bodenheimer in exchange for his cooperation with their investigation into corruption at the Jefferson Parish courthouse in suburban New Orleans.

Judge Berrigan, however, said Bodenheimer’s cooperation wasn’t enough and increased his sentence to reflect the seriousness of trying to get someone falsely arrested. She gave Bodenheimer a chance to withdraw his guilty plea, but he turned it down.

MAINE

Governor signs domestic partner bill

AUGUSTA — Gov. John Baldacci signed a bill Wednesday creating domestic partnerships in Maine.

The new law, which takes effect in 90 days, extends domestic partnership rights to heterosexual or homosexual adults who live together under long-term arrangements. It also gives domestic partners the same inheritance rights as a spouse when a married partner dies without a will.

Mr. Baldacci, a Democrat, said the bill shows “our state is a state that recognizes the importance of individual rights and civil rights for all citizens.”

Supporters of the bill have brushed aside opponents’ concerns it would open the door to same-sex “marriages,” which have been illegal under a Maine statute since 1997.

NEW JERSEY

Governor uninjured in car crash

LAWRENCE — A car carrying Gov. James E. McGreevey collided with another vehicle Wednesday afternoon, aides said. Mr. McGreevey was not hurt, but one of his aides and the driver of the other vehicle and her passenger were taken to hospitals, police said.

The crash occurred at 3:15 p.m. as a state trooper was driving Mr. McGreevey, a Democrat, from the governor’s mansion in Princeton to the Statehouse in Trenton, said McGreevey spokesman Micah Rasmussen.

NEW YORK

Man sentenced in subway attack

NEW YORK — A homeless man convicted of slashing a college student on a subway platform has been ordered to serve 25 years in prison.

Edwin Santiago, 33, was sentenced Wednesday in the knife attack on Yael Leopold, 22. She needed more than 50 stitches in her face, head and left hand.

Miss Leopold, now a teacher, was a senior at the University of Massachusetts when she was attacked in the early morning of Jan. 10, 2003, at a Manhattan station. She had been staying with friends in Brooklyn and was returning to their home from an East Village nightclub.

Santiago was arrested about two weeks later at a homeless shelter; he was found guilty of first-degree assault in February.

NORTH CAROLINA

Estranged husband burns down home

ROCKY MOUNT — A man who set his mobile home on fire, then sat in the yard to watch it burn told authorities he did it to keep his estranged wife from getting any property in their divorce, officials said.

Investigators were trying to determine whether to charge the man, whose name was not immediately released.

“He said that his wife had left him, and he didn’t want her to have everything that he had worked so hard for,” sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Pat Joyner said yesterday.

There was no insurance on the property, and detectives were trying to contact the man’s wife to determine whether she was listed as an owner. If she is, the case would be presented to the district attorney for investigation of criminal charges, Lt. Joyner said.

Firefighters were called to the scene early Wednesday when a passer-by spotted the blaze. Authorities found the estranged husband in his yard holding a gun; he ordered emergency workers to let the trailer burn. After the fire burned out, the man left his gun in his truck and deputies took him into custody.