Around the Nation

NEW YORK

5 school buses collide; 37 hurt

SYRACUSE — Five school buses carrying 170 eighth-graders on a field trip crashed into each other yesterday on a highway ramp, and 37 children and adults suffered minor injuries, authorities said.

The accident occurred when the first bus in the group slowed as it merged into traffic, police said. The students were on their way from Auburn to downtown Syracuse to see a play.

Some of the 17 adult chaperons complained of chest pains, and several students suffered bloody noses.

TEXAS

Laney committed for sons’ murders

TYLER — A mother acquitted by reason of insanity for beating two of her sons to death with rocks was committed to a maximum-security state mental hospital yesterday.

Deanna Laney, 39, was ordered transferred from jail to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon. She will be examined, after which a judge may order her to stay there, prescribe outpatient treatment or release her. Under state law, Mrs. Laney could be committed for the rest of her life.

Mrs. Laney bashed her sons’ skulls in with heavy rocks, killing two of them, ages 6 and 8, and severely injuring a third son, now 2. She claimed God ordered her to kill the children.

ARIZONA

Convicted bishop seeks travel credit

PHOENIX — Bishop Thomas O’Brien asked a judge to deduct travel time from the 1,000 hours of community service he has to serve for a felony hit-and-run conviction. The bishop also requested some flexibility in the number of hours he must serve each month, a court document said.

According to the motion, Judge Stephen Gerst “indicated a willingness to be flexible” with the bishop’s requests, although no formal orders have been issued. But Maricopa County prosecutor Rick Romley criticized the bishop’s request.

Bishop O’Brien, 68, was convicted in February for the June hit-and-run accident that killed Jim Reed, 43. He was sentenced to four years’ probation and ordered to perform community service, including hospital visits to severely injured and dying people.

ARKANSAS

Jailers, cop accused of beating suspect

BROOKLAND — A police officer and four jailers were suspended with pay amid accusations that they beat a man so severely that he had to be hospitalized.

Terry O’Neil told authorities that police punched and shocked him with a stun gun several times at his home last week, and jailers and deputies kicked him in the head at the jail. Police Chief Mark Rusher said he suspended patrol Officer Aaron Murphy; four jailers also were suspended with pay Monday. At least 10 officers took part in the beating, officials said.

Mr. O’Neil said Officer Murphy told him that the officers were going to search his home for drugs. Mr. O’Neil’s girlfriend, Dana McDaniel, said after she told the officers that they could not search without a warrant, they knocked her down and shocked the suspect.

CALIFORNIA

Man sentenced for fake diplomas

SANTA ANA — A man who made millions selling phony diplomas was sentenced to eight months in prison, a prosecutor said.

Ronald Pellar, 75, owner and operator of the bogus Columbia State University, was sentenced Monday in a U.S. District court after pleading guilty to nine counts of mail fraud in January, Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Gaffney said.

Pellar took in millions of dollars from people across the country for the degrees that cost $1,500 to $3,000, Mr. Gaffney said. However, many of the “students” were not victims because they “wanted a fraudulent degree to show to employers for promotion,” he said.

FLORIDA

Torture suspect to be deported again

MIAMI — A Honduran torture suspect has been arrested in Palm Beach County and is expected to be deported by the United States for a fourth time.

Juan Angel Hernandez Lara sneaked back into the country each time he was sent back home to the Honduras, the Miami Herald reported yesterday. Mr. Lara is suspected of being a member of the Honduran death squad in the 1980s.

Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency is trying to determine how Mr. Lara has managed repeatedly to sneak into the country.

GEORGIA

Roving tot’s mom resigns from bench

ATLANTA — An Atlanta-area juvenile judge whose daughter was found wandering alone has announced her resignation, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday.

Fulton County Chief Juvenile Court Judge Nina Hickson made the announcement at a news conference, saying it was in the best interest of the court and her family to step down, effective April 30.

Her 4-year-old daughter was found in late November wandering a street alone late at night without a coat or shoes while her mother returned to the airport to retrieve luggage.

Judge Hickson, 44, was suspended with pay in January as investigations were launched by police, prosecutors and an administrative arm of the state Supreme Court.

ILLINOIS

City adds cameras in high-crime areas

CHICAGO — Chicago police are spending $2.8 million seized from drug dealers to add 50 remote-controlled camera pods to deter street crime in public areas, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Police installed 30 of the bulletproof cameras in high-crime areas last year as part of Operation Disruption. The movable surveillance cameras cut crime and drew praise from neighborhood residents, despite the concerns of civil-liberties groups.

Crime levels dropped at intersections plagued by gangs and drug trafficking. Narcotics arrests jumped 61 percent in seven months.

“This is a cost-effective crime-fighting tool that allows us to use state-of-the-art technology with minimal additional manpower,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said. “Best of all, the technology is paid for with money seized from drug dealers.”

INDIANA

Monks receive $26 million donation

ST. MEINRAD — Monks in a monastery here might have a harder time with their vows of poverty now that they have received $26 million in spending money.

Two women rewarded the hospitality of the Benedictine monks at the St. Meinrad Archabbey by leaving them $13 million each in their wills, said Archabbot Lambert Reilly.

Both women — Bernice Davey, 90, and Virginia Basso, 91 — had spoken of contributing to the monastery northeast of Evansville.

“For them, it was home,” Archabbot Reilly said.

The monastery, which houses about 120 monks, was founded 150 years ago and operates a theology school for men studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood and lay ministry studies.

MISSISSIPPI

Amtrak derailment kills at least one

YAZOO CITY — An Amtrak train traveling from New Orleans to Chicago derailed in rural central Mississippi last night, killing at least one person on board and injuring dozens.

“We have one confirmed dead, and we’ve got possibly 80 injured,” said Amy Carruth, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency in Jackson. “We understand some of the injured are possibly critical. … At last report, we’ve still got people trapped.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency and said in a statement that rescuers on the scene think the number of injured could be as high as 90.

Dan Stessel, a spokesman for Amtrak, said nine of the train’s cars left the tracks about 25 miles north of Jackson near the Yazoo-Madison county line and toppled onto their sides.

He said the train’s manifest showed 72 passengers and 12 crew members. He said he had no information on what caused the accident.

MISSOURI

Pieces of tavern up for sale

COLUMBIA — Students and alumni awash in beery nostalgia now can own a chunk of a favorite tavern near the University of Missouri at Columbia that burned down last summer.

Dick Walls, owner of the Old Heidelberg across the street from the main campus, found that he couldn’t recycle the charred bricks into the facade of the rebuilt bar as he had hoped. So Mr. Walls donated about 4,000 bricks to the university’s Hotel and Restaurant Management Program, for sale as fund-raising memorabilia.

The bricks will have brass plaques commemorating the roughly 40-year run of the bar and a certificate of authenticity and can be purchased for a $30 tax-deductible donation.

NEBRASKA

Body of newborn found in landfill

SIOUX FALLS — After three weeks of searching, volunteers sorting through garbage at a Nebraska landfill found the body of a newborn baby, just days before authorities had planned to call off the search.

The search was launched after Union County, S.D., Sheriff Dan Limoges said he was told March 9 that an infant had been born and placed in the garbage.

Authorities think that the baby boy was born to a resident of Alcester on Feb. 2. The landfill near Jackson, Neb., accepts trash from Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa.

Sheriff Limoges has said he has talked with the woman who put the baby into the garbage, but he has given no details.

NORTH CAROLINA

Co-pays reduce inmate medical visits

RALEIGH — It used to be that about a quarter of the inmates going to see the doctor at the Wake County jail weren’t really sick. A visit to the medical clinic often could be a break from overcrowded dorms or a way to ease the loneliness of isolation.

Now that the jail charges a $10 co-pay, officials say, frivolous medical calls have nearly stopped. At the same time, the amount the jail collects for legitimate visits has soared, the Raleigh News & Observer reported.

In addition to the co-pays, Sheriff Donnie Harrison made it clear to the jail’s doctor, Obi Umesi, that he no longer could work eight- to 10-hour weeks and expect to receive a $155,000 salary.

OHIO

Woman found guilty in lottery scam

SOUTH EUCLID — A woman who said that she bought and lost a $162 million lottery ticket was found guilty yesterday of filing a false police report. She was fined $1,000 and ordered to perform 50 hours of community service.

Elecia Battle, 40, of Cleveland, reached an agreement with prosecutors that called her to plead no contest to the misdemeanor charge with the understanding that she would be found guilty. She could have been sentenced to six months in jail.

Shortly after a Dec. 30 lottery drawing, Mrs. Battle filed a police report saying she had bought the winning ticket but lost it. A few days later, another woman produced the winning ticket and claimed the jackpot.

Mrs. Battle sued to block payment but later dropped her lawsuit and tearfully apologized, all but admitting she made up her hard-luck story.

PENNSYLVANIA

Town seizes cars of parking scofflaws

BLOOMSBURG — Officials in this Pennsylvania town have a message for scofflaws: Pay your parking tickets, or the next car you buy may be your own.

Police Chief Leo Sokoloski asked a court to give the town title to five vehicles that were seized for repeated, unpaid parking violations. Mr. Sokoloski said none of the cars was reclaimed, even during “amnesty” programs that allow forgiveness of parking fines. It costs the town $5 per day to store each vehicle.

The owner of one of the vehicles, Michael Hess, signed over his 1988 Isuzu Trooper to the town instead of paying more than $3,000 in parking fines, saying he had been out of work and only recently had gained employment again.

TEXAS

Slaying suspect tears out eye in jail

SHERMAN — A jailed man accused of killing and cutting out the hearts of his son, his estranged wife and her daughter plucked out his own eye and then quoted from the Bible, officials said yesterday.

Andre L. Thomas was in a county jail cell Friday night when he tore his eye out of its socket with his hands, said Grayson County Sheriff Keith Gary.

Mr. Thomas, 21, then quoted the verse Mark 9:47: “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.”

The prisoner was taken to a hospital, and the eyeball was put on ice, but it could not be reattached. He now is being held in restraints at the jail, the sheriff said.

WISCONSIN

Court upholds hunt of ’bird of peace’

MADISON — The mourning dove — the brownish and gray bird designated during the Vietnam era as Wisconsin’s symbol of peace — can be hunted like any other wild game, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

The high court ruled that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was given broad authority by the Legislature to set hunting seasons for game. It said mourning doves fell within the unambiguous definition of “game” in the statutes.

Wisconsin Citizens Concerned for Cranes and Doves sued to stop the hunt, arguing that lawmakers did not intend the doves to be hunted when they designated them the state’s official bird of peace in 1971 and removed doves from the list of game birds included in the statutes.

Backers of the hunt noted that DNR research showed the hunt would not harm the dove population.