Around the Nation

NEW JERSEY

Teen gets 10 years in killing-spree plot

CAMDEN — The teenage ringleader in an aborted killing spree in the summer was sentenced yesterday to 10 years in prison after telling a judge that the plot was “more fantasy than anything.”

Authorities said Matthew Lovett, now 19, supplied the guns and the plan to shoot three teens in his hometown, then kill at random before escaping in a stolen car.

But the spree never happened. Lovett said at the sentencing yesterday that after he, Cody Jackson and Christopher Olson approached a passing motorist July 6 and the motorist sped off, they changed their minds about going ahead with their plan.

NEW MEXICO

4 injured in refinery explosion

GALLUP — Two explosions followed by fire rocked a gasoline refinery yesterday, injuring four persons, three of them seriously, officials said.

Smoke billowed from the east side of the Giant Industries refinery about 15 miles east of Gallup as rescue crews converged on the scene.

The cause of the explosions was not known, police said. Three persons had life-threatening third-degree burns.

ARIZONA

Bishop denied credit for travel

PHOENIX — A judge denied a request from Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas O’Brien to count travel time as part of the community-service hours that he was ordered to perform for a felony hit-and-run.

The ruling Wednesday by Judge Stephen A. Gerst ended several days of increasingly bitter exchanges between Bishop O’Brien’s defense team and prosecutors about the terms of the bishop’s sentence.

Bishop O’Brien, 68, was convicted in February of leaving the scene of a crash that killed a pedestrian last summer. Before his arrest, he had spent more than two decades as the spiritual leader of the Diocese of Phoenix.

Judge Gerst sentenced the bishop to four years of probation and ordered him to spend 1,000 hours ministering to the sick and dying.

CALIFORNIA

Woman accused of biting off lip

SAN FRANCISCO — A California woman accused of biting off her boyfriend’s lower lip during an argument was arraigned on felony charges including assault with a deadly weapon — her teeth.

Halimah Bryant, 55, appeared in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez, where she was charged with mayhem, domestic violence and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies were called to a home Monday to investigate a domestic disturbance, officials said. They found a 47-year-old man bleeding from his mouth and were told that Miss Bryant had bitten off his lower lip. The lip was not found.

CONNECTICUT

Project investigated in Rowland’s hometown

WATERBURY — A developer at the center of an investigation into Gov. John G. Rowland’s administration was awarded the biggest project in the history of the governor’s hometown, even though the company’s proposed fees were substantially higher than those of other bidders, records show.

Federal investigators have subpoenaed documents related to Tomasso Brothers Inc. and the nearly $200 million project, which included a new Waterbury campus for the University of Connecticut, a magnet school, restoration of a historic theater and a parking garage.

FLORIDA

Wrong man targeted; police kill his dog

PINELLAS PARK — A man with a knife was breaking into an apartment, the caller told the 911 operator. Soon after, police had swarmed an apartment, held a man on the ground and twice shot a dog that approached one of the officers.

But the problems were just beginning. Police were at the wrong apartment. They were holding the wrong man — in fact, the man who called in the complaint. And his dog was dead.

Police said Daniel Clauson, the owner of Sir Chillin Dillon, a 6-year-old English bulldog, called to report a burglary in a building near his apartment. Mr. Clauson told dispatchers the burglar had broken into unit C of the neighboring building but since had gone into unit A, carrying what looked like a butcher knife.

GEORGIA

Trip flare found in airport restroom

ATLANTA — The FBI says a suspicious package found in a restroom at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Wednesday appeared to be a military trip flare.

The FBI said the package contained a “highly flammable substance,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported yesterday. The device was rendered safe by the Atlanta Police Bomb Squad and taken away for examination by local and federal agents.

A part of the Atlanta airport’s south terminal was evacuated, but operations at the airport were not significantly affected. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force is investigating. Authorities said the package was about the size of a chalkboard eraser and was set on a counter in the men’s room.

HAWAII

Surfer killed in shark attack

HONOLULU — A Hawaiian man was the victim of the state’s first confirmed shark-attack death in nearly 12 years, the Honolulu Advertiser reported yesterday.

Kahana resident Willis McInnis, 57, was surfing about 200 yards offshore at the surf spot known as S-Turns when witnesses heard him call for help. Friend and fellow surfer Rodger Coomds rushed out to assist Mr. McInnis.

Mr. Coomds struggled to keep the surfer’s head above water, but Mr. McInnis died before the pair could reach shore.

Mr. McInnis, a Vietnam veteran, lived alone in a Kahana apartment and had a son in Oregon. A member of Hui O Pohaku Park, he was a fixture at beach cleanups, keiki surf contests and other local events.

The last confirmed shark-attack fatality in the state was in 1992, when body-boarder Aaron Romento was killed about 30 yards off Keaau Beach Park on Oahu’s Waianae coast.

ILLINOIS

Supremacist wears prison garb at trial

CHICAGO — A white supremacist accused of soliciting the murder of a federal judge wore prison garb as his trial got under way despite the warning of the trial judge that it was a bad idea.

Matt Hale, 32, insisted on wearing the bright orange prison jumpsuit as he sat at the defense table in front of 100 potential jurors who crowded the courtroom for questioning Wednesday.

Most defendants facing federal trial change into coats and ties. Mr. Hale, a white supremacist leader from East Peoria, is charged with soliciting an undercover FBI informant and another person to murder U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow.

MASSACHUSETTS

Police gear up for protests

BOSTON — Boston police and the FBI are bracing for showdowns with violent anarchist groups at July’s Democratic National Convention, the Boston Herald said yesterday.

From monitoring Web sites and printed material, FBI officials said it is apparent that there will be unruliness.

Authorities are reviewing past protests to gear up for the convention. At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, the violence was widespread with protesters using urine- and acid-filled squirt guns on police, lighting fires and blocking traffic.

Some of the protest groups are becoming more organized and more violent, such as the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, which are known to wear full riot gear, lock themselves to buildings, and use slingshots to shoot flames, bleach and feces.

MINNESOTA

Man pleads guilty to killing cabbie

MINNEAPOLIS — A cabdriver lost his life because he disagreed with a passenger about a route.

Sylvester Scott, 21, of Minneapolis, who pleaded guilty in Hennepin County District Court to the gunshot killing, said he gave the driver, Ahmed Ahmed, directions but that Mr. Ahmed indicated he was going another way.

When the argument escalated, Scott fired at least two shots from the back seat through the cab’s Plexiglas shield.

Scott said Tuesday that he intended to kill Mr. Ahmed, 38, who had not physically threatened him, and that he had used drugs and alcohol that evening in July. He ran from the scene after the shooting.

NEW JERSEY

Princeton considers limit on A grades

PRINCETON — Earning high marks at Princeton University soon might be a tougher task.

Faculty members and school officials are reviewing proposed changes to the university’s grading system that would limit the number of A’s that professors could award.

The goal of the proposal, which was made public this week, is to lower the number of A’s from the current 46 percent to 35 percent for undergraduate courses.

“Curbing grade inflation will require more aggressive steps than we have taken,” said Nancy Weiss Malkiel, dean of Princeton’s undergraduate college. She sent the proposal to faculty members Tuesday, and they are scheduled to vote on it later this month.

PENNSYLVANIA

Shooter’s mother charged with lying

PITTSBURGH — A mother who police say lied about owning the gun that her 10-year-old son used to accidentally kill a mail carrier has been indicted on three counts.

Three days after mail carrier Clayton J. Smith was found fatally shot in a shopping center parking lot last summer, postal inspectors talked with Latoya Burnette, 30, in a nearby apartment complex. She said she did not own a gun and would not allow one in her apartment. She later repeated her denial.

But, police say her son used her .38-caliber pistol to shoot Mr. Smith from her apartment window while aiming at a tree. Further investigation showed Miss Burnette had a felony conviction in North Carolina for assault with a deadly weapon.

A grand jury indicted her Wednesday on two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal possession of a gun by a convicted felon, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. Her son was not charged, authorities said, because intent could not be proved.