American Scene

CALIFORNIA

Compassion found cost-effective healing

SANTA BARBARA — There is strong evidence patients do not complete their medical regimen unless they are shown compassion, a U.S. expert said.

Karen Fox created and manages the Adventures in Caring Foundation, which in 1991 was recognized by former President George H.W. Bush for outstanding community service.

“The economic benefits of compassion are startling. It’s not just the patients and their families who suffer from a lack of compassion,” Miss Fox said. “It also harms staff retention and morale, and the culture and performance of a medical organization as a whole.”

Tremendous time is wasted every day in high-tech health care units doing old-fashioned damage control for physicians and staff members whose heartless communication has upset patients and families, Miss Fox said.

GEORGIA

Police: Third-graders targeted teacher

WAYCROSS — A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said yesterday.

The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently angry at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Chief Tanner said. A prosecutor said the children are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system.

ILLINOIS

At least 1 killed in blaze at hotel

LOCKPORT — A five-alarm fire swept through a suburban Chicago hotel early yesterday, killing at least one person, authorities said.

The fire broke out at the three-story Towpath Inn just before 4 a.m., according to the Lockport Township Fire Protection District. Firefighters from several communities battled the blaze in the century-old brick building for hours before bringing it under control later in the morning.

Battalion Chief Paul Hertzmann said at least one person was killed, but he did not have details on an identity. Two other people were treated for lesser injuries, officials said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

MASSACHUSETTS

Suspect kills self after co-worker

RANDOLPH — A man is dead after reportedly shooting and injuring a co-worker at a business south of Boston, then killing himself.

A spokesman for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said 48-year-old Howard Trang apparently committed suicide yesterday after the shooting at Alloy Fabricators of New England in Randolph, about 20 miles south of Boston.

Police identified the victim as Gene Dure, 52, who was taken to a hospital. His condition was not immediately available.

MISSOURI

Mississippi River lock repaired, reopened

WINFIELD — The Army Corps of Engineers says it has reopened a lock on the Mississippi River near St. Louis that had been closed for repairs since last week.

Scores of barges and boats had been backed up on the river because of the closure.

Corps spokesman Alan Dooley says barge and boat traffic started moving through the lock near Winfield, Mo., early yesterday morning.

Traffic had been backing up on the river since the lock was shut down last Wednesday for repairs to a hinge on one of the lock’s gates.

NEVADA

Moderate quake shakes Wells area

RENO — A moderate earthquake yesterday shook a town in northeast Nevada where a stronger tremor caused damage more than a month ago.

There were no reports of injuries or damage from the magnitude 4.1 quake centered 11 miles northeast of Wells, Nev. It hit at 6:16 a.m., according to the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

Wells was hit by a magnitude 6.0 quake in February that damaged hundreds of homes and the town’s historical district; no one was hurt. Hundreds of smaller quakes have hit the region since then.

OKLAHOMA

Flood searchers find body of toddler

PEGGS — Searchers yesterday found the body of a 2-year-old girl who was swept away by rushing water when her mother slipped while carrying her across a flooded creek, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

Mackinsey Beck disappeared into the creek near Peggs on Monday as her mother, Heather Alverson, carried her from their home to escape rising water.

The National Weather Service said as much as 6 inches of rain fell on the area Monday as severe thunderstorms pounded parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. High wind and a few tornadoes caused scattered damage.

In western Tennessee, one man was missing after being swept into a flooded ditch Monday, and a 7-year-old drowned in a rain-swollen creek while playing with friends, Shelby County sheriff’s department spokesman Steve Shular said. The Memphis area got 2.4 inches of rain overnight, the weather service said yesterday.

WASHINGTON

Found parachute not D.B. Cooper’s

VANCOUVER — A recently discovered parachute could not have been used by D.B. Cooper in 1971, says the man who packed the four chutes that were given to the mysterious skyjacker, according to a newspaper report yesterday.

The torn, tangled parachute — found about a month ago by children along a dirt road near Amboy — was probably made around 1945, said Earl Cossey, who examined the chute for the FBI on Friday.

“The D.B. Cooper parachute was made of nylon,” Mr. Cossey told the Columbian of Vancouver. “This 1945 parachute was made of silk.”

The FBI said the matter remained under investigation.

From wire dispatches and staff reports