Around the Nation

MICHIGAN

Police use tear gas to disperse party crowd

EAST LANSING — Police used tear gas early yesterday to disperse a crowd at a large party near the campus of Michigan State University after fights erupted and officers were pelted with bottles and cans.

Police said 3,000 to 4,000 people had gathered for the Cedar Fest party late Saturday. They said 52 people were arrested and 48 others were ticketed for various offenses.

Nearly every officer at the scene reported being struck by a flying object, Police Chief Tom Wibert said at a press conference yesterday. Four small fires were reported, and windows were smashed on two police vehicles.

Chief Wibert said the injuries to some officers and partygoers were mostly cuts and bruises.

TEXAS

Polygamist temple searched for girl

ELDORADO — Law-enforcement agents entered an enormous temple on the grounds of a polygamist compound, but by yesterday morning, they still had not found a 16-year-old girl whose initial report of abuse led to the raid.

“There were some tense moments last night, but everything has remained calm and peaceful and they are continuing their search,” prosecutor Allison Palmer said early yesterday.

More than 180 women and children were taken Friday and Saturday from the compound built by followers of polygamist leader Warren Jeffs. Marleigh Meisner, a spokeswoman for Child Protective Services, said yesterday that investigators were trying to determine whether the girl who called authorities last week was among them.

Women taken by bus to a civic center early yesterday were seen talking to law enforcement and a lawyer.

ARIZONA

100-year-old man becomes a citizen

PHOENIX — A man sworn in as an American citizen in Phoenix a day before his 101st birthday calls it a “dream come true.”

Vicento Osorio Rios — the first centenarian to become a U.S. citizen in Arizona — was accompanied in court by three generations of his family as he was sworn in, the Arizona Republic reported Saturday.

“It’s a dream come true,” Mr. Rios said before waving an American flag and raising his hand to his heart.

Mr. Rios reportedly came to the U.S. in 1982 from Peru and recently began preparing to retake his citizenship test after failing it once in 1998. With the support of his family, he finally passed the test last month.

“Even at age 100, I still feel handsome. I have to use my walker and cane, but I still feel young at heart,” he said.

FLORIDA

Couple arrested in hot dog fight

ORLANDO — A Florida couple is facing charges that the wife stabbed her husband and he pointed a gun at her head in a heated dispute over hot dogs, police said.

Alfreda Van Bladel, 28, was driven to stab her husband in the shoulder with a steak knife after he abruptly grabbed a plate of hot dogs from her, WKMG-TV in Orlando, Fla., reported Friday.

Anton Van Bladel is accused of then threatening his wife with the gun, police said. Both weapons were recovered from the Bladels’ Orange County home, authorities said.

The couple was taken into custody and face aggravated battery and aggravated assault charges.

GEORGIA

Job application leads to suspect

ATHENS — Police said they got a major clue to the identity of a suspect in the armed robbery of a convenience store — his job application.

Investigators in Athens, Ga., said Demetrius Robinson, 28, filled out the application to kill time while waiting for the Golden Pantry store to empty of customers.

Authorities said Mr. Robinson then produced a knife and held up the store last week.

The job application gave Mr. Robinson’s name and an uncle’s phone number, but a phony address.

Police arrested Mr. Robinson on Saturday on armed robbery charges.

An official at the Clarke County Jail said Mr. Robinson remained in custody yesterday.

ILLINOIS

Snakes recaptured after car crash

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS — Eleven snakes that slithered to safety when a car crashed into a house belonging to an Illinois breeder have been rounded up.

By Saturday, the last of the reptiles were back in their cages, KSDK-TV in St. Louis reported.

A driver ran off the road Thursday in Fairview Heights, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. He told police that he passed out at the wheel because of an illness.

The car struck two houses, causing significant damage to both. In one, it also broke open the snakes’ cages.

Police said none of the snakes were venomous. Most were quickly recaptured.

The driver suffered cuts and bruises.

INDIANA

Purdue team wins in 156 steps

WEST LAFAYETTE — A team of Purdue University students concocted a 156-step recipe to prepare a hamburger to win Saturday’s annual national Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.

This year’s task was to assemble a burger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables and two condiments, sandwiched between two bun halves.

The victory by the 17-member Purdue Society of Professional Engineers was the team’s third such win in the past four years in the contest, named for the late cartoonist known for his drawings of complicated devices performing simple tasks.

Texas A&M University placed second; the University at Buffalo in New York was third.

After winning the regional contest in February, Purdue’s team added 55 more steps to perfect its machine, said captain Drew Wischer.

The winning machine featured King Kong scaling New York’s Empire State Building, London’s Big Ben clock and the Eiffel Tower in Paris among many other well-known structures.

MAINE

Monster winter means road problems

PORTLAND — With a bone-jarring jolt, Juanita and Leon Smith’s Volkswagen Beetle bottomed out rounding a corner on a potholed two-lane road that seemed more appropriate for a horse-drawn wagon than their car.

Oil poured out of the punctured oil pan, the engine froze up and the car sputtered to a halt during the mid-March incident in Lincolnville, a small town near the coast. Their insurance company wrote the car off as a total loss.

Potholes are an annual rite of spring in New England, but this monster winter of record snowfall amounts — nearly 200 inches in places — has turned roads into big problems.

Maine’s state Department of Transportation faces record pothole repair bills. Through March, it had spent $3.1 million, just shy of the record $3.2 million spent in the winter of 2005-2006.

Vermont Transportation Agency workers are reporting terrible conditions statewide.

One night in Jericho, Vt., employees at a country store counted a dozen cars limping into the parking lot with popped tires — some had two blown tires — caused by a pothole described as 3 feet wide and a foot deep.

NEW YORK

2 cats survive fatal crane collapse

NEW YORK — When a construction crane collapsed, wrecking a Manhattan brownstone and killing a woman inside, there was scant hope any life would emerge from the rubble. Six other people died. But somehow, two cats survived.

Mr. Gloves was found the day of the collapse, huddled near a church door and coated in brick dust; Gooksie turned up 10 days later in an old coal chute under a nearby brownstone.

The creatures, whose owners, Jean Squeri and Kerry Walker, lived on the top floor of the demolished building.

“It’s a miracle,” said Gini Otway, a neighbor who led the search for the animals.

Miss Otway lived two buildings away from the town house, not far from the United Nations, that was reduced to rubble March 15. A towering crane at a construction site a block away came crashing down, hitting the top of a high-rise, then somersaulting across a block and demolishing the home.

UTAH

Mormon president invites back strayers

SALT LAKE CITY — Mormons who have strayed from their faith were invited to return to the fold yesterday by the church’s new president.

“Come back,” President Thomas S. Monson said in his first address since taking over the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in February.

Members are ready to welcome “the less active, the offended, the critical, the transgressor” into fellowship, he said.

Mr. Monson opened his remarks by noting the passing of his predecessor, Gordon B. Hinckley, calling the late president “an outstanding ambassador of truth to the entire world and beloved by all.” Mr. Hinckley died Jan. 27 at age 97 after nearly 13 years leading the church.

Mr. Monson said yesterday that he possesses a deep understanding of the responsibilities of his office and an appreciation for the work of the 15 men previously in the job.

Borrowing a familiar Hinckley theme, Mr. Monson asked Latter-day Saints to show kindness and respect to those who hold different religious beliefs and to strengthen their families by making the home a loving sanctuary.

From wire dispatches and staff reports