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Nation in brief

BTK suspect calls station to complain about lawyers

By wire services
Published June 23, 2005

WICHITA, Kan. - Days before his trial is scheduled to begin, the man suspected of being the BTK strangler called a TV station from jail and complained that his lawyers have not been giving him recent court filings. He also said his wife is contemplating divorce.

Dennis Rader talked on Friday to a reporter at KSNW who has close connections to his family, news director Todd Spessard said Wednesday. Parts of the interview were aired Monday and Tuesday.

Rader complained about missing recent court filings and said he blames his attorneys. His trial is set for Monday.

Rader, 60, is accused of killing 10 people in the Wichita area from 1974 to 1991. The former Park City code inspector was arrested Feb. 25. For decades, BTK, which stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill," taunted police with clues and messages.

Wildfires raced through a national forest in Arizona and a desert community in Southern California on Wednesday, burning several homes and threatening hundreds more in an outbreak fueled by gusting winds and scorching temperatures.

In Nevada, firefighters took advantage of calm winds to tame a fire that burned 750 acres near Carson City and sent up a plume of swirling smoke visible 30 miles to the north. Firefighters had to deal with steep, rocky terrain, open mine shafts and lots of rattlesnakes, fire spokesman Kirk Frosdick said.

A 1,300-acre grass fire in California burned into an area of the Mojave Desert about 100 miles east of downtown Los Angeles which includes about 2,000 scattered ranches and homes, said Dave Dowling, a spokesman for the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

OAK CREEK, Wis. - Environmentalists and the state of Illinois are lining up against a proposal to construct a mammoth coal-burning power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan, warning it will pollute the air and water across the Midwest and set off a "coal rush" to build more such projects around the country.

The project is actually a $2.15-billion expansion of a 1950s-era plant in this Milwaukee suburb 80 miles north of Chicago. The resulting complex would produce enough electricity for 615,000 homes, burn 1.5-million tons of coal a year, and draw 2.2-billion gallons of water from the lake each day, or almost as much as Chicago and 100 of its suburbs use.

The plant's operator, We Energies, and the state Public Service Commission, which approved the project, say that it is the cheapest and best way to meet growing power needs in the busy Milwaukee-Chicago corridor and that the project complies with all environmental regulations.

Environmentalists say they would prefer a natural gas plant or a project that uses more advanced coal technology.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Battered by lawsuits, the nation's top supplier of bullet-resistant police vests is urging its customers to replace vests containing the synthetic fiber Zylon, saying they may not be safe.

Second Chance Body Armor Inc. said Wednesday that tests suggested the vests "may fail to perform and result in serious injury or death." The company sent warnings to police agencies nationwide.

Law enforcement agencies in the Tampa Bay area do not seem affected by the recall, though the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said last month it received a notice from another company, Point Blank Body Armor Inc., that some of its vests are made with Zylon. Sheriff's spokesman Mac McMullen said the recall affected only four deputies, who opted for the higher-end vests. Most deputies use the standard-issue vest, which does not contain the fiber, McMullen said.

Times staff writer Alex Leary contributed to this report.

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 00:47:00]