Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Firefighters push blaze away from Utah town

By wire services
Published June 29, 2005

NEW HARMONY, Utah - Fresh teams of firefighters moved in Tuesday to help crews that worked through the night to save this small town in southwestern Utah from a shifting 16,000-acre wildfire.

Some residents of New Harmony were being allowed to return home. Others among the several hundred evacuees were allowed to check out their houses.

Elsewhere in the state's southwestern corner, a lightning storm started two new wildfires.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, said Tuesday that 21 large fires had burned more than 769,000 acres in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

In Nevada, a 33,500-acre wildfire that had blanketed Las Vegas with smoke and prompted the evacuation of a Boy Scout camp was nearing containment.

MINNEAPOLIS - A 10-year-old boy who was attacked by a lion and tiger last week suffered a brain injury and severed spinal cord in the mauling - injuries that have left the child a quadriplegic and dependent on a respirator, his family said Tuesday.

Russell Lala was attacked last Wednesday during a visit with the animals' owner.

The child and his father were visiting body shop owner Chuck Mock, who owns 11 exotic cats and one bear. When Mock opened the cage, the tiger jumped out and attacked the boy. While Mock was pulling the animal away, the lion bit the child.

The lion and the tiger were destroyed last week.

NEW YORK - A former Newsday publisher who once served on a state education board has been arrested, accused of possessing child pornography taken off the Internet, authorities said Tuesday.

Robert Johnson, 59, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court and was released after posting a $500,000 bail and agreeing to have his home computer monitored by authorities and to continue a counseling program.

If convicted, Johnson could face a maximum of 50 years in prison, prosecutors said.

Johnson is the former chief executive of Bowne & Co. Inc., an international printing firm headquartered in Manhattan. He was Newsday's publisher and chief executive from 1986 to 1994, when he resigned, said Stu Vincent, a spokesman for the newspaper.

Prosecutors allege Johnson used his computer at Bowne & Co. to download two films containing child pornography from Web sites being monitored by federal investigators.

[Last modified June 29, 2005, 01:20:05]