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Is L.A. alligator still on loose?

By wire services
Published September 14, 2005

Authorities on Tuesday dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named "Reggie" from a city lake, where he had been dumped several months ago and repeatedly avoided capture. Earlier Tuesday, a man claiming to be wrangler Jay Young, who had been hired by the city, told several media outlets he had caught the alligator overnight. That story was cast into doubt when the promised delivery of the alligator to the Los Angeles Zoo never happened.

PETA resumes show criticized as racist

One month after suspending a display that has drawn complaints of racism for comparing animal cruelty to slavery, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is resuming the traveling show on the West Coast. The exhibit outraged national civil rights groups, who said it demeaned blacks. However, PETA officials said they decided the exhibit should continue. "What we kept seeing is that the complaints always boiled down to not wanting to be compared to animals - which is the very bias we're trying to challenge," said PETA spokeswoman Dawn Carr. The exhibit, titled "The Animal Liberation Project," involves a display of panels juxtaposing graphic images of slavery with pictures of chained animals.

$20-million ride, with some science, too

A U.S. scientist paying $20-million to hitch a ride to the international space station said Tuesday that he hoped to do some research in optics and medicine while in orbit and that he had no anxieties about his mission. Greg Olsen is scheduled to blast off Oct. 1 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz ship with astronauts Valery Tokarev and William McArthur. Olsen will visit the space station for a week.

THE UNUSUAL

100-plus candles on 25,606 cakes

The number of centenarians in Japan is expected to reach a record 25,606 by Sept. 30, up 2,568 from last year, Japan's Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday. Women accounted for 21,820 centenarians. Yone Minagawa is the oldest woman. She turned 112 on Jan. 4. The oldest man is Nijiro Tokuda, 110.

UPDATE

L.A. power outage

Workers who accidentally triggered a lunchtime blackout were upgrading the Los Angeles power system during peak daytime hours because the city was "cutting corners" and reluctant to pay higher wages at night, a union official claimed Tuesday. City officials denied the allegation, and one City Council member questioned whether the outage was an intentional move by the union to pressure the city in an ongoing contract dispute.

[Last modified September 14, 2005, 02:15:34]