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Thousands in Detroit line up to honor Parks

DETROIT - People stood in a line that spilled out into the street Tuesday as they waited to pay their final respects to the late civil rights leader Rosa Parks.

Parks was 92 when she died Oct. 24 in Detroit. She lay in honor in Montgomery, Ala., and in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington before her body was returned Monday night to the city where she had lived since 1957.

Her mahogany casket was placed in the rotunda of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for round-the-clock viewing through 5 a.m. today, with Parks' funeral to be held at 11 a.m. at Greater Grace Temple Church. Parks was to be buried next to her husband and mother in Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The mayor of Chicopee, Mass., was arrested Tuesday, charged a week before Election Day with extorting $10,000 in campaign contributions, the FBI said.

Mayor Richard Goyette, 36, accepted two illegal campaign contributions of $5,000 each, said the FBI's Michael O'Reilly. By law, candidates are allowed to accept a maximum of $500 per donor.

Goyette, who is seeking a second term in next week's election, appeared in court Tuesday afternoon. He did not enter a plea and was released on personal recognizance, and a grand jury is now expected to hear the case.

An FBI affidavit unsealed Tuesday describes a pair of surveillance videos that allegedly show Goyette accepting $5,000 cash contributions from two business owners - a towing company owner and a developer - who agreed to cooperate in the investigation.

DENVER - A ballot measure asking Colorado voters to give up more than $3-billion in taxpayer refunds to stave off drastic cuts in college education and health care for the poor held a narrow lead in early election returns Tuesday.

With 49 percent of the expected vote counted statewide, 290,784 voters, or 53 percent, approved the plan, compared with 262,909, or 47 percent, against it.

Referendum C would let the state keep an estimated $3.7-billion over five years that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, the constitutional amendment that is one of the nation's strictest caps on government spending.

A second measure, Referendum D, would allow the state to borrow up to $2.1-billion for roads, school maintenance, pensions and other projects.