National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 7, 2001

Students on the way to Florida hurt in bus crash

ST. MARYS, Ga. -- A bus carrying high school band members flipped onto its side on Interstate 95 on Friday, injuring 24 people, two critically.

The band from Massey Hill Classical High School in Fayetteville, N.C., was heading to a competition in Orlando.

The bus was the only vehicle involved in the crash, which happened on a dry road about 6:30 a.m. about half a mile north of the Florida line. The traveling group included a second bus, plus teachers and parents in four or five cars, said Detective Chuck Byerly of the Camden County Sheriff's Department.

Seventeen people were treated at Camden Medical Center in St. Marys, most of them for broken bones, cuts and scrapes.

Seven students with more serious injuries were taken to Shands Hospital in Jacksonville. Two were in critical condition and three others in serious condition.

Man dents, chips Liberty Bell with sledgehammer

PHILADELPHIA -- A disheveled man yelling "God lives on!" banged on the Liberty Bell with a sledgehammer at least four times Friday, denting and chipping the lip of the 249-year-old symbol of freedom.

Mitchell Guilliatt, who turns 27 today and described himself to authorities as "a wanderer" from Nebraska, was seized immediately by National Park Service police and charged with damaging U.S. property and causing historical damage. The charges carry up to seven years in prison.

During a hearing, Guilliatt said he did not want a lawyer, but one was appointed for him anyway. A competency evaluation also was ordered.

Museum workers made some cosmetic repairs, including touching up several dents with coloring to blend with the rest of the bell and coating it with wax to protect it. More permanent repairs are planned.

Suspect dies in struggle with security guards

DETROIT -- A woman suspected of shoplifting died in a struggle with security guards outside a drugstore Friday in the third such death in the Detroit area in less than a year.

The woman was detained by guards inside the Rite Aid store after she tried to leave with $200 in merchandise, said Officer Alecia Thomas, a police spokeswoman.

"The security guard approached her, handcuffed her, then she broke away from the handcuffs and a struggle ensued. Then she died," Thomas said.

The woman's name was not released.

NTSB: 2 alarms sounded before Aspen crash

WASHINGTON -- An alarm warning the pilot that his plane was descending too fast sounded shortly before the private jet crashed during an approach to the Aspen, Colo., airport, investigators revealed Friday.

All 18 people on board the chartered Gulfstream III were killed when the plane smashed into a hillside near the Colorado resort community on March 29.

About 12 seconds before the crash, an electronic "sink rate" alarm sounded, according to a summary of a transcript from the cockpit voice record provided by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Moments before the crash another alarm sounded indicating the plane was turning too steeply, the NTSB said.

The NTSB said the recording "did not appear to contain evidence of aircraft malfunction."

Shelly Simi, spokeswoman for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, said the first alarm indicates the plane is descending at a rate exceeding preset parameters.

As the plane descended below 200 feet, the pilot apparently tried to turn sharply, causing the plane's "bank angle" alarm to sound just before the recording ended, according to the NTSB.

Also Friday . . .

NEW NAME FOR CHURCH: Friday marked the dawn of a new name and, church officials hope, a new era for the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church, headquartered in Independence, Mo., now calls itself Community of Christ, the latest effort to distinguish itself from the Mormon Church, which is formally known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

TEACHER STRIKES CONTINUE: Teachers and university professors picketed for a second day Friday, shutting down public education for Hawaii's 180,000 schoolchildren and 42,000 college students, with no new talks scheduled. The two strikes by 13,000 teachers and 3,100 university faculty members are believed to mark the first time labor trouble has paralyzed an entire state's public education system.

CREW AT THEIR STATIONS: Crew remains in the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley show sailors at their stations, indicating whatever sank the sub happened quickly, an official said Friday.

Recall

General Motors Corp. announced an extraordinary recall Thursday of its new mid-size sport-utility vehicles, asking owners to park their trucks and wait for them to be towed back to dealers to fix a potentially dangerous steering problem.

GM dealers were asked to immediately contact the 6,000 owners of 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazers, GMC Envoys and Oldsmobile Bravadas. The dealers were instructed to arrange to have the SUVs towed, and not to ask the owners to drive them back for repairs.

The problem involves a lower control arm that connects each front wheel to the vehicle's suspension system. GM said defective parts -- not made to specifications by a company's supplier -- may break at the point where the control arm connects with the steering knuckle, the joint that allows the front wheels to pivot.

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